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Title: New to Firefly RK3399 trying to replace android with linux [Print This Page]

Author: ericswanson1020 Time: 4/18/2018 06:47
Title: New to Firefly RK3399 trying to replace android with linux
I have a new Firefly RK3399 which I am trying to replace Android with whatever the best version of Linux is for this board. (What is the best version of Linux (with GUI) for this board?)

I do not see any clear instructions on how to do this. I believe I am supposed to flash the unit to accomplish this task

To flash it, I believe I am supposed to connect the RK3399 via USB-C on the 3399 to a USB-A port on another computer. I am trying to connect it to a Macintosh with a Windows 10 virtual machine running. Neither the Mac sees the USB device (the 3399) nor does the Android Tool on Windows. When I press the Recovery button and the Reset button, the 3399 goes into Android Recovery mode.

I also tried connecting to a Dell PC running Cent OS, but when I saw the instructions were for Ubuntu or Debian, I stopped.

Am I supposed to have the 12vdc power connected when I do this?

Can anyone help?

Thanks,
Eric

Author: leung先森 Time: 4/18/2018 09:26
http://en.t-firefly.com/doc/product/index/id/3.html
take a look

Author: ericswanson1020 Time: 4/18/2018 12:14

leung先森 Posted at 4/18/2018 09:26
http://en.t-firefly.com/doc/product/index/id/3.html
take a look

Yes, I have been there many times. Still confused. Can you answer any of my above questions?

Also, does the USB cable need to be plugged into a USB-3 port on the host PC (windows) or is USB-2 ok?

Author: leung先森 Time: 4/18/2018 14:54

ericswanson1020 Posted at 4/18/2018 12:14
Yes, I have been there many times. Still confused. Can you answer any of my above questions?

Al ...

read chaptor of the "Flash Image" http://en.t-firefly.com/doc/product/info/263.html
download the ubuntu firmware from here http://en.t-firefly.com/doc/download/index/id/3.html
The 12v DC power must be used for the board running normally.

I do not recommand use MAC to do these stuff. WinPC or ubuntu will be better.

Author: ericswanson1020 Time: 4/18/2018 20:06

leung先森 Posted at 4/18/2018 14:54
read chaptor of the "Flash Image" http://en.t-firefly.com/doc/product/info/263.html
download the ...

Thank you for your reply.

I have read that flash image page many times and followed the instructions without success.

I am now trying to connect to a Windows machine with Windows XP and USB 2.0 ports. Any reason that should fail?

The RK3399 displays the Firefly logo then boots into Android Recovery Mode after I press the Recovery button then the Reset button. The Windows PC does not show the RK3399 in Device Manager and the Android Tool (run as Administrator) says "No Devices Found"

Can you help?

Thank you.

Author: leung先森 Time: 4/19/2018 09:06

ericswanson1020 Posted at 4/18/2018 20:06
Thank you for your reply.

I have read that flash image page many times and followed the instruc ...

try to set the board into the Maskrom mode , if it cannot be found by the PC , it must be the hardware broken.

Author: ericswanson1020 Time: 4/24/2018 01:27

leung先森 Posted at 4/19/2018 09:06
try to set the board into the Maskrom mode , if it cannot be found by the PC , it must be the hard ...

With the USB-C side plugged into the RK3399 and the USB-A side plugged into a new Windows 10 machine's USB 3.0 port, I then short out the two contacts and power the board.

Results: No HDMI output, the blue LED does not light, but still no connection to Windows 10 (nothing shows in Device Manager, Android Tool does not find the board).

Can I return this order for a full refund?

Eric

Author: kempj Time: 4/24/2018 16:53
I have the same issue ericswanson1020.

Nothing I do will get this device discovered by Windows or Linux based machines.  I can reliably get the device in Android discovery mode.

I have the 4gb/120gb RK339
@ericswanson - Which board do you have?  and do you know the build number?  I wonder if it's related.

@leung先森
I can boot into Ubuntu from the SD card image.  I used another image on this site that you posted.
Firefly-rk3399_xubuntu1604_SD_201705151725.7z

Can I use dd or similar to flash the Firefly-RK3399-ubuntu16.04-20180416112819.img to the emmc from linux runnin on the RK3399?

Author: leung先森 Time: 4/24/2018 18:03

ericswanson1020 Posted at 4/24/2018 01:27
With the USB-C side plugged into the RK3399 and the USB-A side plugged into a new Windows 10 machi ...

the hardware problem , it seems they make a little mistake , you can send back for fix it.

Author: leung先森 Time: 4/24/2018 18:04

kempj Posted at 4/24/2018 16:53
I have the same issue ericswanson1020.

Nothing I do will get this device discovered by Windows or ...

the first thing is let the PC recognize the RK3399.
t

Author: ericswanson1020 Time: 4/25/2018 21:26

kempj Posted at 4/24/2018 16:53
I have the same issue ericswanson1020.

Nothing I do will get this device discovered by Windows or ...

I have the RK3399 4GB/128GB board.

Android Recovery reports version 7.1.2/NHG47K/omg03210924.

Author: kempj Time: 4/29/2018 14:24
I have the same - except 'omy' instead of omg

Author: kimkk Time: 5/8/2018 23:14
Last edited by kimkk In 5/9/2018 14:26 Editor

kempj Posted at 4/24/2018 16:53
I have the same issue ericswanson1020.

