CSC Armbian for RK322x TV box boards

[jock]

UPDATE FOR R29-MXQ USERS!

 

Hello, this is an update for those people who has R29 board and have suffered issues regarding stability problems and no HDMI output.

I had the chance to have a board in my lab thanks to @Hudson FAS and something is moving!

 

What's wrong with this board:

Differently from any other known board, it has a specific GPIO pin to turn the HDMI on and off: discovering such GPIO required extensive trial and error, it was disguised in the original dtb as "power-hold" 😅

But the main problem with this board is that it has no power regulation for CPU, so it cannot run faster than 1Ghz.

The default dtb shipped with Armbian and Multitool are set to run the CPU up to 1.2Ghz. For this reason, some (most?) unlucky R29 samples were totally unable to boot with the default configuration.

 

I still need some help from community though: my sampl is able to boot and works stable but:

• emmc does not work
• ethernet does not work unless I downgrade the link to 10 Mbit/s

I suspect my sample is damaged, but I need a feedback from other users to understand if there's something more in the dtb to discover or it is just my sample.

 

Multitool

• you can download a fixed version from here. It should work flawlessy and HDMI should turn on with no problems.

 

Armbian

you still need to do some manual passages:

• Burn the multitool on a sdcard, run it on the board, make a backup of the original firmware then erase the internal flash to force sdcard boot.
• Store the backup on a safe place; if you wish, it would be appreciated if a copy can be shared here for further studies!
• Burn this Debian Bookworm minimal Armbian image on the sdcard, the try to boot the board.
• If you're able to boot, access via ssh, run rk322x-config, select your configuration options and select led-conf7 as GPIO configuration in the last passage, then reboot; you're done!
• if your board does not boot, mount the sdcard partition and manually add  overlays=led-conf7 in /boot/armbianEnv.txt, then you should be able to boot

 

Thanks!

[MattWestB]

Was doing one fast test with Multitool on my device that have updated eMMC with new bootloader and putting it on one USB-Stick and its booting with HDM is working and can navigating with keyboard so looks great. The video is not looking great then its one full HD TV and we is knowing all video modes is not supported but its more then OK.

Shall testing the DEB but i only running Ubuntu on my Linux machines so im not installing it.

 

Thanks for great work !!!

[MattWestB]

Debian Bookworm minimal Armbian with desktop up and running and looks working OK but only very fast testing and im going back to my Ubuntu for getting my HA Thread and Zigbeed test system being online for testing.

[Benedito Portela]

@jock and @MattWestB, I did too, a fast test in my MXQ_R2B_LP3, i replaced only rk322x-box.dtb from Multitool in my sdcard with my configuration, i use Armbian Buster legacy, and HDMI worked! Yet couldn't install it in emmc!

 

Thank you very much for your dedication and commitment, I would like to help more, but I don't have that ability!

Edited September 29, 2023 by Benedito Portela

[jock]

@MattWestB @Benedito Portela guys I appreciate your feedback, but please use the armbian image I gave from an sdcard and post the dmesg log if you can.

Doing cut&paste over custom setups just makes me really confused. If you already have regular Armbian installed on eMMC/eMCP, just burn the new image on sdcard, plug the sdcard and boot the board.

Your installed system won't be touched because sdcard boot has priority over internal flash. When Armbian is installed, boot priority is always sdcard, then USB stick, then internal flash.

[MattWestB]

I was trying doing the same thing by adding the LED7 to my Ubuntu current and its looks its not being loaded then  the LEDs its not changing and no HDMI but i dont need the HDMI then the box is running hotter.

@jock is it possible you have time and power doing one updated DTB (set if more files needed) for ubuntu current kernel that is possible adding to installed systems and getting it working ?

Or if possible copy them from Bookworm witch files is needed ?

[fabiobassa]

@MattWestB this effoRT @jock Is doing Is VERY specific to a new board calle r29 with ecmp .

 

Please for the moment do not mix up things and Just follow EXACTLY what jock Is asking

 

[MattWestB]

My board is one R29_MXQ_LP3_V2.3_00908 if you remember and it was one of the first with broken HDMI.

Photos is posted for one and a half years ago of the PCB and Joke was doing the SHH working on multitool after that.

[fabiobassa]

Yes Matt i remember very well so you help Is VERY appreciated.

 

I was refereing ti follow exactly the steps jock Is asking Just for a while so after he can improve forUbuntu too

Edited September 29, 2023 by fabiobassa

[jock]

@MattWestB Ubuntu or debian does not matter, the dtb depends upon the kernel version.

The image above has kernel 6.5 (edge) and I ask to briefly test it as is, in particular look over hdmi, emmc and ethernet and report dmesg.

