Leelbox Q1, rk3229 box not booting

[lucat1]

Hi,

I've got this old board from 2015/2016 with an rk3229. It is running Android 6 with a Linux kernel version 3.x compiled for the rk322x family.

The board is branded as Leelbox Q1 but on the PCB it is marked as an MXQ-Q1. I have not found much info about either on this forum.

I've tried the multitool image, along with three or four minimal armbian images (both current, legacy and even some builds from 2019) but nothing seems to boot.

When I use the multitool image I think I get the furthest, as the ethernet lights turn on but then I get no output on my screen.

 

I was wondering if some of you have experience with this kind of board or have any idea of what steps I should follow to build by own image.
I can get into the android's recovery boot loader, so I can presumably flash an image with adb (I have also seen people use rockchip specific software for this, but I have no clue where to start).

I do also have root access to android, so I can retrieve files easily if necessary.

 

I'll leave attached two pictures of the front and back of the board to see if any of you have a similar hardware (possibly with a different branding).

[jock]

The reference thread for 322x device is this:

 

anyway, for your specific case, the board is a very old one, in fact it has a much better design and components than newer boards, which have been under a cost cutting over time.

You have what it looks like a very accessible serial port (the four holes near the sdcard), so the first step to do debug is getting a TTL-to-USB adapter and logging what happens on the board.

 

Of course armbian does not boot from sdcard: it is done on purpose that way; the installation procedure is described in the post above and the multitool is designed to that exactly that.

Also note that the led should be blinking when the multitool boots; also if you don't see anything on screen, you can still access it via network using SSH. Everything is described in the first post of that thread

 

[lucat1]

Hi,

thank you for all the helpful details. I do not know how but today I managed to get the multitool working (it wasn't booting earlier, but I was on another monitor, so it might have been an issue on my side). After I got the multitool I followed the installation guide for Nand and it worked flawlessly. Now I have a legacy armbian image booting from nand! Thank you guys for all your effort and the community support for these kind of boards!

 

I do also have a MXQ pro 4k 5g with an Allwinner H3 but I guess that will be much more troublesome to get working compared to a rockchip.

[jock]

10 minutes ago, lucat1 said:

I do also have a MXQ pro 4k 5g with an Allwinner H3 but I guess that will be much more troublesome to get working compared to a rockchip.

Actually H3 are way less troublesome because they boot first from sdcard (rockchip first boot from emmc).

People have had quite success in using the Sunvell R69 image for them: https://github.com/armbian/community

[lucat1]

I tried with the Sunvell R69 image but It didn't boot. No sings of life.

Unfortunately, without the TTL-to-USB adapter on hand (I'd have to buy one or see if I can borrow it from a friend) I can't really tell you why it is not starting up.

My board is identical to the one this other user had (mine has a slightly different branding but the specs and the version on the pcb match):