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August 11, 2014 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 3 Comments

How to Root Rockchip RK3288 Devices

As Rockchip RK3288 based tablets and TV boxes are slowly starting to reach end-users, it may be a good time to post instructions showing how to root your Android device. Geekbuying has just published a guide to root RK3288 tablets and media players. The instructions below require a PC or Virtual Machine running Windows XP/7/8, but hopefully instructions to root under Linux similar the ones for RK3066/RK3188 will surface soon. Install Rockchip USB drivers by downloading the latest DriverAssistant which adds support for Rockchip RK3288. Simply extract the files and click on DriverInstall.exe to complete the installation. Download the latest version of VRoot tools. and basically follow the same instructions as for Amlogic S802 root which I’ll summarize below. Make sure USB debugging is enabled in your device (Settings->Developer Options->USB Debug) Connect your RK3288 device to your PC via a USB cable. (OTG port) Start VRoot. It should detect your […]

July 28, 2014July 28, 2014 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 1 Comment

Rockchip RK3288 Beta Firmware Release for Unnamed Android TV Box

The whole activity around the upcoming media players based on Rockchip RK3288 is pretty interesting, or some would say amusing. First, many companies started to release pictures of their boards a few months before their products are actually ready, and now we’ve got a beta Android 4.4 firmware for Rockchip RK3288 for an unknown TV box released via Geekbuying Blog. I’ve read rumors about a Tronsmart Orion R28, so it might be that one, but who knows. Before investigating the content of the firmware, here are the features that we know about the hardware: Based on Rockchip RK3288 quad core Cortex A17 processor System Memory – 2GB RAM (Samsung) Storage – 8GB flash (Kingston) Wi-Fi – AP6330 Wi-fi module The firmware is based on Linux 3.10, the build number is rk3288-eng 4.4.2 KOT49H eng.ant.20140721.164453 test-keys, and the software version RK3288_R_BOX_Android 4.4.2-SDK_v1.0.0_140613. Most people won’t need this, but if developers want […]

July 2, 2014December 14, 2014 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 104 Comments

Easy and Safe Way to Try Linux on Popular Rockchip RK3188 mini PCs

Until recently, installing Linux on Rockchip R3188 based TV boxes or HDMI TV dongles meant you had to flash one or more binaries to your device using various type of tools for Linux or Windows. But thanks to various members of the community, it’s now as easy as flashing an image for the Raspberry Pi, as long as you own Minix Neo X7, PQ Labs iStick A350-SSD, Radxa Rock development board, or Rikomagic MK802IV (AP6210 or 8188EU Wi-Fi module versions) thanks to images provided by Ian Morrison on G+ mini PC community that can be booted from a (micro) SD card, which the added advantage that it won’t mess with your Android installation. You can do it whether you use a Windows or Linux PC, and it should also be possible on Mac OS X, but I don’t know the commands. Here are the steps to follow for MINIX NEO […]

June 25, 2014September 6, 2014 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 71 Comments

List of Rockchip RK3288 Android TV Boxes So Far

In the previous years, you’d normally learn about new devices as they get listed on Alibaba or Aliexpress, and that’s how I built my – now very incomplete – list of Rockchip RK3188 based devices. But now companies seem to be anxious to let people know about their new devices even before they hit the market, and albeit I’ve been told full production of Rokchip RK3288 powered Android TV boxes is only planned by the end of July, many companies are already showing off their new devices, even though only the PCBA may be ready, or in development. Let’s go through the list of Rockchip RK3288 quad core Cortex A17 media devices that’s known (to me) so far: No brand D368 – HDMI 1.4 TV dongle with 1 or 2 GB RAM, 4, 8 or 16 GB flash, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n/ac + (optional) Bluetooth, and 2x USB host ports. No […]

June 19, 2014June 19, 2014 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 2 Comments