 

Jiggling with dtbs over other kernels, or use multitool dtb on armbian (baaad!!! never do this!) is a hazard: it may work or may end up with a broken system and a broken system surely does not help  anyone 😐

 

 

 

[MattWestB]

dmesg and 

journalctl -a

as @jock requested.

 

Looks like Eth and HDMI is working OK WiFi is no go then its having one RTL8723AS and im not using it but if in the future is getting the BT working it shall being great but is not priority .

I have booting it on one USB-Stick and now back to Ubuntu on  the eMMC and HA RCP testing for thread and Zigbee.

RK3228Azip.zip

Edited September 29, 2023 by MattWestB
More info

[jock]

@MattWestB Perfect, thanks! I see the eMMC is correctly detected and ethernet working too, so probably my sample is just defective.

[MattWestB]

@jock Or the small ones have doing one different pining of the Eth interface on that board only for making more trouble for us and must running one bad faced Android 7 on them.

Do you need more testing then its easy to do for my only plugging the USB-Stick in and rebooting ?

I have the deb with desktop installed and its booting OK but need having my test system running on UB.

[Benedito Portela]

@fabiobassa, @jock and @MattWestB, I understand all, i don't post more, to don't mix up thinks, because my box don't is the same that R29, but it have same troubles! I'm glad with progress of R29, and i stay read the posts and I learned a lot of things here!

Thank you! 

[jock]

@MattWestB This is the dtb for kernel 6.1, it should work on your existing installation: rk322x-led-conf7.dtbo

[jock]

@Benedito Portela I checked your firwmare and actually R29_MXQ and R2B_MXQ share the same identical original device tree, so you can go testing the image, just follow the instruction and try with a pristine system on sdcard/usb stick, not juggling with dtbs on existing systems

[MattWestB]

Was renaming the original file and putting the new one in the same place and running rkconfig with the same settings and then sync and reboot and its not loading the setting = no HDMI.

    ┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
    │               • MobaXterm Professional Edition v22.0 •               │
    │               (SSH client, X server and network tools)               │
    │                                                                      │
    │ ➤ SSH session to root@192.168.2.65                                   │
    │   • Direct SSH      :  ✔                                             │
    │   • SSH compression :  ✔                                             │
    │   • SSH-browser     :  ✔                                             │
    │   • X11-forwarding  :  ✘  (disabled or not supported by server)      │
    │                                                                      │
    │ ➤ For more info, ctrl+click on help or visit our website.            │
    └──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

      _    _________  ____            _
 _ __| | _|___ /___ \|___ \__  __    | |__   _____  __
| '__| |/ / |_ \ __) | __) \ \/ /____| '_ \ / _ \ \/ /
| |  |   < ___) / __/ / __/ >  <_____| |_) | (_) >  <
|_|  |_|\_\____/_____|_____/_/\_\    |_.__/ \___/_/\_\

Welcome to Armbian 23.8.1 Jammy with Linux 6.1.50-current-rk322x

No end-user support: community creations

System load:   18%              Up time:       10 min
Memory usage:  48% of 975M      IP:            172.17.0.1 192.168.2.65 172.30.32.1
CPU temp:      70°C             Usage of /:    40% of 7.1G
RX today:      4.0 GiB

Last login: Fri Sep 29 15:55:14 2023 from 192.168.2.10
root@RK322X-Box:~#

Dm-TxT.zip

 

Its running on kernel 6.1.50-current

Edited September 29, 2023 by MattWestB

[Benedito Portela]

@joke, Ok, I followed your instructions, and hdmi worked after setting the led to 7, there is dmesg! The @MattWestB box, erased internal memory,  it do boot from card or usb, but mine, only multiboot sdcard work! To boot Armbian SDcard, I write multiboot image in the internal memory, without card, multiboot initialise, with sdcard, it boot normalite! If i to write other image, new or older or legacy, in internal memory, it breaks box, only maskmod and rkdeveloptool to recovery! 

log-dmesg-MXQ-R2B.txt

[Benedito Portela]

@jock, @fabiobassa and @MattWestB, Update!  I did update armbian in sdcard, install lxde, did @jock institutions, and did image file and install with multitool in internal memory and work, boot and hdmi ! Now, it have debian 12 in internal and debian 10 legacy in mine personalized card, all work! 

@jock and @fabiobassa, because it to be a emcp, i can't user the Buster older, in internal memory, kernel limitation? I use a program that only  install in debian 10 or ubuntu 16, Can I install new kernel in debian buster?

Thank you!

 

log-dmesg-lxde-MXQ-R2B.txt

[jock]

6 hours ago, MattWestB said:

Was renaming the original file and putting the new one in the same place and running rkconfig with the same settings and then sync and reboot and its not loading the setting = no HDMI.

Ok, I need to better check what is going on with kernel 6.1 then; perhaps it is a misalignment with the base dtb, but I will try to be more specific tomorrow. Thanks in the meantime!

