curse

And perhaps try with different SD cards. I first used some expensive recommended 64GB SanDisk card and nothing worked then I tried a "no-name" cheap 8GB card and it worked perfectly. I think it's up to luck when it comes to the SD cards. The recommended expensive cards might work more often than the cheap ones, but sometimes it's the other way around. 

And perhaps try with different SD cards. I first used some expensive recommended 64GB SanDisk card and nothing worked then I tried a "no-name" cheap 8GB card and it worked perfectly. I think it's up to luck when it comes to the SD cards. The recommended expensive cards might work more often than the cheap ones, but sometimes it's the other way around. 

Just one question. How did you "burn" the iso to the SD-card? did you use dd, rufus, etc? Just in case the error is there and not with the box or the iso?

I have the plus. However, I was never able to boot Armbian from the SD card, I used Multitool from this thread. Added the Armbian ISO to it, multitool booted fine from the SD card, then took a backup of the stock ROM with multitool and then erased eMMC and installed Jock's Armbian via multitool. 
 

I have the plus. However, I was never able to boot Armbian from the SD card, I used Multitool from this thread. Added the Armbian ISO to it, multitool booted fine from the SD card, then took a backup of the stock ROM with multitool and then erased eMMC and installed Jock's Armbian via multitool. 
 

Have fun experimenting. I myself is "hooked" on playing with the TV-boxes. First I had an old Mini M8S II Amlogic S905x 2/8 box that had been in a drawer for years, and I thought it should be possible to use it as a mini server and found Armbian. Then I felt that 8GB was a bit tiny, and started to look around for something slightly bigger though still cheap. I was choosing between Rockship RK3328 and Allwinner H6 since it looked like they both had fairly good support already, and not an Amlogic S905x(2,3,4) since I read here on the forum about some bad practice from Amlogic. After finding out that the H6 only can handle 3GB RAM, I went for the RK3328. In my subjective experience, the Amlogic felt easier to work with and also felt faster... No idea if it is for real. Thinking about getting a box with an Allwinner chip as well, just so I have one each of the three bigger brands, but it will have to wait for some savings to pile up. The RK3566 boxes with 8GB RAM looks fun as well, but I don't think I use anywhere near 4GB at the moment...

Ahh. So it's a HK1 thing...I got a H96 Max+ and at least it seems to have the specified RAM/eMMC size.
 
Welcome to Armbian 21.11.0-trunk Bullseye with Linux 5.10.68-rockchip64 No end-user support: built from trunk System load: 55% Up time: 2 days 21:36 Memory usage: 17% of 3.88G IP: 192.168.0.13 192.168.0.15 CPU temp: 75°C Usage of /: 10% of 57G storage/: 74% of 1.9T storage temp: 31°C curse@H96MaxPlus:~$ df -h Filesystem Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on udev 1.9G 0 1.9G 0% /dev tmpfs 398M 44M 355M 11% /run /dev/mmcblk2p1 57G 5.4G 51G 10% / tmpfs 2.0G 0 2.0G 0% /dev/shm tmpfs 5.0M 0 5.0M 0% /run/lock tmpfs 2.0G 32K 2.0G 1% /tmp /dev/sda1 1.9T 1.4T 490G 74% /home/curse/Media /dev/zram1 49M 22M 24M 49% /var/log tmpfs 398M 0 398M 0% /run/user/1000 curse@H96MaxPlus:~$ free -h total used free shared buff/cache available Mem: 3.9Gi 711Mi 308Mi 43Mi 2.9Gi 3.1Gi Swap: 1.9Gi 4.0Mi 1.9Gi  

While I was in Sweden some month ago, I only had access to an old 1024x768 monitor, connected via an HDMI to DVI adapter. It did NOT work. Multitool, yes, everything else, no.
I would not recommend to do an apt update && apt upgrade before you have gone through "armbian-config" and frozen firmware and kernel updates, or frozen them by other means.

Update!
 
