Just loaded my Rock 64 4G with Ayufan's Xenial desktop image and everything is working fine. I currently have it operating on a wired Ethernet connection. I plugged in my wifi dongle, an Edimax EW7318Ug but the Rock64 Xenial distribution does not appear to have a driver that supports it. On my PC version of Xenial I have in the past just added Linux Firmware Non Free to resolve this problem. This appears to be not possible in Xenial now.

I issued the lsusb command and this is the following output.

Bus 002 Device 002: ID 148f:2573 Ralink Technology, Corp. RT2501/RT2573 Wireless Adapter

The good news is the Rock64 recognises the dongle but I was wondering how I could go about adding a driver to support. I'd appreciate any help pointing me in the right direction here.

*I accidentally posted the original query in the Pine64 section but couldn't move it*

Hi All,

after have struggled for a while with this board I finally found the right way.

At the beginning I was convinced that Lakka image available for this board was able to perform easily the emulation task but it was a truly pain. The emulation was absolutely under the real potential of the board, indisputably there is some issue with the driver stack that is unable to take advantage of the GLES acceleration.

I have been very delusional, with a board I considered pretty useless for my initial scope, I tried the Android version and the Android TV image and I discovered the emulation provided through the Retorarch application on the playstore was absolutely better, beside a better selection of cores available for the android version, it played an important role the video drivers that Android brings to its. This version for Android is able to run flawless PSX with full resolution and N64 emulation (even Killer Instinct) out of the box. I was really impressed by this huge difference between Lakka and Retroarch Android, I had to change completely my opinion.

Between Android and Android tv, I consider the former the best option. By the way also this change was not completely painless; to begin I had to understand that Android expect to be managed through a touchscreen, I have wireless keyboard with touchpad that worked well with it, but my intention was to use a gamepad. To make a gamepad working as touchscreen I used a very nice application called button mapper, with this app I was able to use my PS2 clone pad on Android but not in Retroarch. I even tried to edit manually the retroarch.cfg file but unsuccessfully. To use a pad on Retroarch you need a gamepad that is recognized automatically by Android, fortunately I had a Saturn style pad that was recognized automatically by Android and I was able to use in Retroarch as well. Certainly the Linux kernel in Lakka has a bigger and better hardware compatibility than the Android kernel so my recommendation is to buy a Android Gamepad directly.

When you learned how to handle your R64-Android with your pad or your wireless keyboard, you can take advantage of the benefits to have a light OS on your TV. My suggestion is to install as first thing the F-droid repository in order to install alternative applications that better preserve your privacy and your data. Like using Chromium as default browser instead of Chrome or New Pipe instead of the Youtube standard app. Some apps aren't available because the incompatibility like Netflix, however you can download it from its website but the version I have available on my smart tv is actually better than the one for Android that is designed for a touch screen and is not very friendly to use through the gamepad as well as the keyboard.

Now I am pretty happy with my board the last thing I have to fix is the Retroarch resolution, even if the cores launch their game with the correct resolution the GUI as the resolution at 720 instead of 1080, I hope to fix this soon. I haven't tried yet if the shader work flawlessy on Retroarch however I can still use an overlay layer to safe some cpu/gpu workload. I'll let you know if I am able to use the shaders without losing frames per second.

Hi, 
I want to play 4k UHD HDR10 movies on the projector over the LAN network (Gigabit eth) from my NAS and I think I found a perfect device - ROCK64 MB  however a strong competitor is a ready product - chinese TV Box with a touch remote so tell me does this beautiful board support 4k HDR10 already with a nice Android/Linux OS and I can configure everything in a few hours or it's like still under development and beta status?

