fabiobassa

@Benedito Portela Here it is a debian buster minimal image with latest 6.5 kernel. I did not had time to test it though, so try it with an sdcard first!
 
edit: tested the image, it works plenty well!

The Debian version has nothing to do with the underneath hardware. It's just that if you use an older image simply you miss some corrections and compatibility fixes here and there that allowed the eMCP boards work in a stable way.

@Benedito Portela I checked your firwmare and actually R29_MXQ and R2B_MXQ share the same identical original device tree, so you can go testing the image, just follow the instruction and try with a pristine system on sdcard/usb stick, not juggling with dtbs on existing systems

@MattWestB @Benedito Portela guys I appreciate your feedback, but please use the armbian image I gave from an sdcard and post the dmesg log if you can.
Doing cut&paste over custom setups just makes me really confused. If you already have regular Armbian installed on eMMC/eMCP, just burn the new image on sdcard, plug the sdcard and boot the board.
Your installed system won't be touched because sdcard boot has priority over internal flash. When Armbian is installed, boot priority is always sdcard, then USB stick, then internal flash.

Was doing one fast test with Multitool on my device that have updated eMMC with new bootloader and putting it on one USB-Stick and its booting with HDM is working and can navigating with keyboard so looks great. The video is not looking great then its one full HD TV and we is knowing all video modes is not supported but its more then OK.
Shall testing the DEB but i only running Ubuntu on my Linux machines so im not installing it.
 
Thanks for great work !!!

UPDATE FOR R29-MXQ USERS!
 
Hello, this is an update for those people who has R29 board and have suffered issues regarding stability problems and no HDMI output.
I had the chance to have a board in my lab thanks to @Hudson FAS and something is moving!
 
What's wrong with this board:
Differently from any other known board, it has a specific GPIO pin to turn the HDMI on and off: discovering such GPIO required extensive trial and error, it was disguised in the original dtb as "power-hold" 😅
But the main problem with this board is that it has no power regulation for CPU, so it cannot run faster than 1Ghz.
The default dtb shipped with Armbian and Multitool are set to run the CPU up to 1.2Ghz. For this reason, some (most?) unlucky R29 samples were totally unable to boot with the default configuration.
 
I still need some help from community though: my sampl is able to boot and works stable but:
emmc does not work ethernet does not work unless I downgrade the link to 10 Mbit/s I suspect my sample is damaged, but I need a feedback from other users to understand if there's something more in the dtb to discover or it is just my sample.
 
Multitool
you can download a fixed version from here. It should work flawlessy and HDMI should turn on with no problems.  
Armbian
you still need to do some manual passages:
Burn the multitool on a sdcard, run it on the board, make a backup of the original firmware then erase the internal flash to force sdcard boot. Store the backup on a safe place; if you wish, it would be appreciated if a copy can be shared here for further studies! Burn this Debian Bookworm minimal Armbian image on the sdcard, the try to boot the board. If you're able to boot, access via ssh, run rk322x-config, select your configuration options and select led-conf7 as GPIO configuration in the last passage, then reboot; you're done! if your board does not boot, mount the sdcard partition and manually add  overlays=led-conf7 in /boot/armbianEnv.txt, then you should be able to boot  
Thanks!

@Daraz Season I upload it for you! 
 
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1chrBXzLiuquS1zeviy4ctN4yM7eJfHpF/view?usp=sharing

but this isnt the kernel , that is the armbian base system update .
 
my knowladge that kernel never get update at non offizial Armbain device with apt-upgrade , ever only the base system in some range
 
also than we have the package with header linux-header-rk322x_23.x.x.....
 
the new kernel only with new compile complete image files
 
last year or maybe begin of 2023 i update header without base system this also break one box
 

@Felipe Muniz I don't think it was a good idea to change the NAND. AFAIK, eMMC can be switched with no real software issues, but NAND chips in my opinion are way thougher because they require a software layer (the FTL) to work correctly. The proprietary NAND driver contains the FTL routines for a bunch of vendors and specific parts, so IMHO you can't put any bigger/better part and expect to work out of the box.
 
You may boot in maskrom mode, upload a recent loader and see if rfdeveloptool/rkflashtool detect the nand parameters correctly (size, vendor, page size, ecc bits, etc...),otherwise I would not expect it to work in any way.
 
