RockpiS/Debian

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    ROCK Pi S >  Debian

Work with ROCK Pi S Debian

Introduction to ROCK Pi S Debian

ROCK Pi S Debian is an easy to use desktop system. While working with ROCK Pi S Debian, you will find it do well on playing music, Internet, Bluetooth and so on.

ROCK Pi S Debian uses systemd to manage system.

Access from the Host PC/Laptop

Option 1: USB access(adb)

By default, the ROCK Pi S Linux image enables adbd services, which is a debug bridge from Android now ported on Linux. With one USB A to C cable you can power and access the board, very handy.

To use adb, you need to install adb tool on the PC/Laptop. Check instructions for Windows and Linux.

After you have adb installed successfully, run the following command on console to login the shell of ROCK Pi S:

   adb shell

Check Using adb.

Option 2: Serial console

Check Serial Console

Option 3: SSH

SSH server is enabled on port 22 of ROCK Pi S default image.

Please use angryip to find your board IP address.

To access ROCK Pi S by SSH, try

   ping rockpis.local
   ssh rock@rockpis.local

or if your router/network doesn't support Local Domain, you need to check your network/router administrator page and look for the ROCK Pi S ip address.

   ping ip-of-device
   ssh rock@ip-of-device

Note: You can also get the IP of ROCK Pi S from option 1 or option 2 if you can not access network administrator page.

Debian Default User Account

Non-root User:

   User Name : rock
   Password  : rock

Install and update necessary packages

Add Radxa APT, see Radxa APT.

Install packages;

 $ sudo apt-get update
 $ sudo apt-get install -y rockchip-overlay
 $ sudo apt-get install -y linux-4.4-rockpis-latest rockpis-dtbo

Install xfce4 desktop

 $ sudo apt-get install -y xfce4
 $ sudo apt-get install -y xfce4-goodies task-xfce-desktop lightdm dialog tango-icon-theme

Network Connection

There are two methods for network connection. One is Ethernet and the other is WIFI.

Ethernet Connection

You can use a network cable (one end connected to the external network port or route) to connect your ROCK Pi S to the network. The ROCK Pi S will automatically configure the network for your surfing on the Internet.

To test the Ethernet, we need to follow the steps:

Switch to super user mode by command

 $ sudo su

Check whether the Ethernet is normal by command, ifconfig, which would show us a network card, eth0, and the Ethernet IP address. Also, use tool, ping, to connect to a normal domain.

 $ ifconfig
 $ ping www.baidu.com

If failed to connect to a normal domain. , try

 $ sudo dhclient eth0

WIFI Connection

When there is not a network cable for your ROCK Pi S the WIFI connection is another good choice. ROCK Pi S supports 2.4G WIFI wireless network.

To test the WIFI performance, we need to follow the steps:

Switch to super user mode

 $ sudo su

Open the WIFI

 $ nmcli r wifi on

Scan WIFI

 $ nmcli dev wifi

Connect to WIFI network

 $ nmcli dev wifi connect "wifi_name" password "wifi_password"

Test WIFI perpormance by tool iperf.

Bluetooth

Update necessary packages

 $ sudo apt-get update
 $ sudp apt-get install -y rockchip-overlay
 $ sudo apt-get install -y linux-4.4-rockpis-latest # kernel version(>=4.4.143.27)
 $ sudo apt-get install -y rtl8723ds-firmware bluez

Check Bluetooth service

 $ systemctl status bluetooth

Run Bluetooth service if the Bluetooth service is inactive.

 $ systemctl start bluetooth

Check Bluetooth device

 $ hciconfig
 hci0:   Type: Primary  Bus: UART
         BD Address: 22:22:70:B2:10:6F  ACL MTU: 1021:8  SCO MTU: 255:12
         UP RUNNING 
         RX bytes:1399 acl:0 sco:0 events:45 errors:0
         TX bytes:3458 acl:0 sco:0 commands:45 errors:0

Example: Connect to Bluetooth Speaker.

Change to root mode.

