My Journey with The Rock64

[munocat]

I am so frustrated with my rock64 (SoC RK3328),  there is no support. Pine 64 takes the money and dumps all the issues on a community. The product is a lemon. Can’t watch YouTube, there is no audio 

 

I am very disappointed in Pine64, I will try and return this device.  

Edited March 29, 2019 by Tido
added the SoC, change title

[NicoD]

This is not the right way to start a topic. Better was to just ask help.
Download Armbian Bionic Desktop and install it.
https://www.armbian.com/rock64/

Then download this script, and follow the insctructions in the readme.

Simple said, unzip everything until you've got the folder media-script. Copy that folder to the main folder where Desktop and Documents is. Then go to console and type:

cd media-script

sudo /bin/bash ./media-rk3328.sh

 

Then yes, ok, armsoc. And reboot.

With that you should have good youtube playback and up to 4k video playback.
Sound is just volume control, and disable the one you're not using.(I think volume control, on the most right tab)

Let me know how the youtube playback is. Does it play 1080p well? Any higher? @JMCC(ain't that a nice coincidence)
I hope that can calm your frustration.

Indeed, Pine is the worst in support. "We are not a software company" is their motto.

[munocat]

I have the armbian download and up and running does the script fix the a/v audio?

[NicoD]

I don't know about that. I know hdmi is working. I haven't tried 3.5mm

42 minutes ago, munocat said:

I have the armbian download and up and running does the script fix the a/v audio?

Have a look here. Maybe you'll find something. I'll check tomorrow evening. I know hdmi sound works, and usb audio devices too.
https://forum.armbian.com/search/?q=rock64 sound&fromCSE=1

[munocat]

15 minutes ago, NicoD said:

I don't know about that. I know hdmi is working. I haven't tried 3.5mm

Have a look here. Maybe you'll find something. I'll check tomorrow evening. I know hdmi sound works, and usb audio devices too.
https://forum.armbian.com/search/?q=rock64 sound&fromCSE=1

Those work, but I don’t have usb or hdmi ability for sound. 

[munocat]

Ok, installed script. No a/v audio. 

[JMCC]

7 hours ago, munocat said:

Can’t watch YouTube, there is no audio 

If that's all you want, then you may try using LibreELEC, or plain Android. If you want to do those things in Linux, then you must be aware that all of that is something under development, and that's precisely the fun of it.

 

In other words: If you want a cheap device for playing multimedia content, then you should go for a TV box, or use your Rock64 as a TV box, installing Android or LibreELEC. Other than that, the Rock64 is a "development board", that is, a device intended for developers to experiment and learn. So, if that's what you want, you are welcome to join the community, share your experiences, ask questions and contribute with your findings. But if you just bought a $40 ARM device expecting it to be a fully functional desktop out-of-the-box, as if it were a $800 Intel machine, then you will certainly be disappointed.

[NicoD]

7 hours ago, munocat said:

Those work, but I don’t have usb or hdmi ability for sound.  

Buy a usb audio device. They are less than $5 and come in very handy.
Don't you use a hdmi display? Doesn't it have a headphone jack? It's just a small thing getting sound to work.

I'm using this one:
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/TISHRIC-Promotion-5HV2-External-usb-sound-card-7-1-with-3-5mm-audio-interface-adapter-for/32940768647.html?spm=2114.search0204.3.76.55b341e4twUlxU&ws_ab_test=searchweb0_0,searchweb201602_1_10065_10068_319_317_10696_10084_453_10083_454_10618_10304_10307_10820_10821_537_10302_536_10902_10843_10059_10884_10887_321_322_10103,searchweb201603_35,ppcSwitch_0&algo_expid=bc0423ae-a86e-45bc-a865-d9deeb864e5f-12&algo_pvid=bc0423ae-a86e-45bc-a865-d9deeb864e5f
And these too.
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/Vention-External-Sound-Card-USB-To-3-5mm-Jack-Aux-headset-Adapter-Stereo-Audio-sound-card/32837377187.html?spm=2114.search0204.3.10.55b341e4twUlxU&s=p&ws_ab_test=searchweb0_0,searchweb201602_1_10065_10068_319_317_10696_10084_453_10083_454_10618_10304_10307_10820_10821_537_10302_536_10902_10843_10059_10884_10887_321_322_10103,searchweb201603_35,ppcSwitch_0&algo_expid=bc0423ae-a86e-45bc-a865-d9deeb864e5f-4&algo_pvid=bc0423ae-a86e-45bc-a865-d9deeb864e5f

