Could really use some help

[Lodk]

Hello, i hope i am not repeating a question thats been asked .i have been search this forum in hopes to figure it out myself.
I have just bought a leelbox Q4 max
specs
os android 8.1
Rk3328
4/64
Wifi chipset RTL8723BS

My question is is there a better OS or firmware? Maybe an upgrade or even a downgrade? Also what about recovery? I have read in another post about the verified boot issue, but my xposed manager says "verified boot is deactivated " so i wonder is there a twrp for this. I did put a twrp on from a diffrent site but cant seem to boot into recovery.
thanks for any help on this box.

[Lodk]

Tried the T9 4_64-RK3328-6255-V4-1019 from androidPC
all seemed well but wifi wouldnt stay on so no good for me.

[Lodk]

So i have tried several different types of firmware most of them loaded up and worked except for the wifi. The big difference seems to be in the wifi chipset. I can find firmware that is for rk3328 as well as 4/64. The RTL8723BS chipset seems to be the issue.
my next approach will be to see if i can port the firmware i have to a more friendlier UI.

[Silver]

what is the problem with stock firmware?

[Lodk]

There are several issues with the stock that i did not have before. The biggest is i use CBS all access for my local news, over the air is just to undependable. The problem with this is its says in the playstore that the app is not optimized for your device. I am not sure why because the box i used before was a t95z plus android box running 7.1 and i didnt see this message. This dont stop me from downloading and installing the app and the app runs ok except for one huge issue. Once the show is playing and the controls hide there is a blue hue over the screen. If i click on the screen it goes awsy untill the controls again are hidden. This also did not happen before

[Silver]

There are several issues with the stock that i did not have before. The biggest is i use CBS all access for my local news, over the air is just to undependable. The problem with this is its says in the playstore that the app is not optimized for your device. I am not sure why because the box i used before was a t95z plus android box running 7.1 and i didnt see this message. This dont stop me from downloading and installing the app and the app runs ok except for one huge issue. Once the show is playing and the controls hide there is a blue hue over the screen. If i click on the screen it goes awsy untill the controls again are hidden. This also did not happen before

Nobody can fix those bugs, you should get a better box maybe with android 7.1 and decent specs, for example a5x max or mx9 pro, mvr9 tv box is also an option

[RiCkLaR_atvX]

...for example a5x max or mx9 pro, mvr9 tv box is also an option

Those devices are still all Rockchip RK3328 devices, best TVbox devices to buy at the moment are Amlogic S905x2 chipped units. Like most uninformed buyers Lodk probably saw good reviews on Amazon or some other site and that Leelbox came with an upgraded Android version to what was already owned so thought it was a better unit to buy, which is wrong, so best to return it if still in the return window timeframe.

[Silver]

Those devices are still all Rockchip RK3328 devices, best TVbox devices to buy at the moment are Amlogic S905x2 chipped units. Like most uninformed buyers Lodk probably saw good reviews on Amazon or some other site and that Leelbox came with an upgraded Android version to what was already owned so thought it was a better unit to buy, which is wrong, so best to return it if still in the return window timeframe.

Yes but you can overclock those boxes from 1,6ghz to 2,02ghz and they give good video playback

[RiCkLaR_atvX]

Yes but you can overclock those boxes from 1,6ghz to 2,02ghz and they give good video playback

You shouldn't have to over clock a TVbox for it to start performing correctly.

The Mali-450 GPU of the Rockchip RK3328 is weak compared to the Mali-G31 GPU of the the Amlogic S905x2. Besides the G31 having ability to use OpenGL 3.2 and Vulcan 1.0 which the Mali-450 doesn't support, the Throughput of the G31 is twice that of the Mali-450, G31 is 1.3 Gpix/s per core where the Mali-450 can only muster 0.65 Gpix/s.

So, I wouldn't categorize the RK3328 playback as "Good" more like Decent, but at least it is still better than a RaspberryPi.

[Lodk]

Those devices are still all Rockchip RK3328 devices, best TVbox devices to buy at the moment are Amlogic S905x2 chipped units. Like most uninformed buyers Lodk probably saw good reviews on Amazon or some other site and that Leelbox came with an upgraded Android version to what was already owned so thought it was a better unit to buy, which is wrong, so best to return it if still in the return window timeframe.

Your almost 100% right. I thought i did my homework (guess not). It was not so much the updated FW as it was 5he updated ram an rom. I was using a sunvell t95z plus and it worked good but very low ram only 2GB so i thought with good reviews an upgrade to more ram would be a win win (guess not).
anyway its to late to return i believe and as for playing my streaming apps like cyberflix for my daily go to it works great so i guess i just use my work arounds for now. I will keep trying to find a better FW in the meantime. After much reading i think the best option is to try and get twrp installed and either find a good rom to load or install xposed and try and tweak things to work better.
worse case its 50 bucks lesson learned and I go get a better box.
Here's to the journey of knowledge and the pratfalls we encounter. Thanks for all your input everyone. Cheers

[Silver]

You shouldn't have to over clock a TVbox for it to start performing correctly.

The Mali-450 GPU of the Rockchip RK3328 is weak compared to the Mali-G31 GPU of the the Amlogic S905x2. Besides the G31 having ability to use OpenGL 3.2 and Vulcan 1.0 which the Mali-450 doesn't support, the Throughput of the G31 is twice that of the Mali-450, G31 is 1.3 Gpix/s per core where the Mali-450 can only muster 0.65 Gpix/s.

So, I wouldn't categorize the RK3328 playback as "Good" more like Decent, but at least it is still better than a RaspberryPi.

Well i had many amlogic boxes and they all suck, they give better performance but are pretty unstable in long therm use, they freeze for no reason and stuff, Rockchip has better image quality.

