- Images for non LTS version can be downloaded here
Support for generic RK3228A, RK3228B and RK3229 TV boxes, with various commercial names and manufacturers (MXQ 4k, MXQ Pro 4k, V88 Mars, A8, Model X, etc…)
Due to the really large hardware variety, there is the rare chance that the images proposed here may not boot. If a bad image is burned in eMMC, the box may not boot anymore forcing you to follow the unbrick section at the bottom of this post.
Forum thread with guides, suggestions, support, hardware acceleration multimedia support: https://forum.armbian.com/topic/12656-wip-armbian-for-rk322x-devices/
Quick installation instructions on eMMC:
- Build or download your preferred Armbian image and a copy of the Multitool;
- Burn the Multitool on an SD card; once done, place the Armbian image in images folder of the SD card FAT partition;
- Plug the SD card in the TV box and plug in the power cord. After some seconds the blue led starts blinking and the Multitool appears;
- OPTIONAL: you can do a backup of the existing firmware with “Backup flash” menu option;
- Choose “Burn image to flash” from the menu, then select the destination device (usually mmcblk2) and the image to burn;
- Wait for the process to complete, then choose “Shutdown” from main menu;
- Unplug the power cord and the SD card, then replug the power cord;
- Wait for 10 seconds, then the led should start blinking and HDMI will turn on. The first time the boot process will take a couple of minutes or more because the filesystem is going to be resized, so be patient and wait for the login prompt.
- On first boot you will be asked for entering a password for root user of your choice and the name and password for a regular user
- Run sudo rk322x-config and select your board characteristics to enable leds, wifi chips, high-speed eMMC, etc…
- Run armbian-config to configure timezone, locales and other personal options
- Congratulations, Armbian is now installed!
Quick installation instructions on NAND:
- Build or download your preferred Armbian image and a copy of the Multitool;
- Burn the Multitool on an SD card; once done, place the Armbian legacy kernel image in images folder of the SD card FAT partition;
- Plug the SD card in the TV box and plug in the power cord. After some seconds the blue led starts blinking and the Multitool appears;
- OPTIONAL: you can do a backup of the existing firmware with “Backup flash” menu option;
- Choose “Burn Armbian image via steP-nand” from the menu, then select the destination device (usually rknand0) and the image to burn;
- Wait for the process to complete, then choose “Shutdown” from main menu;
- Unplug the power cord and the SD card, then replug the power cord;
- Wait for 10 seconds, then the led should start blinking and HDMI will turn on. The first time the boot process will take a couple of minutes or more because the filesystem is going to be resized, so be patient and wait for the login prompt.
- On first boot you will be asked for entering a password for root user of your choice and the name and password for a regular user
- Run sudo rk322x-config and select your board characteristics to enable leds, wifi chips, etc…
- Run armbian-config to configure timezone, locales and other personal options
- Congratulations, Armbian is now installed!
Quick installation instructions to boot from SD Card:
- If you are already running Armbian from eMMC, skip to the next step. Instead if you are running the original firmware you need to first erase the internal eMMC; to do so download the Multitool, burn it on an SD Card, plug the SD Card and power the TV Box. Use “Backup flash” if you want to do a backup of the existing firmware, then choose “Erase flash” menu option.
- Build or download your preferred Armbian image;
- Uncompress and burn the Armbian image on the SD Card;
- Plug the SD Card in the TV Box and power it on;
- Wait for 10 seconds, then the led should start blinking and HDMI will turn on. The first time the boot process will take a couple of minutes or more because the filesystem is going to be resized, so be patient and wait for the login prompt;
- On first boot you will be asked for entering a password for root user of your choice and the name and password for a regular user
- Run sudo rk322x-config and select your board characteristics to enable leds, wifi chips, high-speed eMMC or NAND, etc…
- Run armbian-config to configure timezone, locales and other personal options, or also to transfer the SD Card installation to internal eMMC;
- Congratulations, Armbian is running from SD Card!
Boot device order:
With Armbian also comes mainline U-boot. If you install Armbian or just the bootloader in the eMMC or the Jump Start on internal NAND, the bootloader will look for valid bootable images in this order:
- External SD Card
- External USB Stick in OTG Port
- Internal eMMC
Unbrick:
Rockchip devices cannot be bricked. If the internal flash does not contain a bootable system, they will always boot from the sdcard. If, for a reason, the bootable system on the internal flash is corrupted or is unable to boot correctly, you can always force the maskrom mode shorting the eMMC clock pin on the PCB. Here there is the procedure, but you can also google around if you get stuck on a faulty bootloader, the technique is pretty simple and requires a simple screwdriver.