As JMCC says. If all you want is watching videos then you can just use LibreElec or Android. But I don't think/know if 3.5mm jack works there.
http://wiki.pine64.org/index.php/ROCK64_Software_Release
 

[munocat]

2 hours ago, NicoD said:

Buy a usb audio device. They are less than $5 and come in very handy.
Don't you use a hdmi display? Doesn't it have a headphone jack? It's just a small thing getting sound to work.

I'm using this one:
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/TISHRIC-Promotion-5HV2-External-usb-sound-card-7-1-with-3-5mm-audio-interface-adapter-for/32940768647.html?spm=2114.search0204.3.76.55b341e4twUlxU&ws_ab_test=searchweb0_0,searchweb201602_1_10065_10068_319_317_10696_10084_453_10083_454_10618_10304_10307_10820_10821_537_10302_536_10902_10843_10059_10884_10887_321_322_10103,searchweb201603_35,ppcSwitch_0&algo_expid=bc0423ae-a86e-45bc-a865-d9deeb864e5f-12&algo_pvid=bc0423ae-a86e-45bc-a865-d9deeb864e5f
And these too.
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/Vention-External-Sound-Card-USB-To-3-5mm-Jack-Aux-headset-Adapter-Stereo-Audio-sound-card/32837377187.html?spm=2114.search0204.3.10.55b341e4twUlxU&s=p&ws_ab_test=searchweb0_0,searchweb201602_1_10065_10068_319_317_10696_10084_453_10083_454_10618_10304_10307_10820_10821_537_10302_536_10902_10843_10059_10884_10887_321_322_10103,searchweb201603_35,ppcSwitch_0&algo_expid=bc0423ae-a86e-45bc-a865-d9deeb864e5f-4&algo_pvid=bc0423ae-a86e-45bc-a865-d9deeb864e5f

As JMCC says. If all you want is watching videos then you can just use LibreElec or Android. But I don't think/know if 3.5mm jack works there.
http://wiki.pine64.org/index.php/ROCK64_Software_Release
 

It is a poor substitute for failed hardware. Guess it is my last resort 

 

6 hours ago, JMCC said:

If that's all you want, then you may try using LibreELEC, or plain Android. If you want to do those things in Linux, then you must be aware that all of that is something under development, and that's precisely the fun of it.

 

In other words: If you want a cheap device for playing multimedia content, then you should go for a TV box, or use your Rock64 as a TV box, installing Android or LibreELEC. Other than that, the Rock64 is a "development board", that is, a device intended for developers to experiment and learn. So, if that's what you want, you are welcome to join the community, share your experiences, ask questions and contribute with your findings. But if you just bought a $40 ARM device expecting it to be a fully functional desktop out-of-the-box, as if it were a $800 Intel machine, then you will certainly be disappointed.

I am doing more than just YouTube, I am developing on this using using micro controllers

[NicoD]

27 minutes ago, munocat said:

I am doing more than just YouTube, I am developing on this using using micro controllers

Well, then all you need more is audio and you've got everything you need. You can easily install the arduino ide on Armbian. And it works fine. I also use it with sbc's.

But the Rock64 was not the best choice to make. You should have done a bit more homework to know what's best for you. Ask someone, or read forum threads about it.
I know what it is, I've bought some in the past that I thought would be awesome. But they never were. At least the Rock64 is cheap, mine weren't.(+$100)
For what you want the NanoPi M4 would have been a lot better. Great for media playback, surfing, very powerful and easy to use. Amazing for gaming. All things the Rock64 isn't/hasn't.

[munocat]

1 hour ago, NicoD said:

Well, then all you need more is audio and you've got everything you need. You can easily install the arduino ide on Armbian. And it works fine. I also use it with sbc's.