Nothing I do will get this device discovered by Windows or ...

I have two 2GB/16GB RK3399 Boards and  two 4GB/128GB RK3399 boards.
The 2GB/16GB RK3399 Boards have no problem in identified through USB-C on Window 7 Host.

But I have same problem only on the 4GB/120GB RK339 boards. Two  4GB/120GB RK339 boards experience same problem in being recognized through USB-C on Windows 7/10 Host and Linux Host.
They enters Android Recovery mode instead of upgrade mode (flash image mode) whenever holding RECOVERY button and RESET button press and releasing Recovery button sequence for entering upgrade mode.

'lsusb' command in Ubunutu Host does not display any RK3399 USB.

Hence I suspect that the problem is related to 4GB/120GB RK339 boards itself.

The messages in Android Recovery are as follows:
rockchip/rk3399_firefly_box/rk3399_firefly_box
7.1.2/NHG47K/omy03210924
userdebug/test-keys
Use volume up/down and power
----------------------------------
Reboot system now
Reboot to bootloader
Apply update from ADB
Apply update from SD card
Wipe data/factory reset
Wipe cache partition
Mount /system
View recovercy logs
Run graphics test
Power off
------------------------------------
Supported API:3

According to the QC sticker on the back side of the board, the fabrication date is 2018-04-10.

I have tested seven RK3399 MAX boards (4GB/120GB)  out of 10 boards we bought in the same date.

All of them fail to enter into upgrade mode.
All of them fail to enter MaskROM mode with metal tweezers to keep TP31 and TP32 connected when power on.
I quit the seventh board for further testing.

Is there work-around for this situation?

Author: rpk.firefly Time: 5/13/2018 13:13
Sounds like you experienced the same issue as I did. I have a 2GB version (would have purchased the 4GB but FireFly's website wouldn't let me create an account at the time).

Although I'm very impressed with the build quality of the RK3399 I was extremely disappointed in the product when I first plugged it in and followed the Quick Start > Starter Guide which pretty much turned the unit into a brick.

It booted Android (which I have absolutely no interest in) and when I followed the Starter Guide > "How To Switch To Ubuntu from Android" brought up a black screen and repeated reboots always booted to a black screen.

Either Quality Control at FireFly screwed up, or that web page is way out of date.

Currently I would not recommend the RK3399 to anyone. It's too bad, because I think they could sell a lot of them if they can get their website and support together.

A lot of the files on their Downloads section are probably hosted on a Raspberry Pi in someones basement in the out extremities of China as they're so painfully slow to download. No idea why they don't use a CDN to the rest of the world.

I did eventually manage to install linux. The web page for Quick Start > Flash Image is either very out of date or just plain wrong.

I used a version of upgrade_tool. There are 2 versions in the downloads section as I recall, named totally different things, one is called 'Linux_Upgrade_Tool_v1.24.zip" and the other is "upgrade_tool_v1_26.tar.gz". And some Chinese writing on the page. WTF?

After finding the "Recovery | Reset | Recovery" button sequence, I untarred upgrade_tool_v1_26.tar.gz and tried following the web page directions. Nothing - the instructions do not work.

I saw a log file and something about config.ini missing "Error:stat config.ini failed,err=2" - but there wasn't any config file in the tar file.

So I extracted the older version of the tool, which included a Chinese manual and guess what, a config.ini file. I don't recall if I bothered to try running the older version. I might have done following FireFly's badly written instructions. Anyway, in perusing the pdf I noticed that the program could be run in 'interactive' mode - i.e, not via the bash command line, but by typing ./upgrade_tool instead.

I copied the config.ini file, now the program saw the Fly and I selected it (1 I seem to recall). I was then able to upload the image file I found via one of the various links "Firefly-RK3399-ubuntu16.04-20180416112819.img" - I believe I just had to type 'uf' at that point and the upload began.

Part of this whole problem is that FireFly are just using RockChip programs and documents and don't have a clear path to follow. On top of that there's bound to be modified versions.

I Intend to see if I can use the Fly as a server. So I ran some general speed tests.

eMMC - 40 MB/s
FD card - 18 MB/s
Western Digital "My Passport" Hard Disk via USB-3 port - 110 MB/s
Samsung T5 Portable SSD via USB-3 - 350 MB/s

While that Samsung is slower than the 450 MB/s I average on my Mac's, a 9x speedup over the eMMC is worth investigating.

Luckily it's possible to install the rootfs (linux) on an external USB device (actually on the RockChip site claims you can run the boot (kernel) and the rootfs via a USB device.

I found some tools to unpack the image I mentioned above, but either they're too old or from some other source because I can't modify the 'parameters' file to use /dev/sdaX as the root partition. The program just craps out.

At some point, I'll post cleaner instructions because I've seen several comments from users saying they can't get their Fly booting Linux.

On the off-chance anyone from FireFly management reads this post - hey a suggestion, spend a little time and money on creating some up to date web pages for English speakers and rent a CDN to distribute large files to the rest of the world.

As I said earlier, I'm very impressed with the build quality of my RK3399, it's just too bad that the support is crap for English speakers to even get their machines working. FireFly could sell a *lot* of these units if they spend the time on good setup and support.

Author: jpboard Time: 5/22/2018 06:06
use the how to from boot mode page http://en.t-firefly.com/doc/product/info/265.html
to enter loader mode and get PC /tool to see board , you can then use android tool to
install Ubuntu or android

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