Development Board with Intel Technology Developed by Rockchip

Just a quick post to show an interesting, yet unavailable development board. A few weeks ago, Intel and Rockchip announced a collaboration to design Intel Atom Sofia x86 SoC for mobile devices. Apparently, they did not waste any time, and have already done some nice work together, as Chen Feng, VP at Rockchip, posted the picture of the development board on his weibo account with a short description that Google’s translate as: You can now showed up, Intel inside, the world’s most highly integrated 6321 smartphones and tablet communications solutions, dual-core WCDMA SOC, integrated WIFI BT GPS PMU, all two chips It’s not entirely clear if it’s directly related to the announced Intel Atom “Sofia” using 3G (WCDMA) however. The 6321 is a dual core processor, but Rockchip and Intel only announced working on quad core processors, so this may be a separate product for example an ARM SoC with […]

May 28, 2014May 28, 2014 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 12 Comments

Rockchip to Design Intel x86 “SoFIA” SoCs for Android Tablets

Intel has just announced it has entered into a strategic agreement with Rockchip to design Intel-branded SoC platform for entry-level Android tablets. The Chinese SoC vendor will design two quad core tablet SoC one with 3G and one with LTE, which will part of Intel’s SoFIA mobile SoC platforms for Android mobile devices. Intel will bring Intel Atom and 3G/LTE modem IP, and Rockchip will work in the integration and overall design. The 3G model should become available in the first half of 2015 and target entry-level and value tablets, and the LTE version is also scheduled for H1 2015. That’s about all that’s been disclosed for now, and we don’t know for example which GPU will be part of these SoCs. Here’s what Brian Krzanich, Intel CEO, had to say about the agreement: The strategic agreement with Rockchip is an example of Intel’s commitment to take pragmatic and different […]

May 25, 2014September 24, 2017 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 13 Comments

How to Upgrade Firmware for Rockchip RK3066, RK3188, RK3328, RK3288, RK3399 Devices with the Command Line in Linux

Previously I wrote an article entitled “How to Flash Rockchip RK3066 / RK3188 Firmware in Linux” explaining how to use a graphical tool called RkFlashKit to upgrade firmware on Rockchip devices using a Linux computer. This tool had some limitations, and it would just have a subset of features of RkAndroidTool (Windows), and it was not possible to flash “update.img” type of firmware which are often provided and flashed with RkBatchTool in Windows. Luckily there’s now a command line tool called upgrade_tool that allows you to flash the “update.img” firmware files directly from Linux. I’ve already shown how to use it with Radxa Rock, but it’s buried with other instructions, so I’ve decided to make a separate post. This has been tested in Ubuntu 14.04 with Radxa Rock (RK3188) and Measy U2C (RK3066). Ready? Let’s start by downloading and extracting upgrade_tool. You may want to add the installation path to […]

May 21, 2014May 29, 2017 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 12 Comments

ARM Cortex A15/A17 SoCs Comparison – Nvidia Tegra K1 vs Samsung Exynos 5422 vs Rockchip RK3288 vs AllWinner A80

We’re now starting to get quite a few players with ARM Cortex A15 cores on the market, as well as some with ARM Cortex A17. So a comparison table of different quad and octa SoCs might be a useful thing to do. I’ve put aside SoCs such as HiSilicon K3V3, and OMAP5, and focused on the four latest processors: Nvidia Tegra K1 (32-bit), Samsung Exynos 5422, Rockchip RK3288 and AllWinner A80. I haven’t included Mediatek MT6595 and Qualcomm SnapDragon 805, because the two companies mainly focus on smartphones and tablets (although it appears to be slowly changing for Qualcomm), documentation is usually difficult or impossible to find, and in the case of Qualcomm they use their own ARMv7 Krait cores. I’ve highlighted some features in green, in case a particular SoC appears to have an edge. Rockchip RK3288 AllWinner A80 Nvidia Tegra K1 Samsung Exynos 5422 CPU 4x ARM Cortex-A17 […]