CSC Armbian for RK3318/RK3328 TV box boards

[DavidJS]

2 hours ago, fabiobassa said:

you SHOULD at least know that FAT has a limitation to maximum 4gb for a single file so the problem isn't the partition but the file itself

Anyway when you insert SD for 1st time without any image inside the fat partition is resized to maximum. Then remove the SD and out the image on it

you can try to compress .GZ the image

Yes, I known FAT is limitation to 4GB, so I wanted to ask whether it can use compressed image. 

So the Multitool support .gz format? 

[fabiobassa]

@DavidJS

yes. it does

[gcrypto]

hello all, I'm new here. Trying again for some help or feedback please

I tried all jock's builds on Beelink A1 RK3328 they all boot, following post 1:

 

1 - Armbian_22.05.0-trunk_Rk3318-box_jammy_current_5.15.35_xfce_desktop and

Armbian_22.08.0-trunk_Rk3318-box_jammy_edge_5.18.10_xfce :

both boot no problem, wifi not working but a TP-LINK dongle does. System very slow and hangs after a while

 

2 - Armbian_22.08.0-trunk_Rk3318-box_jammy_edge_5.18.14_kde-plasma_desktop.img.xz

this is the smoothest but no wifi and no usb wifi works (asus and tplink)

 

I ran rk3188-config set the cpu speed, then generic wifi adapter (says not present) then I reboot but the system hangs sometimes on RAM I think (from reading the boot messages), sometimes on network and doesn't boot again. This happens on all builds.

 

Anything I'm missing?

[Andre B]

Hi, does anyone ever facing "IDB fail' while flashing ?

my h96 max is currently bricked, previously i installed openwrt (with armbian uboot and kernel) on internal formatted as btrfs.

 

Tried "Factory tool", "AndroidTool", "RKBatchTool", none worked, tried to boot openwrt again from sdcard (which previously done to install it on emmc) no longer booting, but multitool does boot, but doesn't detect emmc.

 

is there any bash command that can i execute to fix that "IDB" problem @jock ?

 

or is there any modified/improved version of multitool which include more functionality including btrfs filesystem management ?

Edited September 16, 2022 by Buqan Kaleng Kaleng

[jock]

@Buqan Kaleng Kaleng I don't what you are talking about... if the multitool does not see the emmc, maybe it is just broken.

[gcrypto]

hi

if everything works on hk1 max except audio over hdmi.

tried to play with volume but no hdmi options in sound.

 

how do I sort it?

[Andre B]

@jock i think that too, but then i see this page http://www.hotmcu.com/wiki/Flashing_Firmware_Image_Files_Using_The_Rockchip_Tool#Preparing_IDB_failed which redirect me to this page http://www.hotmcu.com/wiki/Unbrick,_fix_NAND_on_the_marsboard

 

my flashing error note is same as in that page (Prepare IDB Failed), and since i brick it while messing around with openwrt, perhaps it does corruot the bootloader.

 

i tried to boot latest armbian from sdcard and it did boot, is there any way to fix the bootloader from the armbian without external linux host / desktop pc ?

 

also that page noted about update.img with dead link, which i dont know what it is and since i dont have it, do you have it and care to share ?

[jock]

@Buqan Kaleng Kaleng seriously, I really don't understand what you're talking about. 🤷‍♂️

 

You said you can run multitool from sdcard, then erase the eMMC from multitool if you want to zero-fill the eMMC and zap anything.

If you can't, the emmc is not detected and thus probably broken.

There is no bootloader involved in hardware detection.

 

From armbian you can run blkdiscard /dev/mmcblk2 to do the same the multitool does. Again: any error here means the emmc is not detected and probably broken.

[Andre B]

hi @jock, i noticed that i can only boot newer armbian images, older images with old method following bellow tutorial doesn't work anymore, i guess it because my broken device related to "idb", is there any other thing to "dd" to the sdcard to run older armbian from sdcard (especially with undetected emmc) ? perhaps idbloader ?

 

[Taz]

On 8/28/2022 at 5:30 PM, Aapo Tahkola said:

apt-get -o Dpkg::Options::="--force-overwrite" install armbian-bsp-cli-renegade

Removing this made it work however I had an kernel oops on the legacy kernel and it soon after that stopped booting.