But the Rock64 was not the best choice to make. You should have done a bit more homework to know what's best for you. Ask someone, or read forum threads about it.
I know what it is, I've bought some in the past that I thought would be awesome. But they never were. At least the Rock64 is cheap, mine weren't.(+$100)
For what you want the NanoPi M4 would have been a lot better. Great for media playback, surfing, very powerful and easy to use. Amazing for gaming. All things the Rock64 isn't/hasn't.

I have an Nano Pi Fire 3, use it for setiathome, very solid board.  I will look into the the nano pi m4. Also looking at Le Potato. Just going to steer clear of Rochchips for now. 

[NicoD]

1 hour ago, munocat said:

I will look into the the nano pi m4. Also looking at Le Potato. Just going to steer clear of Rochchips for now. 

The M4 is also a RockChip. But the company behind it, FriendlyElec is a lot better with support. And almost everything seems to work well. I use it daily, I use it for Blender rendering, for video editing, for gaming, programming, watching youtube... The Rock64 isn't good for those things. It's best to use as a NAS.
It was the first cheap one with USB3 + GigE. But Pine64 is just the worst company when it comes to software support.
So the Pine64 boards or best for Linux freaks who like to test and tinker a lot. I would not advice it for a normal user. I've just made a video about the Media Script on the Rock64, and how to overclock it to 1.5Ghz. Now rendering and in an hour it'll be online. I say it many times there are better boards for these things...

Good luck

[NicoD]

1 hour ago, munocat said:

have an Nano Pi Fire 3

I've got the NanoPC T3+ with the same cpu. It's a monster But also not the best for desktop use. Great for heavy multi-core tasks like a Blender render farm.

[munocat]

39 minutes ago, NicoD said:

The M4 is also a RockChip. But the company behind it, FriendlyElec is a lot better with support. And almost everything seems to work well. I use it daily, I use it for Blender rendering, for video editing, for gaming, programming, watching youtube... The Rock64 isn't good for those things. It's best to use as a NAS.
It was the first cheap one with USB3 + GigE. But Pine64 is just the worst company when it comes to software support.
So the Pine64 boards or best for Linux freaks who like to test and tinker a lot. I would not advice it for a normal user. I've just made a video about the Media Script on the Rock64, and how to overclock it to 1.5Ghz. Now rendering and in an hour it'll be online. I say it many times there are better boards for these things...

Good luck

you have been aweome. I order the Le Potato 2GB today. My first allwinner  

[lanefu]

3 minutes ago, munocat said:

ou have been aweome. I order the Le Potato 2GB today. My first allwinner  

Hi.. Le Potato is a great.. board.. but it's am Amlogic SoC, not AllWinner

 

[NicoD]

1 minute ago, munocat said:

you have been aweome. I order the Le Potato 2GB today. My first allwinner  

I fear this is again not the best choice. I don't have a Le Potato. But I've heard there are some problems with it.
I've got the Odroid C2 which has got the same specs. I love it. Hardkernel is for me the best in software support for their boards.
I hope Le Potato will do you well.

[munocat]

I ordered it of amazon, so it will be easy to return. I will look into the Odriod C2. TY

[chwe]

13 hours ago, NicoD said:

Pine64 is just the worst company when it comes to software support.

wouldn't agree on this one..

 

IMO overall pine build decent SBCs with a design which makes sense for a really competitive price.

 

This thread together with this one:

 

just show that you rush through multiple ideas trying to fix something which might need some time to fix. E.g. updating to 4.14 (or 5.0) or whatever kernel you want from 4.4 doesn't mean that things get automatically better.

 

The 4.4 kernel for Rockchips is based on Rockchips opensource 4.4 kernel whereas all others (4.14 ++) are based on upstream.. So as long as the needed drivers aren't in mainline, the BSP kernel will support more features than upstream kernels.

 

I would suggest you go for a more problem solving approach than trying various random things/boards which might frustrate you even more. E.g. install the official image for the Rock64, test if the things you need work and if they do, compare it with the configuration we use for armbian (e.g. devicetree, kernelconfig). Fill in the missing bits and things will work. In case not, pine has also a community forum where you can open issues that *random feature* doesn't work.. probably they read their own forum and try to help things fixed. It's very likely that my next SBC will be a Rock64 cause the board has some nice features and the price is really competitive for my use-cases.

 

15 hours ago, munocat said:

Just going to steer clear of Rochchips for now. 

