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December 28, 2015December 28, 2015 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 6 Comments

CubieTruck Plus Development Board with DisplayPort & HDMI Sells for $84 (in China)

We first found out about CubieTruck Plus (aka Cubieboard 5) this summer, and while at the time we did not have the full details, it was clear from the board picture and name, that is was an update to CubieTruck board, replacing Allwinner A20 dual core processor by Allwinner A8 octa-core processor, and ditching the VGA port for DisplayPort while keeping most of the same features of the original version. The company has now provided more details while announcing the launch of the board in China, and it turns out CubieTruck Plus has a few more advantages, and at least one drawback. CubieTruck CubieTruck Plus SoC Allwinner A20 Allwinner H8 CPU Dual core Cortex A7 up to 1.08 GHz Octa core Cortex A7 up to 2.0 GHz GPU Mali-400MP2 PowerVR SGX544 up to 700 MHz Memory 2GB DDR3 Power 5V@2.5V power jack Ethernet Gigabit Ethernet (RJ45) WiFi 802.11 b/g/n (2.4 […]

December 26, 2015March 1, 2016 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 10 Comments

Dune HD Solo 4K is a High-End Media Player with a SATA Bay, a DVB-T2 Tuner, and Sigma Designs SMP8758 Processor

Dune HD, a company specializing in “high-performance digital media players”, has just unveiled Dune HD Solo 4K media player based on Sigma Designs SMP8758 dual core Cortex A9 processor, supporting 10-bit HEVC video decoding up to 2160p @ 30 fps, HD audio pass-though, and including a SATA tray. Dune HD Solo 4K specifications: SoC – Sigma Designs SMP8758 dual core Cortex A9 processor @ 1.2 GHz with an ARM Mali-400 GPU and VXP image processing engine System Memory – 1GB Storage – 4GB flash for firmware, internal HDD rack with hot swap function for a 2.5″ SATA drive, SD card reader (TBC) Video Output – HDMI 1.4b up to 1080p60 and 4K @ 30 Hz (including 23.976, 25, 29.97, 50, 59.94Hz refresh rates), and composite video Audio Output – HDMI, analog stereo audio, coaxial S/PDIF (shared via AV port). 24-bit /192 KHz audio support Video codecs – MPEG2, MPEG4, XVID, […]

December 23, 2015December 23, 2015 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 5 Comments

How to Resize Android’s Internal Storage Partition in Rockchip Devices

I installed Light Biz OS firmware on GeekBox yesterday, but I’ve quickly realized many applications such as Gimp Inkscape would not install due to the small 1.94GB “internal partition”, so I asked how to increase the partition size in GeekBox forums last evening, and got an answer overnight from “dewet”. The good news is that it worked so I’ll share the steps I followed in a computer running Ubuntu 14.04. It might also be possible to perform the same tasks within a Windows machine with Rorkchip’s Factory tools First let’s download the utils with relevant scripts and binaries:

git clone https://github.com/geekboxzone/utils
cd utils/rockdev

1 2	git clone https://github.com/geekboxzone/utils cd utils/rockdev

Now copy your device or board’s firmware file “update.img” to the working directory, and unpack it:

./unpack.sh update.img

1	./unpack.sh update.img

The output should look like:

start to unpack update.img...
********RKImageMaker ver 1.61********
Unpacking image, please wait...
Exporting boot.bin
Exporting firmware.img
Unpacking image success.
Android Firmware Package Tool v1.0
Check file... OK
------- UNPACK ------
package-file    0x00000800    0x000002A6
Loader.bin    0x00001000    0x0003594E
parameter    0x00037000    0x000003BF
Image/trust.img    0x00037800    0x00400000
Image/uboot.img    0x00437800    0x00400000
Image/resource.img    0x00837800    0x00606400
Image/misc.img    0x00E3E000    0x0000C000
Image/kernel.img    0x00E4A000    0x00D08C4C
Image/boot.img    0x01B53000    0x001354E8
Image/recovery.img    0x01C88800    0x00FB4000
Image/system.img    0x02C3C800    0x28D29000
update-script    0x2B965800    0x000003A5
recover-script    0x2B966000    0x0000010A
Unpack firmware OK!
------ OK ------
Unpacking update.img OK.
Press any key to quit:

start to unpack update.img...

********RKImageMaker ver 1.61********

Unpacking image, please wait...

Exporting boot.bin

Exporting firmware.img

Unpacking image success.

Android Firmware Package Tool v1.0

Check file... OK

------- UNPACK ------

package-file 0x00000800 0x000002A6

Loader.bin 0x00001000 0x0003594E

parameter 0x00037000 0x000003BF

Image/trust.img 0x00037800 0x00400000

Image/uboot.img 0x00437800 0x00400000

Image/resource.img 0x00837800 0x00606400

Image/misc.img 0x00E3E000 0x0000C000

Image/kernel.img 0x00E4A000 0x00D08C4C

Image/boot.img 0x01B53000 0x001354E8

Image/recovery.img 0x01C88800 0x00FB4000

Image/system.img 0x02C3C800 0x28D29000

update-script 0x2B965800 0x000003A5

recover-script 0x2B966000 0x0000010A

Unpack firmware OK!

------ OK ------

Unpacking update.img OK.

Press any key to quit:

The files will be in the “output” directory. For our purpose “parameter” file, and especially the last line (CMDLINE) where we will want to adjust the userdata partition […]

December 21, 2015August 6, 2018 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 5 Comments

How to Upgrade Rockchip Firmware in Linux for RK3288, RK3328, RK3368, RK3399, etc..

