astrosky

@tERBO I run xfce4 when my HDMI works and I find it runs ok. But yeah YouTube videos play very bad for me in general. Maybe hardware acceleration isn't working?

@jock yeah basically no HDMI out on any Verizon 6 and above kernal based on what I tested. The older 5 kernal works on basic desktop though.

@jock this im not sure ........ can you recommend a image i can just install and then work from there? preferably something that starts out with things not as broken then i can simply configure it and install your patched kernal stuff AFTER? im thinking a fresh install then straight to the patch could be the ticket then ill disable kernel updates straight after, even if it breaks hdmi out as long as it lets me ssh in ill be ok well i installed Armbian-unofficial_24.5.0-trunk_Rk3318-box_bullseye_current_6.6.23_minimal.tar no hdmi output but i could ssh in then i installed your patch. setup the default config stuff now i got a blue led and red no hdmi out still also could not install armbian config or run it as it does not exist for some reason in this build.... its just super confusing as my box is a x 88 pro like everyone else

@jock so basically i tried to install your patch and this broke my setup and all i see is a red led. not sure why i cant seem to get this working with a newer kernal. but i guess i need to go back to what i did before or try to fix it no hdmi and now no way to ssh as the board is in some kind of frozen state i rebooted after applying the patches I prepared for the installation by ensuring that the necessary .deb files were in my Documents directory. These files were named linux-image-current-rockchip64_24.5.0-trunk_arm64__6.6.25-Se475-D0618-P53bb-Ca832H66b1-HK01ba-Vc222-B2804-R448a.deb and linux-dtb-current-rockchip64_24.5.0-trunk_arm64__6.6.25-Se475-D0618-P53bb-Ca832H66b1-HK01ba-Vc222-B2804-R448a.deb. I ran the command sudo dpkg -i for each .deb file to install the new kernel and DTB packages. The output indicated that the installation process included preparing, unpacking, and setting up the new packages over the old versions. During the kernel package setup, an update-initramfs process was executed, generating a new initial ramdisk for the 6.6.25-current-rockchip64 kernel and converting it to U-Boot format. The system then updated symlinks for /boot/Image, /boot/initrd.img, and /boot/uInitrd to point to the new versions. For the DTB package installation, it was similarly unpacked and set up, with a symlink from /boot/dtb to the new DTB directory for the 6.6.25-current-rockchip64 kernel being created. I concluded the update process by rebooting my system to apply the changes. This was done using the sudo reboot command. but now red led is shown and no signs of life

@J Black KatI'll try it. Hoping it fixes things @jock

@jock I knew something was off.....that's why I was seeing Random characters output when I echo ..thanks for telling me that and it also explains why I get permission denied sometimes. ...guess I still need to make it where it's a virgin uart with no influence on debug too! I thought it was just a console control. Yeah this took extra steps but it frees up a USB port on the box itself for keyboard and mouse with out using a hub and it sorta copies a pi now and I had all this laying around anyways so. Update:1 Ok successfully fixed the issue, disabled all access to that uart part temporarily. Was able to successfully communicate to the Arduino through nanpy. No more permission issues. This is super cool. Now the Arduino works like an extension to the TV box. The processing power of the TV box is way better than the Arduinos so this opens up a bit of a cool niche use case. I'll call it THE ARMBIAN PI.. Still dont have wifi though. I ran the config and such but wifi isn't being able to run. Not sure what's stopping that but I'm sure it's not too hard to fix. Update:2 Finally I do see one more serial port that I have yet to figure out what exactly it's for. But this gives me another idea to attach one more Arduino or to connect directly to a 3d printer. It shows up as a device in the serial list tree. Got any idea what it is? Would it might be the IR port?

it actually did not require recompiling the bootloader at all actually heres what i did and it works! I worked on connecting a TV box running Armbian with an Arduino using a UART connection, allowing them to communicate. The aim was to control the Arduino using commands sent from the TV box. Firstly, I programmed the Arduino to react to simple text commands that would turn an LED on or off. This step was crucial to test whether commands from the TV box were being correctly received by the Arduino. Next, I focused on setting up the TV box for UART communication. Through the terminal, I found the UART device (/dev/ttyS2) and temporarily disabled its console service using the command sudo systemctl start serial-getty@ttyS2.service or sudo systemctl stop serial-getty@ttyS2.service This was necessary to use the port for sending commands to the Arduino without interference from the TV box’s system. To ensure the setup worked, I connected the TV box to a Windows computer using a USB-to-Serial adapter ( using my Arduino uno for this shorting the reset and GND together to by pass the chips mcu ) and monitored the communication with PuTTY. By sending a test message from the TV box and seeing it in PuTTY, I confirmed the UART port was functioning correctly. This allowed for successful data transmission between the two devices. A key part of this was a external port i made. i went in and solder on pin cables and routed it as neat as i could permanently so i can access the UART easily . This setup made it easy to connect and disconnect the Arduino without opening the TV box each time. It effectively allowed the Arduino to act like a USB-to-Serial device and vice versa, simplifying the communication process. I adjusted permissions to access the UART port without needing administrative rights and ensured the baud rates on both devices matched. this has thus far enabled general commutations through the UART and when i want to log back in through uart if ever i can simply start the serial -getty and log in this then allows me to run NANpy, making the arduino act like a slave to the tv box much like how people take rasberry pis and do the same thing to expand the gpio ports through serial communication using nanpy on the pi! this basically turns our silly ole tv box with the rk3318 into a raspberry pi with out the features lacking! that was the one thing about the pi that made it better for most tasks. well this helps level that disadvantage! @jock

