CSC Armbian for RK3318/RK3328 TV box boards

[gurzixo]

Hello again Jock an all the other members of this topic !

After a long time without fiddling with those lovely boxes, I need now a low-cost Linux box (typically 4gb/64gb) for setting up a simple local web server with node/express/nginx.

Would someone be kind enough to provide a working AliExpress link of such a box where at least Eth and maybe WiFi are working out of the box?

Thanks a lot,

Michel 

[jock]

@gurzixo much better to steer to an officially supported SBC from armbian, if you need something reliable: https://www.armbian.com/download/?device_support=Platinum support&arch=aarch64

[gurzixo]

@jockThanks Jock, I know that and I agree with you. I could also take an Rpi4 with an SSD, but it is also for the fun of tinkering and checking if I still have "green fingers"

The app is not critical as it's for displaying the welcome book and appliance manuals in some holiday rentals on the guests's phone from a QR code.

[incbot]

Good day JOCK. Thank you so much for linking to the latest armbian releases. I installed 25.5.0-trunk.444 and brought it to 25.8.0-trunk.26 by several updates. The system is loaded and steadily updated. Managed to configure ethernet and wifi with static addresses. The network works well. The question is that I can't figure out how to start bluetooth. At first, the system worked without overlays and tried to load BCM43342 when I connected overlay 6330 using armbian-config, nothing changed. I don't have too much experience in unix. What am I doing wrong? PS I attach a photo of the board and  armmonitor -u)

[Андрей Димов]

Incbot, hi I have this problem too. Use rk3318-config command to set device tree overlay (on the second step push space then enter) and then don't touch device tree overlay in armbian-config. After reboot use command hciconfig -a, if it have some message on screen - Bluetooth working

Edited May 19 by Андрей Димов

[incbot]

I turned off overlay rockchip-RK3318-box-wlan-ap6330 in armbian-config (not a single overlay was selected here anymore) and selected the rk3318-box-led-conf1 option through rk3318-config (in this case, overlays rk3318-box-led-conf1 and rk3318-box-wlan-ap6334 are connected to boot). A certain Bluetooth block appeared in the text of the armbianmonitor -u output (see new output here), but apparently the driver is still not the same and hciconfig -a does not work (there is no command in the system). Any more ideas?

Edited May 20 by incbot

[Андрей Димов]

Incbot, after set device tree option in the rk3318-config, try enter reboot command (don't reset power, need reboot only), then try hciconfig -a

[incbot]

All the data above was collected after installing the necessary overlay in rk3318-config and then rebooting...

[Андрей Димов]

This method works for me, but I don't  change Bluetooth driver's. You can also try command:

 

apt reinstall bluez

 

apt --fix-broken install

[incbot]

I tried to do the following: 

 

01) replace the driver (do symb link): 

        ln -s /usr/lib/firmware/brcm/BCM43342.hcd /usr/lib/firmware/brcm/BCM.hcd. 

02) Judging by armbianmonitor -u, the chip was recognized. 

03) Installed the necessary packet: 

        sudo apt install bluetooth -y 

04) Tested that the service Bluetooth is running: 

       sudo service bluetooth status. 

05) Got "Running" 

06) Only after these actions hciconfig -a gave a meaningful conclusion... 

07) Next, after all this, I tried to control bluetooth via : 

      sudo bluetoothctl

08) On the show command inside, I finally saw my device wiyh MAC and that it was active. 

09) Put it into detected mode: 

      discoverable on 

10) Saw the alias rk3318-box on my phone when searching for Bluetooth devices around. 

11) Despite the fact that an invitation with the same PIN code for connecting appeared both on the tvbox and on the phone, for some reason it is not possible to connect them. At the same time, for the tvbox mode Pairable: yes

 

!!! THE REASON IS NOT CLEAR TO ME, but it is definitely associated with tvbox, because as soon as I confirm the connection (press "Y") on it, the connection is cut off... Phone confirmation does not interrupt the connection at first. WTF? I reinvent the wheel again?????

 

PS After pair coomand on tvbox i see it:

 

[agent] Confirm passkey 815681 (yes/no): y
Failed to pair: org.bluez.Error.AuthenticationFailed

Edited May 20 by incbot

[incbot]

I am need to sleep more)) I stubbornly answered "y" instead of "yes" when pairing with the phone in bluetoothctl )))) It turned out to connect on "yes".