I tried reinstalling kernel by booting from tf card:

mkdir -p /tmp/emmc
mount /dev/mmcblk2p1 /tmp/emmc/
mount --bind /dev/ /tmp/emmc/dev/
mount --bind /proc/ /tmp/emmc/proc/
mount --bind /sys/ /tmp/emmc/sys/
chroot /tmp/emmc/
#ping 8.8.8.8 should now work on chrooted env

apt remove linux-image-legacy-rockchip64
apt-get install linux-image-current-rockchip64

it seems to have worked but I have not bothered uart to see what is going on.

5.15.68-rockchip64 is the only kernel I get hdmi with others are blank IIRC.

I was able to get home assistant supervised working perfectly(esphome, tasmota, integrated mqtt server) if I select raspberrypi as machine type. Raspberry pi 4 and tinker I tried failed.

Armbian 22.11.0-trunk Jammy is the only one with docker-ce per https://github.com/home-assistant/supervised-installer and one needs to repackage homeassistant-supervised.deb:

dpkg-deb -R homeassistant-supervised.deb content
sed -i "s/os-agent/os-agent:armhf/" content/DEBIAN/control

dpkg-deb --build content/ homeassistant-supervised_new.deb
dpkg --install homeassistant-supervised_new.deb

 

[Andre B]

Hi @kruzer would you mind assisting me to make the openvfd work ? i have the same chip, mine is black pcb but has same FD6551 chip.

[kruzer]

12 hours ago, Buqan Kaleng Kaleng said:

Hi @kruzer would you mind assisting me to make the openvfd work ? i have the same chip, mine is black pcb but has same FD6551 chip.

Sure, 

I don't remember exact steps, but I had to modify the openvfd code to make it work:

https://github.com/kruzer/linux_openvfd/commit/1d83779bb9d525e6593b97f7e893cccc73080d4d

after building openfvd driver with this change it should be working ok.

[Andre B]

@kruzer recently i did update to kernel 5.19.12 and everything just works, i mean turning on/off wifi led, usb led, lan led,etc . now i'm retrying with kernel 5.19.11 the only work is just the clock, what i miss ?

[Seth]

i got myself a new box, still an h96 max, same as what @paradigman has. it also has a 2734c wifi chip, his posted nvram from the manufacturer works. hdmi on edge kernel still doesn't work on my monitor/tv but i can access it via ssh after install so everything is good. thanks again @jock, @fabiobassa and @paradigmanfor the awesome community support.

[FRIKIdelTO]

Hello!
I have bought the TV Box H96Max v11, which you can see in the images.
I have installed several versions of Armbian and in all of them I have the same problem, the WiFi does not work. The networks can be searched, but it cannot connect, it is as if the password is not correct, but it is.
I have tried with a USB WiFi adapter and it works perfectly, but I would like it to work with the built-in WiFi.
Any idea how I can achieve it?
I attach the dmesg of the Android version in which everything works perfectly.

dmesg-H96MaxV11-Android.txt

[Taz]

@FRIKIdelTO

IIRC wifi channel names are transmitted using lower frequency and more reliable tech that the actual data. Perhaps switching to other channel on your access point or changing bandwidth makes it work. Also without encryption is worth a try.

 

Edited October 6, 2022 by Aapo Tahkola

[paradigman]

@FRIKIdelTO "I have installed several versions of Armbian and in all of them I have the same problem, the WiFi does not work. The networks can be searched, but it cannot connect, it is as if the password is not correct,"
As you can see, on your board is produced with a new type wireless chip, the 2734C.

 

For this chip should to use a patch, as you can read this:

 

[FRIKIdelTO]

Thanks a lot. It finally worked for me!!!
What I did:
copy the content of the post file and paste it into brcm/brcmfmac4334-sdio.rockchip,rk3318-box.txt then rebooted and it was working.
The problem is that I then did:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get dist-upgrade

and after reboot it failed again so i had to rewrite brcmfmac4334-sdio.rockchip,rk3318-box.txt like before and it works again.
Is there any way that when updating the system that file is not changed so that it does not fail again?
By the way, I'm trying to install chromium-browser and chromedriver but no way. I did it with snap and when starting chromium it tells me that it cannot find the chromium.conf file

[Taz]

I found this on the uart line trying to boot from the old buster image I still have on emmc:

DDR version 1.16 20190713
ID:0xFFF
In
DDR3
666MHz
Bus Width=32 Col=11 Bank=8 Row=15 CS=1 Die Bus-Width=16 Size=2048MB
ddrconfig:2
OUT

U-Boot SPL 2022.04-armbian (Aug 23 2022 - 17:04:26 +0300)
Trying to boot from MMC1
Card did not respond to voltage select! : -110
spl: mmc init failed with error: -95
Trying to boot from MMC2
mmc_load_image_raw_sector: mmc block read error
SPL: failed to boot from all boot devices
### ERROR ### Please RESET the board ###

I found some cheap faster(than 32GB) 64GB SDXC(kingston canvas select plus) cards so I have been less reliant on the emmc

Successful boot does two rounds of "Card did not respond to voltage select! : -110" IIRC and boots just fine. So this is a random failing event at boot to be exact.

