CSC Armbian for RK322x TV box boards

[jock]

@Max Sterg Yes the github repository is the best place to grab community images.

Feel free to write questions here on the forum, even though this specific thread is specialized for rk322x support in armbian, so it is related mostly to hardware support and peripherals.

 

edit: ah, don't expect great performance for the rk322x within graphical environment, it is a very limited device that is more suitable for server-like and command line tasks.

[Max Sterg]

@jock ok i will see that too, thanks mate! now i must solve a little problem about my SD Card at this moment, my SD is a 64GB A2 U3 Sandisk and i had made it with Belena Etcher and a another img of armbian specially a bullsye img and now my sd shows me a only 1 part 5,something Gigs and the other 59 aren't connected somehow... 🤣 wtf is happening here? i have made 15 times format of the sd card and always shows me 5GB space..... hahahahah something doesn't want to make it happen 😂

 

[jock]

@remlei As expected, I download the latest 5.15.74 community image and there are no problems with ethernet at all 😑

[fabiobassa]

@Max Sterg

 

You have a 64 giga sd... You burn an image of around what dimensioni ???

5 giga ? 4 giga ???

 

How big Is the image you are burning with balena ?

[jock]

@Max Sterg It's happening that the partition will be enlarged the first time you run the system.

You should read a bit of the armbian documentation to grasp the basics, it has been written for a purpose: https://docs.armbian.com/

[RaptorSDS]

@jock @Max Sterg thats correct the first time the image only occupied some GigaByte , after first run is enlarge .

But you you can also put , after burn the sd card , the images  as  a compressed file on it (tar.zx or something like that) the multitool can decompress this file on the fly ( at the moment this tool burn the image to the box)

the one gig is enough for that desktop image

 

 

 

 

[fukowaka]

Hello there, here i am with updates. im with legacy armbian on rk3229. Octoprint works like a charm with a creality ender 3.
Also webcams with fswebcam to take pictures.

Wifi antenna is weak but works. Ethernet works fine.
I tried to compile retroarch but i have no hardware acceleration on legacy version so im looking another way.

I have a working lakka image booting from the sd card. Works really great. i burn to emmc with u-tool but no success booting...
Sorry for the offtopic but is there any way to make it work?

BTW i tried to debug mainline boot following yt tutorials but there is no text on the board with rx, tx or ground... i found 4 suspicious copper points, im risking to brick the device

if i try?

[Seth]

4 hours ago, fukowaka said:

BTW i tried to debug mainline boot following yt tutorials but there is no text on the board with rx, tx or ground... i found 4 suspicious copper points, im risking to brick the device

if i try?

board version? sometimes those 4 pads do not work for me, what i sometimes do when i'm feeling lazy is i try connecting the ground on the board first then i try connecting the rx pin of usb serial to different pads of the board while booting to find its tx pin. you only need two pins to capture serial debug logs. i found mine at the back of the board. i think i posted the pics in this post at page 26. you get very low chances of bricking your board if you do it this way. other method i use is a low cost stm32 o-scope and a multitester which a is way safer method in my opinion.

Edited October 20, 2022 by Seth

[MattWestB]

The right and left is VCC and GND but i dont know witch is witch.

The 2 middle is RX and TX als not know the order of them.

Start using one known GND form some shield or the power plug - to the USB-TTL GND.

Then testing  the RX from your USB-TTL cable and testing connecting is to one of the middle pins and rebooting the board. If getting some charters in the terminal (speed is 150000 baud for boot loader) its the right pin and if not testing the other middle pin.

If getting the board TX -> USB-TTL RX working is the other middle the board RX <- USB-TTL TX.

Then testing is the right or the left is GND (if both VCC and GND is on the pins you can using one multi meter for getting 3.3 Volt plus is the black GND).

 

Then having GND, RX and TX all is connected OK and you can using it as one local terminal but need changing the comport speed for Linux kernel (see first post / unbricking) and you can see and changing all in normal Linux way..

[fukowaka]

thank you very much both @Seth @MattWestB

[remlei]

On 10/17/2022 at 12:07 AM, jock said:

You should at least describe the issue before alarming people this way, and moreover you should post logs to let people understand if there is an issue with the image.

I don't see logs and I don't see the filename of the image object of the problem, just a dubious procedure based upon a dubious hypothesis.

 

And I say it is a dubious hypothesis because what you are stating can be only an issue related to the kernel (or possibly device trees), just because u-boot and related code has been frozen months ago.

Everything is possible, and I will check soon, to me it looks very difficult that a newer minor release of the kernel could corrupt some ROM data about the ethernet that, even after reverting to a previous working image, you don't solve the problem.

Maybe you have a broken cable or a broken router?