 

😀😀😀 Say me please an exists easier way to solve  the my problem with Bluetooth?

Edited May 20 by incbot

[Андрей Димов]

I can suggest only hard way - clear installation armbian then HA, without manipulation with driver and use rk3318-config to set device tree option

[paradigman]

I would like to use my device as a VPN client, i.e. connect to a remote OpenVPN server. How can I enable the Tun/Tap module on my board?

 

[gurzixo]

Hello again,

I am struggling to install armbian on my H96Max (blue PCB RK3318_V1.4, 4G/64G).

The Armbian_22.11.0-trunk_Rk3318-box_bullseye_edge_5.19.15_minimal.img image works OK (at least for the display).

All the new images fail to initialise the display (a 4K HDMI monitor), either using *_minimal.img or *_gnome_desktop.img

I managed to install the latest (Armbian_community_25.8.0-trunk.8_Rk3318-box_noble_current_6.12.28_gnome_desktop.img) image using the serial console. Kernel is 6.12.28

I can now connect using ssh on ethernet (the WIFI does not work yet...)

 

I get in syslog and dmesg a LOT of the following errors:

[ 2683.281403] ------------[ cut here ]------------
[ 2683.281441] [CRTC:38:crtc-0] vblank wait timed out
[ 2683.281570] WARNING: CPU: 1 PID: 50 at drivers/gpu/drm/drm_atomic_helper.c:1682 drm_atomic_helper_wait_for_vblanks.part.0+0x238/0x25c
[ 2683.281629] Modules linked in: cfg80211 rfcomm algif_hash algif_skcipher af_alg bnep sunrpc snd_soc_hdmi_codec hci_uart btqca hantro_vpu btrtl btintel crct10dif_ce rockchip_vdec(C) v4l2_jpeg v4l2_vp9 btbcm rockchip_rga v4l2_h264 bluetooth videobuf2_dma_contig snd_soc_spdif_tx gpio_ir_recv videobuf2_dma_sg rc_core v4l2_mem2mem rfkill videobuf2_memops videobuf2_v4l2 dw_hdmi_i2s_audio videodev dw_hdmi_cec lima snd_soc_simple_card videobuf2_common snd_soc_rockchip_spdif snd_soc_rockchip_i2s snd_soc_rk3328 snd_soc_simple_card_utils gpu_sched drm_shmem_helper mc snd_soc_core rk_crypto snd_compress rng_core snd_pcm_dmaengine snd_pcm snd_timer snd soundcore cpufreq_dt joydev zram zsmalloc binfmt_misc sch_fq_codel dm_mod autofs4 dwmac_rk stmmac_platform stmmac pcs_xpcs nvmem_rockchip_efuse rockchipdrm dw_hdmi_qp gpio_syscon dw_hdmi cec dw_mipi_dsi analogix_dp drm_display_helper adc_keys
[ 2683.282340] CPU: 1 UID: 0 PID: 50 Comm: kworker/u16:2 Tainted: G    B   WC         6.12.28-current-rockchip64 #1
[ 2683.282375] Tainted: [B]=BAD_PAGE, [W]=WARN, [C]=CRAP
[ 2683.282389] Hardware name: Rockchip RK3318 BOX (DT)
[ 2683.282409] Workqueue: events_unbound commit_work
[ 2683.282446] pstate: 60000005 (nZCv daif -PAN -UAO -TCO -DIT -SSBS BTYPE=--)
[ 2683.282471] pc : drm_atomic_helper_wait_for_vblanks.part.0+0x238/0x25c
[ 2683.282499] lr : drm_atomic_helper_wait_for_vblanks.part.0+0x238/0x25c
[ 2683.282531] sp : ffff8000809dbcb0
[ 2683.282542] x29: ffff8000809dbce0 x28: 00000000000007d5 x27: 0000000000000000
[ 2683.282580] x26: 0000000000000001 x25: 0000000000000000 x24: ffff6d33cdf68000
[ 2683.282616] x23: 0000000000000001 x22: 0000000000000000 x21: ffff6d33cc6f6280
[ 2683.282654] x20: ffff6d33cdf70080 x19: 0000000000000000 x18: ffffffffffffffff
[ 2683.282691] x17: 000000040044ffff x16: 00500072b5503510 x15: ffff8000809db860
[ 2683.282727] x14: 00000000ffffffea x13: ffff8000809db9f8 x12: ffffd4f64aa4ac10
[ 2683.282768] x11: 0000000000032030 x10: 0000000000031fe0 x9 : 0000000000024330
[ 2683.282805] x8 : c0000000fffff822 x7 : ffffd4f64a99aa18 x6 : 0000000000084bb0
[ 2683.282842] x5 : ffff6d34be7424c8 x4 : 0000000000000000 x3 : 0000000000000027
[ 2683.282878] x2 : 0000000000000000 x1 : 0000000000000000 x0 : ffff6d33c4c4c600
[ 2683.282918] Call trace:
[ 2683.282932]  drm_atomic_helper_wait_for_vblanks.part.0+0x238/0x25c
[ 2683.282962]  drm_atomic_helper_commit_tail_rpm+0x84/0xa0
[ 2683.282992]  commit_tail+0xa4/0x18c
[ 2683.283019]  commit_work+0x14/0x20
[ 2683.283043]  process_one_work+0x16c/0x3e4
[ 2683.283073]  worker_thread+0x2d0/0x3d8
[ 2683.283097]  kthread+0x10c/0x110
[ 2683.283123]  ret_from_fork+0x10/0x20
[ 2683.283151] ---[ end trace 0000000000000000 ]---

