ilmich

Hi all,
 
I've a box with rk3228b, nand, ddr2 etc etc and I'm using it as mediacenter with Libreelec 9.2 installed on sdcard.
The box recognize the nand, but I had never been able to install the operating system in it (tried with rkdeveloptool, dd and others but without succes).
Until today, when I've discovered this beautiful tool called multitool
I had to make a few small changes (basically removed offset and gpt creation in the nand flash code), but it works great.
So my question is, it's possible to add an option to write a generic image, in order to make this tool more useful!?
 
Last question, I think that the libreelec bootloader has some trouble when boot from NAND, but it's strange, because I've readed that the multitool one shoud be the same. It's true, or there are some changes that I can apply and retry?!
 
 
Thanks for your hard work.
Michele
 
 
 
 
 

It doesn't work for me on same board, but shorting any data lines to each other pushed chip to mask rom on boot.
 
I have 1.5G/8G version, and it doesn't boot armbian or multitool from sd/emmc - it just hangs on boot with no output to console (1500000 and 115200 speed)

Hi @n3o
 
please don't say things I've never said. I won't do what you wrote. You are still free to use my (hard) work because I believe in healthy sharing, which is already the basis of my work on libreelec. Without @jock and @fabiobassa these boxes would not have this level of support.
 
Cheers
Michele

Hi @n3o
 
please don't say things I've never said. I won't do what you wrote. You are still free to use my (hard) work because I believe in healthy sharing, which is already the basis of my work on libreelec. Without @jock and @fabiobassa these boxes would not have this level of support.
 
Cheers
Michele

Hi @n3o
 
please don't say things I've never said. I won't do what you wrote. You are still free to use my (hard) work because I believe in healthy sharing, which is already the basis of my work on libreelec. Without @jock and @fabiobassa these boxes would not have this level of support.
 
Cheers
Michele

@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.
 

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

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

@TU-Student the reason why we often write .. read the first post .. is because someone has already wasted time and health trying to make everything work.
The reason why some boxes do not boot from the sd card is because there is an old bootloader or one that does not activate the sd controller at the boot stage (often vendor's choice).
So if you are unlucky, and multitool/armbian doesn't boot, the safest way is to delete the internal memory because in this mode (maskrom) the soc activates the sd card and starts the OS from there (99.9999999% of the time)
If you need a backup (of a system that for me is unusable) you can use the USB OTG cable method (with tools like rkdeveloptool or my fork of rkflashtool)
 
@fangis strange, the 6051p I think is the best supported chip. what's your problem?!

@TU-Student the reason why we often write .. read the first post .. is because someone has already wasted time and health trying to make everything work.
The reason why some boxes do not boot from the sd card is because there is an old bootloader or one that does not activate the sd controller at the boot stage (often vendor's choice).
So if you are unlucky, and multitool/armbian doesn't boot, the safest way is to delete the internal memory because in this mode (maskrom) the soc activates the sd card and starts the OS from there (99.9999999% of the time)
If you need a backup (of a system that for me is unusable) you can use the USB OTG cable method (with tools like rkdeveloptool or my fork of rkflashtool)
 
@fangis strange, the 6051p I think is the best supported chip. what's your problem?!

@TU-Student the reason why we often write .. read the first post .. is because someone has already wasted time and health trying to make everything work.
The reason why some boxes do not boot from the sd card is because there is an old bootloader or one that does not activate the sd controller at the boot stage (often vendor's choice).
So if you are unlucky, and multitool/armbian doesn't boot, the safest way is to delete the internal memory because in this mode (maskrom) the soc activates the sd card and starts the OS from there (99.9999999% of the time)
If you need a backup (of a system that for me is unusable) you can use the USB OTG cable method (with tools like rkdeveloptool or my fork of rkflashtool)
 
@fangis strange, the 6051p I think is the best supported chip. what's your problem?!

Hi all,
 
I'm not writing to ask for help, but only to share my experience, and to thank @jock for his work in allowing us to use linux with these boxes.
My board is an android tv with soc rk3229/NAND/DDR3/Wifi SSV6051p which I'm using as a network appliance (pihole - simple nas - network web server).
 