 

sorry about that.

 

I used the image Armbian_22.11.0-trunk_Rk322x-box_jammy_current_5.15.72.img

once the image flash, it works fine until you perform a apt upgrade.

 

procedure to reproduce it is to perform apt upgrade and reboot. it doesnt really matter what dtb file I use but my board is based of V72 (MXQPRO_V72 2021-01-29) so even if I picked the V72 on rk322x-config the issue persist.  funny thing about this is that the issue persist even after reflashing everything. I even go as far as reflashing Armbian_22.05.0-trunk_Rk322x-box_bullseye_current_5.15.25_minimal.img the issue still persist. Not until I reflash the tvbox-backup.gz I have before and suddenly after android booted up, that ethernet port suddenly works.

 

this is no fluke, I didnt even touch the LAN cable nor replugging it, I just left it plug in all the time.

 

I wish I had some meaningful dmesg output I can share other than having 

 

rk_gmac-dwmac 30200000.ethernet eth0: Link is Up - 100Mbps/Full - flow control off

rk_gmac-dwmac 30200000.ethernet eth0: Link is Down

rk_gmac-dwmac 30200000.ethernet eth0: Link is Up - 100Mbps/Full - flow control off

rk_gmac-dwmac 30200000.ethernet eth0: Link is Down

rk_gmac-dwmac 30200000.ethernet eth0: Link is Up - 100Mbps/Full - flow control off

rk_gmac-dwmac 30200000.ethernet eth0: Link is Down

rk_gmac-dwmac 30200000.ethernet eth0: Link is Up - 100Mbps/Full - flow control off

rk_gmac-dwmac 30200000.ethernet eth0: Link is Down

rk_gmac-dwmac 30200000.ethernet eth0: Link is Up - 100Mbps/Full - flow control off

rk_gmac-dwmac 30200000.ethernet eth0: Link is Down

rk_gmac-dwmac 30200000.ethernet eth0: Link is Up - 100Mbps/Full - flow control off

rk_gmac-dwmac 30200000.ethernet eth0: Link is Down

rk_gmac-dwmac 30200000.ethernet eth0: Link is Up - 100Mbps/Full - flow control off

rk_gmac-dwmac 30200000.ethernet eth0: Link is Down

 

over and over again.

 

after reflashing my android backup, I just reflash Armbian_22.05.0-trunk_Rk322x-box_bullseye_current_5.15.25_minimal.img again and the ethernet port remains working even after update. let it run for 8 hours for no issue

 

the next day, you know what ill try reflashing that Armbian_22.11.0-trunk_Rk322x-box_jammy_current_5.15.72.img image again. ok it works, perform update again, it broke. 

 

-----

 

so that's it, Im not really a linux developer guy to be honest so I cant really dig much further on the issue what causing it.

Edited October 21, 2022 by remlei

[jock]

@remlei ok this is better, but you still miss the important information:

 

* what packages apt upgraded when you got the system broken?

* what is the kernel version that broke the ethernet?

 

I compiled a fresh image with latest kernel version at that time (5.15.74) and nothing happened on a MXQPRO_V73 board

[chakatun]

Hello. Somewhere a year ago I purchased a tv box on the rk3228a SELENGA R4 chip and installed Armbian _22.02.0-trunk_Rk322x-box_bullseye_Legacy_4.4.194_minimal.img on it, it worked. Now I wanted to install a new one from the github repository, but I could not install one of them, I tried: jammy_current_5.15.74, jammy_edge_5.19.16, sid_current_5.15.74, sid_edge_5.19.16 none of these did not start. I took a photo of what he writes when he tries to boot. Please tell me what could be the reason?

[chakatun]

Sorry! I am writing from my smartphone. The photo uploaded in a weird way. I wanted to add to what I said above, that only images that say buster legasy work on the TV box.

[Max Sterg]

@jock hey mate, i want to ask you a really stupid question(for you, for me its a valuable one 😅) i tried to burn the Multitool with Belena and i have two partitions ok? then when i tried to unzip the Armbian img inside the image file i can't because i have small space..... I have read all the documentation and i can't figure it out which is the right way to burn the multitool inside the SD and don't have partitions... i have download the sd formatter to format easy and clean the SD card!!! Sorry for the boomer questions but... my gramps always says "There is no stupid question, only a dummy person"😂

 

Thank you for your answers!!!!❤

 

[RaptorSDS]

@Max Sterg there are two ways

 

first way : put the linux image as compress file on the multitool

 

or

 

secound way: first boot multitool , than the partionion get resize to around 2 till 4 gig and than put the compress or unzip files on the multitool

 

 

@chakatun

i got something similar when i start armbian with nand option from rk322x-config tool --> than initram did not know where to start from but i have nand space

or maybe you have one of the new emcp memory (RAM and ROM on same chip)  than its difficult to boot from internal space

 

Edited October 25, 2022 by RaptorSDS
grammar add answer

[Max Sterg]

@RaptorSDS So.... for the second way: 

i must put with belena multitool inside the SD and then i put the SD inside TV BOX to boot for the first time and then i unzip the armbian img inside the image file in SD?