IMO rockchips is one of the few companies for which armbian builds images where the SoC maker cares to mainline their features.. Are they perfect? for sure not. but at least they try it.. Whereas allwinner was a pure community push to get those SoCs in mainline, and for the Amlogic, a lot of funding happened due to SBC makers cared about it (tbh I really don't follow Amlogic support cause their boards are mostly boring for my needs - seems that they're great multimedia devices but just not my use-case).

[munocat]

I fixed my setiathome problem with an upgraded Debian Buster build. The platform is very stable, only shame is it is not Armbian. I have not given up on Armbian, it is my favorite distribution. today I get to setup my x86 builds machine, when the part i need arrives.   

[guidol]

43 minutes ago, munocat said:

I fixed my setiathome problem with an upgraded Debian Buster build. The platform is very stable, only shame is it is not Armbian. I have not given up on Armbian, it is my favorite distribution. 

which problems did you have? I do ask, because I did setup today my NanoPi K1 Plus for setiathome with a fresh build dev-image:
 

Welcome to ARMBIAN 5.77 user-built Debian GNU/Linux 9 (stretch) 5.0.4-sunxi64
package bsp-kernel[5.77] u-boot[5.77] dtb[5.77] firmware[5.77] config[5.77]

BOINC_Manager connected from PC to NanoPi K1 Plus:

[munocat]

I was getting computational errors, the task would fail. If I ran 2 task, the system could handle it. My rock64 is active cooled and that was not the problem. When I tried 5 different flavors of linux, all failed, but this last worked. This has been the only platform I have struggled with. 

 

here is my thread on setiathome. https://setiathome.berkeley.edu/forum_thread.php?id=84052&postid=1987458#1987458

 

maybe if I can build a buster version of armbian, it will a fun experiment. 

[guidol]

56 minutes ago, munocat said:

I was getting computational errors, the task would fail. If I ran 2 task, the system could handle it.

My rock64 is active cooled and that was not the problem.

When I tried 5 different flavors of linux, all failed, but this last worked. 

in the setiathome-forum you did wrote you only tested os-versions with kernel 4.4.176 - maybe that was the problem?

Like for my NanoPi K1 Plus I compiled armbian 5.77 with kernel 5.0.4 for my NanoPi A64 (its not offiicial in the build-system)...

And via the BOINC-Manager on the PC I started on the NanoPi A64 setiathome

 

So why not try the armbian-build-system for your rock64?

 

There seems to be also 5.0.0 (or more) kernel dev-image possible for rock64:
 

[ o.k. ] Checking git sources [ u-boot-rockchip64 rockchip-master ]
[ .... ] Creating local copy
[ .... ] Fetching updates
[ o.k. ] Checking git sources [ linux-rockchip64 5.0.0-1092-ayufan ]
[ .... ] Creating local copy
[ .... ] Fetching updates
remote: Enumerating objects: 67035, done.

 

[munocat]

I tried to build a 5.0, when I booted no Ethernet or usb. I am a non expert. 

 

[TonyMac32]

On 3/26/2019 at 3:12 PM, NicoD said:

I fear this is again not the best choice. I don't have a Le Potato. But I've heard there are some problems with it.

?  Which problems?  I actually have more issues with my C2 and K2...  There is also the likelihood of that SoC (The S905) being EOL'd (if it hasn't already been)  Don't get me wrong, the C2 is a great board, but it is at best on equal support footing with the Le Potato.

 

The issues with the Rock64 are honestly more Rockchip issues, their support of that SoC hasn't really seemed to hit the level of the RK3288 or RK3399.  The RK3288 is still my favorite Rockchip for "normies" because it just works.  No games, no BS, it's about as close to plug and play as you're going to get.  Unfortunately it didn't fit enough buzzwords, so the only boards using it are the MiQi and Tinker Board, with a proper power supply the Tinker is a solid choice, and will run circles around a quad-core A53 in desktop use.  The only competitors so far desktop wise are the RK3399 (support isn't quite there yet) and the Odroid XU4.  (H6 is still pretty buggy I think)

[lanefu]

39 minutes ago, TonyMac32 said:

RK3288 is still my favorite Rockchip for "normies" because it just works.  No games, no BS, it's about as close to plug and play as you're going to get. 

