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 Friday at 06:58 PM 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 Thursday at 11:10 PM 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 Fn-Link  FG89FTSM13-W3 chip that Sovol Kipper Screen v1.2  Orange Pi Plus 2E 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.

 

 

I found one issue with the wifi chip, it is not broadcom based.  It is an Fn-Link manufactured knock-off of a realtek rtl8189FTV/rtl8189fs.  The driver is not in the mainline linux kernel but needs to be built as a module using Realtek source code.  Armbian example of building the module.  Armbian forum search shows code has been orphaned by Realtek

 

Fn-Link no longer manufacturers the chip.  The original source has issues and updated source, from 3rd parties, can be found.  I searched Arch Linux AUR and found luckfox-pico/rtl8189fs.

 

My OP incorrectly lists the wifi as Broadcom but I can no longer edit it.

Edited yesterday at 05:39 PM by shepper
update wifi to external rtl8189fs module

[shepper]

I did establish a wifi connection and ssh sovol@IPaddress.

 

Have the following:

sovol@sovol:/$ ls -a -C
.         data  lib         opt            run               srv     userdata
..        dev   lost+found  packages       sbin              sys     usr
.resized  etc   media       proc           sdcard            system  var
bin       home  mnt         rockchip-test  sha256sum.README  tmp     vendor
boot      info  oem         root           sha256sum.txt     udisk
sovol@sovol:/$ uname -a
Linux sovol 5.10.160 #54 SMP PREEMPT Mon Aug 5 22:22:56 CST 2024 aarch64 GNU/Linux

Could not cd to root/ and tried to su using mks, makerbase, sovol and 1234 as root passwds.

Edit:  I can run root commands with sudo

The boot/ directory only contained grub/, no hidden files and no *dtb.

Edit:  Regained wifi after changing channel ?congestion.

 

I looked at the FCCid site and the photos submitted to the FCC show a Realtek rtk8189FTV chip.  It looks like the Fn-Link chip was substituted perhaps due to Mainland/Taiwan tensions.  Not sure the FCC knows about the chip substitution or if new wifi test data was generated.

 

The wifi on this board is crippling in many ways, Crowsnest cam access saves me many trips up/down the stairs to check for print failures.  Still, it does not look like Sovol will be providing any more firmware updates.   The two that are available can only be installed by a wifi connection using OTA (Over The Air).  Paranoia is high for wireless connections that you know nothing about.

 

I'm wondering about replacing the mainboard with the mks-skipr and adding a wifi module with mainstream kernel support.  May be a better path to MainStream klipper and reliable mainstream wifi.

 

Edit:  Was able to scp/pull the following files: config-5.10  gpio.txt  ip_address.txt  rockchip_config.  Building my own image still may be an option but will need to deal with the wifi driver, a python script for crowsnest camera and the LED light.

 

Edit:  Armbian-mkspi has patches for rtl8189fs.  Image building is doable - not sure if wifi will be improved but Mainline Klipper, a more recent kernel, packages with updates can be had on stock boards.

Edited 20 hours ago by shepper

[Nicholas Wakeford]

Hey shepper, this is great, I've been thinking of working on this myself but it looks like you have more practical experience.

 

One of the issues I had run into with the OEM software packages was no support for wired ethernet, my preference is wired connections for my devices. Looks like there was no way to provide driver support for different manufacturers. Using Armbian would remedy this.

 

One of the hurdles I have found online involves the probe sensing that Sovol has used with this specific printer. They created a custom function (kx711) for their toolhead, that supposedly hasn't been merged with the mainline klipper branch. Don't know how difficult it would be to implement. Maybe I'll try going down this rabbit hole.

 

Now that I see someone else is giving this a go I feel more motivated to do something too. If I can help let me know. My printer is the SV06 Ace Plus.

[Torte]

Please read my reply at https://github.com/torte71/InsideSovolKlipperScreen/issues/8#issuecomment-3796412735

 

In short: I think the screen on this device is a proprietary smart-device that can't be used as a standard display. Thus KlipperScreen (and any other X or Wayland app) will not be able to run.

[shepper]

13 hours ago, Nicholas Wakeford said:

One of the hurdles I have found online involves the probe sensing that Sovol has used with this specific printer. They created a custom function (kx711) for their toolhead, that supposedly hasn't been merged with the mainline klipper branch. Don't know how difficult it would be to implement.

Klipper Load Cell Documentation

The kx711 is specifically referenced near the bottom of the documentation.  It needs slow speeds and I believe has been incorporated into recent Klipper releases.

 

I posted the file output on graphics, framebuffer and drm to @Torte github link.

Also found an informative YouTube video on adding a Klipper Touch Screen, over serial, and configuring it.

 

I'm adverse to tossing electronics into landfills - motivation to invest some time into a build for the Sovol boards and tolerate the mksclient propriatary blob.  If the touch screen proves to be a show stopper, I think the makerbase MKS-SKIPR board, A supported USB wifi dongle and an HDMI touch screen could be used. 

Edited 1 hour ago by shepper