 

and for the first: i just flash with belena the Multitool and put just like that the compress file of arm img inside the image file and.... That's it?

 

Thank you my friend! 😁

[chakatun]

@RaptorSDS   Thanks for answering. I think that I have a board with NAND, and therefore I can only install the old kernel on it. Yesterday, during installation, I chose the place "Burn image to flash" and erased the bootloader))), I could not switch to maskrom mode, so I disassembled the prefix and closed the test point and restored the bootloader.

How do I find out what type of memory is on my board?

Here is a photo of my board
And from the multitool menu.

 

 

[chakatun]

[RaptorSDS]

vor 29 Minuten schrieb chakatun:

Thanks for answering. I think that I have a board with NAND, and therefore I can only install the old kernel on it. Yesterday, during installation, I chose the place "Burn image to flash" and erased the bootloader))), I could not switch to maskrom mode, so I disassembled the prefix and closed the test point and restored the bootloader.

How do I find out what type of memory is on my board?

Here is a photo of my board
And from the multitool menu.

 

I would say EMCP

 

because on left ro right i see wifi chip ; empty Memory chip space ; the Rk322x ;one Memory chip

 

thats only one memory chip on upper right corner that maybe  EMCP (combined RAM and ROM chip) please look at this chip and google it 

 

 

[MattWestB]

@chakatun You is having the SOC under the heat sink and i can see one more large chip that is one flash.

If more flash chip on the upper or under side you is not having eMMC but MMC flash. Also your PCB is dated 2242 = year 2022 and week 42 so very likely not NAND. Can you posting one photo from the underside of the PCB ?

 

Also its looks like you have the hardware console but not populated half under the heat sink that can giving interesting information then the bootloader is initiating the hardware. 

 

You have finding the masc ROM pads ? pleas post one photo of them so other user can debricking there device if needed.

[jock]

@chakatunmultitool is clearly telling you the board has a NAND flash memory everywhere 🤷‍♂️

[chakatun]

@MattWestB Board name R329Q V8.1. To switch the board to MASKROM, you need to close the contact on the board next to which the small letter "D" to GND. Here is a photo of all the chips that are on this board.

 

 

These chips were on the bottom

 

 

 

And these are on top.

 

 

I was wrong these 3 chips were on the bottom

 

And these are on top

 

 

 

 

[chakatun]

@jock   Does that mean I won't be able to install new images from the github repositories on my board?

[Max Sterg]

@RaptorSDS I tried both ways and the tv box doesn't boot with multitool... i can see the files for the file Explorer but the tv box doesn't open to the multitool menu, I believe the problem is in the partition thing... I will try with Win32 Imager something like that or rufus to make it bootable 🤔 OR with a USB 3.0. 

 

What's your opinion? 😥 

[chakatun]

 @ Max Sterg I had problems with loading the multitool later it turned out to be a bad SD card. Keep in mind you must have a good original SD card.

[jock]

@chakatunNo, it means that you can't run armbian with a mainline kernel from internal flash. If you want mainline kernel, you can still boot from sdcard or even usb stick installing jump start via multitool

[chakatun]

@Джок OK. Understood everything, thank you very much.
I took another TV box on the RK3228A chip 1GB of RAM, 8GB, it has other internal memory and I easily installed the 5.15.74 image on it. But now there is another problem - WI FI does not work. in rk322x-config it says: unknown device.

 

Фото девайса

 

память 

 

WI FI chip

[handymenny]

 

On 8/31/2022 at 11:09 PM, fukowaka said:

One by one burned into the emmc. Starts booting like for 5 seconds then reboots. Last i can read is "tty2" then reboots again, endlesly

 

 

I've the same issue. I've tried lastest nightly and stable images (both SD and emmc) but only those with legacy kernel boot successfully.
I also tried changing power supply, changing kernel after initializing the legacy version (via armbian-config) and all the workarounds mentioned here:

Board Pics:

 

 

Yes SoC has a fake label... It's RK3228a/b

Edited October 27, 2022 by handymenny
Add board pics

[Max Sterg]

@jock I think i figured what the problem was .....  I have a S905L not a RK3228A processor 😂, good lord! I'm feel so stupid that i didn't open it from the beginning! 🤣 

 

Edited October 28, 2022 by Max Sterg