ROCK64 Board Review – Part 2: Quick Start Guide with Ubuntu 16.04.3 MATE, Multimedia Features, Some Benchmarks

Pine64 ROCK64 is the first maker board based on Rockchip RK3328 processor, and is potentially interesting for various applications including network storage thanks to USB 3.0 and Gigabit Ethernet, multimedia applications with 4K HDR video support, as well as other applications requiring I/Os. I’ve already tested Rock64 board with Android 7.1 operating system, so today I’ll report by finding and experience with Ubuntu 16.04.3 with MATE desktop.

Selecting and Flashing a Linux Image

You’ll find several operating systems in the Wiki, but you’ll also find more cutting edge images in ayufan’s github. But first let me explain some vocabulary used for Pine64 firmware files:

  1. Engineering version – Becomes with release build based on the stock build develop by Pine64 and the SoC vendor. It’s supposed to be more stable, but get less updates
  2. Community versions (currently managed via ayufan) are more frequently updates, and comes with more recent features. You’ll find two categories
    1. Release builds – The current stable version released by the community
    2. Pre-release builds – Version under test to eventually become the release build

Currently, documentation is still work in progress for the board, so I spent some time on IRC #Rock64 chatting with the helpful community there, and I noticed most of them used the community builds. I’ve also been told there has not been that much work on the Desktop version right now, with most people focusing on NAS support with images such as Debian + OpenMediaVault. But since I wanted to test a desktop image I was recommended the Ubuntu Mate image, and download the pre-release 64-bit version: xenial-mate-rock64-0.4.17-85-arm64.img.xz.

If you’ve read the WIki, you’ll notice all those are “micro SD” images, so since I had a eMMC flash module, I was a little confused at the beginning, but since I have Hardkernel’s micro SD to  eMMC flash module adapter, installation was just the same as on a micro SD card with Etcher.

Top to Bottom: ROCK64’s 16GB eMMC flash Module, Hardkernel adapter, and micro SD card reader

But Pine64 does not sell such adapter, so how are you supposed to do with you bought an eMMC flash module? I’ve been explained you first need to flash a micro SD card with the image, and then interrupt the boot in u-boot (USB to TTL debug board required), remove the eMMC jumper, and continue the boot by typing “boot”. This has be to be done, or you won’t see the eMMC flash module, while booting from a micro SD card.

Now you can download, and flash the firmware to the eMMC flash module with curl:


Not the most user-friendly method, but it should work. If you don’t have a USB to TTL board, first you should really buy one, but for this specific case, you could remove the eMMC jumper about two seconds after applying power. In that case, your mileage may vary though… Pine64 is working on an easier method of installation to the eMMC flash module.

Rock64’s Ubuntu 16.04.3 MATE Boot, System Info, and Initial Setup

Since I want to get the boot log, I connected the USB to TTL board. There’s no dedicated UART connected on the board, so I download the GPIO pinout charts for Pi 2 Bus and Pi 5+ Bus from the Wiki, amd we’ll use it to test GPIOs later on.

Pi 2 Bus – Click to Enlarge

 

Pi 5+ Bus – Click to Enlarge

UART Tx and Rx can be found on respectively pin 8 and 10 of Pi 2 Bus header, so I connect the debug board accordingly, together with USB keyboard and mouse, a USB harddrive, Ethernet and HDMI cables.

Click to Enlarge

Finally I put the eMMC flash module into the board, applied power, and after a few seconds, I got to the Ubuntu MATE desktop. however, I only got ribberish in the serial console, which was set to 115,200 8N1, the most common settings “in the universive”. There’s currently no info about serial console setting in the Wiki, but a web search lead me to the right settings: 1,500,000 8N1, which apparently is the default in Rockchip SDK.

This high bitrate may cause troubles with some serial adapter, but after changing minicom settings accordingly, I had no trouble with the serial console. That’s the complete boot log after a reboot: