RK2918 set-top box linux installation

[pirj]

Hi,

I've stumbled across this site and it turns out there are a lot of experienced people, specifically with Rockchip based device. I've read through the forums and gained some knowledge on how things work.
But my goal here is not to create another Android based ROM, but load the device with full Linux setup to use it as something more than it currently is.

Couple days ago my device (so called noname GV-2B) has arrived and I can't wait to hack on it. Quick specs:
Rockchip RK2918 1.2Ghz, 512RAM, 4GB Flash, 4xUSB, HDMI, WiFi b/g/n, RJ-45 Ethernet. It runs Android 2.3 and works relatively fine. More info here, partially true (no bluetooth, rca composite video doesn't work etc, came with dead power adapter etc) http://www.enybox.com/En/product/html/?154.html

I know that RK based devices are not the best choice to hack on, and Allwinner A10 based would fit better, but yes, I was stupid and now I have this one and would like to try.

I'm on linux (archlinux) myself and have some experience with kernel build (not cross), and required CLI utils (dd, mount etc).

I know that first thing I have to do is back up what's in there to be able to restore if bricked. And here comes the first issue.

1. The device doesn't have a Volume+ button. I found (similar malaysian device http://www.maxq.com.my/index.php/sup...ory/16-maxq-r7) some mention that such devices can be run in recovery/update mode with holding reset while turning it on. Will try that immediately when my problem 2 solved.

2. But there's no USB OTG port in it, just usual USBs. So I need to solder an USB male-male cable. I have some spare parts but what i'm concerned is should I connect the red (+5V) cable or not? It may be powered from the device already and that kind of connection may harm the device or, worse, my laptop.
I've disassembled the device (http://habrastorage.org/storage2/9a8...b5cf3d56b8.jpg) and in the top right corner there's a four-pin connector. Any chance that might be yet another USB port? It's not marked with a dot on side, so no idea which pin is GND, so this is risky again. I have a nice 5 pin connector for this pins with USB female on the other side left from a legacy PC104 cpu board.
What's else interesting on the board is a small push button directly above SWK101 title. No idea what it does, i've tried pushing it while booting or powered - nothing happened.

If the two above solved, I will play with IMGs (ready for crapfs and gzips with headers and footers). I will need to put something new in the flash "rom".
I would like to build a latest 3.3 kernel, any chances for it contains RK modules or just have a generic support for peripherals? Or should I keep the kernel untouched and live with 2.6.35 with binary RK modules (i know, there's no chance I can get the source to rebuild against 3.3)? What is so specific between RK2918 and something else (eg AML2876) what it should have distinct modules to run correctly? All the chips I've found on board are more or less generic (realtek wifi).

If I decided to throw Android stuff away, is it a modified kernel what boots Dalvik etc or that's in a different img file?

Do I have to do something with uboot or it can be left as is?

I would be satisfied having a command prompt with some basic unitilities, working external keyboard, HDMI and cable eth0 (or wifi) connection so I can continue to hack on.

Cheers, Phil

[wolff]

Hi,

I've stumbled across this site and it turns out there are a lot of experienced people, specifically with Rockchip based device. I've read through the forums and gained some knowledge on how things work.
But my goal here is not to create another Android based ROM, but load the device with full Linux setup to use it as something more than it currently is.

Couple days ago my device (so called noname GV-2B) has arrived and I can't wait to hack on it. Quick specs:
Rockchip RK2918 1.2Ghz, 512RAM, 4GB Flash, 4xUSB, HDMI, WiFi b/g/n, RJ-45 Ethernet. It runs Android 2.3 and works relatively fine. More info here, partially true (no bluetooth, rca composite video doesn't work etc, came with dead power adapter etc) http://www.enybox.com/En/product/html/?154.html

I know that RK based devices are not the best choice to hack on, and Allwinner A10 based would fit better, but yes, I was stupid and now I have this one and would like to try.

I'm on linux (archlinux) myself and have some experience with kernel build (not cross), and required CLI utils (dd, mount etc).

I know that first thing I have to do is back up what's in there to be able to restore if bricked. And here comes the first issue.