 

This seems to come from the accelerated graphic driver. The corresponding function can be seen there: drm_atomic_helper.c

This function waits for receiving a vertical blanking pulse that never comes, so the warning at line 1679 is triggered.

 

I don't intend to do hard-core graphics so I don't care about graphic performance. In fact this lovely box will be used for hosting a headless server.

Is there a way to use a legacy or un-accelerated graphic driver?

If not, how could I remove entirely the graphic subsystem and use only character mode?

 

Thanks!

Michel

 

EDIT: In fact the first warning occurs when switching to the colour frame buffer device:

...

rk_gmac-dwmac ff550000.ethernet: Enable RX Mitigation via HW Watchdog Timer
May 29 19:00:08 h96max kernel: rk_gmac-dwmac ff550000.ethernet: device MAC address de:10:75:60:c0:cb
May 29 19:00:08 h96max kernel: Console: switching to colour frame buffer device 160x45
May 29 19:00:08 h96max kernel: ------------[ cut here ]------------
May 29 19:00:08 h96max kernel: [CRTC:38:crtc-0] vblank wait timed out
May 29 19:00:08 h96max kernel: WARNING: CPU: 0 PID: 74 at drivers/gpu/drm/drm_atomic_helper.c:1682 drm_atomic_helper_wait_for_vblanks.part.0+0x238/0x25c
May 29 19:00:08 h96max kernel: Modules linked in: dwmac_rk stmmac_platform stmmac pcs_xpcs nvmem_rockchip_efuse gpio_syscon rockchipdrm dw_hdmi_qp dw_hdmi cec dw_mipi_dsi analogix_dp drm_display_helper adc_keys
May 29 19:00:08 h96max kernel: CPU: 0 UID: 0 PID: 74 Comm: kworker/u16:5 Tainted: G    B              6.12.28-current-rockchip64 #1
May 29 19:00:08 h96max kernel: Tainted: [B]=BAD_PAGE

...

 

So I suspect that not switching to a FB could solve my problem

Edited May 29 by gurzixo
Added the timing of first warning

[Artem Kochegizov]

Hello! I try to flash my H96Max on RK3318 but i cannot load armbian. After success flash armbian to emmc i remove sd and nothing, nothing load and nothing in uart port, only red led light and thats all.

 

Здравствуйте! Я пытаюсь прошить свой H96Max на RK3318, но не могу загрузить armbian. После успешной прошивки armbian на emmc я извлекаю SD-карту, и ничего, ничего не загружается и ничего не отображается в последовательном порту, только красный светодиод и всё.

 

when i'm load from sd multitool i get  this log from uart

 

i'm try to find u-boot on my h96max emmc and nothing, first 100bytes empty. Where i can get u-boot?

LoadLog.txt

Edited June 19 by Artem Kochegizov

[comose]

Hello.

I'm a german beginner. I have a Box Labeld Greva 8k Android 13 4G DDR3 / 64G emmc and CPU RK3528 from Amazon.de.(https://www.amazon.de/dp/B0C84G4M9K) She have an WiFi Chip EA6521QT .

 

In this Post Compile an user arm32 driver. 

 

 I need compile this driver for 64bit . It this possible? I have no idea how to compile it. Can everyone show me a way how I can compile it?

 

I have Flashed armbian from this Site : https://github.com/fensoft/dq08-haos/blob/master/README.md and running HAOS & Gnome for Touchscreen . Works perfekt without Wifi. The power consumption 2.5W ( for Home Assistent Server Wonderfull)

the Version is 5.10.160-legacy-rk3528-tvbox.

 

Thanks

[comose]

Sorry this Post.

https://forum.armbian.com/topic/34923-csc-armbian-for-rk322x-tv-box-boards/page/94/#comment-212510

 

[Павел NetAid]

Balena etcher and rufus burned sd card into small partitions and i cant put there 2.2gb image file

how to make multitool partition more then 300mb to fit image there?

Edited July 11 by Павел NetAid

[comose]

Hello Павел NetAid,

put sd card in windows and resize the small partition with disk format tool.

[Andyroo]

Hi there,

 

I'm currently working on installing armbian onto my h96 max tv box (labelled as an rk3318 externally and in software, but the internal board is marked as an rk3328), and like many others here, I am having difficulty getting hdmi to work using the rk3318 build found at https://github.com/armbian/community/releases.

 

I can access and control the box over ssh either over ethernet or wifi once configured, however I definitely need functional hdmi output for the use case of this device. The hdmi output works perfectly fine in both the bootloader, the stock android OS, and the bootable multitool, but once armbian boots, I completely lose hdmi signal on a standard 1080p monitor. My linux experience is intermediate at best (I daily drive Mint and am not very familiar with in-depth hardware configuration like armbian requires), so I am looking for assistance with a few things:

 

• I'd like to confirm that I am indeed meant to use the rk3318 build and not the rk3328 one, as while both the device case and the output of cat /proc/cpuinfo claim that this device has an rk3318, the marking on the board states it is an rk3328. I would rather not remove the heatsink to check the chip's markings directly, as I doubt that I have the means to reattach the heatsink once it is removed. If there is another recommended build that has working hdmi for this device or would perform better, please let me know.
• When/if I am on the right image/build for this device, I unfortunately do not have much knowledge on how hdmi would be enabled/initialised. I have seen others in this thread mentioning doing so, but i cannot find any mention of how this is done.
• Assuming hdmi is eventually functional, I did have a look through the different options in rk3318-config and armbian-config, but I am unsure how to best use the information printed on the board to select the optimal options in these tools for my system. The wifi did work without needing to select anything special, which is good. I did not test bluetooth or notice the front LED panel working at all, though.
   

Thank you in advance for any help you can provide, and thanks to Jock for porting this neat little distro to this hardware. It's been fun to tinker around with so far.

Attached are images of the board and label, and I can provide any other images or output of commands if further information is needed.

 

Edited July 16 by Andyroo
added more pics / removed erroneous pic

[Lisbeth]

Tried rk3318 debian 12 with linux kernel 6.1.63 or up to 6.12.39 and no hdmi output, I installed on SD card. Though debian 11 with kernel 5.15.35 works

Interesting thing that debian 12 with linux kernel 6.16.0-rc3 worked

 

Is there anything I can do to provide useful information to debug?

[Afsa Jahanara]

CSC Armbian for RK3318/RK3328 TV box boards is a community-supported Linux distribution for Rockchip-based TV boxes. Install by downloading the image (e.g., Armbian_23.02.2_Rk3318-box_jammy), burning it to a microSD card using balenaEtcher, and booting the device. Configure via HDMI and keyboard; WiFi may need manual fixes.