I’ve been looking for ways to upgrade firmware on Rockchip RK3368 based GeekBox in a computer running Ubuntu 14.04, but while they’ve provided firmware update instructions for Windows, which remains basically the same as upgrading firmware on Rockchip RK3288, there’s no such information for Linux. However, I could remember than Radxa Rock supported upgrade_tool utility, but since the tool linked on Radxa website might be outdated, I instead searched for some RKtools repository on Geekboxzone Github account, and I was lucky enough to find one. Here’s what I did to flash Light Biz OS to GeekBox with my Linux computer: Get the tools, and make sure upgrade_tool is there.

git clone https://github.com/geekboxzone/lollipop_RKTools.git
cd lollipop_RKTools/linux/Linux_Upgrade_Tool
unzip Linux_Upgrade_Tool_v1.23.zip 
cd Linux_Upgrade_Tool_v1.23/
ls -l upgrade_tool 
-rw-rw-r-- 1 jaufranc jaufranc 3013546 Dec 17  2014 upgrade_tool

git clone https://github.com/geekboxzone/lollipop_RKTools.git

cd lollipop_RKTools/linux/Linux_Upgrade_Tool

unzip Linux_Upgrade_Tool_v1.23.zip

cd Linux_Upgrade_Tool_v1.23/

ls -l upgrade_tool

-rw-rw-r-- 1 jaufranc jaufranc 3013546 Dec 17 2014 upgrade_tool

Download and extract the firmware, e.g. Cross_Lollipop_BizOS_V151208.7z:

sudo apt-get install p7zip-full
7z x Cross_Lollipop_BizOS_V151208.7z

1 2	sudo apt-get install p7zip-full 7z x Cross_Lollipop_BizOS_V151208.7z

Now connect a USB cable to the USB OTG port of your device or board. In case of GeekBox that’s the micro USB port. Now as the board is powered on, keep […]

December 21, 2015December 21, 2015 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 13 Comments

GeekBox and Landingship Android Overview and Benchmarks

This week-end I checked out GeekBox TV box, and Landingship baseboard, explained how to connect the two together and install various optional accessories such as an RTC battery and a cooling fan. GeekBox comes pre-loaded with Android 5.1 + Ubuntu dual boot image, and as I’ve already reviewed other Rockchip RK3368 TV boxes, and GeekBox is also a development platform, I’ll simply run several benchmarks on GeekBox, as well as test SATA performance with an SSD connected to Landingship carrier board in Android, before checking out the Linux part a little latter. That’s no quite how you want to place the fan, but I wanted to show the USB to TTL debug board and other wires can be connected with the case closed. This allowed me to easily check whether the fan was spinning during testing, and it never did… According to one forum post, the temperature currently needs to […]

December 20, 2015December 20, 2015 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

Texas Instruments Introduces Entry level Sitara AM3351 Cortex-A8 Processor

Texas Instruments Sitara AM335x processor are designed by industrial applications, and found in develompent board such as BeagleBone Black or BeagleBone Green, and the company has recently launched the new Sitara AM3351 Cortex A8 processor without 3D GPU, no PRU just like AM3352, but they’ve also canned the two CAN interfaces (sorry, I had to) in order to bring the cost lower, while keeping the processor software and pin-to-pin compatible with other AM335x processors available in 13×13 mm package. TI Sitara AM3351 CPU clock will also be limited to 300 MHz to 600 MHz with respectively AM3351BZCE30 and AM3351BZCE60 parts. It will only come with one Gigabit Ethernet port instead of up to two ports of other members of the family that are produced in 15x15mm package, and temperature range is limited to 0 to 90 C. Other features remain the same, and the processors will support TI-RTOS, Linux, Android, […]

December 19, 2015December 20, 2015 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 29 Comments

GeekBox TV Box Unboxing and Development Kit Assembly Guide

GeekBox is both an Android TV box based on Rockchip RK3368 octa-core processor, and a Linux development kit thanks to the CPU module inside the device, a baseboard and various accessories. The company has sent me a review sample, as well as the accessories currently available. So today, I’ll have a look at the box, and show how to connect everything together. GeekBox TV Box Unboxing I’ve received two carton boxes via DHL, one with GeekBox itself, and the other with some accessories. You could use GeeBox has a TV box, and forget about its development attributes, as the device comes with the usual accessories include a case, an HDMI cable, an infrared remote control, and a 5V/2A power supply. I was really surprised by how small it was compared to other 64-bit ARM TV boxes recently launched on the market, and looks very much like a small router with […]

December 17, 2015July 31, 2016 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 13 Comments

Amlogic S905X and S912 Processors To Support 4K VP9, HDMI 2.0a, Built-in DAC and More

I had heard some news that Amlogic S912 was delayed, and even possibly canceled, while talks about a new S908 processor surfaced recently with support for VP9 up to 4K resolution. We now have some more details as I’ve received some more information about Amlogic product roadmap, and S908 should be renamed S905M [Update: The name will apparently be changed to S905X now, the saga continues…] Amlogic S905 Amlogic S908 / S905M / S905X Amlogic S912 CPU Quad core Cortex A53 @ up to 2.0 GHz Quad core Cortex A53 @ up to 1.5/2.0 GHz Octa core Cortex A53 @ up to 2.0 GHz GPU Penta-core Mali-450 up to 750 MHz High perf gaming GPU Memory 16/32-bit DDR3, LPDDR2/3 Up to 2GB, DDR2133 16/32-bit DDR3/4, LPDDR2/3 Up to 2GB, DDR2400 Storage NAND Flash@BCH60 eMMC 5.0, SD, Nor Flash Video Decoding 4Kp60 10-bit HEVC, 4Kp30 H.264 4Kp60 10-bit HEVC, VP9 4Kp30 […]