[Upgrading, Modifying and Unlocking] urilabob:
Moderators, please permit me to leave the tablet's Korean name (Eden Midas: 이든 마이다스) here so it shows up in google searches (if you don't have Korean fonts, it will probably show as garbage, but it really does say "Eden Midas" in Korean script).

This thread is intended as a place to collect together information about the Eden Midas tablet. It's quite possible that we will eventually find that the internals are the same as one of the Chinese tablets using the RK2918 chipset, in which case the thread may just turn into a pointer to that other thread.

What is the Eden Midas tablet?

In the form I have it, an 8" tablet based on the RK2918 chipset, with ICS 4.0.3 and kernel 3.0.8+ (whatever the plus may mean). It's quite nice, with a very clean 1024*768 screen. But like most RK2198 builds, severely locked down and marketed just as an entertainment station. At present, it seems to be only sold online in Korea. My build is V1.0.1.IMK74K.eng.root_20120508.165508_HW:1.0.0.0 (I wonder if the HW stands for huawei??).

Rooting[\B]

This is all I've done so far. Here's what I did:

On Linux

What's needed:

You may need to have root privileges on your linux system (you will need to mount some filesystems, and edit a udev rule file - depends on the linux system who is allowed to do these). You will also need rk2918tools ( https://github.com/lamegopinto/rk2918tools) - these are tools collected by lamegopinto, credits inside to the original authors; specifically, you will need ivop's rkflashtool.

In theory, this shouldn't remove your applications, data, and settings. In practice, on my machine, it did. So I'd back everything up first. And take out any external sd card so it's safe. Also, I better warn that I had a few scary moments getting to here, so please make sure you have really good backups. You will need (on your linux system) copies of su, Superuser.apk and busybox.

Connect the tablet by USB to your linux machine (real or virtual). Put the tablet into fastboot mode by holding down the whole +/- key, then pressing the start key for about 3 seconds. Keep holding the +/- key for up to ten seconds. If the system boots or goes into the boot screen (android open robot icon) you need to try again.

On the linux system, type lsusb (if you get an error, you probably need to install usbutils - how you do this depends on the linux system). If you see 2207:290a, you are OK. If you see 2077:0000, you missed fastboot mode and need to try again.

Tell linux about your device. You need to install udev rules.

cd /etc/udev/rules.d
sudo pico 61-android.rules

then create the content

# USB devices
SUBSYSTEM=="usb",ATTRS{idVendor}=="2207",ATTRS{idProduct}=="0000",MODE="0666",GROUP="users"
SUBSYSTEM=="usb",ATTRS{idVendor}=="2207",ATTRS{idProduct}=="290a",MODE="0666",GROUP="users"

This is for fedora 17. On current ubuntu the priority number (the 61 in the file name) probably needs to be different (maybe 51?). In earlier systems, the udev rule format is different, you're going to need to google this. The above rules also include one for adb mode, which will probably turn out useful. If you want adb mode, you will also need to do this:

pico ~/.android/adb_usb.ini

and create the content

0x2207

Create a directory called MIDAS inside the directory where you stored the rkflashtools. You need to have probably 2 times the capacity of your sdcard available (if you have an 8GB internal sdcard, I'd aim for 16GB+ free). Go into that directory.

Use ivop's rkflashtool to retrieve the first 2K blocks of memory:

../rkflashtool r 0x0 0x2000 > headers

This will create a file called headers. It's a binary file, but the important bit is readable. Try

more header

to read it, and carefully note down the partition locations (note that the order parameter order is the opposite to what rkflashtool uses. X@Y means that the partition consists of X blocks starting at Y. Whereas for rkflashtool, you specify "rkflashtool (r or w) Y X (< or >) filename". The numbers X and Y are in hex notation (that's what the 0x at the start means). Note also that the MIDAS has a different layout to the tablet Ivop was discussing).

Now retrieve all the other partitions from the device, giving them descriptive names. For root, the only one you will actually need should be system.img. But get the rest just in case, as backups... Please note that there seem to be some funnies with this device, and rewriting partitions often causes it to reinitialise everything. It's probably doing some checksumming... Please keep these image files safe, and don't edit them! But you can gzip them to reduce the space they take up. Please note also that the last partition - usually the user partition - goes to the end of your card. So you need to convert your flash card size into a hex number (e.g. 8GB is 0x200000000 bytes, or 0x10000000 512B blocks). Suppose the user partition starts at 0x32A000. Then you need to put its length as 0x10000000 - 0x32A000 = CD6000 blocks (you may need a hex calculator for this).

Download su, Superuser.apk and busybox (these are all public domain) into your MIDAS directory

cp system.img system.new.img
mkdir mnt
sudo mount -t ext3 system.new.img mnt

Copy su into mnt/xbin, busybox into mnt/bin and Superuser.apk into mnt/app (simplest is to use a file manager to do this - or use linux commands). At this point, your image is complete!

umount mnt
../rkflashtool w (the system partition address and length for _your_ system image, which might be different from mine) < system.new.img
../rkflashtool b

Disconnect the USB cables

Your system should now reboot. If you're lucky (I wasn't) it will reboot as a rooted system with all your files intact. If you're semi-lucky, it will reboot as a rooted system, but without your files. Hope your backups were good... If you're really unlucky, it won't reboot. You may need to recreate all partitions from the copies you just made above, and try again. If the system seems completely bricked, the reset button (the tiny pinhole in the back, just above the external sd card door) is your friend. Pressing it and going into fastboot mode can allow you to reload all your partitions (you did make those backup copies of all partitions, didn't you)?

On Windows[\I]

Sorry, I have no idea. If someone drafts a guide, I'm happy to put it up. Alternatively, you can easily install a ubuntu virtual machine inside your windows box. It will probably be easier, and the linux experience won't go astray in working with android anyway.

[Tun Drivers and Openvpn]

For some reason known only to themselves, the manufacturers have removed the Tun drivers from the ics kernel build. The kernel doesn't have the ability to load modules. (This makes sense for phones, maybe, but I can't understand why anyone would remove the ability to load modules in a tablet. Perhaps the Chinese government doesn't want it to be too easy for people to set up vpns?) Anyway, you can install what appears to be a suitable Tun module using Tun.ko installer. It installs OK but when you try to use it, the system freezes for about 10 seconds, then reboots. If anyone finds a version of the 3.0.8+ kernel (maybe 3.0.8- kernel would be a better name), suitable for the Midas and with either a built-in tun driver, or the ability to load kernel modules, please let me know.

Complete Reflashes

Not sure if there are any that will work right now. If you're really stuck, the cyanogenmod version for Cube might work, but it sounds like it is still a work-in-progress.