Edited July 29 by Afsa Jahanara

[Lisbeth]

I've successfully setup Armbian with home assistant preinstalled

The image build command is

./compile.sh BOARD="rk3318-box" BRANCH=edge RELEASE=bookworm ENABLE_EXTENSIONS="ha" KERNEL_CONFIGURE="no" BUILD_MINIMAL="yes"

I build on edge branch because only kernel after 6.15 can boot on rk3318 tv box, at this time it's 6.16.0rc3

Don't forget to add docker-ce and home assistant extension files to userpatches/extensions folder. After installation you need to cchange internet adapter manager from "Networking" to "Internet Manager"

 nmcli device set eth0 managed yes

This is my prebuild version, use it at your own risk cause everyone on the internet might be the bad guy that want to hack your machine👻

Armbian-unofficial_25.08.0-trunk_Rk3318-box_bookworm_edge_6.16.0-rc3_minimal.img

sha file attached

Armbian-unofficial_25.08.0-trunk_Rk3318-box_bookworm_edge_6.16.0-rc3-homeassistant_minimal.img.txt Armbian-unofficial_25.08.0-trunk_Rk3318-box_bookworm_edge_6.16.0-rc3-homeassistant_minimal.img.sha

[Techman]

R-TV Box S10 I know this is an old topic  but I am trying to get this S10 box going for a old colleague which updated and now no longer starts but stays in the animation and not booting into android.  Cannot find any firmware download.  Thanks in advance  

[Thiên Thư Lục]

Hello everyone,

I'm having a couple of issues with my H96 Max (V11 "original", rk3318, 2GB RAM, 16GB eMMC) while running the latest Armbian nightly build from an SD card (kernel 6.12.x). Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
 

1. USB 3.0 Port Hangs the System

When I plug a usb stick (3.0) into the USB 3.0 port, the system freezes. My SSH session terminates, and the network connection drops, I do not connect hdmi output. The USB 2.0 port, however, works perfectly fine.

Is this likely a hardware issue, or i need to reconfigure the USB 3.0 port from "host" to "peripheral" to prevent this from happening?

 

2. Unable to Boot from a USB Drive

My goal is to boot from an SD card with the root filesystem on a USB drive. I've tried a few methods without consistent success:

- Using '''armbian-install''': The process fails at the "format" step for /dev/sda1 and returns to the main terminal.

- Using '''dd''' command and re-seed the sd card UUID randomly: This method is unreliable, with boot failures occurring roughly 4 out of 10 times. When it fails, the USB drive's LED stays lit, but the system doesn't boot.

- Flashing directly to a new USB 2.0 drive: I flashed the same Armbian build to a new USB 2.0 drive, but the box would not boot from either USB port, only from the SD card or eMMC.

 

Am I missing a critical step for creating a bootable USB drive for this specific H96 Max model? Or is this a known limitation that I'm unaware of?

 

Thanks in advance for your help!

[MattWestB]

@Thiên Thư Lục USB3 is little half working and i have USB-3 HD/SSD and its freezing some times but normally Armbian is running stable on it. Also general devices in the USB3 jack is freezing like SDR dongle stop being  recognized then being pullrd out and in agenand need one repower of the box for getting the  USB3 jack working agen.

The factory Android bootloader is not supporting USB boot only SD-Card or eMMC . Write one updated / new on the eMMC (can soft bricking the box) or erase the eMMC shall doing it then the chip is loading it  from the SD-Card if not found eMMC. Also putting in one SD-Card with updated boootoader and it shall being possible "jump starting" to USB devices like sticks and HDs from the SD-Card.

[subhan]

On 4/16/2021 at 3:30 PM, jock said:

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
• HK1 Max (board signature YX_RK3318) by @Constantin Gatej
• 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:

• Nightly stables - built from trunk by Armbian servers and GPG-signed: https://github.com/armbian/community

 

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

Thanks for putting all this together — it’s a fantastic resource for anyone still trying to get the most out of these cheap RK3318 boxes. Fully agree on avoiding them for anything critical, but for tinkering and learning, this thread is gold.

[jock]

@MattWestB@Thiên Thư Lục In this directory I have put an experimental kernel with a kernel patch that should fix some USB3 issues. If may want to try and experiment if it works for you. It is based upon kernel 6.16. You only need to install the image and dtb packages, headers are only if you need to compile some thirdy party drivers.

[MattWestB]

Thanks @jock i shall trying it later then i have moving some test HA from that box (one of the 2 with faulty eMMC).

 

Is the libc-dev also needed or optional then installing the kernel files ?

[jock]

3 minutes ago, MattWestB said:

Is the libc-dev also needed or optional then installing the kernel files ?

Normally not if you have a recent distribution. Beware not to test that kernel in a box that does something useful though!