April RK3368 True Octacore Thread

[robot20]

ROM Flashed Ok
Connect to TV and powered onto blue light.
No signal on TV.
Reflashed Lonix kernel and now OK

[cOOLio]

...testing, testing ... no heat issues.

YEEES bro that looks awesome ... I'm also nearly finished with testing of my new release ... best GeekBench4 RK3368 single core speed until now @ my shitty slow box with Z4 Stock Kernel & Stock Power Supply 5V 2A

[Shomari]

YEEES bro that looks awesome ... I'm also nearly finished with testing of my new release ... best GeekBench4 RK3368 single core speed until now @ my shitty slow box with Z4 Stock Kernel & Stock Power Supply 5V 2A

damn... you clipped me by two points on that single core score. Hahaha ... us and our shitty asa boxes with shitty ass emmc and shitty cpus and shitty results.

[cOOLio]

damn... you clipped me by two points on that single core score. Hahaha ... us and our shitty asa boxes with shitty ass emmc and shitty cpus and shitty results.

Hehehe .... yes that was pretty close. And I'm sure you will beat this soon. Cause your box is faster then mine and yours has more juice. I ordered my 5V 4A Power Supply already via china, Will be delivered mid Mai (WTF smails). Will release sooon. Still struggling with the TWRP bug and have to add & test some small new features ...

[dkholm56]

... alright. One last thing for you to try for now, is to flash the firmware I sent yesterday, then flash your stock kernel over it. That probably would get it to boot. If it does, the next step would be to make you a proper dtb (resource) for your device to enable all the enhancements

Shomari,
flashed firmware you sent, then flashed stock kernel. Box boots to M8Pro flash screen and stays there. Tried it twice. I did modify build.prop as you told me then flashed the boot.img you provided. made sure the box would boot. then flashed the firmware you sent, and then stock kernel. Was that correct.
thanks

[Sabinus]

You use the first link for the full firmware. The Z4 links are for the Z4, or for users that need 5G wifi on AP6330.

So just to be sure, if I have a i68 box with AP6330 I firstly flash the full 6335 rom, then flash Z4 (kernel and resource)..
Or I should flash only Z4 (kernel and resource) ?

[Shomari]

I don't know what you're trying to do.

If you flash just the kernel/resource, you're only getting a kernel/resource. That's not a firmware.

If you want to use the actual firmware, you flash the actual firmware. If you need 5G wifi on an AP6330 chipset, you then flash the mentioned kernel/resource combo to get it. Sabinus

[Shomari]

... and btw, if you're trying to stick kernel/resource from my firmware into mo123's Nagrace firmware, it's not going to work by simply flashing and combining images.

The Nagrace firmware utilizes a boot.img with a second layer. The dtb and kernel reside there along with the ramdisk.

It's trivial to unpack and eliminate the second layer, or to unpack and alter the second layer with the dtb of your choice. But, I'm not got into those methods here. Just to say you cannot just flash kernel/resource 'into' Nagrace firmware, it's overridden by the files in the boot image.

[Sabinus]

I first flashed the full rom, but got Missing Signal
Then I restarted in bootloader and flashed Z4 (kernel and resource).
It works now!
Got 43578 in Antutu

[Sabinus]

ROM Flashed Ok
Connect to TV and powered onto blue light.
No signal on TV.
Reflashed Lonix kernel and now OK

Try what I have said previously.. I think it will work

[Sabinus]

I have to report a single most common problem until now:
The HDMI Bitstream audio output does not work with passthrough from Kodi.
This option only worked with stock I68 roms or Mo123's (which disable wifi instead).
Is it necessary to use some patched libraries to workaround this issue ?

[Shomari]

I first flashed the full rom, but got Missing Signal
Then I restarted in bootloader and flashed Z4 (kernel and resource).
It works now!
Got 43578 in Antutu

That's exactly what the directions are for anyone with AP6330 chipset, as well as for anyone with a Z4. It's in the first post, we've also covered it a couple times since then.

Thanks for clarifying it for some of the newer users.

[Shomari]

I have to report a single most common problem until now:
The HDMI Bitstream audio output does not work with passthrough from Kodi.
This option only worked with stock I68 roms or Mo123's (which disable wifi instead).
Is it necessary to use some patched libraries to workaround this issue ?

I don't know what you mean.