Images on first page have been updated to kernel 5.14.13
 

@curse
Yes, it is possible. Temperatures are quite varying with these chips and reportings are not very reliable IMHO. The problem is very similar with rk322x too.
Cpu usage in top is the sum of all cores/processors, so it can go beyond 100% if your process is doing multithreaded work.

I replaced the existing /lib/firmware/brcm/brcmfmac4334-sdio.rockchip,rk3318-box.txt with this file. Then it worked in nmcli
#nmcli device wifi list shows available wifi networks then #nmcli --ask device wifi connect vodafone5CC8 and it asked for the password for my wifi named vodafone5CC8, and now it connected, before it didn't. My overlays are: overlays=rk3318-box-cpu-hs rk3318-box-emmc-ddr rk3318-box-led-conf1 rk3318-box-wlan-ap6334

No, I'm quite bad at screwing and such because of an injury. Sorry. Oh... I have the H96Max+ RK3328 4GB/64GB Voice Remote version (not that I have tried using voice commands on it). Who knows, the Voice Remote version and the normal remote version might differ.

Good Morning. Just a quick question.
Is it possible that the temperature is shown wrong at login? 
____ _ ____________ _ ___ ____ | _ \| |/ /___ /___ // |( _ ) | __ ) _____ __ | |_) | ' / |_ \ |_ \| |/ _ \ | _ \ / _ \ \/ / | _ <| . \ ___) |__) | | (_) | | |_) | (_) > < |_| \_\_|\_\____/____/|_|\___/ |____/ \___/_/\_\ Welcome to Armbian 21.11.0-trunk Bullseye with Linux 5.10.68-rockchip64 No end-user support: built from trunk System load: 3% Up time: 2 days 21:03 Memory usage: 4% of 3.88G IP: 192.168.0.35 CPU temp: 68°C Usage of /: 8% of 57G It seems to idle at 68 C and when doing stuff goes to 90+. At the same time, "top" sees the CPU going at 270%. While the box feels warm, it doesn't feel hot, which I assume it would be, if it were 90+C a centimeter from my finger.

BTW, today I downloaded and installed the latest "minimal" 
"Armbian 21.11 - Debian Bullseye minimal - mainline kernel 5.10.68 - Download from here - Build date: 2021-09-24"
I don't seem to find "armbian-config". In /usr/local/bin/ there is only rk3318-config. Has it been forgotten or is it just me who are looking at the wrong place?
 
Edit/
I just remembered reading somewhere that armbian-config isn't in the minimal images because it needs a lot of dependencies...

Note: If you get an E: Package 'docker-ce' has no installation candidateerror when using only stable APT source this is because the stable version of docker for Ubuntu 20.04 doesn’t exist yet.
Meanwhile you have to use the edge / test version.
 
https://grigorkh.medium.com/how-to-install-docker-on-ubuntu-20-04-f1b99845959e#:~:text=Note%3A If you get an E%3A Package 'docker-ce',have to use the edge %2F test version.
 
My first hit on a Google search. 

@jockSorry for an extremely late reply. I was on vacation in distant lands(visiting my mom in Sweden), and the only monitor I had available to use there was an old 1024x768 monitor which I couldn't get to work with Armbian. The only thing that worked was the Multitool.
Well, I'm back home in the Canary Islands with the volcanoes now.
So finally. I can report that the WiFi on my H96Max+ (RK3328) works with the last idea you had
https://forum.armbian.com/topic/17597-csc-armbian-for-rk3318rk3328-tv-box-boards/?do=findComment&comment=127240
Thank you for all the help.

@jockSorry for an extremely late reply. I was on vacation in distant lands(visiting my mom in Sweden), and the only monitor I had available to use there was an old 1024x768 monitor which I couldn't get to work with Armbian. The only thing that worked was the Multitool.
Well, I'm back home in the Canary Islands with the volcanoes now.
So finally. I can report that the WiFi on my H96Max+ (RK3328) works with the last idea you had
https://forum.armbian.com/topic/17597-csc-armbian-for-rk3318rk3328-tv-box-boards/?do=findComment&comment=127240
Thank you for all the help.