Any Experience with the Libre Renegade (the regular Rk3288) one.     I've been desktoping with my Le Potato... wondering if the Renegade would be slightly more polished---- don't care about h264... mostly just care about 4k and an analog audio jack that works.

[TonyMac32]

5 minutes ago, lanefu said:

Any Experience with the Libre Renegade (the regular Rk3288) one

 

The Renegade is RK3328 like the Rock64, I have one on my desk.  It has DDR4, however there have been the same frustrations concerning the RK3328 support in general from Rockchip.  I know Armbian has put a few bugfixes out there, Ayufan has been doing double time on it, but without some vendor assistance there is only so much you can do.  It is a very nice board, but I don't know that a move from the Potato to it would show you any benefit (same cores, same clock speed, better/more ram.)

[balbes150]

5 hours ago, TonyMac32 said:

The issues with the Rock64 are honestly more Rockchip issues, their support of that SoC hasn't really seemed to hit the level of the RK3288 or RK3399.  The RK3288 is still my favorite Rockchip for "normies" because it just works.  No games, no BS, it's about as close to plug and play as you're going to get.  Unfortunately it didn't fit enough buzzwords, so the only boards using it are the MiQi and Tinker Board, with a proper power supply the Tinker is a solid choice, and will run circles around a quad-core A53 in desktop use.  The only competitors so far desktop wise are the RK3399 (support isn't quite there yet) and the Odroid XU4.  (H6 is still pretty buggy I think) 

There is no such problem with RK.

This is the problem of the manufacturer of the specific equipment (or rather the problem of support of this equipment). I have TV boxes on the basis of RK3328. On them everything works without problems (Armbian and LibreELEC). Including video and audio output in 4K mode (using a media script). The only problem is, you need to modify the cooling. The same applies to rk3399, if you select the correct model , the user receives a fully complete and ready to use equipment.

On rk3328 can normally be used as a mini PC with the desktop resolution up to 1080p. For those who need a desktop resolution of 4K or max performance model rk3399.

 

PS I would be interested to check a few assumptions, if there are owners of Renegad or Rock64, write, discuss the steps.

[NicoD]

9 hours ago, TonyMac32 said:

?  Which problems?  I actually have more issues with my C2 and K2...  There is also the likelihood of that SoC (The S905) being EOL'd (if it hasn't already been)  Don't get me wrong, the C2 is a great board, but it is at best on equal support footing with the Le Potato. 

My sentence was a bit unclear. I menth something like, "I've got the simular C2 that I like a lot, but other people don't like it." So that's why I thought I'm not sure it's the best choice to make for him.

I would always say to buy the NanoPi M4 before anything else for desktop use. I've been struggling with the Rock64 a whole week, + with the RPi3B+. Yesterday I again turned the M4 on after a week not using it, boy how happy I was to be back on it.
So fast, stable, pleasant, ... There's nothing like it(that I have yet)
I just ordered the Odroid N2. So maybe the M4 isn't going to stay my favorite. But I've got to wait +2 weeks for it to arrive, why haven't we got a time machine yet. It's 2019 g*d damned.

 

[Technicavolous]

On 3/28/2019 at 10:38 PM, TonyMac32 said:

The only competitors so far desktop wise are the RK3399 (support isn't quite there yet) and the Odroid XU4.  

I've been using Armbian on an XU4 for years and it is a great Desktop for me. I dual boot it with HK's Mate when I want to compare things. It's a conversation starter when I set it up at a demo in it's OGST game console case.

 

The C2 is a good desktop, great if you need 64 bit. but the XU4 has done better for me as my business desktop. (QB, Gimp, EMail, Web dev stuff)

 

I'm waiting for my N2 as well ...

[TonyMac32]

2 minutes ago, Technicavolous said:

The C2 is a good desktop, great if you need 64 bit. but the XU4 has done better for me as my business desktop. (QB, Gimp, EMail, Web dev stuff)

Right, it doesn't do a bad job, but the XU4/RK3288/RK3399 have a lot more brute force available.

 

On 3/27/2019 at 1:41 PM, guidol said:

There seems to be also 5.0.0 (or more) kernel dev-image possible for rock64:

Yep, I've tested it to at least boot to desktop.  ;-).