Announcement

**mo123** · 08 September 2021, 05:48

How to Flash Firmware

Only do this once for AndroidTV firmware or when installing Linux or a different Android OS version.
In future you can just click Upgrade in 'Upgrade Firmware' and skip all the other steps.

To download firmware to EMMC, we need to download Boot.img first, and then select to switch the storage to EMMC.
The specific steps are as follows:

Step 1: We need to get MiniLoaderAll.bin and download it.

Step 2: Click the option Advanced Function in RKDevTool and then download the file MiniLoaderAll.bin to the Boot by clicking the button Download when MiniLoaderAll.bin has been selected in the Boot text box. See below:

Step 3: Click the button List Storage to get the storage media list, the SPINOR is selected in the list, we click EraseAll to erase the Nor-Flash

X means device does not exist
0 means the media exist, but is not selected
? means the media exist and in the selected state

Step 4: Select the storage media Emmc in the list and click the button Switch Storage

The storage media Emmc state of the list will go from 0 to ?, indicating EMMC is selected. At this time, the firmware we download to the board will be burned into EMMC

Step 5: click the button EraseAll to erase the EMMC

Step 6: Click the option Upgrade Firmware?select the unzipped Android update.img we want to download and click Upgrade.

Wait 5 minutes after Download Firmware completes and the bottom message shows 'Found One ADB Device'.

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For Kodi, Reboot the device for frame-rate settings to show.
HD Audio passthrough - Enable HDMI BitStream in Sound Settings in Android and also enable all the codecs manually for it to show in Kodi.
- In Kodi - Select IEC Kodi Passthrough instead of RAW to see all the passthrough options.

For recents menu, use the Dashboard app.
Google removed recent apps in Android 11 and it only works in the stock launcher, wonder how they will fix their own created problem since the AndroidTV 11 launcher doesn't have it's own built-in recent apps yet.

Unlinked App Store - Type 'Stationpc' to access the store and install useful AndroidTV apps.
Tell me some interesting AndroidTV or streaming apps to add that are free or open-source and legal.

**Trigu75** · 08 September 2021, 06:54

Are you sharing the code changes? GitHub , gitlab?

I would like to help , I have hk1 rbox r2 , 4g ram (ddr4) , have the device dtb ( and dts source ) , could be nice if we could start android from sd ( test before burn to Emmc .. )

**mitchell4you** · 08 September 2021, 08:08

hmm... cool and unexpected....

Can't wait to test this firmware...or see a review of it

Does it have a navigation bar? ( recent/home/back or notifications bar )

-As for booting from sd, why not use Usb3 port...it should be alot faster ( for testing fw prior to flashing )

Cheers

**Trigu75** · 08 September 2021, 09:04

https://github.com/procount/pinn

or this even could be nicer , to install , or load different systems, kind of os boot manager

you can’t boot from usb3 / usb

usb power is off , and it turns on only after uboot/kernel is loaded. ( from tests I’ve done )

boot order is SD. , EMMC

**Trigu75** · 09 September 2021, 06:31

This is nice work ...

I have a few questions ...

where are all the changes done documented ? Source?

this rom was built for station m2 , using firefly-roc-pc dts/dtb file

is it possible , maybe , to share all the changes , sources , or maybe build roms for each rk3566 android box device using the dtb sources inside of each device firmware files?

this rom will work ONLY on m2 , don’t try to load it on your android box

if I upload my device dts ‘ or dtb , can you recompile your source , with my dts?

I tried sddiktool , and created the sd memory having sd boot checked ... with a firmware image of my device ( which is installed already so I know it works ) to be sure it loads

and it didn’t load ... get the android icon with “ no command “ message , instead of android starting

https://www.dropbox.com/s/747400zmni7njc0/FB411D5D-83CD-44EB-98CA-EDD3A73B31D6.jpeg?dl=0

not sure this tool makes a working bootable android on SD , it looks like it just builds an upgrade/restore tool on sd , not a system load

so back to my question .. is it possible to recompile if I provide my dts file?