Actually these boards have UART correct? Can the UART send communication signals? If so I'm pretty sure I can use the UART parts to create a link to Arduino and then! Have gpio ! I can't believe I didn't think of this before. But I'm certain this is feasible. Uart is a very legacy communication protocol and I'm sure it's fast enough for general purposes scripts and such! The goal is to use it like a MCU and to send commands to the Arduino with out taking up my precious USB ports!

@jock is there a way to revert said changes? can you at least pin point me in the general direction i might look and maybe fix it myself? it makes sense that its something to do with hdmi. iv been going through this entire thread as much as i can and i saw you made some kind of patch for the 6 series kernal and then i saw someone mention they found the source of hdmi issues with some kind of hex editor fix? im not sure what could be the case but i do have this running just fine on this older build and im scared to try to upgrade anything. i forze the kernal updates in the config does that mean i can apt upgrade all and kernal wont be touched? if so then im fine for now but im scared to touch apt upgrade in fear it might upgrade the kernal by force. is there a way to freeze it so it wont upgrade it no matter what? im using this as a pi hole and a klipper setup and it works but i wanna update my packages if i can. also yes a sbc would be easier but i wanna try to hack this together just for the fun of it. im wondering if i could wire up a powered hub inside a 3d printer encloser along with the board and make it have one internal port and then 4 external by wiring directly to the usb pads to make it intigrated then use a arduino as a slave board for GPIO to make this a hacked together rasberry pi they have githubs made to make the arduinos dedicated GPIO for linux based machines which allow the computer to controll the gpio instead of the MCU on the arduino which makes this idea seem feesable the goal is to make this basically as close to a rasberry pi as possible with a little extra steps but it will end up faster than the pi too which is even better. once i found out about tv boxes being reposed into linux machines i was hooked iv been addicted to this for awhile now just trying to iron out the issues i have atm,

I need to mention as an update. If I stay in the minimal old 5.15 kernal I get HDMI out but if I run apt upgrade or upgradable if I then reboot once I'm done. HDMI out no longer works. However if I don't update anything. I can reboot all day. This is flashed directly on the internal storage because sd card booting does not work for me. I can only boot this stuff after flashing it directly from multi tool. This makes it harder to quickly test different kernals such. if i even attempt to use the desktop ready imgs on the same kernal hdmi out also does not seem to work. i have no way of knowing if its actually booting at all or not either. is there a way to log into the system even if its the first time boot and there is no account setup? maybe then i can go in the shell somehow and enable things? it would be great to have a working desktop. i opened up the tv box and the motherboard is blue. idk if that matters. this was made in 2019 apparently . ok update i was able to log in with ssh both blue and red led is flashing after using the latest mainline installs. but ssh works not sure what i can do to proceed i setup the configs too, got the proper led working wifi not working but im using ethernet my ultimate goal is to wire up a gpio board to the system with its usb ports being spared and making this a sudo sbc computer but a little extra steps i already have a Arduino so making it a slave would be cool this is offtopic but if i can get the hdmi out working ill be closer to my goal, ( i was thinking of directly wiring the usb port to the usb port that way it works as device but spare the other usb port too maybe a wired hub inside the case so i wont be missing ports but still have the board hardwired in? it seems possible.... ok ok final edit i installed a very older build with a desktop env it works! but the kernel is in the 5 series.....i really wish i could have a more up to date kernel. for now i enabled blocking of kernel updates.

Hi im using a x88 pro at least thats what the model states under the tv box. for some reason i cant get any hdmi out signal from the box after flashing the desktop environment versions of this linux install i used the archives and the one that work the best was Debian Bullseye minimal - mainline kernel 5.15.16 this one does not give me a desktop however so thats sorta not what i wanted. not sure why but i cant seem to get the nightly releases working i made sure it was the rk3318 versions too. the goal is to get a working desktop environment working with XFCE as thats one the most lightest weight desktop env i know of. am i missing something? the multi tool is flashed the image is in the images folder i burn said image and when i reboot with out the sd card inserted no signal at all i see a single red led inside the box through its vent that just stays lit. i can work with the debian bullseye but i see its using a older kernal and id like the latest working one if possible at the very least..... any advice?