Armbian on Quartz64

[dieselnutjob]

Using a Linux desktop machine
Download this https://users.armbian.com/balbes150/rk35...5.0.img.xz
Unxz the file
dd it onto a microSD card
sync
remove it
reinsert
Depending on your distro the boot folder of the microSD card will automagically mount.
As root:-
find /boot/extlinux/extlinux.conf
change the fourth line
from

Code:

FDT /boot/dtb/rockchip/rk3566-firefly-roc-pc.dtb

to

Code:

FDT /boot/dtb/rockchip/rk3566-quartz64-a.dtb

save
sync
umount the partition
put the microSD card in a quartz64 and boot it up

Straight away I can see that USB ports don't work, but it does boot and you can log in with a woodpecker interface.

Thanks to user Trigu75 on this thread https://forum.freaktab.com/forum/tv-play...d-boxes-11

[dieselnutjob]

There is also an Armbian image with the older 4.19.211 kernel.

I would like to boot that one, put I am getting PCIE failures:-

Code:

[   33.770925] vcc3v3_pcie_p: supplied by vcc_3v3
[   33.771464] vcc3v3_pcie_p: disabling
[   33.771801] vcc3v3_sd: disabling

I don't actually need the PCIE slot.

I am thinking that I could try to find whatever in the dtb file makes PCIE work and just remove it.

Maybe my understanding of dtb files and what they do isn't correct?

[TRS-80]

Please either stop by #armbian on libera.chat, or make a forum post at Armbian forums[0], you may get better answers there.

Don't worry about the thread you linked me before, there is a huge difference between "Supported" in Armbian and "CSC", the latter of which this board could easily become, at least initially.

[0] N.B.: P2P Help would probably be the correct forum, unless you intend on bringing it all the way to Supported level in which case Board Bring Up would be the right place (other guy was shot down there because he was asking when, not actually working on it like you are, huge difference).

[dieselnutjob]

All of the commercial products with an RK3566 SoC seem to contain a 4.19 kernel.
Is there any way that Pine64 could get Rockchip to give us a Linux BSP SDK for the RK3566 for a 4.19 kernel?
I think that's what I want.
With 4.19 the HDMI output might actually work.

[dieselnutjob]

Please either stop by #armbian on libera.chat, or make a forum post at Armbian forums[0], you may get better answers there.

Don't worry about the thread you linked me before, there is a huge difference between "Supported" in Armbian and "CSC", the latter of which this board could easily become, at least initially.

[0] N.B.: P2P Help would probably be the correct forum, unless you intend on bringing it all the way to Supported level in which case Board Bring Up would be the right place (other guy was shot down there because he was asking when, not actually working on it like you are, huge difference).

I actually want to play with phosh on another RK3566 device. Does that mean that actually I should concentrate on Mobian rather than Armbian? The difference between the two isn't clear to me.

[dieselnutjob]

I started a thread here https://forum.armbian.com/topic/19288-ho...-quartz64/
I will have a go at this myself.

[TRS-80]

I actually want to play with phosh on another RK3566 device.  Does that mean that actually I should concentrate on Mobian rather than Armbian?  The difference between the two isn't clear to me.

Mobian is focused on phones, mainly PinePhone and Librem 5 (and maybe others).  Where Armbian is focused on many (almost 100(!)) different SBCs (and a couple other devices like PineTab/Book, etc). Armbian project have also been around a lot longer, and historically had better support for headless SBC, but as F/LOSS graphical stack have improved over the years (and they gained more help in that area), some time ago started also publishing desktop images.

Both projects are based on Debian, and in most of cases use plain vanilla Debian user space packages as much as possible. I am sure there may be some slight differences in the way they do packaging or organize things as well.

Finally, both projects produce complete flashable images, and in that sense could be considered "distributions." However the actual product Armbian is making is a build tool; the published images are just the output of that tool, really. But you can (and should!) take that tool and customize it and produce your own images rather easily.

I suggested Armbian as a place for you to start to learn maybe some of basics around ARM devices and GNU/Linux, which will be the same for all. If your interests are more in playing with phosh, you will likely be able to get more info about that in particular from Mobian project (who have a great wiki and an IRC of their own as well).