**Trigu75** · 16 September 2021, 19:37

I finally soldered cables to UART on my device (HK1 rbox r2) , connected to my usb-ttl , connected to it using 1500000 as speed

so if anyone interested ... I can now debug ..

this is the console while booting android

https://pastebin.com/Gn5cPXJJ

mo123 ... if I give you my device DTB file , can you make an image for it? or what exactly is needed for the people releasing Roms / OS to create images I can test from SD card .. or from emmc after I backup the entire emmc (will dd work as backup of the whole memory? )

**mo123** · 30 September 2021, 05:44

Updated v1.1 ROM
Video Playback is now better than on Amlogic S905x3/x4.

**RiCkLaR_atvX** · 30 September 2021, 07:55

Originally posted by mo123 View Post

Updated v1.1 ROM
Video Playback is now better than on Amlogic S905x3/x4.

Better in what way??? Skeptical :/

**mo123** · 30 September 2021, 11:19

RiCkLaR_atvX

Stock rk356x firmware, 2 months or older is horrible and lots of videos can't even open or play. Most generic rk356x devices won't get any updates or the manufacturers will just compile the same firmware with 10 month old code with a different date.
That why I only use development boards.
If you use a no name device, an Amlogic one would provide some better playback if none gets updated.
WIth the latest Rockchip firmware, the bugs are no more and video playback is similar and in some instances better.

Just generic info:

Rockchip color output is more vivid than Amlogic.
Don't know if it's hardware or software but on Amlogic color look looks a little duller or more blue tinted.
I think only Ugoos has options for color management and not stock Amlogic firmwares, but I usually check with the default set values.

HD audio passthrough 7.1 channels is also supported by default on Rockchip A11 in the latest release and not in stock Amlogic firmwares.

Auto frame-rate also supported without any root access needed on Rockchip A11 using Google API developed for it. Only Ugoos Amlogic devices can use it without root, other Amlogic devices need root and 3rd party apps which are not fully optimized and not using the existing Android framework.

Motion and movement in video playback feels slightly more natural on Rockchip A11 compared to Amlogic.

10-Bit H264 hardware decoding and only software decoding on Amlogic devices with high CPU usage and skipped frames.

Also 64-Bit OS support compared to 32-Bit OS.

Open-source vendor kernel codec drivers including hardware deinterlace driver with regular bug-fixes and improvements, also compatible with Linux.Older devices like RK3399 using mainline Linux Kernel codec drivers already with great video playback.
LibreELEC gave up on Amlogic VPU driver support since it was a hot mess. Only CoreELEC with custom older kernel drivers together with Kodi video code hacks work correctly.

Some S922x devices do support Dolby Vision now which is lacking on all Rockchip devices which make them better in that regard. AV1 is also going to take years to adopt since all smart tv's will need to use new chips and it will only be useful on Google Certified devices using L1 Widevine streaming services. Most PC's also can't play back 4K AV1. So this is just a marketing gimmick. Another 2 generations of Amlogic, Rockchip devices would have to be released before AV1 is more used I think.

**Trigu75** · 30 September 2021, 13:44

All this sound great , I managed to run armbian for station m2 on my hk1 rbox r2 device using the extracted dtb file from my device firmware ..

could you help me ( in private if you want or in public ) I would like to try to load your mods on my device , I have soldered uart and have full control of the board from console , so I could even try to load it manually , typing commands on uboot ...

I believe these mods could work on all the different rk2566 android boxes ....

or maybe .. could you build the same room but using my dtb ? I can upload it somewhere

‘I just don’t want to erase my Mmc , and the sdcard is also recognized as mmc (Mmcblk0 and mmcblk1). I noticed rockchip is constantly updating their GitHub ... but as you said l vendors don’t bother to release new firmwares

**RiCkLaR_atvX** · 01 October 2021, 08:38

mo123 thanks for the deeper dive into why you feel the RK356x is better, some valid points, but the premium price these new RK chips and dev boards are selling at is the only reason I've stayed away from them.

More Questions:

* With this Station_M2 if you add an M.2-SSD drive does it actually fit inside that tight slim case?

* Or would you have to get the Station_P2 to have more room for the SSD to be inside the case without modification?

* Can Android boot from the M.2-SSD?