 $ sudo su

Install pulseaudio packages

 # apt-get install -y pulseaudio-module-bluetooth pulseaudio

Run pulseaudio

 # pulseaudio --start

Connect using bluetoothctl

 # bluetoothctl
 [bluetooth]# default-agent 
 [bluetooth]# power on
 [bluetooth]# scan on
 [bluetooth]# trust 77:EC:79:4F:6B:AC
 [bluetooth]# pair 77:EC:79:4F:6B:AC
 [bluetooth]# connect 77:EC:79:4F:6B:AC

Play songs and enjoy it.

Resize root filesystem to fit available disk space

Execute command resize-helper

 $ sudo /usr/sbin/resize-helper

Type Yes

 Yes/No? Yes

Type -1M

 End?  [1010MB]?-1M

Use USB Camera

Update kernel to version 4.4.143-41-rockchip or newer.

 $ sudo apt-get install -y linux-4.4-rockpis-latest

Install tool fswebcam

 $ sudo apt-get install -y fswebcam

Plug USB camera in, there shall be video devices.

 root@rockpis:~# ls /dev/video*
 /dev/video0  /dev/video1

Capture image

 fswebcam /dev/video0 ./test.png

Common Hardware Interfaces, I2C, UART, SPI, etc

The ROCK Pi S system images released before March 1st, 2020 use hw_intfc.conf to configure interfaces while those which released after March 1st, 2020 use uEnv.txt. We suggest that you use the latest system images.

To use common hardware interfaces like I2C, UART, SPI, etc, we provides DTBO and libmraa. See https://wiki.radxa.com/Device-tree-overlays and https://wiki.radxa.com/RockpiS/dev/libmraa.

Power Management

With Desktop

Click the suspend button to enter suspend mode.

Without Desktop

Suspend

   # systemctl suspend

Power off

   # systemctl poweroff

Reboot

   # systemctl reboot

Storage device

uSD Card: /dev/mmcblk0

SD Nand: /dev/mmcblk1

Boot device order

SD Nand -> uSD Card

Changelogs

2020.03.16

rockpis_debian_buster_minimal_arm64_20200315_1123-gpt.img

Available for at least 256 MB DDR SDRAM
Kernel version: 4.4.143-39-rockchip-gdaf243b9655a
Support uEnv and boot.scr
U-boot version: 2017.09-02377-gc3d3bc84be

2019.12.19

rockpis_debian_buster_minimal_arm64_191219_0406-gpt.img

U-boot version: 2017.09-02370-g6d65a50f1e
Kernel version: 4.4.143-34-rockchip-g3c9d2019dba7
systemd version: 241
System partitions: boot and rootfs
Default serial console: UART0
Default non-root user: rock (password: rock)
Hostname: rockpis
Support adb by default.
Support SSH by default.
Resize root filesystem to fit available disk space for the first boot
Automatically load Bluetooth firmware after system startup.

2019.11.18

rockpis_debian_buster_minimal_arm64_191118_1217-gpt.img

U-boot version: 2017.09-02370-g6d65a50f1e
Kernel version: 4.4.143-34-rockchip-g3c9d2019dba7
Default serial console: UART0
Default non-root user: rock (password: rock)
Hostname: rockpis
Support adb by default.

2019.10.29

rockpis_debian_buster_minimal_arm64_191029_1055-gpt.img

U-boot version updated to 2017.09-02370-g6d65a50f1e
- Add patch to make LAN MAC address stable based on CPUID
Kernel version updated to 4.4.143-28-rockchip-g8dbafd783043
Default serial console: UART0
Default non-root user: rock (password: rock)
Hostname: rockpis
Support SSH
Do not need to install rockchip-fstab package since /boot partition is auto mounted by systemd.

2019.08.06

rockpis_debian_stretch_minimal_arm64_190806_0115-gpt.img

Kernel version updated to 4.4.143-23-rockchip-g394d86b2b38b
- Support 3.5inch waveshare model B and C LCD
Default serial console: UART0
Default non-root user: rock (password: rock)
Hostname: rockpis
Support SSH