Focal and RK3399

[PatM]

I bought a Firefly RK3399 about a year ago. Since then I have moved to Friendly NanoPC T4.

I bought a second NanoPC T4 because my first machine running Armbian Bionic 18.04.4 has

been working very well. I have been anti X86 and decided ARM was more interesting.

Now to compile I need Armbian Build. So I bought a $100 HP 15 Laptop, a basic 4GB / 500GB Sata machine

running Focal / Ubuntu 20.04. OK I have since reevaluated my situation and see more AMD machines in my future.

I was able to run Armbian 20.05 on the HP and that impressively gave me a working Ubuntu Focal on my NanoPC.

Except it is unoptimized and creaky. not really a working desktop. But I have learned Armbian Build a bit.

I know it doesnt have Wifi but I bootstrapped internet using my other NanoPC and the very easy to use

"share an internet connection" over ethernet. OK this is the machine I want.

The new armbian 5.4.y kernel is a very sophisticated machine. But what I am looking for is:

1. a move to Gnome3 and VScode. I will be following that development since Igor hinted

that this might be usable on a RK3399. I am bored with XFCE and all of the other desktops.

But I am aware that XFCE is what I will be working with on Armbian at least for a while.

 

My other goal is to invest in NVMe. I have two NanoPCs and the metalic cases.

I am concerned that this case can somehow manage to house M.2 NVMEe SDs.

I like the new NanoPIs and there is a case for M4V2 that seems to support NVMe.

Right now all of my RK3399s have a flashed Android on the eMMC.

 I have only bothered with running from microSDs. Since I really like the NanoPC
I invested in two Samsung Evo 256GB microSDs. The friendly arm specs said

that 128GB was all they supported but Armbian kernel has no problem with 256GB.

very nice!

 

Thanks everyone. I am continuing to invest in RK3399 and Arm.

I realize that over time I will want better Mali graphics and more RAM

so the RK3399 path could lead to RK3399Pro which has 6GBs.

but I am likely to invest in  NanoPi M4V2 because they are neat

but clearly this is the beginning not the end of open source Arm Linux.

I do have a Firefly RK3399 if some effort is needed to test that platform.

It is unused by me at the moment. I like some things about Firefly but

clearly Armbian showed that FriendlyElec was the way to go.

I hope to evolve my technical skills to contribute something to Armbian!

 

Pat

[PatM]

Armbian Server for 20.05 NanoPC-T4 writes an image out to microSD in about an hour.

I am running Build in native mode. This is a $100 HP AMD machine with 4GB.

It is also the first time I cross compiled and running natively helped me "see it go".

My Ubuntu Focal machine  ran all the cross compiling and installing pretty well.

I dont clean anything and ran Armbian Server after building Armbian Desktop.

Armbian Server came up perfectly well (no wifi or usb C..but this is known)...

apt install ubuntu-desktop gave me a nice solid desktop.

well....Firefox and Chromium need a "media.sh" effort I suppose!!

That will happen I am sure within a couple months.

The Chromium about://gpu on my ubuntu-desktop looks identical to

what I see running Chromium on armbian-desktop.

Skia gets accelerated but no video ...well its raw but  hey.

 

 

But Gnome 3 desktop is up and running. Well this is getting very interesting

Visual Studio Code will be interesting to see integrated into Armbian Desktop...

once it goes Gnome3 ! It offers a lot of functionality of general platform interesting

 

Very Exciting! Thanks everybody.

 

[Werner]

This is quite  a bunch of text so please forgive me if id did not read it very carefully

 

Quote

new armbian 5.4.y kernel

Go for legacy 4.4 if in doubt. Has been proven to be more solid than newer ons.

 

 

Quote

Firefox and Chromium need a "media.sh" effort I suppose!!

Did you check the media script for RK3399?

 

[PatM]

I have been using Armbian Ubuntu 18.04 as my only desktop machine on NanoPC T4.

