RockPro64 set up questions

1st Official Post

    I'm trying to set up a rockpro64 with libracelec for an always on looping video player. When I flash the LE install image to an EMMC card on boot I get the error:

    grep: /proc/net/pnp: np such file or directory

    *** Error in mount_flash: mount mount_common: Could not mount UUID=0605-133 ***

    How can I install LE to run from the EMMC?

    Also I've installed the pine64 wifi/BT card internally. This is an AMPAK AP6359SA Combo Module using Broadcom BCM4359. Out of the box LE does not see with wifi or BT. Board connects on sdio. Is it possible to get this working? Will it be supported in future versions of LE? For now I'm using usb dongles that function as expected.


    Thanks in advance for your help.

    • Official Post

    BCM4359 is not supported in the upstream kernel. brcmfmac4359-sdio experiments · chewitt/linux@a658583 · GitHub will result in card detection allowing BT to work but the driver has an issue loading WiFi firmware. I'm actively trying to resucitate an attempt to diagnose the issue with kernel maintainers, but it doesn't seem to have much traction with them yet - it will take time.

    I cannot comment on the eMMC issue other than saying to check the UUID is correct.

    Your problem seems to me like a result from a bad copy to eMMC.

    You have just dubbed the (already running) SD card I guess, this wont work, because each card gets a different ID. Therefor the mount on the next boot from eMMC will fail.

    What you need to do is to use the orginal image (that one that does autoexpand on the first powerup) and flash it onto the eMMC ON A DIFFERENT Computer! Do not run the image yet, just copy it with a PC or something. You may need that cheap eMMC->SD adapter board for this.

    After the copy insert the eMMC, fire up the Rock, let the filesystems expand (and create a unique ID and mountpoint).

    (This only needs to be done ONCE for the initial install. Updates afterwards can be installed the usual way and wont harm that config anymore)

    Quote from chewitt

    BCM4359 is not supported in the upstream kernel. brcmfmac4359-sdio experiments · chewitt/linux@a658583 · GitHub will result in card detection allowing BT to work but the driver has an issue loading WiFi firmware. I'm actively trying to resucitate an attempt to diagnose the issue with kernel maintainers, but it doesn't seem to have much traction with them yet - it will take time.

    I cannot comment on the eMMC issue other than saying to check the UUID is correct.

    Thanks for your reply. There are distros based on 4.4 kernel from Mrfixit2001 and ayufan for rockpro64 that have functioning wifi. I believe the BT works as well but I haven't confirmed that. The chipset also functions in android 8-9. If there is anything I can do to help move this forward LMK.

    • Official Post

    BT works fine with the commit I listed above - this chip is in a number of Amlogic boards that I'm poking right now. If you can point me to sources for those distros i'll have a look, but they're probably using the BCMDHD driver. This works, but there's no way we're switching from "supports everything except this one chip" well written/maintained upstream kernel code to "fugly out of tree Android BSP kernel cap" .. it would be retrograde step :)

    Quote from Trillian59

    What you need to do is to use the orginal image (that one that does autoexpand on the first powerup) and flash it onto the eMMC ON A DIFFERENT Computer! Do not run the image yet, just copy it with a PC or something. You may need that cheap eMMC->SD adapter board for this.

    This sounds exactly like what I am doing. I have EMMC mounted on a USB adapter and flashed the downloaded image with etcher on a PC then transferred the EMMC to the rock board and booted. Balbes150 released a build for 3328 Rockchip that had a utility for installing LE to the EMMC. Its mentioned in several threads but I haven't been able to locate it. IMO this would be a good feature enhancement.

    Quote from chewitt

    BT works fine with the commit I listed above - this chip is in a number of Amlogic boards that I'm poking right now. If you can point me to sources for those distros i'll have a look, but they're probably using the BCMDHD driver. This works, but there's no way we're switching from "supports everything except this one chip" well written/maintained upstream kernel code to "fugly out of tree Android BSP kernel cap" .. it would be retrograde step :)

    Builds w/ working wifi

    Ayufan's rock64

    mrfixit2001 debian desktop

    You mentioned that there was a PCIE / SDIO conflict with the driver. Mrfixit noted that "delaying SDIO probing until after the PCIe link tra1ning completes and I was able to use his idea to get that working 100% of the time." Not sure if that is related or helpful. Working on setting up a build env so I can try things out. Seems like vexing problem based on the number of people who have had issues.

    • Official Post

    Tthe mrfixit2001 codebase is using the "no public upstream Broadcom sources available" bcmdhd driver and I couldn't find the repo but would guess ayufan has the same. It's fine to have bcmdhd in distro releases that target a single piece of hardware. It's not okay to have that in the rest of LE which targets many things as proper support needs to be upstream.

    Quote from chewitt

    Tthe mrfixit2001 codebase is using the "no public upstream Broadcom sources available" bcmdhd driver and I couldn't find the repo but would guess ayufan has the same. It's fine to have bcmdhd in releases is distro sources that target a single piece of hardware. It's not okay to have that in the rest of LE which targets many things as proper support needs to be upstream.

    Got it. Thanks for looking.