 

@Jumperbillijumper from that link It seems t'ha t you already adked the same quesion in that thread and jock ( the same jock that is the author of all this stuff ) aleady answered there.
 
Please do not cross posting , thanks so much
 

@Felipe Triana

Felipe armbian uses gpt , android uses a organization of partitions called rkparameters . rk parameters are written into sector 0X02000 of the nand, just after the loader address space
is a bit as you modified the master boot record to use mbr or uefi. This just to explain the difference between android and armbian and also this is an annoing alert repeating from the beginning of this post, saying  mxq-4k means NOTHING !!!!!!!
Neither is possible ask a backup from a mxq-4k from other users for the reasons explained  later in this post

Please open the bow ( 4 little screws under rubber pads) and give more info ( mx4v ? mz4vr? r329q ??) or better attach photos of the box

If you really want go back to android ( but .. why ???   🙂  )  and if you are also a windows user or you can use windows in some way , you can use the attached windows tool and,  instead of using the backup obtained by multitool,  look for an android suitable for you board ( that despite of being called mxq-4k could be a 3228. 3228a, 3229, ddr2, ddr3 and all the hell the china market does ) !!!
😄 🤣

For the future, backup before any experiment !

AndroidTool_Release_v2.69.zip

 

@Jumperbillijumper hello

h20 is commercial name of this box

it means nothing ! Can you give more infos, maybe open the box e grab some photos ?

Anyway are you sure it is a rockchip platform ?

@n3o  As a moderator of these forums, I have been watching your postings.  You are abusing these forums and the people that contribute to them.  (Everyone, especially @RaptorSDS and @jock have been very willing to invest a lot of time to help you)   However, repeatedly you have been given specific information that you ignore, been given advise that you ignore and then you come back with more and more questions.  There are very limited people resources working on Armbian (and even less with TV boxes).  You alone are consuming way more developer time than any one individual has the right to receive.  This is open source, and therefore users are needed to contribute as much as they consume in resources from the community in order for this to work.  This is not a school where you can come to be taught how everything works, demanding the attention of everyone else to teach you. 
 
Your latest questions are now venturing into very deep and difficult areas of code (none of which is expected to work on these TV boxes as has been mentioned to you).  If you want to continue down the path you are going, you first need to become an expert at these topics on known working platforms, then you can try to apply that expertise on TV boxes.  You may not realize it, but the questions you are asking, are essentially asking for weeks if not months of developer help to get working, if it is at all possible.
 

there are some tools for linux and IR on this box it can be became complicate because GPIO and DTB and tools, relearn remote   , so on .............  
when you are lucky the right setting are already in dtb and the tool recognise the IR comannd than you need to relearn the remote inside the tool
 
thats not topic of this board and dont relatet to rk322x , maybe smbv2 vs smbv1 , anyonmus account etc ..... please ask in the right place

I will never stress out that THESE issues reported by you are the exact reasons to chose a properly supported Single Board Computer from the officially supported list and not buy crap like supercheap tvboxes. If you don't have the time, will and skills to solve troubles, tvboxes may end up being a large source of frustration. The very same problems are the main reason tvboxes are NOT OFFICIALLY SUPPORTED and NOT ENDORSED by Armbian project; tvboxes are just a community effort to have fun with them and avoid some waste, but the mileage can vary greatly. Here are the FAQs

@Benedito Portela
 
In this same whole 3ad the boot process of RK 322x Is explained plenty of times, with links to the original pages of rockchip too.
Now... I understand that is a huge duty read all posts but... Did you ready It ?
 
 

@Benedito Portela
 
https://opensource.rock-chips.com/wiki_Boot_option
 
Again ...here It Is
 
Post scriptum:
 Also we started from few infos captured here and there on the internet to assembly the whole picture and , when It didn t work , It was a hard, boring, tired work of trials and errors.
 
AGAIN : we dont own any of the new boards and NOBODY and repeat NOBODY even imagined to buy one for us to study.
 
So you and others are very welcome to study as we did by trials and errors and report here any success
 
Thank you for your apport 

@n3o  You bricked your own device and neglected to create a backup before doing so?  At this point I would think you are just trolling.  I have given up on trying to convince you that your time is better spent elswhere.   I'll let the other forum members decide for themselves if helping you is worth their time. 

