Efforts to develop firmware for H96 MAX M9 RK3576 TV Box 8G/128G

[Hqnicolas]

On 4/11/2025 at 10:38 AM, Keko said:

(ideally something around 10fps, for 1920x1080 frames) on the H96 max M9s.

 

that's really a good performance, congratulations

for comparison i do 3fps 320x240 on rk3566

Edited April 12 by Hqnicolas

[cmuki]

Seems like I got some progress/regress with the board - I added some extra arguments in the armbianEnv.txt file - verbosity=7 and extraargs debug to try and see what the reason for the freeze might be and these three jobs were stuck, resulting in a kernel panic (end Kernel panic - not syncing: panic_On_set_idle_set) - systemd-udev-trigger.service/start, dev-ttyFIQ0.device/start and systemd-tmpfiles-setup-dev.service/start. Tried disabling the FIQ0 node in the dts (at least I think so), but the UART just stopped and it hanged again (the Armsom Sige 5 also has this in its dt). Managed to get a few times in initramfs, but it wans't helping me in the slightest. When adding init=/bin/bash, I could also avoid the hang, but it wasn't that productive.

[cmuki]

Good news and bad news - I found the culprit for the kernel panic, but it's the GPU - once I blacklisted the panfrost module, it booted and completed the initial setup. The rknpu driver is v0.9.8, so it should be usable with the immich ML. Probably will try to investigate the GPU issue, but not anytime soon.

[xiaobao80]

 GPU  blacklisted the panfrost module   Has it been resolved？ Thank you

[cmuki]

Hey, @xiaobao80! Sadly not - but on the upside I was able to build and use the latest kernel.

 

Also want to update and say that I did manage to use the NPU and the VPU successfully with Immich AI facial recognition and Jellyfin transcoding respectively.

[darcyg]

@xiaobao80, The official use is the closed source Mali library. Panfrost is an open-source GPU library.
It should be that the Panfrost module does not yet support rk3576

[darcyg]

hey, @cmuki!  
 

Using the dts from the rk3576-evb1-v10 / rk3576-armsom-sige5 / rk3576-rock-4d in the https://github.com/radxa/kernel/arch/arm64/boot/dts/rockchip/ directory

After modification, they can all boot the Armbian version h96-m9s

Note: The rk3576-linux.dtsi file forcibly specifies the UUID of the rootfs device partition, which may cause system boot failure.

Adjustments might be needed.

The basic modification method is simple: disable the PCIe and GMAC1 configurations, modify the reset_pin configuration of GMAC0 to

gpio2 and PB3 to enter the system. I used rock-4d as the template for modification.

Other modifications have not been thoroughly studied yet.

[Hqnicolas]

7 hours ago, darcyg said:

I used rock-4d as the template for modification.

thanks @darcyg 
if you can, share it with us

[darcyg]

I only tested the main configuration to ensure that the kernel and file system rootfs are normal, and other configurations have not been tested yet
The attachments are patch files and several modified source files.

The testing was conducted in my own buildroot project.
It has not been tested in armbian yet (there are currently some issues with the armbian compilation environment).
My buildroot project was launched based on the DTS of this post.
I believe it should be available in armbian.
 

add-rk3576h96-m9s-dts.patch

rk3576-linux.dtsirk3576-h96-m9s.dtsrk3576.dtsi

Edited May 23 by darcyg

[arbeiter]

Hi,

 

I got new H96 Max M9S and would like to ask some questions before flashing armbian on the device.

1. In this thread reset button is mentioned and I cannot find one on the case and neither on the board. Is there o photo of it or is it another name for maskrom switch?

2. I intend to flash from Linux, is the following method correct:

  - put device in maskrom mode

  - connect it to a computer by a USB A-A cable (to USB 2.0 port)

  - on a computer: rkdeveloptool ld (to list recognized devices)

  - on a computer: rkdeveloptool db RK3576_MiniLoaderAll.bin

  - on a computer: rkdeveloptool wl 0 h96_max_m9s_rk3576_20240930_1033.img

  - restart H96 Max M9S

 

I also have a question regarding building Armbian image: which dtb file should I use to put in directory build/packages/blobs/h96-m9/  (is it H96-RK3576-BOX.dtb)?

 

Best Regards and keep up the good work.

 

[Hqnicolas]

23 hours ago, arbeiter said:

I got new H96 Max M9S and would like to ask some questions before flashing armbian on the device.

the manufacturer hates us, that's it
There is no method, they are all hobbyist experiments

[cmuki]

Hey, @arbeiter!

 

It shouldn't be necessary to put the device in Maskrom mode, Loader mode should be enough - you can do that by using a toothpick to activate the reset button in the 3.5 mm jack (example photo attached) before plugging the device with the USB-A-USB-A cable.

For the flashing - you should run

rkdeveloptool ld (to list recognized devices) and see if the box is in LOADER mode

rkdeveloptool write 0 Ambian-unofficial...

 

Here should be the latest gnome desktop verison that I compiled. Please be advised that your version is M9S and, as far as I know, the only difference is that M9 comes with Android and M9S comes with Android TV; this image hasn't been tested on M9S. Don't forget to freeze the kernel updates from armbian-config; you should be able to update the other packages normally after this.

 

For me the box has been stable, no hangs whatsover and, as described, the VPU and the NPU work, but the GPU doesn't (that's why it's blacklisted). Haven't tried the remote nor the LCD screen.

 

 

Edited Wednesday at 04:45 PM by cmuki

[rustamt]

Hi there!

 

We have some good news, a guy from the 4pda forums figured out how to make the missing SD slot work. I've replicated that on my M9s box a few days ago and it works like a charm. You can see original post in Russian here.

 

So, basically, this TV box uses the same reference design for that circuitry as Armsom Sige5 and other boards. You can check the diagrams for Sige5 to get an idea. You need two capacitors (10uF and 100nF, on the power line) on the SD slot side (two smaller pads) and a LPW5202ADB5F chip and some resistors and caps on the other side.

 

LPW5202ADB5F is a power switch chip with current limiter, can be bought on Aliexpress for like $5-6 for 20 pcs, also need these components:

1x 10k resistor - controls current limiter (this value is for 0.7A according to data sheet, lower values for higher current, or 3.6k = 2A),

2x 10uF caps on power input/output lines

1x 100k - pull down resistor on the 'enable' contact

1x 2k - limiting resistor from the CPU to the 'enable' line

6x 22 Ohm resistors for the data lines between CPU and SD card slot

 

In theory, it's possible to put a zero-ohm resistor between in and out instead of that switch chip, in that case SD slot will be powered all the time and won't have a current limiter.

[Vincenzoernst1]

this soldering is visionally not very attractive 😛 , but at lest the result is what counts 👍

Edited Saturday at 10:39 AM by Vincenzoernst1