Pinebook Pro Kernel on RockPro64

[rockmusic64]

Hi,

I read everything I could possibly find on the DP-Alt mode for the RockPro64 and came to the conclusion that no Distro is offering that right now.

However, the Pinebook Pro seems to have support via a Kernel Patch. Can the Pinebook Pro Kernel be installed on the RockPro64?

Is there a repository for Armbian Kernels?

 

Thanks very much.

[Igor]

8 hours ago, rockmusic64 said:

no Distro is offering that right now

 

Because this feature is expensive to do it right and expensive to maintain. 

 

Armbian is a part of kernel community, we make things works, we make Linux, we make patches, and also distribute our own Debian like OS. There are some distributions that does something in the low level world, but usually very little. Tacking this low end hardware, one (or a distro) can only lost a lot of time gain nothing.

 

I think there are problems with both, PinebookPRO and RockPRO. When we stop throwing our precious time into software maintainace (you cover < 1%), things starts to fall apart. If nobody takes it over. Upstream support, where most of distributions relies on, is usually the first that dies off.

 

tl;dr;

Without knowing both devices and their software support into the details, its impossible to answer your question. Good luck.

[rockmusic64]

Thanks. I understand that. I just thought maybe someone, who is more knowledgeable then me had this problem and found a solution.

I want to add, that i found this Kernel repository, that seems to have patches that make DP-Alt mode work for PBP and maybe also RockPro. Maybe it can be of help.

 

[going]

1 час назад, rockmusic64 сказал:

I want to add, that i found this Kernel repository

I can give advice, write a sequence of steps if you are ready to do the assembly yourself.

[rockmusic64]

Yes, thanks, i will try!

[going]

2 часа назад, rockmusic64 сказал:

Yes, thanks, i will try!

Using the documentation, install the Armbian build system on your desktop:

Getting started

Building Armbian

I recommend installing ubuntu-22.04\24.04-server into a virtual machine (Qemu\Kvm or VirtualBox)
Download the ISO image from the official website.

Connect via SSH from the terminal to the OS in the virtual machine (As a regular user).

Next in the terminal:

sudo apt install git nano mc bash-completion
git clone --depth=1 --branch=main https://github.com/armbian/build

cd build
./compile.sh BRANCH=edge BOARD=rockpro64 

 

Assemble a minimal image, write it to the SD card and check its performance.

 

Please describe in words your level of knowledge of Linux, git and the problem you want to solve.
I'm just sending English text to an automatic translator.

 

 

[rockmusic64]

I did that on my home Debian installation and the resulting image seems to boot, but there is no display output on HDMI or DP. It might be, because i did not do it in the recommended way of using ubuntu in a vm. I will try that and report here.

 

Zitat

Please describe in words your level of knowledge of Linux, git and the problem you want to solve.
I'm just sending English text to an automatic translator.

I am using Debian for around eight years exclusively and do some python and arduino programming. I never worked on a big project.

 

[going]

2 часа назад, rockmusic64 сказал:

I am using Debian for around eight years exclusively

Very good. You are our man.

 

2 часа назад, rockmusic64 сказал:

no display output on HDMI or DP. It might be, because i did not do it in the recommended way of using ubuntu in a vm.

Why ubuntu?
Just because the project is being built in this environment and it is tested.
But it doesn't matter.
The last stable debian, mint, will do....

Why a virtual machine?
Any error in the build system itself can ruin a working system.
It is easy to restore a VM from an OS snapshot.

 

 

2 часа назад, rockmusic64 сказал:

but there is no display output on HDMI or DP

First, check the DTB.
On a running device, extract from the file system:

dtc --sort -I fs -O dts  /sys/firmware/devicetree/base > dts-out.txt

Check if there are nodes describing hdmi, dp.

 

P.S. dmesg | grep -i hdmi

 

[rockmusic64]

So far i cant log in via ssh. The main LED is blinking and also the network LED seems to indicate a connection. But my Router does not give an IP to it. I will compile the image again and report here. Sorry if it might take me some days to reply sometimes, but I will continue to work on this.

[going]

3 часа назад, rockmusic64 сказал:

So far i cant log in via ssh. The main LED is blinking and also the network LED seems to indicate a connection. But my Router does not give an IP to it.

Oh. It seems you just don't see anything that's going on?
In this case, you need to connect the UART for debugging.

_________________                     FTDI232
  BPI Board      |               _________________
                 |               |        3.3v    |_____ ____
  UART      GND o|---------------|o GND  o|       |    ||    |                | Linux
            TX  o|---------------|o RX   o|       | USB||    |====USB cable===| console
            RX  o|---------------|o TX   o        |____||____|                | "minicom"
_________________|               |________5v______|

At the first start of the OS, Armbian tries to get a timestamp from a remote server in order to set the clock to the current time.

If she doesn't get it, she waits and kind of freezes. In other words, the download process is not completed and you don't see anything.
You will also not be able to connect via ssh, since the user has not yet been installed in the system.

 

Try to configure the router so that it distributes IP addresses via DHCP.

 

With respect

[going]

3 часа назад, rockmusic64 сказал:

I will compile the image again and report here.

This is not required.
First you need to understand what is going on.

 

 

[rockmusic64]

Okay, it turned out the monitor was just not compatible. HDMI works fine. SSH did not work, because there was no hostkey generated. I had to run ssh-keygen -A . After that ssh worked fine.

 

So whats next?

dts-out.txt

[rockmusic64]

I got in contact with the kernels author and got told, that DP-Alt is not yet implemented for the rockpro64. Looking at the schematics, the usb-c controller seems identically to the pinebook pro. I am ready to start digging in the device-tree file for the rkp64 by comparing the pbp to the rkp64. But I don't know how to create and test the Kernel from these files.

[going]

2 часа назад, rockmusic64 сказал:

I am ready to start digging in the device-tree file for the rkp64 by comparing the pbp to the rkp64.

You are looking at the master branch.
We need an orange-pi-6.9 branch.

See: https://megous.com/git/linux/tree/arch/arm64/boot/dts/rockchip/rk3399-pinebook-pro.dts?h=orange-pi-6.9#n729

But simply adding this node will not bring results.
A set of patches from this rk3399-typec-6.9 branch is needed and there may be something else.

 

5 часов назад, rockmusic64 сказал:

But I don't know how to create and test the Kernel from these files.

Use the instructions to get the necessary README

Look at the contents\history (git log -p megi/rk3399-typec-6.9)   of the received branches.
Special attention is paid to:

megi/tcpm-6.9
megi/typec-extcon-6.9
megi/rk3399-typec-6.9

megi/fusb302-6.9

 

[going]

@rockmusic64 You can attract the user's attention in two ways:

1) Start typing the username with the @ prefix and click on the suggested option

 

2) User's quote

15 часов назад, rockmusic64 сказал:

DP-Alt is not yet implemented for the rockpro64

Unfortunately, I have never used this functionality.
Please describe what you want to connect in this mode.
I have two devices (OPI-4B rk3399b chip, BPI-f3 k1 chip) with a USB-Type-C connector.
How can I physically verify the correctness of the operation when the code is added to the kernel?

 

We learn from each other.