CSC Armbian for RK322x TV box boards

[Harleyyyu]

Hello, I just created this account!

I just want to ask if the newer OS / Firmware has VPU + MPP support? I've been trying to build OpenAuto for the RK3229 and the only issue im having is the lack of h264 decoding (i only need h264, but it would be nice to have a full support)

I'm using the latest trixie (minimal) with somewhat of a success, except for a laggy video decoding due to again lack of h264.

I can't seem to find an older build with a kernel of 4.4.xxx that probably has the full GPU support with VPU + MPP working.

[jock]

@Harleyyyu  See this thread; hardware video decoding works fine with mainline kernel and does not need vendor MPP. Debian Trixie although has a "broken" mpv that won't work, better stay with Bookworm

 

[Harleyyyu]

@jock I'll try this, if it works i'll share the result of how OpenAuto Works on the RK3229. I might also release a build specifically for it.

Thanks!

[Harleyyyu]

Okay an update:

Thank you @jock for the answer i've been looking for, I've managed to make use of the hardware acceleration (H.264) of my RK3229 on Android Auto (OpenAuto) but it's a complicated process i had to do.

- I had to build my own aasdk and openauto from the git repository and test it as it is. running raw Open Auto showed the following issues:

• for openauto GUI it runs via linuxfb (trying to fix but still can't find a workaround)
• AndroidAuto stream decode was only running x264 (software decoding) [fixed tho] This has been fixed by doing a custom code for OpenAuto to utilize Kmssink (now works in 720p 30fps, going 60 adds a lot of latency but it's smooth!)
• Audio Not Working (i think can be fixed by pulse audio or just do direct hardware) [Patched: now uses RTAudio ALSA] 
• Probably more since im only testing Audio Video as of right now.

OpenAuto: RK3229 Armbian Github Repository if ever you want to try it!

Edited Saturday at 06:34 PM by Harleyyyu

[Dangrain]

Hey friends, I'm back.

Well, good news. I got the box to boot from an SD card, specifically the 'Armbian_23.08.0-trunk_Rk322x-box_buster_edge_6.5.5_minimal.img' image, bad news I am not sure how to get it onto the eMCP and this is probably not the way you're supposed to boot armbian. I got the rk322x-box.dtb from the 'LibreELEC-RK322X.arm-11.0-nightly-20240218-d7324fb-rk322x.img' image (used by KanexMarcus in the comment here) and I had to add 'irqpoll' to extraargs in armbianEnv.txt, only after that did it boot. Ethernet works, wireless doesn't, using lsblk doesn't display the internal storage. Not sure what to do now, just figured I'd check in just to tell everyone what's going on and how I got it working.

[Harleyyyu]

@Dangrain To flash in an eMCP board you can either use the Multiboot image or flash via rkdevtool in linux. eMCP is basically just emmc memory and ram packaged into one chip so the process is almost the same with emmc flash guide and Multiboot flash guide (sd card flash)

PS: i have the same type of memory and almost manage to brick it (thankfully i managed to find the eMCP pads to force it to maskrom mode)

Edited yesterday at 02:39 AM by Harleyyyu

[Harleyyyu]

To anyone with and an mxq pro 4k v4.0 that has an eMCP memory module in it, If you ever you manage to soft brick your board to the point the maskrom button behind the AV port doesn't work here's the contact points for forcing it to enter maskrom mode.

 

Note: After soldering to the pad indicated in the photo you can connect it to a 5V pad and do the same process and connect it to pc. Remove the connection once you detect that it entered maskrom mode (you might break the eMCP if you keep supplying 5V to it for a long time)

 

 

 

Edited yesterday at 02:52 AM by Harleyyyu

[Dangrain]

@HarleyyyuI don't have that exact model of board, mine's a ZQ01-V1.3 for which the unbricking pins are in a different place (but don't worry I figured it out).

The issue I'm facing right now is that my frankenstein'd image is in pieces, pieces from two different OSes and Isn't in a single .img file so I'm not sure how to write it using multitool. Any help sure is appreciated.

[jock]

@Dangrain There is a paragraph Partecipation and debugging with the suggested operations to let other people help you in a proper way and perhaps improve support for your board in the mainline armbian codebase. You may want to go your own way, but then helping will be much harder.

[Harleyyyu]

@Dangrain for you to be able to flash your "frankenstein'd Image" you need to combine those pieces into one, I don't know how you will do that though.

Tell me, What's the purpose of your img? like what are you trying to achieve?

[Dangrain]

@HarleyyyuI just want to have a working OS on the eMCP instead of the SD, I've tried many pre built images already but none have worked even when messing with recommended overlays. Only after I've frankenstein'd It, did it work. That's the purpose.

[Harleyyyu]

@Dangrain ohhh that makes sense now.
 

If SD boot works, you can just clone the SD card into a raw .img.

dd if=/dev/sdX of=working_sd.img bs=4M status=progress

 (assuming you use linux, ubuntu recommended. Also make sure to check your sdcard path)

 

That image already contains the correct bootloader, partitions, and rootfs.
Multitool should be able to flash it to eMCP directly.

[Harleyyyu]

@jock your armbian build (Bookworm) plus my modified version of openauto works now, its done by using kmssink for drm overlay plane for video (Added to codebase) and RTAudio patched to use ALSA.

Youtube: OpenAuto - RK322x Test run with Hardware Acceleration

 

if you want to try it here's a prebuilt version of it, armhf compiled.
Github: OpenAuto RK322x Armbian, openauto-rk322x-v1

i would love to make it run better on our hardware

Edited 43 minutes ago by Harleyyyu
Added the package open auto

[Dangrain]

@HarleyyyuAs I was typing that I tried another last-ditch kind of solution (because truly you shouldn't substitute device trees) and changed the armbianEnv.txt

 

I added 'overlays=led-conf7' to the end of the file and added 'irqpoll' to the extraargs. I'm going to try huddling them all into a single .img and try to flash it to the onboard disk, thanks for your help, and wish me good luck.

Edited 57 minutes ago by Dangrain