If you're referring to passthrough audio as implemented by utilizing the standardized Android api following the specification of IEC 61937, that's unsupported in all RK3368 firmware, except one stock firmware for the i68 from February of this year.

There are NO firmwares that have implemented that api properly and the firmware for the i68 that has implemented it has terrible performance and particularly poor video playback.

It's all been covered many times, and I've tested, as well as have others, many firmwares and combinations extensively. I would've bothered to continue to attempt a proper port of passthrough audio support, as I attempted for a brief period, but testers were slim to none, and so I aborted all efforts as that's not something I'm personally interested in.

Nagrace RK3368 firmware, like all others minus the one I mentioned, never has had IEC 61937 audio methods support.

Nagrace firmware and any other firmware where users think they're getting proper passthrough in RK3368 are firmwares that use RK's private, unpublished apis and unsupported methods; that's why you're limited to using RK's garbage patches and ancient Kodi forks.

Audio, video, and other support in Android comes from implementing industry standards (public api) in firmware. Rockchip thinks it knows better and continues to push RKcodec and all its limitations instead of adhering to Android's public standards, like everyone else.

TLDR; ----- no, you can't simply 'patch' your way into public api support. If you want passthrough audio as supported by Android, only one firmware does it, and it's not any of those you mentioned, and it's a very poor firmware that you won't want to use.

This is the only firmware that properly implements passthrough audio on RK3368 as specified according to Android API:

http://chinagadgetsreviews.com/downl...-tv-box-2.html

[Sabinus]

I understand your point but I don't represent either RK or any manufacturer. I only need HDMI Bitstream output to work with 5.1 material.
So to clarify, that means Nagrace follows somehow RK 's proprietary codecs to manage passthrough.
And Beelink uses the same method?
Meaning that I have to stick to stock roms (last from beelink is 27.09.2016).. Or ask Mo to kindly add some AP6330 support in his nagrace custom rom.
Because really, sorry to say that, I just want a better rom for the box I payed 80 dollars for, regardless of the official/unofficial Api' s used.

[Shomari]

I understand your point but I don't represent either RK or any manufacturer. I only need HDMI Bitstream output to work with 5.1 material.
So to clarify, that means Nagrace follows somehow RK 's proprietary codecs to manage passthrough.
And Beelink uses the same method?
Meaning that I have to stick to stock roms (last from beelink is 27.09.2016).. Or ask Mo to kindly add some AP6330 support in his nagrace custom rom.
Because really, sorry to say that, I just want a better rom for the box I payed 80 dollars for, regardless of the official/unofficial Api' s used.

Naaah, of course. I understand how you feel, that's why I do what I do, for the users. But, you're confused, a little bit. No stock firmware, except for the one I linked, does 'real' Android audio passthrough on RK3368. And there are two main types of passthrough on RK3368.

The i68 uses the official public Android api - let's call that 'real Android passthrough - to be simplistic.

The Nagrace firmware uses the bastardized, private, unsupported Rockchip method, which requires Rockchip's secret binaries to work. Let's call that Rockchip method the 'bootleg Android passthrough'.

The firmwares that implement the bootleg passthrough method only offer passthrough with certain bootleg apps that utilize RK's bootleg methods. If you're fine with that substantial ecosystem limitation, you'll be happy with Nagrace firmware or any other firmware that uses RK's bootleg passthrough implementation.

Firmware such as the one I linked, uses the official Android public api, and supports passthrough in all apps - Kodi and otherwise. No ecosystem limitations as far as audio support is concerned.

You want a better firmware, of course. And your options are limited given your requirements.

I do this for the people, and so I fully understand and don't begrudge your wishes one bit. But your beef is not with me; furthermore, as discussed previously in these forums, if RK provided proper sources (they don't, that's the whole point) I would've implemented 'real' passthrough long ago. Rockchip doesn't care for public api support, they put their development focus on their bootleg methods.

You can ask mo123, nicely all you want, but you won't be the first. He's never been interested in porting firmware for anyone or any devices other than Nagrace and Ugoos.

What mo123 does is after sales support for Nagrace/Ugoos. I don't understand how anyone has failed to understand this.

If you're not part of that sales funnel, you're not getting any support from him. Buy a Nagrace box is what he'll tell you, and he'll add that all other boxes are inferior in his commentary for a little extra spice.

So again, your beef is not with me, or even mo123 in this case, it's with whoever made your i68 and RK itself.