I havent run media.sh for quite some time. Are we supposed to still be using that script?

A long time ago every chromium update required rerunning media.sh.

I have not done that for some time and chromium works for the most part ...

except Google stopped accepting it as a trusted browser.

I switched to FireFox and that is relevant to this update:

I decided to ditch Chromium on Armbian Ubuntu 20.05

I ran Armbian Build to build the Minimal Server.

I deleted debian.org as a repository source.

I dont install Chromium. I run Armbian Minimal Server

and just immediate apt install ubuntu-desktop.

I then install MacOS Catalina theme and Catalina icons.

And I install Firefox. and the results are very satisfying.

 

This desktop works much better than Armbian XFCE.

in every way pretty much. This machine is solid.

fast snappy and pretty error free.

I suppose the broadcom wifi and bluetooth drivers are binary only

and trouble. Does life with RK3399 include proprietary wireless drivers?

that seems to be the only firmware only in this system.

I dunno. That is part of the learning process here LOL.

 

Now there is no doubt I can run VS code but only Python and JavaScript.

no C++ and C#. but running Python and JavaScript is where I start here anyway.

Lots of tools to play with and explore now.

I am keeping this NanoPCT4 running this install.

It is AWESOME

 

[Werner]

I do not have a a board with any RK SoC (yet) and very little experience with it. So not sure about the media stuff.

Interesting to know though that there may be issues with Chromium but not with Firefox? @Igor

 

Maybe either @JMCC or @NicoD can tell you more about media support on RK3399 in this case.

[PatM]

The new (yesterday) kernel is even snappier but USB C and Wifi still not working.

I dont really need 3D but I hope to learn more about it.

I am more interested in the more generic Video / Graphics stuff .

I dont understand how FireFox addresses its hardware interface

but it is my most important "Media Platform" so I will learn it.

It seems to be doing AV (Youtube pretty much) very well.

General graphics very well. The X system now logs to syslog

and it advertises pure Mali driver interface and OpenGL 2.2

as implemented by the Mali driver. So Blender doesnt work.

I understand the importance of Chromium / WebKit but Google doesnt like it

and I switched to FireFox (on NanoPC Armbian Bionic running FireFox -- STABLE=LEGACY)

several months ago  and that is now my most important Media machine so I am learning  it.

I think Armbian needs to take these facts into consideration.

Also supporting VS Code is important. I am not an "embedded engineer".

This is a "Desktop Media Development" environment.

I like having to build up the machine like this.

Fixing things. Makes me learn.

anyway VS Code is important for an Armbian "Studio" platform.

It seems that Android is Google's focus and MIcrosoft is wrestling back

control of "Browser War" back from Google. MS has nothing else to do but desktop and

cross dev Xamarin type work. Xamarin is also important (possibly of course)

The reality is that Android and Android Studio is bigger than Web/JS now.

So microsoft taking back control of Desktop with Node and Gnome3/Ubuntu

(Cross Desktop Platform based on Node and Python (for advanced Desktop / Creator Studio)

make sense. Its push on VS Code and GitHub is something good for us yes? anyway

Getting Node and Python VS Code on Armbian "Studio" will get me addicted very quickly.

addictions are good for us right?

[PatM]

I read the note on Kagu and so I started from the top and upgraded Armbian Build

and rebuilt the NanoPCT4 kernel. This kernel build went well and I am typing on it here.

There are the wifi and usb c issues but other than a single cranky ALSA complaint about

being awakened the logs are silent. off to a pretty good start.

 

I study Debian and Ubuntu packaging. I run big development installs on Armbian Bionic

for quite some time. I have been studying Arm Architecture and SoC during this time so  I am

committed to this stuff. I would like to learn more about U-Boot. Right now I cant stop the boot

and get the u-boot prompt. I am willing to learn Aptly and Armbian Build to do some

worktrade for some guidance. I want to rapidly learn this boot process

and kernel build process. I am learning DeviceTree etc. I know the RK3399 in

terms of FireFly docs and downloading RK3399 Technical Reference which is a unique

document as far as I know. [I think I need a serial port adapter and ascii terminal].