**mo123** · 01 October 2021, 12:47

Originally posted by RiCkLaR_atvX View Post

mo123 thanks for the deeper dive into why you feel the RK356x is better, some valid points, but the premium price these new RK chips and dev boards are selling at is the only reason I've stayed away from them.

More Questions:

* With this Station_M2 if you add an M.2-SSD drive does it actually fit inside that tight slim case?

* Or would you have to get the Station_P2 to have more room for the SSD to be inside the case without modification?

* Can Android boot from the M.2-SSD?

I was also curious but think the M2 uses M.2 Type 2242, it is a small form factor SSD(didn't know they existed) compared to the normal thin, longer ones you see everywhere which won't fit.
I'll try to get more info in 10 days of actual M2 SSD's that it was tested with, how to fit it and if it still fits in the case.

The Station M2 has a whole slot where you can slide in a normal size ssd which would make it better to use for 24/7 Linux OS's or OpenWRT Router, server etc.
RK3568 has OpenWRT support and 2 ethernet ports.

They have SPINOR flash chips which make things interesting and can help with multi-boot.
In future, after the Chinese holiday(maybe end Oct), better multi-boot will be available then you can boot Linux or Android from emmc, micro-sd and m.2/SSD easily without any Rockchip tools that need specific bootloaders, recoveries and flash tools etc.

It's just a pity for each new chipset, they don't already have mainline Linux support.
RK3399 devices now have mainline Linux support and it makes it so much easier to just use a new Linux OS with full GPU and VPU acceleration.
I hope for RK356x devices it won't take too long but the 4.19 vendor kernel has full GPU, VPU support at least for now.

**Trigu75** · 01 October 2021, 16:42

I don’t know which manufacturer mentioned anything about “their sdk”

and it’s abvious they say that they want to sell their device, The core is the same ...

i dont understand why are you so closed ...

I am able to manually boot from usb , network, Emma , and sd cart just by tying different command on my uboot prompt

the dtb file is what configures the device tree , the answer used ... , the only difference I see between m2 and my device ... is my wifi chip , it uses hk5325f

armbian image for m2 works great (4.19) using my dtb file ... on that side it’s easy to boot , i’t just a file name inside a configuration file

but not the case with android images

m2 and my device are both rk3566

all I asked is , where can I find the sources of all your changes so I can rebuild the image but using my dtb file

i’ve Been able to run smooth video playback under armbian after compiling all their drivers (libmali , libdrm , Librga , mpp , xserver , ffmpeg with rkmpp support , mpv )

and all from firefly , and rockchip

**Trigu75** · 01 October 2021, 16:50

this is my device uboot env ... as you can see everything gets configured on the fly .. it tries mmc1 (sd) then mmc0 (mmc) , then usb0 (first usb storage device mounted on usb port) pxe , dhcp (bootp)

I was able to boot the same armbian station m2 image ... just burned on sd , or usb , or as image from network

I want to boot yours ( with my device dtb )