Besides Amlogic fools you with fake clock speeds returning false values to android so thats a no go for me.

[mo123]

Rockchip supports 10-bit H264, better sd video playback, better deinterlacing support, can run 64-bit apps, better color output, better Linux support etc.
But I must say, I'm impressed by the Ugoos AM6 S922x, video playback is really good in Kodi, all my 4K and HDR test videos played correctly except VC1 was a problem.
I will say S922x has a bit better 4K playback than RK3328 and the faster CPU supports 1080p Netflix in CoreELEC compared to RK3328 with only 720p Netflix but RK3328 definitely has better color output. With RK3328 vs S905x, RK3328 is the winner especially if you run LibreELEC for video playback.
I can't wait for RK3530 since it will finally run a faster Mali G51, 1.8Ghz CPU and support a v2.0 VPU with more HDR formats support, so things like 1080p Netflix in LibreELEC will be possible instead of buying a more expensive RK3399 that is a bit outdated now since it's still a 2017 chip. RK3530 has a better GPU than S905x2, S905X3 and S922x and will run in 64-bit mode and be cheaper than S922x, so it will be exciting when it's released.
But it also depends on the manufacturer's support, the first devices that will be shipped will most likely be ship and forget devices with no support and cheap components. So we will have to wait until a few RK3530 devices are available to get one with decent software support.

[Silver]

Well i had many amlogic boxes and they all suck, they give better performance but are pretty unstable in long therm use, they freeze for no reason and stuff, Rockchip has better image quality.

Besides Amlogic fools you with fake clock speeds returning false values to android so thats a no go for me.

Well, i currently work on some firmware patches for the rk3328 i rly like that u cannot rly brick those boards, with maskrom nothing goes wrong. The biggest problem is the missing support for those chinese tv boxes, for example i have currently a mx9 pro in use with a modded stock rom, it fills all my needs, root, twrp, gravitybox and overclock to 2,02ghz with kernel auditor settings is possible, you could also use parts of other firmwares in different box models with same cpu no problem but some bugs cant be fixed, for example Statusbar and Navbar have been disabled in framework-res but somehow the WallpaperService is not present, so you cannot set many launchers, also the overflow button is missing due to wrong configuration.

The Box never froze or crashed unexpected, before i had an amlogic beelink gt1 s912, it was faster than the rk3328 but it was damn unstable and video playback in youtube was horrible,i had much micro stuttering that ****ed up the framerate interpolatjon from my 4k tv so it was a pain in the eyes.

Im hyped for this new cpu aswell, i hope they publish good boxes with decent firmware support ect.


with good tweaking you can get an rk3328 from 32.000 antutu points to 64.000 points thats pretty good. Lets see and hope they listen to customers requests.


Will post custom rom for generic rk3328 tv box in future still needs testing and improving, im too retarded to make union flash files so it will be twrp flashable lol

[mo123]

Silver
Do you perhaps know or know of someone that knows how u-boot works?

https://github.com/rockchip-linux/u-boot

I build Android Pie for RK3328 with above u-boot to make it the newest.
RKBin is also needed for the latest loader files.

https://github.com/rockchip-linux/rkbin

But after flashing Android Pie, PC AndroidTool v2.69 can't detect device anymore to flash again.
Only says 'No device found', if you connect OTG USB and press Recovery it still says it, doesn't enter 'Loader Mode' or MaskROM Mode'
Only way to recover device is to run LibreELEC from a micro-sd card and rwstore previous Android backup so AndroidTool can detect device again.

I see from Android Pie onwards, the u-boot also contains rk3328-evb.dts file you need to modify same as the kernel.
So I think the u-boot dts file perhaps don't have the drivers for the Recovery button or OTG USB port.

You know by any chance how to make AndroidTool discover device again in such a case without sorting pins?

[Silver]

Silver
Do you perhaps know or know of someone that knows how u-boot works?

https://github.com/rockchip-linux/u-boot

I build Android Pie for RK3328 with above u-boot to make it the newest.
RKBin is also needed for the latest loader files.

https://github.com/rockchip-linux/rkbin

But after flashing Android Pie, PC AndroidTool v2.69 can't detect device anymore to flash again.
Only says 'No device found', if you connect OTG USB and press Recovery it still says it, doesn't enter 'Loader Mode' or MaskROM Mode'
Only way to recover device is to run LibreELEC from a micro-sd card and rwstore previous Android backup so AndroidTool can detect device again.

I see from Android Pie onwards, the u-boot also contains rk3328-evb.dts file you need to modify same as the kernel.
So I think the u-boot dts file perhaps don't have the drivers for the Recovery button or OTG USB port.

You know by any chance how to make AndroidTool discover device again in such a case without sorting pins?

Maybe it does require you to plug in power + usb to detect the box, im not too familiar with uboot, i only know how to unlock the rk3328 bootloader via fastboot,

try to switch from usb 3.0 to 2.0 ect. helped me sometimes, do you hear a sound in windows when you connect the box to the usb? maybe try a different version of androidtool or factorytool, i saw some box was only detected with some androidtool versions for example those shitty h96max rk3399 box, was a pain in the ass to flash it.

did you also try the other usb ports? maybe function got changed to a different usb port.

[Lodk]

[QUOTE=Silver;n781910]

i only know how to unlock the rk3328 bootloader via fastboot,


I would be greatly appreciated if you could tell me how this is done. I have figured out how to unpack and repack and the firmware. As well as unpack and repack the apks and then resigning them
I have also poked around a bit and tried to understand the code. Learning as i go.
i beleive the bootloader my be still locked as it is labeled as (unknown) in cpu-x.
my main intent is to figure out how to take my firmware and mix it with a stock aosp.img to just get a platform like any run of the mill android phone. But i have a mountain of learning to do.