Rockchip Debian SDK

Below is the instructions of how to build image for ROCK Pi 4 on a HOST PC.

Get the source code

Note that here the non-root user is jack and we are at the home folder.

$ cd ~
$ pwd
/home/jack

When you have a different name, like rose, you can replace jack with rose in the next parts of this guide.

Command prepended by $ means the command may be executed by an unprivileged user. And command prepended by # means the command may be executed by an privileged user. But the symbol, $ or #, is not part of the command.

You need Git to get multiple git repositories to build the image.

Install Git if you don't have it.

$ sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get upgrade
$ sudo apt-get install git

Clone the source code

$ git clone -b master https://github.com/radxa/rockchip-bsp.git
$ cd rockchip-bsp
$ git submodule init
$ git submodule update

You will get

build  kernel  README.md  rkbin  rootfs  u-boot

Directories usage introductions:

• build:

  • Some script files and configuration files for building u-boot, kernel and rootfs.

• kernel:

  • kernel source code, current version is 4.4

• rkbin:

  • Prebuilt Rockchip binaries, include first stage loader and ATF(Arm Trustzone Firmware).

• rootfs:

  • Bootstrap a Debian based rootfs, support architechture armhf and arm64, support Debian Jessie, Stretch and Buster.

• u-boot:

  • u-boot as the second stage bootloader

• docker:

  • Init a ubuntu 16.04 build environment for easier building u-boot, kernel, rootfs and system.

Update the source code

The rockchip-bsp will be updated all the time, so you can update the source to get more fearures before building the system image.

$ cd ~/rockchip-bsp
$ git checkout master
$ git fetch origin
$ git rebase origin/master
$ git submodule update

Build images

Two methods of building images will be shown in the next parts. One uses Docker (Part one) and the other doesn't (Part two). Just select one part and start to build your wanted images.

Part one

Install Docker

$ sudo apt-get update
$ sudo apt-get install binfmt-support qemu-user-static
$ sudo apt-get install \
    apt-transport-https \
    ca-certificates \
    curl \
    software-properties-common
$ curl -fsSL https://download.docker.com/linux/ubuntu/gpg | sudo apt-key add -
$ sudo apt-key fingerprint 0EBFCD88

pub   4096R/0EBFCD88 2017-02-22
      Key fingerprint = 9DC8 5822 9FC7 DD38 854A  E2D8 8D81 803C 0EBF CD88
uid                  Docker Release (CE deb) <docker@docker.com>
sub   4096R/F273FCD8 2017-02-22

$ sudo add-apt-repository \
   "deb [arch=amd64] https://download.docker.com/linux/ubuntu \
   $(lsb_release -cs) \
   stable"

$ sudo apt-get update
$ sudo apt-get install docker-ce
$ apt-cache madison docker-ce

docker-ce | 18.09.0~ce-0~ubuntu | https://download.docker.com/linux/ubuntu xenial/stable amd64 Packages

$ sudo apt-get install docker-ce=<VERSION>

Go to the docker folder.

$ cd ~/rockchip-bsp/docker

Build a Docker image, called rockchip-radxa:1.

$ sudo docker build -t rockchip-radxa:1 -f ./Dockerfile .

Now the Docker image, rockchip-radxa:1, is ready. You just need to build Docker image once. Everytime you want to build images, just run a Docker container.

Run a Docker container

$ docker run --privileged -it -v /home/jack/rockchip-bsp:/root rockchip-radxa:1 /bin/bash

Now the Docker container should be running.

Here Docker bind mounts /home/jack/rockchip-bsp in the host to /root in the Docker container. cd /root and ls will show:

# cd /root
# ls
build  kernel  README.md  rkbin  rootfs  u-boot

Build u-boot

# cd /root
# ./build/mk-uboot.sh rockpi4b     #For ROCK Pi 4 Mode B

The generated images will be copied to out/u-boot folder

# ls out/u-boot/
idbloader.img  rk3399_loader_v1.12.112.bin  trust.img  uboot.img

Build kernel

# ./build/mk-kernel.sh rockpi4b    #For ROCK Pi 4 Mode B

You will get the kernel image and dtb file

# ls out/kernel/
Image  rockpi-4b-linux.dtb

Make rootfs image

To build 32bit rootfs:

# export ARCH=armhf

To build 64bit rootfs:

# export ARCH=arm64

Building a base debian system by ubuntu-build-service from linaro.

# cd rootfs
# dpkg -i ubuntu-build-service/packages/*        # ignore the broken dependencies, we will fix it next step
# apt-get install -f
# RELEASE=buster TARGET=desktop ARCH=${ARCH} ./mk-base-debian.sh

This will bootstrap a Debian buster image, you will get a rootfs tarball named linaro-buster-alip-xxxx.tar.gz.