I dont have that. perhaps that is why I cant stop the boot.

 

Other than that I am learning Gnome Desktop and Gnome/Linux media.

I only own RK3399 though. not interested in general embedded space

Right now I am going to examine "VPU"s . I tend to favor Gnome in terms of what I learn

so I am familiar with GStreamer and favor Blender as a familiar architecture.

I know Blender does not like the default OpenGL 2.2. To look at video platforms they

tend to be Qt based. Well I am going to install VLC and other video engines

I am looking at Phoronix Test Suite.  Lots of things. Ready to learn more about

Gnome 3 X [wayland? what?]

[Werner]

That is great. Armbian relys on community contributions since there is way too much work for way too less people to do.

That is also the reason why Armbian does not accept new boards if there is no significant help for integration by the manufacturer and rarely there is.

Lots of frustration can be involved in doing this. We learned that in the past few days again to solve a major issue with the boot process.

Start small. Maybe take a look here: https://armbian.atlassian.net/projects/AR/issues/AR-299?filter=allopenissues

Maybe there is something easy to fix and contribute

[PatM]

I think I am going to look more at the Build process.

I see Aptly is written in Go. I am learning Docker.

I just want to run Native. I see it uses QEmu.

I want to learn that.

 

Booting is a little dark for me right at the moment.

I will let that sleeping dog lie. But I have learned

how to flash the RK3399. I just cant use 16GB emmc LOL ...

I leave it Android and work off SD.

I am going to burn another Armbian Server SD and

observe what exactly is on that.

Those are my two Armbian interests at the moment.

Understanding the kernel and X graphics modules of 5.4.y

there is a lot going on there ... of course I know

I need a better OpenGL driver but just grokking the current

kernel and X  layout and how it is installed is fascinating.

I assume I got the entire X stack from apt-get install ubuntu-desktop.

The 5.4 kernel logs are clean and sexy. ??? hey.

very ARM aware. This is a lot of learning

so I am going to switch to building and running Armbian Server

for the next couple of days.

[PatM]

There has been a mysterious update to FireFox to version 77.

The results are fantastic. The AudioVisual is superb on Focal / NanoPCT4.

I need to stop downloading DEBs and am committed to mastering APT.

 I decided to sleuth it out and see what FireFox update got me to 77

and I cant find it! very strange. I only see apt and dpkg logs for 76.

But this FireFox running so well on Armbian Server essentially is amazing.

I looked at Armbian Server. I see that the device drivers for graphics

includes Video 4 Linux. So Armbian configures all of the main AV drivers.

FireFox AV1 is based on VLC!? that is important.

maybe as important as WebKit. But I am running FireFox on Gnome3

and I am hooked. This is one impressive machine.

This is essentially Ubuntu Server/Desktop then but with #trunk

running from latest kernel mainline. very sweet

[PatM]

I didnt want to sound too Ubuntu oriented so I built Armbian Buster Server for NanoPCT4.

From there I installed Gnome3. Debian Buster has an older Gnome3 and Firefox 68.

But the kernel works about the same (both Armbian kernel so not surprising).

The Debian 10 Gnome3 and FireFox work but is a  slower and choppier.

Overall the Ubuntu Focal Gnome3 experience is of course later and superior.

But the state of art indicates that the latest kernel and firefox are unfortunately necessary.

Anyway this marks the end of the beginning of learning Armbian Build.

The results: Ubuntu Focal is excellent and I am going to be able to run this desktop.

I intend to stop using XFCE. I never used LXQT or Mint (I looked at Mint).

I am going to be able to run Ubuntu Desktop on Armbian Server.

This machine is really  superior in many ways to Ubuntu Focal on AMD.

The Focal logs on the AMD are bad. too much going on.

but x86 works better in the overall sense, whatever that means LOL.