LibreELEC on RK3328 A5X Max plus

Hi All!

I have an A5X Max plus, you can see images of it in attachments.

With the help of balbes150 and hexdump on Armbian forum:

Armbian for TV box rk3328 - Page 27 - General chat - Armbian forum

And on repo u-boot-misc of hexdump0815 on Github:

Help to overwrite boot of my Android on RK3328 A5X Max+ · Issue #2 · hexdump0815/u-boot-misc · GitHub

I can boot Armbian from SD after some experiments on eMMC and SD and with an special dtb from hexdump.

Now i would like to test LibreELEC on that device because Armbian is not hardware accelerated when playing videos and I like very mucho Kodi on several Raspberry Pi I use as media centers on last years.

I have not problems to write and overwrite my eMMC with:

rkdeveloptool rd 3

rkdeveloptool db MiniLoaderAll.bin

rkdeveloptool wl 0x0 image.img

rkdeveloptool rd

or overwrite any compatible u-boot for LibreELEC.

A compatible Android version is on next link. I have installed several times between tests with Rockchip firmware windows tool + drivers on my windows:

2768333 A5X MAX+ TV box ROM firmware pack.7z

I have read very much (long and very long) threads here on LE forums about RK3328 and other Rockchip devices, but for example following threads on Rockchip subforum:

1.madmalkav thread:

[WIP, updated April 11th] A5X Max RK3328 TV Box support

[WIP, updated April 11th] A5X Max RK3328 TV Box Support - download from Mega is not available, i can't test it.

2.kotsoc75 thread:

A5X MAX RK3328 A53

A5X MAX RK3328 A53 - last answer on Jun 23rd 2018 with no response.

3.knaerzche thread:

[unoffical] LE-9.2/9.80-Images for RK3229/RK3228

[unofficial] LE-9.2/9.80-Images for RK3329/RK3228 - readed all 16 pages and tested several images written to eMMC with rkdeveloptool and not booting.

4.Kwiboo thread:

Early mainline images for RK3288, RK3328 and RK3399

Early mainline images for RK3288, RK3328 and RK3399 - readed all 5 pages, tested several images written to eMMC with rkdeveloptool and not booting.

Which version of LE is compatible with that device and how to try it if i can't boot from SD?

Or how could i test LE from SD like the hack that with the help of hexdump we made on Armbian boot?

Thanks in advance and regards

jps1x2

Quote from ARKO47

I got another TV BOX with RK3328 and got he standard LE img into micro SD, the box boots fine and I could watch movies. however, I have some issues with sound, Remote and some time may be once in the movie the video lags for a second. I paid 35eur for the box so I would suggest if you can not boot from SD to change it while you investigate. Iwould not touch the ROM till I got the LE version in the SD with everything working OK.

Hi ARKO47 !

Thanks for your sugestions. I am a very curious person and i like to investigate things. I have several raspberry pi 1, 2 and 3 and other TV Box with emuELEC on Amlogic.

With the help of hexdump I have learned interesting things in the process of adjusting boot to SD on my Rockchip device and low level access to my tv box. I really like Linux and I don't know much about its boot process. I think it is a good excuse to get LibreELEC started from eMMC to know a little better the boot processes.

I don't care much about getting it done, I like learning the way more and learning something new every day.

I need that balbes150 explains how his function to install to eMMC that is inside of LibreELEC works on his images. Then i would try to implement it to an image and then write it on eMMC with rkdeveloptool.

I can mount image file in loop devices and modify it if it is needed, but i need some information to start.

Thanks!

Hi!

Using an image of balbes150 from this thread - Thanks for your work!!!

Unofficial LE version for RK3328\RK3399 3288

From his Yandisk, on folder 20200923 i have used following img:

LibreELEC-ARMv8.arm-9.80-devel-20200923123657-569f834-rk3328-old.img.gz

I have attached the boot loader to use and binary rkdeveloptool compiled today in case someone needs it.

First decompress file to obtain img file.

On a linux machine i have compiled rkdeveloptool.

Boot on maskrom mode, with a clip connecting both points marked on first image on first post of thread while connecting a cable USB-A to USB-A to computer.

First check that device is detected and on maskrom mode with command:

rkdeveloptool ld

A5X Max+ is identified like this:

DevNo=1    Vid=0x2207,Pid=0x320c,LocationID=204    Maskrom

Now that we checked that device is in Maskrom mode you can download loader to device, erase flash and write image to eMMC, then reboot device, executing these commands:

sudo rkdeveloptool db RK3328MiniLoaderAll.bin 
sudo rkdeveloptool ef
sudo rkdeveloptool wl 0x0 LibreELEC-ARMv8.arm-9.80-devel-20200923123657-569f834-rk3328-old.img
sudo rkdeveloptool rd

Then i can boot LE on device from eMMC!!!

I am testing and LAN is working fine, not wifi and not bluetooth, but only with ethernet is enought.

I see that when videos are opened they are played like in attached image, tested on several formats (mp4, avi, ...) and appear on all format green horizontal bars, tested to change resolution of LE config but it is not corrected. On settings -> Player -> Videos i see that if Allow using DRM PRIME decoder is disabled ,video is decoded by software and it works, but is important to change resolution of LE to 720p to play smooth.

Is it possible to maintain hardware accelerated video decoding changing other configurations?

Thanks for your help!

Regards

Jps1x2