@jockSorry for an extremely late reply. I was on vacation in distant lands(visiting my mom in Sweden), and the only monitor I had available to use there was an old 1024x768 monitor which I couldn't get to work with Armbian. The only thing that worked was the Multitool.
Well, I'm back home in the Canary Islands with the volcanoes now.
So finally. I can report that the WiFi on my H96Max+ (RK3328) works with the last idea you had
https://forum.armbian.com/topic/17597-csc-armbian-for-rk3318rk3328-tv-box-boards/?do=findComment&comment=127240
Thank you for all the help.

Update!
 
Images with mainline kernel have been updated to Debian Bullseye (minimal) and Ubuntu Hirsute (xfce desktop) with kernel 5.10.68.
Kernel is the same major version as previous mainline images, but Bullseye and Hirsute should provide significant newer software packages (including new Mesa libraries for those interested in graphics).

Sweet. I'll do some testing and get back to you. 
 
Edit
Testing done. 
Most things seem to work. 
Ethernet OK
HDMI Video out OK
HDMI Audio Ok
Bluetooth Audio OK
 
However, I don't seem to be able to connect to WiFi. Odd since Bluetooth and WiFi is the same chip. Armbian-Config and nmcli see it, it also shows the available networks but when trying to connect. No luck. 
rk3318-config says that I have a Broadcom BCM4335/AmPac AP6334 chip. 
Somehow the WiFi times out after 90 seconds and after it has asked me twice for the password, which I know is correct. 
Also, no network settings icon is visible near the clock where the sound and Bluetooth icons are. 
No Web Browser seems to be installed, though the menu item for Web Browser is there. No problem since I had ethernet and could install a Web Browser (and without ethernet or wifi, there is no need for a browser) 
So... H96 Max plus (written with a '+'). RK3328. 4GB RAM and 64GB eMMC. Confirmed mostly working. 
 
Next edit
The version I tried was: Armbian 21.08 - Ubuntu Focal desktop [xfce] - mainline kernel 5.10.41 - Build date: 2021-05-30

I had missed this thread thinking it was only about RK3318 devices, but do I understand it correctly if I say it's for RK3328 devices as well? 
I have a H96 Max Plus RK3328 4/64 box that I've been fighting with for a while. I mostly have had problems with the WiFi.
Reading through this thread seems to show that the ap6330 WiFi I have isn't impossible after all. I've mostly had problems finding a good dtb, that includes it. 
Would there be a chance that this would work on my box? 

­DISCLAIMER (PLEASE READ): everything you can find in this thread (binaries, texts, code snippets, etc...) are provided AS-IS and are not part of official Armbian project. For this reason not people from Armbian project nor myself are responsible for misuse or loss of functionality of hardware.

Please don't ask about support or assistance in other non-community forums nor in the official Armbian github repository, instead post your questions in this thread, in the TV Boxes forum section (hardware related) or in the Peer-to-peer support section (general linux/software related).

Thank you!
 
This thread is to give stable and mature long-term range support to rk3318/rk3328 found in many tv boxes in Armbian project as Community Supported Configuration (CSC).
The current work is mainlined into Armbian project, but your mileage may vary; most recent developments live on my personal fork on github -> here <-
 
Important notes: is just a personal opinion, but apparently widely supported, that rk3318 chip is not an official rockchip part. They probably are scrap rk3328 parts which have not passed conformance tests but are sold anyway to tv boxes manufacturers. They don’t reach the same operating frequency of the rk3328, have much higher leakage currents (and thus higher temperatures) and often the boards they are installed on are low quality with low quality components, in fact a very very common issue is the eMMC failure due to bad parts and bad soldering. So said, I personally suggest not to buy any rk3318 tv box, but instead find a properly supported SBC (Single Board Computer) if you need a reliable product. In the unfortunate case you already have such product, this thread may help you have some fun with them.
 
