k36-emmc-wip

EMMC support and auto-dtbo for K36 family (aka EE clones aka play_joysticks).

This is WiP, some issues are expected.

How to use

1. Flash the attached "b" image to SD
2. If your device has a stock firmware on SD, move that card to SD2 (GAME) slot
3. Insert Rocknix SD to SD1 (OS) slot (or the only slot for some devices with SDIO WiFi)
4. Power on your device with power unplugged. Wait till it reboots several times
5. Should be working!

In case of issues with display/sound/etc.

1. While device is off, connect it to your PC with a USB cable (use "OTG" port as we need data transfer)
2. Hold Vol- while booting, your device should enter recovery mode, and all storage should appear as USB drives to your PC
3. from ROCKNIX partition take stock directory and save it somewhere (**you may suddenly need it later in case of broken stock SD or wiped EMMC)
4. there is a stock whatever.dtb file in stock dir. Upload it to https://rocknix.gosk.in/dtbo/ and experiment with options
5. put the mipi-panel.dtbo you get from the service to overlays folder
6. safely remove all the drives and boot your device with updated dtbo to see if the issue is fixed

Flashing to EMMC

DANGER ZONE
You can brick your device by flashing EMMC. To unbrick, you may need to open the case and short some pads on PCB to skip EMMC boot. This needs understanding what the hell are you doing. Be warned, I take no responsibility here

1. As in previous section, Hold Vol- while booting to enter recovery mode and expose all storage to PC
2. back up your stock directory (or just dtb from there) (or dtb from EMMC, it's the same file)
3. Flash the same "b" ROCKNIX image to EMMC (it's first of detected drives, usually 7.8 GB = 7.3 GiB in size). Remember to do sync after dd if you use it.
4. Copy your stock directory you backed up earlier to the new ROCKNIX partition of EMMC
5. safely remove all the drives
6. Remove ROCKNIX SD from your device and let it boot
7. Should work now

panel dtb overlays

Overlays for 3326 new panels (R35s/R36s)

See https://rocknix.org/devices/unbranded/game-console-r35s-r36s/#new-displays-r36s-of-year-2024

Download a file corresponding to your panel and put it into boot (ROCKNIX) partition as overlays/mipi-panel.dtbo

generic mipi driver for R36s

This release and these files are here only for historical reasons.
Working instructions are in wiki: https://rocknix.org/devices/unbranded/game-console-r35s-r36s/#new-displays-r36s-of-year-2024
Maintained overlays are in other release: https://github.com/stolen/r.nix-distribution/releases/tag/panel_overlays

obsolete instructions

How to use: * roll the image or upgrade as you would normally do that * put the `rk3326-r35s-linux.dtb` file from the stock OS or from https://github.com/AeolusUX/R36S-DTB to the `ROCKNIX` partition * **leave boot.ini as it is!** * boot! * give some feedback in `rockchip-rk3326` channel ad discord https://discord.gg/seTxckZjJy

If you don't put the rk3326-r35s-linux.dtb before first boot, don't worry! Just let it initialize (wait 5..10 minites till it finishes) and then put the file in place.

The complex and interesting part: testing various refresh rates

• get an SSH access
• execute wlr-randr to see available modes
• for each mode run wlr-randr --output DSI-1 --mode 640x480@59.727001 (insert corresponding refresh rate after @)
• see if display works well
• tell me which modes failed for you

Why: different emulated systems use different refresh rates (e.g. PAL NES used 50.0070 Hz and WonderSwan used 75.47 Hz).
Emulators use the original rate, and if display mode does not match that you'll see some jerky movement.
As stock dtbs usually describe just a single rate, we need to derive other ones.

mipi-panel.dtbo.r36s-panel* are some fallback DTBOs. If the magic with stock dtb does not work, put a file corresponding to your display as overlays/mipi-panel.dtbo in boot partition.

back to sway

Jeffy Chen from Rockchip made wlroots work with libmali: https://github.com/JeffyCN/rockchip_mirrors/tree/83aa8fc4e40414f179bc72efacb9f93138e52918/package/wlroots

This build uses these patches (updated to wlroots 0.17.2)

dev-20240419-libmali

32-bit libmali now works too (e.g. in retroarch32)

20240417-optional-libmali

Experimental dev build with libmali <-> panfrost driver switch

Use it at your own risk and give a feedback in Discord:

• ROCKNIX server https://discord.gg/seTxckZjJy
• Rockchip-RK3566 channel https://discord.com/channels/948029830325235753/1075906301705601044