1. The device doesn't have a Volume+ button. I found (similar malaysian device http://www.maxq.com.my/index.php/sup...ory/16-maxq-r7) some mention that such devices can be run in recovery/update mode with holding reset while turning it on. Will try that immediately when my problem 2 solved.

2. But there's no USB OTG port in it, just usual USBs. So I need to solder an USB male-male cable. I have some spare parts but what i'm concerned is should I connect the red (+5V) cable or not? It may be powered from the device already and that kind of connection may harm the device or, worse, my laptop.
I've disassembled the device (http://habrastorage.org/storage2/9a8...b5cf3d56b8.jpg) and in the top right corner there's a four-pin connector. Any chance that might be yet another USB port? It's not marked with a dot on side, so no idea which pin is GND, so this is risky again. I have a nice 5 pin connector for this pins with USB female on the other side left from a legacy PC104 cpu board.
What's else interesting on the board is a small push button directly above SWK101 title. No idea what it does, i've tried pushing it while booting or powered - nothing happened.

If the two above solved, I will play with IMGs (ready for crapfs and gzips with headers and footers). I will need to put something new in the flash "rom".
I would like to build a latest 3.3 kernel, any chances for it contains RK modules or just have a generic support for peripherals? Or should I keep the kernel untouched and live with 2.6.35 with binary RK modules (i know, there's no chance I can get the source to rebuild against 3.3)? What is so specific between RK2918 and something else (eg AML2876) what it should have distinct modules to run correctly? All the chips I've found on board are more or less generic (realtek wifi).

If I decided to throw Android stuff away, is it a modified kernel what boots Dalvik etc or that's in a different img file?

Do I have to do something with uboot or it can be left as is?

I would be satisfied having a command prompt with some basic unitilities, working external keyboard, HDMI and cable eth0 (or wifi) connection so I can continue to hack on.

Cheers, Phil

Hi Phil, how are you?

I have the same board SWK101 V03. Here's the instructions to enter in recovery under Ubuntu:



Build a USB cable following the schematic above.
I could not connect in Windows, only in Ubuntu. You could follow these steps:

1-power off unit (power cord off)
2-connect the built usb cable between unit and computer
3-power cord and turn device on. Don't worry with both usb cable and power cord connected
4-when the power led turns on, hold MINI BUTTON (keep holding) and press RESET for ~2 seconds and release. Then you can release the MINI BUTTON
5-if the timing was correct, you could see the device under Linux, with lsusb:
Bus 00x Device 00y: ID 2207:290a


You can read/write flash rom / images through rkutils
Other search terms useful in google are wendal tools, clamel

[pirj]

Hi, thanks for the hint!

I had a long long adventure with this board and my goal is still not met.
All described here in russian: http://habrahabr.ru/post/147793/
You can give Chrome to try to translate, it's mostly technical and should be ok.

Will give it another try sometimes soon. Should use ext3 for root partition at least. The kernel is my primary concern.

Cheers

[wolff]

Hi, thanks for the hint!

I had a long long adventure with this board and my goal is still not met.
All described here in russian: http://habrahabr.ru/post/147793/
You can give Chrome to try to translate, it's mostly technical and should be ok.

Will give it another try sometimes soon. Should use ext3 for root partition at least. The kernel is my primary concern.

Cheers

Thx for the link! Good job trying to put linux into the box!

[wolff]

More about flash this board (unbrick)

Hi pirj, how are you?

For you and anyone in trouble with this board. If for some reason you messed up the flash, you can use rkandroidtool v 1.29 (windows).
In my case a bug script wrote wrong bytes at the begin, then the device won't boot (no led at all), neither rkflashtool (linux) could write to it. Using the above method: press mini button + reset and release, lsusb (linux) find 2207:290a but i can' t use rkflashtool.
The solution is to run rkandroidtool v 1.29 (windows), rockusb drivers installed, with some good working backup imgs:

-boot.img
-kernel.img
-misc.img
-backup.img
-recovery.img
-system.img
-some loader (i used RK29xxLoader(L)_DDR3_400Mhz_V1.64.bin, dunno if RK29xxLoader(L)_V2.08.bin works too)
-parameter (very important)

Sometimes it will be very trick to rkandroidtool v 1.29 (windows) recognize the board, because if the NAND was very messed up, you have to wait 35~45 seconds for the "found rkandroid...", even after pressed and tried all the mini-button + reset stuff . I don't know why, but it's a delay of the device (some internal check?) because lsusb in linux also take that time.

