Difference between revisions of "Rock5/install/spi"

Revision as of 19:43, 1 February 2023

    ROCK 5 >  Installation >  Install the image to SPI NOR flash

Install the image to SPI NOR flash

ROCK 5 has a SPI flash on the board, it is useful to install the bootloader to the SPI flash for a back up booting and support other booting media that the SoC maskrom mode doesn't direct support, such as NVMe, SATA or USB 3.

This page describe how to write/install the image to the SPI flash on the ROCK 5B board.

There are two methods available:

• simple method - flash the SPI from the ROCK5 itself
• advanced method - flash the SPI with an external computer

Simple method

Requirements

• ROCK 5B with proper power
• SD card or eMMC module
• Linux image for ROCK 5B - (Android images are not supported yet)

Procedure

1) Flash linux to a µSD card/eMMC

The first step is to get a Debian or Ubuntu image from the downloads section

• Download the latest SPI image from:
  • release version with u-boot serial console disabled (Recommend)
  • debug version with u-boot serial console enabled (Use it when you need to troubleshoot booting issue)
  • armbian version (Use it when you need to install the armbian image to M.2 NVME SSD)

Advanced (external) method

Requirements

• ROCK 5B with proper power
• Linux image for ROCK 5B, Android image is not supported yet
• SD card or eMMC module
• USB Type C cable
• Windows/linux/macOS PC

Procedure

Step 1: Install Tools & Drivers

Please check this guide, Install rockchip flash tools under Windows/Linux/MacOS PC. The PC tools we use to communicate with ROCK 5 in Maskrom mode are the rkdeveloptool on Linux/macOS and RkDevtool on Windows PC.

Step 2: Get RK3588 loader and U-Boot images

For ROCK 5B

• Download the loader image from:
  • RK3588 loader - USB flashing helper

• Download the latest SPI image from:
  • release version with u-boot serial console disabled(Recommend)
  • debug version with u-boot serial console enabled(Use it when you need to troubleshoot booting issue)
  • armbian version (Use it when you need to install the armbian Image to M.2 NVME SSD)

Step 3: Boot the board to Maskrom mode

To boot ROCK 5B to Maskrom mode is simple:

• Power off the board.
• Remove bootable device like MicroSD card, eMMC module, etc.
• Press the golden (or silver on some board revisions) button and hold it.
• Plug the USB-A to Type-C cable to ROCK 5B Type-C port, the other side to PC.
• Release the golded button.
• Check usb device
  • For macOS host: lsusb result: Bus 002 Device 032: ID 2207:350b Fuzhou Rockchip Electronics Co., Ltd. Composite Device
  • For Linux host: lsusb result: Bus 001 Device 112: ID 2207:350b Fuzhou Rockchip Electronics Company
  • For Windows host: Open RKDevTool and you would see the device is in Found One MASKROM Device

Step 4: Write U-Boot images to SPI Nor Flash or erase SPI Nor Flash

Option 1: Operate on ROCK 5B

Boot your ROCK 5B with Linux running on SD card or eMMC module:

Make sure the SPI flash is available:

ls /dev/mtdblock*

sudo dd if=zero.img of=/dev/mtdblock0
sudo dd if=rock-5b-spi-image-g49da44e116d.img of=/dev/mtdblock0
sync

Get zero.img from here.

Option 2: Flash with Linux PC/Mac

On your PC or Mac, run the rkdeveloptool

sudo rkdeveloptool ld
DevNo=1	Vid=0x2207,Pid=0x350b,LocationID=106	Maskrom

This will load the loader (flash helper, downloaded from Step2) to run on ROCK 5B and init the ram and prepare the flashing environment etc.

sudo rkdeveloptool db /path/to/rk3588_spl_loader_v1.08.111.bin		 # will output:
Downloading bootloader succeeded.

Next, write SPI image from PC/Mac to ROCK 5B SPI flash

You can use the image download from Step 2.

sudo rkdeveloptool wl 0 rock-5b-spi-image-g49da44e116d.img					
Write LBA from file (100%)

Reboot the device

rkdeveloptool rd

now, the device should boot on SPI Nor Flash. And the blue led is on.

Option 3: Flash with Windows PC

Double click the RKDevTool.exe and you will see the following interface: Double click the RKDevTool.exe and you will see the following interface:

Step 1: comfirm that ROCK 5B is in Maskrom mode

If your ROCK 5B is in maskrom mode and connects to PC, you can see that the program detects it, as the red arrow below

Step 2: Load Configuration File

Right-click in the list box and select Load Config,Then select the configuration file in the resource management folder（The configuration file and RKDevTool are in the same directory）

Step 3: Select Loader

Next, click the right last columns in the "Loader" row to select rk3588_spl_loader_v1.08.111.bin

Step 4: Select SPI image

Next, click the right last columns in the "spi" row to select spi-image.

Step 5: Excute

Finally, click the "Excute" button, and you will see the content in the red box on the right. When the progress reaches 100%, the download is completed.

Addition: Erase the SPI Nor Flash

Option 1: Operate on ROCK 5B

Boot your ROCK 5B with Linux running on SD card or eMMC module:

Make sure the SPI flash is available:

ls /dev/mtdblk*

sudo dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/mtdblock0
sync

Option 2: Erase with Linux PC/Mac

Please notice that when you want to erase SPI Nor Flash, fire these commands. If you don't have zero.img, download this one please. zero.img And extract it.

rkdeveloptool db rk3588_spl_loader_v1.08.111.bin
rkdeveloptool wl 0 zero.img
rkdeveloptool rd

Option3: Erase with Windows PC

Before Erasing, please confirm that ROCK 5B is in Maskrom mode

Step 1: Download

Choose the "Advanced features" button, then select rk3588_spl_loader_v1.08.111.bin, next click the "Download" button

Step 2: Erase all

Click the "erase all" button

Step 3: Reboot device

Troubleshooting

• If you have issue with flashing via USB OTG, start a new post on the forum, https://forum.radxa.com/c/rock5.