I followed the instructions in the first post and understood that the NAND is not supported, I preferred to empty it to avoid old bootloader problems and installed armbian bookworm on the SD card.
The rest is linux... I installed the software I needed and now the box provides services for my home network without any problems (and I reused hardware that otherwise would have gone in the trash).
Thanks again @jock and of course the armbian community
 
Cheers
Michele

Hi all,
 
I'm not writing to ask for help, but only to share my experience, and to thank @jock for his work in allowing us to use linux with these boxes.
My board is an android tv with soc rk3229/NAND/DDR3/Wifi SSV6051p which I'm using as a network appliance (pihole - simple nas - network web server).
 
I followed the instructions in the first post and understood that the NAND is not supported, I preferred to empty it to avoid old bootloader problems and installed armbian bookworm on the SD card.
The rest is linux... I installed the software I needed and now the box provides services for my home network without any problems (and I reused hardware that otherwise would have gone in the trash).
Thanks again @jock and of course the armbian community
 
Cheers
Michele

Hi all,
 
I'm not writing to ask for help, but only to share my experience, and to thank @jock for his work in allowing us to use linux with these boxes.
My board is an android tv with soc rk3229/NAND/DDR3/Wifi SSV6051p which I'm using as a network appliance (pihole - simple nas - network web server).
 
I followed the instructions in the first post and understood that the NAND is not supported, I preferred to empty it to avoid old bootloader problems and installed armbian bookworm on the SD card.
The rest is linux... I installed the software I needed and now the box provides services for my home network without any problems (and I reused hardware that otherwise would have gone in the trash).
Thanks again @jock and of course the armbian community
 
Cheers
Michele

Hello friends,
 
There was some interest in running Retropie on this box in this thread. I've done some basic work getting one of the boxes I own to run Retropie, and have a basic patch that helps Retropie identify that the CPU is ARM. https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/34337/rk322x-box-armbian-build-report-collab
 
If there are tests / whatever folks here might find helpful, let me know. I'm not sure how long I'll be keeping this box.

Hi @ochentay4
 
I shared with @jock the solution I adopted on libreelec. All that remains is to wait and help him with tests if needed. Thanks for the support you gave me with libreelec.

Hi @ochentay4
 
I shared with @jock the solution I adopted on libreelec. All that remains is to wait and help him with tests if needed. Thanks for the support you gave me with libreelec.

@jock Broadcast traffic is correctly decrypted with this hack: Force MAC80211 broadcast decrypt 
Multicast traffic is still corrupt though

Fixed multicast too: https://github.com/HandyMenny/ssv6xxx/commit/5ff256e8c84665253379e43e2608f7debef2d1b4

hi @handymenny, benvenuto nel club 😃
 
congratulations on your findings, as @jock said we managed to get wifi running on new kernels, but for me a lot of things are obscure.
As for Android from sd card, technically it's possible. Never tried, but if you have a backup I think a dd to the sd card is enough.
From an update image it's more complicated because you should explode it with the tools and flash the various pieces (boot, system, userdata) with the right offsets.

Ciao Fabio,
 
thanks,but you are too kind.. I am just carrying out a project that allowed me not to throw away my box
Most of time I spent trying and trying again (I have no way to use a UART port because on my motherboard it's hidden ), and trying to figure out how you solved the problems. 
Then, being a lover of open source, I try to give back something to community.
 
In any case I have noticed some good progress on the 5.15.y kernel for the 322x socs.
Probably if someone else doesn't, I'll try to port libreelec to one of the recent versions.
I'm a slackware user, so forgive me if I'm not a debian lover 

Hi all,
 
I've a box with rk3228b, nand, ddr2 etc etc and I'm using it as mediacenter with Libreelec 9.2 installed on sdcard.
The box recognize the nand, but I had never been able to install the operating system in it (tried with rkdeveloptool, dd and others but without succes).
Until today, when I've discovered this beautiful tool called multitool
I had to make a few small changes (basically removed offset and gpt creation in the nand flash code), but it works great.
So my question is, it's possible to add an option to write a generic image, in order to make this tool more useful!?
 
Last question, I think that the libreelec bootloader has some trouble when boot from NAND, but it's strange, because I've readed that the multitool one shoud be the same. It's true, or there are some changes that I can apply and retry?!
 
 
Thanks for your hard work.
Michele
 
 
 
 
 

thanks @jock, meanwhile looking at your repo I stole a patch that fixes the boot from nand in my libreelec fork 
 
I have seen that this code has been inserted in recent kernels
 
https://github.com/torvalds/linux/blob/master/drivers/mtd/nand/raw/rockchip-nand-controller.c
 
so maybe in the near future NAND for rockchip should works?!