rk3308B Sovol SV06 Ace Klipper using mks skipr as a starting point

[shepper]

Hi,

 

I'm new to the forums and am looking into replacing OEM Klipper firmware on a Sovol SV06 Ace,

The main board  looks very similar to the MKS Skipr with the following notable differences:

rk3308 B

emmc soldered on

No SD card.

Wifi/Bluetooth added - Original boards used realtek and the latest version uses Broadcom.

 

OEM wifi is hit or miss on connecting and hopefull will be improved with Trixie based Armbian.

Sovol has mostly complied with the GPL and source/configuration files are on github. IIRC the kernel version was 5.1x

 

I'm a long time Linux user (Slackware 8.1), have contributed OpenWRT builds and have built custom Linux kernels.

 

I think I've mapped out the install:

flash the appropriate ambian image to a formated USB2.0 drive - Ideally with wifi ssid/wpa key

ssh sovol@ip login sovol/sovol.  su, suspect the root passwd will be makerbase.

plug in usb, id drive in dmesg and mount

dd if /dev/usb* of=/devmmcblk*

Unmount drive and hopefully boot and access over wifi ssh.

Install/configure Kipper/Mainsail...

 

I have a recovery path that I have tested using rkdeveloptool/upgrade_tool and the original Sovol firmware.

 

I've perused the armbian github pages looking the MKS Skipr build but have not found it yet.

I'm willing to build a tailored (stripped if worthwhile) kernel.

I'd appreciate any comments about broadcom wifi access and if newer kernels and newer wpa supplicant builds improve access enough to make it worthwhile.

Comments on the overall plan.

Pointers 

Sovol RG-4Z V1.1 SIZE.pdf

Edited 2 hours ago by shepper
Added Sovol v1.1 mainboard schematic

[Torte]

Zitat

I've perused the armbian github pages looking the MKS Skipr build but have not found it yet.

According to https://github.com/redrathnure/armbian-mkspi?tab=readme-ov-file#technical-details the mks-skipr is just an mks-pi with an additional mks-robin-nano attached via uart.
That should be the reason, why there aren't separate mks-skipr images, only images for mks-pi.

 

Btw, the images for mks-pi and mks-klipad50 both use the same kernel. After replacing the corresponding .dtb file with the one from your original image, these images should behave identical.

 

Zitat

plug in usb, id drive in dmesg and mount

dd if /dev/usb* of=/devmmcblk*

Your approach of dd'ing the image from a usb-drive directly to the system that is currently running, sounds as dangerous as replacing a car engine while it's running.

 

You said, that you've successfully used rkdeveloptool for a recovery.
If that means, that you have flashed a *full* image to the emmc this way, then I would use this approach to directly flash the desired armbian image to that emmc (without using any other usb drive).

 

Or try to intercept u-boot from the original image to boot from an usb-drive (as I wrote here). Then you could 'dd' an image stored on that usb-drive to the emmc - but neither the source or the destination filesystem should be mounted/in use during that process.

[shepper]

I'm pretty sure is an skipr derivative: the Sovol SV06 Ace GPL github page has empty skiprs.conf.ini files.

 

Your link mentions getting the dts dtb descriptor file for the OEM firmware.  It is not on the Sovol page but the second option indicates that it can be extracted from the Sovol Firmware file.  A quick search found an amlogic unpacker utility.  Is their such a utility for rockchip?  I did try to mount the Sovol OEM image as a loopback without success.  If anyone is aware of a reliable guide, I'd appreciate getting pointed in the right direction.

Edit: Found RKTools Linux_Pack_Firmware

9 hours ago, Torte said:

Your approach of dd'ing the image from a usb-drive directly to the system that is currently running, sounds as dangerous as replacing a car engine while it's running.

It does make me a little nervous but I think this is how most routers update their firmware.  Ideally, I would like to boot an initframfs image to test but uboot did not have any pause and "Ctl+C" repeatedly pressed did not halt the boot. I tried several times before concluding that Sovol was making this as difficult as possible. 

 

I had another thought, the rkdevtool can download the image and I believe the Radza upgrade_tool can also download the image - documentation is scant

Edited 21 hours ago by shepper

[Torte]

According to your serial log, the name of the dtb file is "rk-kernel.dtb".

You should find that file somewhere below /boot/dtb/ .

 

You can simply copy that from your running system (e.g. using "scp").

But if you want to extract it from an image, you can use e.g. "kpartx -av YOURIMAGE.img" to create loop devices ("/dev/mapper/loop*") for each contained partition, which you can then mount as usual.

 

 

Too sad that ctrl+c does not seem to work.

Did you try having "ctrl+c" already pressed before powering up the board - and keeping it pressed, while it boots?

 

There's also a chance that the board will accidentally boot from the usb-drive, if it contains the same image as the emmc (i.e. the partition UUIDs need to be identical). It happened to me in about 1 out of 3-5 attempts. Described here.

[shepper]

I'm awaiting delivery of a new extruder heater/nozzle and it seems the wifi is reluctant to connect.  Previously, the wifi would not connect until a calibration had been performed and it will not calibrate due to the extruder heater failing.  I did upload the Sovol SV06 Ace mainboard schmatic to the O.P. but it is for board version 1.1.  Hopefully I can connect, ssh in and get the *dtb file once the nozzel is replaced. Then cross check the *.dtb with the schematic.  The new board,v1.2, likely uses the same Broadcom BCM43430 that Sovol Kipper Screen v1.2 uses.  It may also have an additional fan socket.

On 1/22/2026 at 5:36 AM, Torte said:

You said, that you've successfully used rkdeveloptool for a recovery.

For future reader/search hits, you actually have to use radxa linux upgrade_tool.

It will be a couple of days before I can follow up.