In fact there is nothing stopping anyone from creating an Armbian image for PinePhone for example, it's just that no one has done that work yet. Both projects are really just some handful of volunteers, so time and resources are scarce as always.

I started a thread here https://forum.armbian.com/topic/19288-ho...-quartz64/
I will have a go at this myself.

Glad to see you got a decently warm welcome there. As I said, big difference between "are/when you guys going to support this?" and "I am trying to work on ... but have some questions." Although I realize that might not be apparent to casual observer at first.

I will also upvote your post, which should help you out later on with forum permissions. Welcome aboard! Although I would urge you to consider Igor's words about what you are getting yourself into, there is quite a lot to learn and a lot of that is going to have to be on your own. But I have seen the guys helping out here and there if it seems like someone is really trying.

IRC is another really good place to gain access to higher level wizards in a more informal setting, both #armbian (on libera.chat) as well as PINE64's own channels. Finally, Mobian project have their IRC on OFTC network. You can find me idling on all 3 whenever I am manning my battle station.

Good luck (you are going to need it,)!

[dieselnutjob]

I actually want to play with phosh on another RK3566 device.  Does that mean that actually I should concentrate on Mobian rather than Armbian?  The difference between the two isn't clear to me.

Mobian is focused on phones, mainly PinePhone and Librem 5 (and maybe others).  Where Armbian is focused on many (almost 100(!)) different SBCs (and a couple other devices like PineTab/Book, etc).  Armbian project have also been around a lot longer, and historically had better support for headless SBC, but as F/LOSS graphical stack have improved over the years (and they gained more help in that area), some time ago started also publishing desktop images.

Both projects are based on Debian, and in most of cases use plain vanilla Debian user space packages as much as possible.  I am sure there may be some slight differences in the way they do packaging or organize things as well.

Finally, both projects produce complete flashable images, and in that sense could be considered "distributions."  However the actual product Armbian is making is a build tool; the published images are just the output of that tool, really.  But you can (and should!) take that tool and customize it and produce your own images rather easily.

I suggested Armbian as a place for you to start to learn maybe some of basics around ARM devices and GNU/Linux, which will be the same for all.  If your interests are more in playing with phosh, you will likely be able to get more info about that in particular from Mobian project (who have a great wiki and an IRC of their own as well).

In fact there is nothing stopping anyone from creating an Armbian image for PinePhone for example, it's just that no one has done that work yet.  Both projects are really just some handful of volunteers, so time and resources are scarce as always.

I started a thread here https://forum.armbian.com/topic/19288-ho...-quartz64/
I will have a go at this myself.

Glad to see you got a decently warm welcome there.    As I said, big difference between "are/when you guys going to support this?" and "I am trying to work on ... but have some questions."  Although I realize that might not be apparent to casual observer at first.

I will also upvote your post, which should help you out later on with forum permissions.  Welcome aboard!  Although I would urge you to consider Igor's words about what you are getting yourself into, there is quite a lot to learn and a lot of that is going to have to be on your own.  But I have seen the guys helping out here and there if it seems like someone is really trying. 

IRC is another really good place to gain access to higher level wizards in a more informal setting, both #armbian (on libera.chat) as well as PINE64's own channels.  Finally, Mobian project have their IRC on OFTC network.  You can find me idling on all 3 whenever I am manning my battle station.

Good luck (you are going to need it,)! 

Yep.  I have been reading the documentation that igor said to read, but I am struggling.  They really need to dump down their documentation IMHO.

[TRS-80]

I made some efforts at improving documentation, but parts of build system I still do not even understand. Once you start to get a grip, I would welcome some suggestions, especially from perspective of a newcomer. Which is more valuable than you may realize.

Anyway, this kind of development is fairly high level, esoteric wizard stuff, so don't be discouraged. I have been hanging around it for some years already (off and on) and still only know a little.

[balbes150]

If you (or Pine64 or someone else) provide me with the necessary hardware (samples), I am ready to add CSC level support. If you want to get the "supported device" level, Pine64 needs to contact the Armbian developer community and discuss all the nuances of this work.


PS This applies not only to the Quartz64, but also to other models.