Installing armbian on Yundoo Y8 TV box (RK3399)

[FucusMeDeep]

Hello all.

I have an Android-based Yundoo Y8 TV box, which I want to use for UPS management.

I want it to be able to run Armbian to install the UPS management software, but I cannot figure out which Armbian I should download.

The board is based on Rockchip RK3399. In cpu-z app I see the board identified as rk30sdk, and the hardware is rk30board.

Can you please help me identify the board so I can understand which version of Armbian I need?

I couldn't find anything in the forum about RK3399...

 

I really appreciate any help you can provide.

 

[nobitakun]

I have the same Android TV, and I've been trying to boot Armbian but I don't seem to successfully accomplish it.

 

I believe we are all alone with this, and nobody will ever help us. Maybe RK3399 SoC is still problematic after 9 years.

[SteeMan]

1 hour ago, nobitakun said:

Maybe RK3399 SoC is still problematic after 9 years

No, the support for rk3399 is quite good.  The problem is that each box/board needs someone to develop a device tree (dtb) for that box/board and each is different depending on the specifics of that box/board.  That is what is lacking to support your box. (and if your box has obscure hardware on it, then those drivers may also be lacking)

[nobitakun]

ohh I see. Anyways I can't seem to make it detectable by the Windows RKDevTool, I turn the maskrom mode correctly but then all of the commands fail.

 

It really sucks to have a device this powerful and not being able to do anything because of those crappy dtb files.

 

Thank you anyways!

[nobitakun]

Finally, I've extracted the dtb file corresponding to the device, from Android. It is for kernel 4.4.16, so I believe it can be done something with it in order to boot Armbian. At least is a beginning

[MaxT]

Hello all.
I have an Android-based Yundoo Y8 TV box, which I want to use for UPS management.
I want it to be able to run Armbian to install the UPS management software, but I cannot figure out which Armbian I should download.
The board is based on Rockchip RK3399. In cpu-z app I see the board identified as rk30sdk, and the hardware is rk30board.
Can you please help me identify the board so I can understand which version of Armbian I need?
I couldn't find anything in the forum about RK3399...
 
I really appreciate any help you can provide.
 

I would open the box make photos of the board with silk prints visible and search similar box in a relevant section of tv boxes on this forum.

Name on the plastic box means nothing, silk prints on the board and SoC itself might help.

[nobitakun]

I attached some pictures of the device inside, I don't know if they can be of any help.

 

I tried to use te dtb extracted from Android with the Armbian for Firefly-RK3399 and it does not boot. I configure the extlinux.conf file as advised, but the same moment I insert the SD card and turn on the device, the red light never turns blue. I tried that board because I've read in some forum that is similar to this device, but I know that's kind of hit and miss. At least I expected to see something on screen, even if it threw tons of errors, because I assume the dtb file is not the problem so the issue should be somewhere else that needs to be modified.

 

Much appreciated for the help

[maka]

You can not use android dtb. You must try without It or try the rk3399 files included in the sdcard.

i cant see the second rockchip (pmic)

Edited September 7 by maka

[nobitakun]

The dtb files I've tried for rk3399 do not work, I've read that Firefly-RK3399 is very similar to this board, but even so it does not start.

 

The small Rockchip chip is very difficult to see through a picture, at least with my phone camera.

 

I tried with this picture:

 

Anyways, I can write it here:

 

RK808-D

FAD7P841 1703

Edited September 8 by nobitakun

[nobitakun]

Well, I've been tinkering with different dtb's and Armbian versions, matching kernel 4.4 and using H96 Max RK3399 dtb as well, but the device does nothing.

 

In fact, I entered the recovery to see if the SD card could be read and it didn't mount, then turned the device off through the button and now it does not turn on anymore. The red light does not go blue, I can still enter maskrom but if I want to boot Android normaly the device does nothing.

 

I am kind of tired with this crappy TV box, wasting 2 days it's not worth it for something that costed 15€. My time is more valuable.

 

Thank you for the help anyways.

[SteeMan]

There are those of us that spend months working on these things.  There is nothing about this that is easy.  It is a hobby to waste a lot of time on.

 

If you really wanted to proceed further you are really going to need to hook up to the debug serial port to get an ideal of the boot messages that are occuring.  

 

From an earlier post it looks like the serial connection points were identified and hooking up a USB serial adapter to them would give more information.

 

But getting a random TV box working is usually a many month project as a lot needs to be learned about this while environment first.

[maka]

It is shown on internet how to get maskrom, serIal, and more. Also there is a clue that this box should start with firefly dtb but not stated exactly. Things are different from 1997 now and getting this working without experience is very difficult.

 

With kernel 4.4 you could try with android dtb.

Edited September 8 by maka

[Hqnicolas]

@FucusMeDeep don't throw yourself into this,
I'm not the best example to be messing with junk, but times have changed, if it were really interesting I would recommend it.
with that time and money I buy a board https://www.banana-pi.org/ anything that involves reinventing the wheel there is already ready,
don't use material discarded by someone else.
develop something on top of these boards, go further
create something at a higher level than what you want to create.
do this project with a more documented and healthy board: CH573F from Nanjing Qinheng Microelectronics

Part of the document's included below:
 

WCH 官方网站 www.wch.cn(zh-CN) / www.wch-ic.com(en)

时钟和电源
时钟：
32Mhz HSE 高速无源晶体输入
32.768k LSE 低速无源晶体输入
电源：
3.3V-5.5V电源输入，3.3V LDO最大100mA额外输出
USB电源串有二极管，防止电流倒灌
同时二极管可以通过短路焊盘旁路
5V带有TVS二极管

接口和按键
接口：
12Pin 2.54mm间距 I/O接口 * 2
按键：
复位/B23按键 * 1
Boot/B22按键 * 1