What works:
    • Works on RK3318 and RK3328 TV boxes with DDR3 memories
    • Mainline u-boot
    • Mainline ATF provided as Trusted Execution Environment
    • All 4 cores are working
    • Ethernet
    • Serial UART (configured at stock 1.5Mbps)
    • Thermals and frequency scaling
    • OTG USB 2.0 port (also as boot device!)
    • EHCI/OHCI USB 2.0 ports and XHCI USB 3.0 ports
    • MMC subsystem (including , SD and sdio devices)
    • Hardware video acceleration (fully supported via RKMPP on legacy kernel, support via hantro and rkvdec kernel driver on mainline)
    • Various WIFI over SDIO are supported
    • Full acceleration on legacy kernel and mainline kernel
    • U-boot boot order priority: first the sdcard, then the USB OTG port and eventually the internal ; you can install u-boot (and the whole system) in the internal and u-boot will always check for images on external sdcard/USB first.
 
Unbrick:
Technically, rockchip devices cannot be bricked. If the internal flash does not contain a bootable system, they will always boot from the sdcard. If, for a reason, the bootable system on the internal flash is corrupted or is unable to boot correctly, you can always force the maskrom mode shorting the clock pin on the PCB. The procedure is explained here for rk322x, but for rk3318/28 is the same.

In most of the rk3318/28 boards, shorting the clock pin is difficult or impossible because eMMC are BGA chips with no exposed pins. Pay double attention when burning something on the internal flash memory and always test first the image booting from the sdcard to be sure it works before burning anything in internal flash.
 
This is a list of posts where forum users have been able to spot the eMMC clock pin to trigger the maskrom mode:
H96 Max+ (board signature: RK3318_V1.4) by @Gausus X88 PRO 10 (board signature: X88_PRO_B) by @mathgaming Ninkbox N1 Max RK3318 by @enigmasphinx  
 
Partecipation and debugging:
If you want to partecipate or need help debugging issues, do not hesitate to share your experience with the installation procedure of the boxes.
In case of issues and missed support, provide as many as possible of these things is very useful to try and bring support for an unsupported board:
 
some photos of both sides of the board. Details of the eMMC, DDR and Wifi chips are very useful! upload the device tree binary (dtb) of your device. We can understand a lot of things of the hardware from that small piece of data; and alternative is a link to the original firmware (you can do a full backup with the Multitool); dmesg and other logs (use armbianmonitor -u that automatically collects and uploads the logs online) attach a serial converter to the device and provide the output of the serial port;  
Multimedia:
Mainline kernel: 3D acceleration is provided by Lima driver and is already enabled. Hardware video decoding: https://forum.armbian.com/topic/19258-testing-hardware-video-decoding-rockchip-allwinner/ Legacy kernel: If you need multimedia features, like OpenGL/OpenGL ES acceleration, hardware accelerated Kodi, ffmpeg and mpv you can take a look to this post  
Installation (via SD card):
Building:
You can build your own image follow the common steps to build armbian for other tv boxes devices: when you are in the moment to choose the target board, switch to /TVB/ boards and select "rk3318-box" from the list.
   
Prebuilt images:
Archived images - built by Armbian servers and GPG-signed: https://imola.armbian.com/dl/rk3318-box/archive/ Nightly stables - built from trunk by Armbian servers and GPG-signed: https://github.com/armbian/community Stables provided by me (unsigned): https://users.armbian.com/jock/rk3318/  
Multitool:
Multitool - A small but powerful image for RK3318/RK3328 TV Box maintenance. Download it from here  
Quick installation instructions on eMMC:
Build or download your preferred Armbian image and a copy of the Multitool; Burn the Multitool on an SD card; once done, place the Armbian image in images folder of the SD card NTFS partition; Plug the SD card in the TV box and plug in the power cord. After some seconds the blue led starts blinking and the Multitool appears; OPTIONAL: you can do a backup of the existing firmware with "Backup flash" menu option; Choose "Burn image to flash" from the menu, then select the destination device (usually mmcblk2) and the image to burn; Wait for the process to complete, then choose "Shutdown" from main menu; Unplug the power cord and the SD card, then replug the power cord; Wait for 10 seconds, then the led should start blinking and HDMI will turn on. The first time the boot process will take a couple of minutes or more because the filesystem is going to be resized, so be patient and wait for the login prompt. On first boot you will be asked for entering a password for root user of your choice and the name and password for a regular user Run rk3318-config to configure the board specific options Run armbian-config to configure timezone, locales and other personal options Congratulations, Armbian is now installed!  
Despite the procedure above is simple and reliable, I always recommend to first test that your device boots Armbian images from SD Card.
Due to the really large hardware variety, there is the rare chance that the images proposed here may not boot. If a bad image is burned in , the box may not boot anymore forcing you to follow the unbrick section at the top of this post.
 