Edited October 8, 2022 by Aapo Tahkola

[jock]

On 10/7/2022 at 12:39 PM, FRIKIdelTO said:

Is there any way that when updating the system that file is not changed so that it does not fail again?

Well, apart from making it read-only, honestly I don't know. It is part of the armbian firmware package and will get overwritten every time the package is updated.

The reason I did not ship the alternative nvram for bcm4334 (your wifi chip is a broadcom bcm4334, 2734c is just a random name no one knows where it comes from) is that there is no easy way to switch from the "default" nvram to the "alternative" nvram.

 

 

[Seth]

there seems to be 2 types of h96 max on the market, one is the more rounded and smaller case which has an rk3318 and 2734c chip that is working only on 2.4GHz and the other one has a bigger case with square corners which has real 4334 wifi chip and supports both 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands. Some square box with lower specs for storage 2GB ram +16GB has 2734c but 4GB+32GB almost always has real 4334 chip. i bought both. the square one is about $3 more expensive than the rounded one. my square h96 max seems to have real rk3328 (verified by using hexdump) and am testing xfce 5.15 version at the moment, hdmi sound doesn't seem to work though. but overall stable at 1.3GHz with a little bit of active cooling. anyways, if you're gonna play with boxes like this, make sure you have an extra cable to the router ready always. my setup includes an always ready rig for uart, usb male to male, ethernet cable and 5v supply ready for quick hookup. the rounded one i have is currently running my 3d printer and will not be updated anytime soon. i'm planning on getting an hk1 max as that is @jock's testing platform, i hope i get lucky and get the same specs.

[jock]

@SethI was inspecting an old dtb I have in my archive of a h96 max that someone posted time ago. Actually I don't know if it comes from the "rounded one" or the "squared one".

I see that the one posted by @FRIKIdelTO has the RK3318_V1.4 marking and, searching through this thread, I see that also @kruzer had a h96max but on his photos the board marking is behind the heatsink.

 

Anyway my guess is that SP6334, HY2734C, etc... are all clones of the AmPAK AP6334 which is, in turn, a combo of wifi and bluetooth chipsets from broadcom (BCM4334 for the wifi part, don't remember the name of the bluetooth chip). The driver is the very same broadcom driver that works fine for all the chips and the firmware is the very same. The only that changes is the "nvram" file, which is nothing more than the configuration settings of the firmware. Often, when you see the wireless network but can't associate with them, the problem is the crystal frequency that gives the clock to the wifi chip: the board mounts a crystal and the nvram says there is another one.

 

@Seth do you have any photos of the boards? Or at least could you tell if both boards have RK3318_V1.x marking on them or are they quite different? It could just be that they are two different board from different manufacturers that have different internal designs.

Also HDMI does work for you? As far as I understand, HDMI works for @FRIKIdelTO on this RK3318_V1.4

[FRIKIdelTO]

@jock yes, the HDMI output works perfectly. I have it connected to the laptop with a Chinese HDMI capture device to be able to play with it more comfortably. My idea is to use it to run a bot for Telegram and for web scraping in python (that's why I asked how to install chromedriver)
Would you mind telling me how I can modify the .img.xz image to change the nvram file to the one that works on my TV box? On Windows I am unable to modify it. Do I need to do it compulsorily in Linux?

[jock]

1 hour ago, FRIKIdelTO said:

Would you mind telling me how I can modify the .img.xz image to change the nvram file to the one that works on my TV box? On Windows I am unable to modify it. Do I need to do it compulsorily in Linux?

Modify the img.xz to do what? It will be overwritten as well with apt upgrade anyway

[Andre B]

Quote

On 9/7/2022 at 5:35 PM, Krotosz6 said:

the Multitool then does not see the internal memory

 

On 9/7/2022 at 5:35 PM, Krotosz6 said:

In the system after the

lsblk

command it does not find the internal memory.