Not until a sample happens to arrive in my hands

Yes, this is exactly the way I suggest to take confidence with the system: erase the internal flash to zero (does not matter if NAND or eMMC) to remove any trace of Android; then use Armbian from sdcard to bring up the system, experiment with rk322x-config to setup the board correctly so, in case of mistake, just plug the sdcard in a PC and revert the error; install packages, services, reinstall armbian from scratch with another kernel or rootfs (Debian bullseye, bookworm, Ubuntu Jammy LTS, latest Ubuntu, etc...) and do all your own experiments on the sdcard.
 
When finally you notice that the base system is stable with the proper led-conf and you're happy with the software setup, transfer it to internal flash or install armbian on internal flash with multitool.
 
Also, IMHO, boards with NAND have much better use with external sdcard than internal flash, since NAND are supported only with ancient 4.4 kernel and they still are problematic. Keep them erased and live easier with external sdcard.
 

fabiobassa, this link: 
 
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1_R6MzPGM2bzGdjuuU5m5_V8yAnAF0Suj/view?usp=drive_link
 
Thank you!

like i sad befor led are a old word it change some more
 
jock explain :
https://forum.armbian.com/topic/12656-csc-armbian-for-rk322x-tv-boxes/?do=findComment&comment=163046
 
 
 
 
what do you mean recognize wifi ? complete empty SDIO device or a wifi with unknow id like 024c:D724 ( RTL8723DS , because i solder it myself  and no one else has this chip inside a rk322x box, so its not recognice automaticly )
Is wifi another problem ?  i thing that HDMI was your problem ?
 
 

Hi @n3o, are you using Windows? Linux ? OpenBSD? binary or compiled rkflashtool?
This is because
* on Linux maybe you don't have the right USB permission. You can switch to the super user account (super easy), or write an udev rule that chmod the USB node(easy if you know what are you doing)
* my rkflashtool uses libusb which on Windows needs the generic USB driver called WinUsb. With Windows 7 you need to right-click and install this file https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ilmich/rkflashtool/master/rockwinusb.inf. With Windows > 7 there is no need to install a driver, but you need to associate the unknown device with the USB generic driver WinUsb (I'm not a Windows user so try starting reading this link https://github.com/libusb/libusb/wiki/Windows#user-content-How_to_use_libusb_on_Windows)
* there is a bug on Windows (fixed with the latest alpha version) with multiple USB devices connected. Try, if you can, to have only the box connected with USB.
 
About your experiments, you wrote a lot, but I'm sorry, I'm too lazy to read.
So if I can give you some advice, format the internal storage and forget it. Write the Armbian version you like on the SD card and stop.
This is because in addition to having a few problems, sd cards with 64/128GB are cheap and for Linux use are better than the 'little' 8 GB of internal storage that you often find in our boxes.
 
Cheers
Michele
 
edit: rkflashtool is an external tool made with love by volunteers. Obviously, there is also the contribution of @jock and @fabiobassa, but for any problem with the tool, I ask you the courtesy of opening an issue here https://github.com/ilmich/rkflashtool/issues

@n3o  The members trying to help you are highly experienced. The important point here is for you not to treat their specific instructions as merely "suggestions" after which you go off and do your own thing.   That is where the frustration lies. 
 
Based on the energy other users and you have spent on this, I would just buy some other TV box or SBC that is already known to run Armbian without any issues instead of trying to resurrect an old tired piece of hardware.   Unless you are really short on cash,  this is what I would do.  However, if you really are so short on cash that you cannot afford another $20USD on something else, then I believe your priorities are all wrong.
 
I have an H20 RK3228A tv box that is in transit that has some documented booting issues with Armbian.  In a way, I am happy to see how this whole episode has progressed.  I'm happy because now I know what NOT to do.

dear friends
i remark that we continue to give help to someone that is not willing to listen and perhaps THIS IS FRUSTRATING and not the fact that the box is not booting

After discovered that IF ONLY HE had followed all the instructions that very kindly the users of this 3ad suggested instead of trying other magic combinations, and after we  already said thet we need uart logs and so now I  would like remember  we said to him to stay on legacy kenel that is 4.4.xxx

And guess !!

He flahsed Armbian_22.11.1_Rk322x-box_jammy_current_5.15.80_xfce_desktop.img.xz
in other words a 5.15.80 kernel

Do we need other words?