Quick installation instructions to boot from SD Card:
If you are already running Armbian from eMMC, skip to the next step. Instead if you are running the original firmware you need to first erase the internal flash; to do so download the Multitool, burn it on an SD Card, plug the SD Card and power the TV Box. Use "Backup flash" if you want to do a backup of the existing firmware, then choose "Erase flash" menu option. Build or download your preferred Armbian image; Uncompress and burn the Armbian image on the SD Card; Plug the SD Card in the TV Box and power it on; Wait for 10 seconds, then the led should start blinking and HDMI will turn on. The first time the boot process will take a couple of minutes or more because the filesystem is going to be resized, so be patient and wait for the login prompt; On first boot you will be asked for entering a password for root user of your choice and the name and password for a regular user Run rk3318-config to configure the board specific options Run armbian-config to configure timezone, locales and other personal options, or also to transfer the SD Card installation to internal ; Congratulations, Armbian is running from SD Card!  
Tutorial - How to install Armbian on your TV Box (by @awawa) :
https://www.hyperhdr.eu/2022/01/tv-box-mania-i-part-x88-pro-10.html
A note about boot device order:
With Armbian also comes mainline U-boot. If you install Armbian, the bootloader will look for valid bootable images in this order:
External SD Card External USB Stick in OTG Port Internal  
The Multitool does not boot / How to burn image directly on eMMC:
 
Some boards have the sdcard attached to an auxiliary (called also sdmmc_ext or external) controller which is not the common one.
Forum findings declare that those boards are not able to boot from sdcard with stock firmware and they neither do in maskrom mode: the stock firmware always boots even if you put the multitool on sdcard.
 
In such case, burning images directly on eMMC is the only way to have a working Armbian installation.
You can follow these instructions by @fabiobassa to burn images directly on eMMC:
 
https://forum.armbian.com/topic/17597-csc-armbian-for-rk3318rk3328-tv-box-boards/?do=findComment&comment=130453
 
Notes and special hardware:
Script to change DDR memory frequency here Wireless chip AP2734, SP2734, HY2734C and similars: they are clones of AmPAK AP6334 which is combo wifi + bluetooth of broadcom BCM4334/B0 chips. You may need a special nvram file, instructions by @paradigman are here  
Critics, suggestions and contributions are welcome!
 
Credits:
@fabiobassa for his ideas, inspiration, great generosity in giving the boards for development and testing. The project of bringing rk3318 into armbian would not have begun without his support! @hexdump for his precious support in early testing, ideas and suggestions
@MX10.AC2Nfor his patience in testing mxq-rk3328-d4 board support
All the rockhip64 maintainers at Armbian project who have done and do most of the work to support the platform
 
 

Ok looks like I bricked my box forever with that method of installation (install-2018.sh with s912-uboot copied as uboot.img).
 
The firmware flash procedure does not even work anymore now. I now need to shortcut some pins from the emmc to start the flash process, and after that amlogic usb burning tools stops at 7%. It might be that pluging in the power source causes the system to boot, interrupting the interaction with emmc, but I am not sure. Any idea how to fix this, by forcing erasing of the emmc (even physically if possible).
 
I still have another S912 box, but keeping up to date with armbian is clearly too painful and risky, no installation guide whatsoever, just random bits of info here and there, generally without explanation of what happens under the hood, or link to opensource code, and high chance of bricking your box.