 

On 9/8/2022 at 6:01 PM, Krotosz6 said:

I disconnected the pins, but tried after turning on and booting from the card to connect the pins again and it showed eMMC. I cleaned it with the help of Multitool.

 

Hi @Krotosz6 , i have the exact same problem, the multitool doesn't detect internal memory (i guess you mean the emmc ?), i tried your way without succeess, would you mind write a step by step instruction ?

i can run armbian from sdcard but still the emmc isn't detected, i was assuming my emmc is dead, but reading your post gives me a new hope 🤣

 

i have different box, its h96max rk3318 with black pcb but the short pin looks similar, here's the pic :

(the green line is the short pin i usually used, yellow line is your short pin from what i understand)

 

[ArtemNE]

i also have 2734C and wifi problem on armbian. (on stock tvbox image 2.4 and 5Ghz wifi work fine). I simply buy wifi 6 usb wifi from ugreen and armbian connect with max star signal (vs 3 star on stock).

[FRIKIdelTO]

On 10/9/2022 at 4:47 AM, Seth said:

there seems to be 2 types of h96 max on the market, one is the more rounded and smaller case which has an rk3318 and 2734c chip that is working only on 2.4GHz and the other one has a bigger case with square corners which has real 4334 wifi chip and supports both 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands.

mine can connect to 5GHz and 2.4GHz with correct nvram file. I just tried it right now and works fine both.

20 hours ago, jock said:

Modify the img.xz to do what? It will be overwritten as well with apt upgrade anyway

I know it. I want it for can connect via WiFi on the first run.

[Seth]

hello again. @jocki'll be taking pics of both boards tonight and extracting the dtb's. some vendors do give clues as to what wifi chip is placed on the board. my squared h96 max v1.4 board works fine on 2.4GHz and 5GHz and works on default distro of the 5.15 kernel build including hdmi, hdmi does not work on the 5.19 kernel though. my rounded one which i will disassemble seems to have the same board but has no 8 segment lcd. it works almost the same as the squared one with the exception of the nvram that needs replacing.

edit:

i seem to have identical boards for the rounded one and the square one, both are rk3318 v1.4 dated 2020/06/29.

differences are square and rounded respectively.

wifi chip: fx8934, sp2734c

crystal beside wifi chip: none, 37.4MHz

inductor beside wifi chip: none, 4R7

fd6551 and 8 segment: yes, no

 

square pics:https://photos.app.goo.gl/U5LEJrav5FZMh6LEA

 

rounded pics:

https://photos.app.goo.gl/dUBqpmVfWpshq4PV9

 

i think @fabiobassa can chime in on the hardware part because it seems we can put in an fd6551 and an 8 segment on the rounded h96 max box easily and make openvfd work on it too. i also think we can transplant a similar but better wifi chip on it if ever we have those on hand.

Edited October 11, 2022 by Seth

[jock]

@Seth Very much thank you for the photos!

I looked at them side by side trying to spot differences, and the board layout and printings seems exactly the same to me. The squared has a 2146 printed below the heatsink, the rounded has 2147; I may guess it is a something like lot number; the date "2020/06/29" maybe is the date when the board was designed. @FRIKIdelTO has the 2151 lot number but the same 2020/06/29 date on his board.

The differences are, as you already noticed, in some pads being populated with components or just unpopulated.

 

I may guess the fx8934 comes with an on-board crystal which is below the metal shield, instead the sp2734c requires an external crystal and the inductor too.

I checked the nvram files, and both the default shipped with armbian and the alternative version for the 2734c have the crystal set to 37.4MHz.

My HK1 board comes with an HK6334Q, has the external 37.4MHz crystal but works with the default firmware like the fx8934 that has no external crystal. Very messy 😄

 

About the HDMI, on kernel 5.19 it does not work on both of them or just on the "squared" one?

 

I cleaned, sorted and finally made a diff of the two nvram fiels I attach here for curiosity and study purposes.

You can see there are several calibration parameters that differs a bit, but there are also some obscure parameters like swctlmap that probably control some chip registers to behave in a way or another.

Use zless -R to see it correctly with colors.

diff-def-alt-nvram.txt.gz

[MattWestB]

@SethCan you taking a close look on the components under the HDMI connector and also around the upper side of the PCB.

If both is identical populated HDMI shall working on both or not on both versions. I thinking some values is being changed then using different WiFi module and / or the LED display.

 

Is the SOC using I2C for the HDMI communication and is configuring it different then also using the LED drive ??