Building the rk-debain rootfs with debug:

# VERSION=debug ARCH=${ARCH} ./mk-rootfs-buster.sh  && ./mk-image.sh

This will install Rockchip specified packages and hooks on the standard Debian rootfs and generate an ext4 format rootfs image at rootfs/linaro-rootfs.img .

Combine everything into one image

Generate system image with two partitions.

# build/mk-image.sh -c rk3399 -t system -r rootfs/linaro-rootfs.img

Generate ROCK Pi 4 system image with five partitions.

# build/mk-image.sh -c rk3399 -b rockpi4 -t system -r rootfs/linaro-rootfs.img

This will combine u-boot, kernel and rootfs into one image and generate GPT partition table. Output is

out/system.img

Exit Docker

After getting all the wanted images, exit Docker;

# exit

In the host, all generated images are in the ~/rockchip-bsp/out directory.

Part two

When you don't want to use Docker to build images, you can try this way.

Note that if you just used Docker to build the images, then you can't wait to try the new method, there may be operational permissions issues.

Install toolchain from Linaro

$ wget https://releases.linaro.org/components/toolchain/binaries/7.3-2018.05/aarch64-linux-gnu/gcc-linaro-7.3.1-2018.05-x86_64_aarch64-linux-gnu.tar.xz
$ sudo tar xvf gcc-linaro-7.3.1-2018.05-x86_64_aarch64-linux-gnu.tar.xz  -C /usr/local/
$ export CROSS_COMPILE=/usr/local/gcc-linaro-7.3.1-2018.05-x86_64_aarch64-linux-gnu/bin/aarch64-linux-gnu-
$ export PATH=/usr/local/gcc-linaro-7.3.1-2018.05-x86_64_aarch64-linux-gnu/bin:$PATH

Check if Linaro toolchain is the default choice:

$ which aarch64-linux-gnu-gcc
$ /usr/local/gcc-linaro-7.3.1-2018.05-x86_64_aarch64-linux-gnu/bin/aarch64-linux-gnu-gcc

Install other build build tools

$ sudo apt-get install gcc-aarch64-linux-gnu device-tree-compiler libncurses5 libncurses5-dev build-essential libssl-dev mtools bc python dosfstools

Build u-boot/

$ cd ~/rockchip-bsp
$ ./build/mk-uboot.sh rockpi4b     #For ROCK Pi 4 Mode B

The generated images will be copied to out/u-boot folder

$ ls out/u-boot/
idbloader.img  rk3399_loader_v1.12.112.bin  trust.img  uboot.img

Build kernel

$ ./build/mk-kernel.sh rockpi4b    #For ROCK Pi 4 Mode B

You will get the kernel image and dtb file

$ ls out/kernel/
Image  rockpi-4b-linux.dtb

Make rootfs image

To build 32bit rootfs:

$ export ARCH=armhf

To build 64bit rootfs:

$ export ARCH=arm64

Building a base debian system by ubuntu-build-service from linaro.

$ cd rootfs
$ sudo apt-get install binfmt-support qemu-user-static gdisk
$ sudo dpkg -i ubuntu-build-service/packages/*        # ignore the broken dependencies, we will fix it next step
$ sudo apt-get install -f
$ RELEASE=buster TARGET=desktop ARCH=${ARCH} ./mk-base-debian.sh

This will bootstrap a Debian buster image, you will get a rootfs tarball named linaro-buster-alip-xxxx.tar.gz.

Building the rk-debain rootfs with debug:

$ VERSION=debug ARCH=${ARCH} ./mk-rootfs-buster.sh  && ./mk-image.sh

This will install Rockchip specified packages and hooks on the standard Debian rootfs and generate an ext4 format rootfs image at rootfs/linaro-rootfs.img .

Combine everything into one image

Generate system image with two partitions.

$ build/mk-image.sh -c rk3399 -t system -r rootfs/linaro-rootfs.img

Generate ROCK Pi 4 system image with five partitions.

$ build/mk-image.sh -c rk3399 -b rockpi4 -t system -r rootfs/linaro-rootfs.img

This will combine u-boot, kernel and rootfs into one image and generate GPT partition table. Output is

out/system.img

Flash the image

For normal users, follow instructions installation. You will need the generated '''out/system.img''' only.

For developers, flash from USB OTG port, follow instructions usb-installation. You will need the flash helper '''rk3399_loader_xxx.bin''' and generated '''out/system.img''' files.

Troubleshooting

Go to ROCK Pi 4 FAQs