I know Linux and IT stuff enough to run commands and handle configuration but I want to avoid situation that there is no stable OS, missing drivers and I will spend weeks to setup everything. Also which OS do you recommend as "smart TV" OS? I guess I need something similar that popular TV boxes has (based on Android) or maybe just any OS with Kodi or Plex? All comments welcomed before I buy one thanks

Hello all,

I've been getting a lot of help with my Clusterboard questions here an I thought I'd share with you what I am working on:

 

I'm using the Clusterboard in the phase-two prototype of my 3-phase personal supercomputer project.  You can see a summary of the current work here:

https://hackaday.io/project/85392-rain-m...ercomputer

I also have more extensive information about the overall project on my blog:

https://jjg.2soc.net/category/rain/

I chose PINE64 for this project because my long-term goal is to produce a completely open-source supercomputer design and PINE was the most open SBC I could find.  The release of the Clusterboard was an unexpected bonus and I've since reoriented my designs around it.  


All of the work I'm doing on the project is open-source so if you like it feel free to put any of it to work in your own designs.  The current version (Mark II) is entered in the 2018 Hackaday Prize (if you think it's cool, please "like" the project : )and any prize money it brings home will go into completing the prototype and potentially producing kits and parts for others who want to build similar machines.

Thanks again to PINE64 for creating the hardware and to everyone here for all your help making it work!

The Lineage OS is an excellent Android Development effort that is very mature, whth a well developed build infrastructure.

Perhaps Pine might look at integrating the rock64 development with them?

They have weekly updates, that can be applied easily, and notify user when available.
They have a secure root option that is mature
They have a ton of support.
They have a no google stuff. You can add later, or not.

A difficulty will be they have no Rockchip kernals.

Does this seem a resonable suggestion?

I have been having a rock64 laying around for some time and I finally had time to power it up, but when I install linux on it there is no network adapter available beside the loop-back interface, and in the dmsg I see eth%d no PHY avail

has anyone see this issue before?

I have had my Pinebook delivered to me after a pre-order. 
I put it away whilst it was on sleep a few months ago. 
I have tried to restart it and it's totally dead. 
I have checked the charger and left it plugged in for 72 hours. Still nothing. 
I was told that the battery may be totally dead and "not making the circuit."
Has anyone else had this problem? Are new batteries available?

I've had my Pinebook since July of last year, but haven't been using it as much as I thought I would.  About the same time I started keeping a coral reef tank in my living room that has occupied most of my free time (and money) since then.  The reason I'm proposing a trade is that I will be adding a controller to the aquarium to monitor parameters and will need a more capable computer to handle the motoring/software.  

I figured this might be a win win for both of us.  I have a 14" Pinebook with 16 GB eMMC that has seen maybe 15 hours of use since I received it.  The screen has one dead pixel (it arrived like that from the factory) but other than that is in great condition.  I already have four 8-12 year old laptops running Mint, so I don't need any more of those    If you have something you might be interested in trading shoot me a message with some specs and your location and we can go from there.  I'll entertain cash offers as well if nobody bites on the trade (I do still need to buy the aquarium controller as well).  

I'm located in the US in Philadelphia and could meet locally or ship.  I can provide pictures upon request as well as proof of purchase.

Hi,

I'm having a little trouble with building the Kernel for the Rock 64. I'm initially trying to build in the machine itself, I have a 4GB version.

I've follow the process below to set up the machine, download the Kernel, configure it, build it and install it. it's the final step I'm having an issue with...

Step 1: Install prerequisite libraries for the Kernel build

I just downloaded Ayufans latest Xenial Desktop build for the Rock64 and followed installation instructions. Everything went like clockwork and the Rock64 is now up and running. Thanks Ayufan.

My next challenge is to get my usb wireless dongle, an Edimax EW7318UG working. This dongle works perfectly with my PC Xenial setup and MS Windows so I know the dongle is working. When I plug it in to the USB2.0 port on the Rock64 the onboard LED on the dongle doesn't even flash to acknowledge that the Rock64 recognises it.

Could anyone suggest what I could do in order to get the Rock64 to recognise the wireless USB dongle. Will Xenial on the Rock64 recognise the dongle natively or will I need to build drivers for it.