[jock]

24 minutes ago, Benedito Portela said:

Can I install new kernel in debian buster?

The Debian version has nothing to do with the underneath hardware. It's just that if you use an older image simply you miss some corrections and compatibility fixes here and there that allowed the eMCP boards work in a stable way.

[tacitapproval]

Here is another dmesg txt from my r29 board.

R29dmesg.txt

[jock]

@MattWestB I've uploaded convenient deb packages with update dtbs for both kernel 6.1 and 6.5; now they should be finally fixed and work, at least I tested on my board and they work pretty fine.

 

You can download the deb package from here - for your installed system with kernel 6.1 you may want to download and install linux-dtb-current package

Please do a backup as you already did of the /boot/dtb directory on your existing installation!

 

[jock]

@Benedito Portela Here it is a debian buster minimal image with latest 6.5 kernel. I did not had time to test it though, so try it with an sdcard first!

 

edit: tested the image, it works plenty well!

[MattWestB]

As normal not by the book:
Renamed the DTB directory and putting the from the 7zip:ed deb file in one new with the same name as the original and then checking privs and sync reboot and the LEDs is being blue/read and HDMI is working OK with bootlogging and TTY CLI  !!!

 

    ┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
    │               • MobaXterm Professional Edition v22.0 •               │
    │               (SSH client, X server and network tools)               │
    │                                                                      │
    │ ➤ SSH session to root@192.168.2.65                                   │
    │   • Direct SSH      :  ✔                                             │
    │   • SSH compression :  ✔                                             │
    │   • SSH-browser     :  ✔                                             │
    │   • X11-forwarding  :  ✘  (disabled or not supported by server)      │
    │                                                                      │
    │ ➤ For more info, ctrl+click on help or visit our website.            │
    └──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

      _    _________  ____            _
 _ __| | _|___ /___ \|___ \__  __    | |__   _____  __
| '__| |/ / |_ \ __) | __) \ \/ /____| '_ \ / _ \ \/ /
| |  |   < ___) / __/ / __/ >  <_____| |_) | (_) >  <
|_|  |_|\_\____/_____|_____/_/\_\    |_.__/ \___/_/\_\

Welcome to Armbian 23.8.1 Jammy with Linux 6.1.50-current-rk322x

No end-user support: community creations

System load:   77%              Up time:       0 min
Memory usage:  15% of 975M      IP:            172.17.0.1 192.168.2.65 172.30.32.1
CPU temp:      78°C             Usage of /:    41% of 7.1G
RX today:      209.0 MiB

[ General system configuration (beta): armbian-config ]

 

I have no desktop installed then its no need for supervised HA with RCP.

 

Shall testing little more but all looks OK and my EVE Thread plugs is reporting all parameters over Thread and RCP integration so looks very good.

DMESG is attached but no journal then its have all HA logs also the Zigbee and Thread credentials and i think you dont need them and if i PM you with them. RK3228B.zip

 

Great work done !!!

Edited September 30, 2023 by MattWestB

[MattWestB]

Tryed the 6.1.55 install by the book and looks also working like 6.1.50 hand patched.

Attaching install and dmesg logs. RK3228B55.zip

 

Shall being good if some more user with desktop installed can testing it so Joke can getting it better verified that is working and putting it in the current release if all is OK.

 

PS: The kernel install is still complaining of missing firmware that it have doing longer time now but my RK3318 box is not doing it on all kernels i have running on it.

[MattWestB]

@jock If you have getting it in the mainline kernel updates, post one info so can updating without loosing the patched kernel and DTB.

[Benedito Portela]

Hi @jock, the buster with 6.5 kernel, work fine, but hdmi work after set led pin in 7, how you already said! I did too, a legacy version with Building Armbian and work,  but HDMI only with rk322x-box.dtb from multitool, it's same kernel version!  I stay test both version.

I, again, say thank you all to help-me! 

 

log-dmesg-debian-buster-kernel-6.5.txt

[jock]

8 minutes ago, Benedito Portela said:

the buster with 6.5 kernel, work fine, but hdmi work after set led pin in 7,

Yes, it is expected that is so: you must run rk322x-config, set led-conf7 and reboot (or setup led-conf7 manually in /boot/armbianEnv.txt)

 

9 minutes ago, Benedito Portela said:

I did too, a legacy version with Building Armbian and work,  but HDMI only with rk322x-box.dtb from multitool, it's same kernel version!

Legacy kernel is discontinued, has some reason only for those who have old boards with NAND. You have no reason to stay with legacy kernel, it's old, insecure and unmaintained!

[jock]

53 minutes ago, MattWestB said:

@jock If you have getting it in the mainline kernel updates, post one info so can updating without loosing the patched kernel and DTB.

I already opened a pull request on armbian, when it will be accepted, new kernel will be built with fixes, but I have no control on when the new kernels will be built by the armbian servers.