=> env print
arch=arm
baudrate=1500000
board=evb_rk3568
board_name=evb_rk3568
boot_a_script=load ${devtype} ${devnum}:${distro_bootpart} ${scriptaddr} ${prefix}${script}; source ${scriptaddr}
boot_extlinux=sysboot ${devtype} ${devnum}:${distro_bootpart} any ${scriptaddr} ${prefix}extlinux/extlinux.conf
boot_net_usb_start=usb start
boot_prefixes=/ /boot/
boot_script_dhcp=boot.scr.uimg
boot_scripts=boot.scr.uimg boot.scr
boot_targets=mmc1 mmc0 usb0 pxe dhcp
bootargs=storagemedia=emmc androidboot.storagemedia=emmc androidboot.mode=normal androidboot.dtb_idx=0 androidboot.dtbo_idx=0
bootcmd=boot_fit;boot_android ${devtype} ${devnum};run distro_bootcmd;
bootcmd_dhcp=run boot_net_usb_start; if dhcp ${scriptaddr} ${boot_script_dhcp}; then source ${scriptaddr}; fi;
bootcmd_mmc0=setenv devnum 0; run mmc_boot
bootcmd_mmc1=setenv devnum 1; run mmc_boot
bootcmd_pxe=run boot_net_usb_start; dhcp; if pxe get; then pxe boot; fi
bootcmd_usb0=setenv devnum 0; run usb_boot
bootdelay=0
cpu=armv8
devnum=0
devtype=mmc
distro_bootcmd=for target in ${boot_targets}; do run bootcmd_${target}; done
eth1addr=aa:63:fe:2e:2a:22
ethaddr=a6:63:fe:2e:2a:22
fdt_addr_r=0x0a100000
kernel_addr_c=0x04080000
kernel_addr_no_low_bl32_r=0x00280000
kernel_addr_r=0x00280000
mmc_boot=if mmc dev ${devnum}; then setenv devtype mmc; run scan_dev_for_boot_part; fi
partitions=uuid_disk=${uuid_gpt_disk};name=uboot,s tart=8MB,size=4MB,uuid=${uuid_gpt_loader2};name=tr ust,size=4M,uuid=${uuid_gpt_atf};name=misc,size=4M B,uuid=${uuid_gpt_misc};name=resource,size=16MB,uu id=${uuid_gpt_resource};name=kernel,size=32M,uuid= ${uuid_gpt_kernel};name=boot,size=32M,bootable,uui d=${uuid_gpt_boot};name=recovery,size=32M,uuid=${u uid_gpt_recovery};name=backup,size=112M,uuid=${uui d_gpt_backup};name=cache,size=512M,uuid=${uuid_gpt _cache};name=system,size=2048M,uuid=${uuid_gpt_sys tem};name=metadata,size=16M,uuid=${uuid_gpt_metada ta};name=vendor,size=32M,uuid=${uuid_gpt_vendor};n ame=oem,size=32M,uuid=${uuid_gpt_oem};name=frp,siz e=512K,uuid=${uuid_gpt_frp};name=security,size=2M, uuid=${uuid_gpt_security};name=userdata,size=-,uuid=${uuid_gpt_userdata};
pxefile_addr_r=0x00e00000
ramdisk_addr_r=0x0a200000
rkimg_bootdev=if mmc dev 1 && rkimgtest mmc 1; then setenv devtype mmc; setenv devnum 1; echo Boot from SDcard;elif mmc dev 0; then setenv devtype mmc; setenv devnum 0;elif mtd_blk dev 0; then setenv devtype mtd; setenv devnum 0;elif mtd_blk dev 1; then setenv devtype mtd; setenv devnum 1;elif mtd_blk dev 2; then setenv devtype mtd; setenv devnum 2;elif rknand dev 0; then setenv devtype rknand; setenv devnum 0;elif rksfc dev 0; then setenv devtype spinand; setenv devnum 0;elif rksfc dev 1; then setenv devtype spinor; setenv devnum 1;fi;
scan_dev_for_boot=echo Scanning ${devtype} ${devnum}:${distro_bootpart}...; for prefix in ${boot_prefixes}; do run scan_dev_for_extlinux; run scan_dev_for_scripts; done;
scan_dev_for_boot_part=part list ${devtype} ${devnum} -bootable devplist; env exists devplist || setenv devplist 1; for distro_bootpart in ${devplist}; do if fstype ${devtype} ${devnum}:${distro_bootpart} bootfstype; then run scan_dev_for_boot; fi; done
scan_dev_for_extlinux=if test -e ${devtype} ${devnum}:${distro_bootpart} ${prefix}extlinux/extlinux.conf; then echo Found ${prefix}extlinux/extlinux.conf; run boot_extlinux; echo SCRIPT FAILED: continuing...; fi
scan_dev_for_scripts=for script in ${boot_scripts}; do if test -e ${devtype} ${devnum}:${distro_bootpart} ${prefix}${script}; then echo Found U-Boot script ${prefix}${script}; run boot_a_script; echo SCRIPT FAILED: continuing...; fi; done
scriptaddr=0x00c00000
soc=rockchip
stderr=serial,vidconsole
stdout=serial,vidconsole
usb_boot=usb start; if usb dev ${devnum}; then setenv devtype usb; run scan_dev_for_boot_part; fi
vendor=rockchip

Environment size: 3881/32764 bytes

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Station M2 RK3566 - AndroidTV 11 Custom ROM

Station M2 RK3566 - AndroidTV 11 Custom ROM

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