RockpiS/Ubuntu

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    ROCK Pi S >  Ubuntu

Work with ROCK Pi S Ubuntu

Introduction to ROCK Pi S Ubuntu

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

ROCK Pi S Ubuntu 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.

Default User Account

Non-root User:

   User Name : rock
   Password  : rock

Update necessary packages

Add Radxa APT, see Radxa APT.

Install packages:

 $ sudo apt-get update
 $ sudo apt-get install -y apt-utils # without this, the adb connection might break during installation of rockchip-adb
 $ sudo apt-get install -y rockchip-overlay
 $ sudo apt-get install -y linux-4.4-rockpis-latest rockpis-dtbo
 $ sudo apt-get install -y rtl8723ds-firmware rockchip-adbd resize-assistant
 $ sudo apt-get install -y rockpis-dtbo # For those ROCK Pi S system images released before March 1st, 2020

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:AA:25:49:1E  ACL MTU: 1021:8  SCO MTU: 255:12
         UP RUNNING 
         RX bytes:4424 acl:0 sco:0 events:81 errors:0
         TX bytes:3820 acl:0 sco:0 commands:52 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.

Common Hardware Interfaces, I2C, PWM, SPI, UART, 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.

Warning: Remember there is only one line including item "overlays=" in file /boot/uEnv.txt.

For more details about device tree overlays, see Device Tree Overlays and ROCK Pi S Libmraa.

I2C

To enable I2C-0 (/dev/i2c-0), add item "rk3308-i2c0" to the "overlays=" line.

 overlays=rk3308-i2c0

To enable I2C-1 (/dev/i2c-1), add item "rk3308-i2c1" to the "overlays=" line.

 overlays=rk3308-i2c1

To enable I2C-2 (/dev/i2c-2), add item "rk3308-i2c2" to the "overlays=" line.

 overlays=rk3308-i2c2

To enable I2C-2 (/dev/i2c-3), add item "rk3308-i2c3" to the "overlays=" line.

 overlays=rk3308-i2c3

PWM

To enable PWM1, add item "rk3308-pwm1" to the "overlays=" line.

 overlays=rk3308-pwm1

To enable PWM2, add item "rk3308-pwm2" to the "overlays=" line.

 overlays=rk3308-pwm2

To enable PWM3, add item "rk3308-pwm3" to the "overlays=" line.

 overlays=rk3308-pwm3

SPI

To enable SPI2, add item "rk3308-spi-spidev" to the "overlays=" line.

 overlays=rk3308-spi-spidev
 param_spidev_spi_bus=2
 param_spidev_spi_cs=0
 param_spidev_max_freq=10000000

UART

The debugger console baud rate options: 1500000n8 and 115200n8.

To disable debugger console, just need to delete "console=" line in file /boot/uEnv.txt.

To set ttyS0 as debugger console, add item "rk3308-uart0" to the "overlays=" line. Also need to set console value.

 console=ttyS0,1500000n8
 overlays=rk3308-uart0

To set ttyS1 as debugger console, add item "rk3308-uart1" to the "overlays=" line. Also need to set console value.

 console=ttyS1,1500000n8
 overlays=rk3308-uart1

To set ttyS2 as debugger console, add item "rk3308-uart2" to the "overlays=" line. Also need to set console value.

 console=ttyS2,1500000n8
 overlays=rk3308-uart2

To set ttyS0, ttyS1 and ttyS2 as common serial communication devices, add these items "rk3328-uart0", "rk3328-uart1" and "rk3328-uart2" to the "overlays=" line. The device /dev/ttyS0, /dev/ttyS1, /dev/ttyS2, are available.

 overlays=rk3308-uart0 rk3308-uart1 rk3308-uart2

USB

USB port, working in host mode, enables the attachment of peripherals such U Disk, keyboards, mice, USB dongle like USB camera, etc.

USB port, working in OTG mode, supports USB gadget function including adb, USB RNDIS, USB subnet etc.

There are two USB ports on ROCK Pi S. One is Type-A port and the other is Type-C port. By default, on Ubuntu system Type-A port is working in host mode. Type-C port is configured in OTG mode. With software configuration, Type-C port can also work in host mode.

Use USB Camera

Check ROCK Pi S Camera module.

Use USB Device Network

Check ROCK Pi S USB Device Network.

Type-C port in host mode

To configure Type-C port in host mode, add item "rk3308-usb20-host" to the "overlays=" line in file /boot/uEnv.txt.

Kernel version: >=4.4.143.51

 overlays=rk3308-usb20-host

Display

See ROCK Pi S Display.

Use Array Microphones with ROCK Pi S PoE

Storage Device

uSD Card: /dev/mmcblk0

SD Nand: /dev/mmcblk1

Boot Device Order

USB Disk -> uSD Card -> SD NAND

Changelogs

2020.08.10

rockpis_ubuntu_bionic_minimal_arm64_20200809_0856-gpt.img

Add support for booting from USB
Change boot order: USB -> uSD Card -> SD NAND
Kernel version: 4.4.143-55-rockchip-g6b7accbc999b
U-boot version: 2017.09-02383-g233a23e3ed

2020.06.16

rockpis_ubuntu_bionic_minimal_arm64_20200615_1227-gpt.img

Fix the issue of failing to find root device. System boot log may show like this.

 [    1.478059] RAMDISK: gzip image found at block 0
 [    1.581744] RAMDISK: incomplete write (23864 != 32768)
 [    1.581801] write error
 [    1.581895] Waiting for root device UUID=37055840-4ec4-444f-979b-9e47ee4bd848...

Kernel version: 4.4.143-52-rockchip-g7ed61b60d176

2020.05.28

rockpis_ubuntu_bionic_minimal_arm64_20200528_1230-gpt.img

Kernel version: 4.4.143-48-rockchip-geacd15ae244f
Rename rockchip-adb package to rockchip-adbd.
U-boot version: 2017.09-02378-g6de46245e6
Update uEnv and boot.scr.
Use ttySx as debuger console instead of ttyFIQ0.

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
The version of systemd: 237
U-boot version: 2017.09-02377-gc3d3bc84be

2019.12.19

rockpis_ubuntu_bionic_minimal_arm64_191219_0410-gpt.img

U-boot version: 2017.09-02370-g6d65a50f1e
Kernel version: 4.4.143-34-rockchip-g3c9d2019dba7
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.

RockpiS/Ubuntu

Contents

Work with ROCK Pi S Ubuntu

Introduction to ROCK Pi S Ubuntu

Access from the Host PC/Laptop

Option 1: USB access(adb)

Option 2: Serial console

Option 3: SSH

Default User Account

Update necessary packages

Network Connection

Ethernet Connection

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

WIFI Connection

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

Bluetooth

Common Hardware Interfaces, I2C, PWM, SPI, UART, etc

I2C

PWM

SPI

UART

USB

Use USB Camera

Use USB Device Network

Type-C port in host mode

Display

Use Array Microphones with ROCK Pi S PoE

Storage Device

Boot Device Order

Changelogs

2020.08.10

2020.06.16

2020.05.28

2020.03.16

2019.12.19