Supported TV Box variants: Chiptrip Q8, Vsmart Q8, ENY 3288 Q8, etc…
Known signatures on the electrical boards are xt-q8l-v10 and eny-q8p-v10
Installation on eMMC:
- Download your preferred Armbian image a copy of the Multitool;
- Burn the Multitool on an SD card; once done, place the Armbian image in images folder of the SD card FAT partition;
- Plug the SD card in the TV box and plug in the power cord. After some seconds the blue led starts blinking and the Multitool appears;
- OPTIONAL: you can do a backup of the existing firmware with “Backup flash” menu option;
- Choose “Burn image to flash” from the menu, then select the destination device (usually mmcblk2) and the image to burn;
- Wait for the process to complete, then choose “Shutdown” from main menu;
- Unplug the sd card, then push the power button for 1 second (the led will turn blue)
- After 10 seconds HDMI will turn on and you will get logging messages;
- On first boot you will be asked for entering a password for root user of your choice and the name and password for a regular user
- Run armbian-config to configure timezone, locales and other personal options
- Congratulations, Armbian is now installed!
Boot from SD Card/USB stick (with Armbian already installed in eMMC, empty eMMC or no eMMC):
- Download your preferred Armbian image;
- Burn the image on your SD card/USB stick;
- Plug the SD card/USB stick in the device;
- Push the power button for 1 second (the led will turn blue);
- After 10 seconds HDMI will turn on and you will get logging messages;
- On first boot you will be asked for entering a password for root user of your choice and the name and password for a regular user
- Run armbian-config to configure timezone, locales and other personal options
- Congratulations, Armbian is now installed!
Boot from SD Card/USB stick (with original firmware or other firmware):
In case your box has the original firmware installed, use the Multitool to erase the internal flash.
Don’t worry, you will not brick your box: once the eMMC is emptied, the box will automatically boot from SD Card. This is called Maskrom mode and is common to all Rockchip devices.
After erasing the internal eMMC, just follow the “Boot from SD Card” procedure above and then you are fine.
EXPERTS ONLY: erasing flash with USB Cable and rkdeveloptool
This guide describes how to erase the internal eMMC memory to force the box boot from sdcard. This is an experts guide and is mostly here for reference and not for end-user guidance. If you are an end-user and don’t bother with technicalities, the Multitool is a much friendler way to accomplish the task.
The tool used here is rkdeveloptool, which is opensource and is available cloning or downloading the official rockchip-linux rkbin github repository.
- Rockusb mode: getting into rockusb mode is essential to do anything else
- plug the power cord inside the device
- push the Reset button (it’s at the back of the case, use a paper clip to reach the button) and keep it pushed while plugging the USB cable into the OTG port
- check if the device is connected, use lsusb:
# lsusb Bus 001 Device 005: ID 058f:6377 Alcor Micro Corp. AU6375 4-LUN card reader Bus 001 Device 003: ID 0cf3:9271 Atheros Communications, Inc. AR9271 802.11n Bus 001 Device 029: ID 2207:320a Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub Bus 002 Device 004: ID 045e:0745 Microsoft Corp. Nano Transceiver v1.0 for Bluetooth Bus 002 Device 005: ID 067b:2303 Prolific Technology, Inc. PL2303 Serial Port Bus 002 Device 002: ID 046d:c312 Logitech, Inc. DeLuxe 250 Keyboard Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
you should be able to see a device with ID 2207:320a. If so, you are in rockusb mode and can jump to Backup, Restore or erase eMMC paragraphs below
- Erase the eMMC:To completely erase the eMMC card just run:
# ./rkdeveloptool ef
it will take around a minute, then the flash memory will be completely erased and your box will boot from the sdcard.
- Backup:First we determine the size of the eMMC, and then we do the backup – it will take less than five minutes and will create backup.data file:
# ./rkdeveloptool rfi Flash Info: Manufacturer: SAMSUNG, value=00 Flash Size: 7393 MB Block Size: 512 KB Page Size: 2 KB ECC Bits: 0 Access Time: 40 Flash CS: Flash # ./rkdeveloptool rl 0x0 $((7393 * 2048)) backup.data
- Restore the original firmware:
First we have to restore the original bootloader, then restore the original firmware.
Running these commands will accomplish both the jobs:./rkdeveloptool db ../rk32/rk3288_ubootloader_v1.01.06.bin Downloading bootloader succeeded. ./rkdeveloptool ul ../rk32/rk3288_ubootloader_v1.01.06.bin Upgrading loader succeeded. ./rkdeveloptool wl 0x0 backup.data Write LBA from file (100%)
For further details or support check the community forum thread Armbian for RK3288 TV Box boards (Q8)