Back to windows, when "found rkandroid..." appears, sometimes it shows "found rkandroid LOADER..." and other times (messed up NAND): "found rkandroid MASKED ROM"...

Ok, now press Erase IDB. Wait for the msg box, tick all the checkbox and fill with your imgs, loader and parameter files.

Press Run, the imgs will be flashed. I think sometimes it's faster than rkflashtool write.
Device will boot and your device will back to life.

Sometimes is try and error, connect USB before power up cable, do not press reset, wait for the 35~45 seconds and even usb connection will be lost. Try over and over again until you have a boot and working device.

You can get the above *.img, loader and parameter files using a good and working update.img and wendal tools

PS: Im trying to create a system.img, ext3 rw, following Finless tips about boot.img, cramfs, rkcrc but with no success. At the first boot the /system became rw, ext3, but when i install few apps, the FS becomes corrupt and never boot again.

Edit: I've got a system ext3, rw working, instead of PS: above. Please, look at this post: http://www.freaktab.com/showthread.p...ll=1#post22511

Cya

[Dean_Rotherham]

Is this the same Android Player I think it is?

Hi Guys,

I'm very new to this forum but sincerely am excited about this finding .. Can you confirm if the tv top set you are talking about in this thread is in fact the :

Measy A5A Android 2.3 OS Player?

From the photo it looks different but post explains it could be the same. In short I am trying to discover if it's possible to get a distro of "headless" linux onto one of these systems? Any thoughts or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

The short requirement is :

I have a basic java app that runs at this stage on a linux system and with these players now being up to 1,2Ghz, I really think I should be able to run our app on these devises as basically an alternate to a PC.

Hope I'm heading in the right direction

Hope to chat more soon.

[wolff]

Hi, Dean_Rotherham, how are you?

No, the board that we're talking about is not a Measy A5A, because A5A have 3 USB and this board have 4 USB.
Please, look at this thread for A5A: http://www.freaktab.com/showthread.p...Android-Player

Beside the fact they aren't the same, both use RK2918 chipset, so you can use some of the instructions in this and other threads that mention RK2918.

If you're looking for a java way of developing for the RK2918 series, please look for DALVIK. It's the JVM for many android devices. One tip link: http://davanum.wordpress.com/2007/12...a-on-dalvikvm/

I'm looking for a headless linux distro for the RK2918 series too, so if you find one, please share with us

Cya

[Dean_Rotherham]

Thanks for the speedy reply wolff, much appreciated!

Ok, thought it must be a different one .. I will keep poking around and also post anything I happen to find related to a headless linux kernal for the RK918 chip.

I'm VERY new to Android and hence my initial thoughts of just getting Linux to run on the box instead BUT so it would seem maybe just maybe it would be viable to get my existing Java app working in Android so that might be another way to skin this cat.

Thanks again and will chat soon.

[Dell]

Rk2819

Hi all for your info the GBox 1 and 2 use that chip androidtvbox.us also the intempo evolve although the gbox are root i have not been able to flash the latter as no USB debuging mode.
Hope this helps Dell

[Marshall J]

Hi all for your info the GBox 1 and 2 use that chip androidtvbox.us also the intempo evolve although the gbox are root i have not been able to flash the latter as no USB debuging mode.
Hope this helps Dell

Hi Dell,
I am wondering if you have figured out any better alternatives to the GBox. I have been looking around through Web Hosting Reviews, but have not found anything that looks like a great fit. Any info would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

[Dell]

Reply

Hi marshel j i have got this software update on my Gbox and it is working flawlessly see this link http://www.j1nx.nl/downloads/?did=25
Dell