Flashing to the eMMC

Boot Mode

eMMC flash is commonly soldered directly to the board. Some eMMC flash
are pluggable, but it is hard to find a reader to use on PC.
Therefore, eMMC is generally flashed onboard, that is, running to tiny
system on the obard, which reads firmware data from PC and flashes to
eMMC.

Depending on the existing data on the eMMC flash, there are two
special boot modes:

Rockusb Mode

 and

Maskrom Mode

.

You usually just need to enter

Rockusb Mode

 for upgrading an existing Android OS or Firefly Ubuntu OS, which is
packed with

RK Firmware

 format.

Maskrom Mode

 is the last resort when

Rockusb Mode

 is not available due to bootloader damage, or you need to flash

Raw Firmware

 to eMMC.

Rockusb Mode

If the board powers on and finds a valid IDB (IDentity Block) in the
eMMC, it will continue to load the bootloader from the eMMC and pass
execution control to it. If the bootloader checks that the Recovery
button is pressed and USB connection is made, then it enters the so-
called

Rockusb Mode

, waiting for further instructions from the host.

Requirement:

5V2A power adapter.

Micro USB cable to connect power adapter and board.

Male to male USB cable to connect host PC and board.

eMMC.

Steps:

Pull all the USB cables (including micro USB cable and male to male
USB cable) out of the board, to keep the board powering off.

Install the eMMC and pull out the SD card.

Use the male to male USB cable to connect the host PC with the USB 2.0
OTG port (the lower one in the double-decker ports) of the board.

Keep the RECOVERY button on the board pressed.

Plug in the micro USB cable to the board to power up.

Wait about 3 seconds before releasing the RECOVERY button.

Maskrom Mode

If anyone of the following conditions is met when the board powers on:

eMMC is empty.

The bootloader on eMMC is damaged.

eMMC read data failed by connecting eMMC data/clock pin to ground.

then no valid IDB (IDentity Block) will be found in the eMMC. The CPU
will execute a small ROM code, waiting for the host to upload via USB
a small DDR blob to initialize the DDR memory, and later a full
bootloader to handle further firmware upgrading. This mode is called

Maskrom Mode

.

It involves hardware operation to force into

MaskRom Mode

, which has certain risk and should be carried out

VERY CAREFULLY

.

Requirement:

5V2A power adapter.

Micro USB cable to connect power adapter and board.

Male to male USB cable to connect host PC and board.

Metal tweezers to connect eMMC clock pin to ground.

eMMC.

Steps:

Pull all the USB cables (including micro USB cable and male to male
USB cable) out of the board, to keep the board power off.

Install the eMMC and pull out the SD card.

Use a male to male USB cable to connect your host PC and USB OTG port
of the board:

Find the reserved eMMC CLK and GND pads on the board, as shown below:

Connect the eMMC CLK and GND pads with metal tweezers and keep holding
steadily.

Plug in the micro USB cable to the board to power on.

Wait about 1 seconds before releasing the metal tweezers.

Download Firmware

Firmware Download Page

Firmware description

: the firmware is classified into

Raw Firmware

 and

RK Firmware

, which are placed into different folders. The latest firmware is the
one with the latest date, which is often more stable. Please choose
the correct tool to flash according to the type of firmware you need.

Linux (GPT) firmware

: The Linux firmware files, including Ubuntu, Buildroot, Debian and
other Linux systems, contain "GPT" in the filenames which means that
they are using GPT partition scheme. They are referred to as "Linux
(GPT) firmware", which can be compiled in the

Compile Linux firmware(GPT)

 chapter.

Flashing Instructions

The flashing tools and flashing methods used between different
firmware are different. Please follow the table below to flash.


Flashing Tools

Please use the eMMC flashing tools according to your OS:

To flash to the eMMC:  GUI  AndroidTool (Windows)  CLI  upgrade_tool
(Linux)  rkdeveloptool (Linux)

Tip:

AndroidTool

 and

upgrade_tool

 both support to flashing

Raw Firmware

 and

RK Firmware

, But

rkdeveloptool

 only support to flashing

Raw Firmware

.

AndroidTool

AndroidTool

 is used to flash

Raw Firmware

,

RK Firmware

 and

Partition Image

 to eMMC.

To use

AndroidTool

, you need to install

Rockusb Driver

 first.

Installing Rockusb Driver

Download

DriverAssistant

, extract the archive and run "DriverInstall.exe" inside.


Click the "驱动安装" button to install the driver. If you want to
uninstall the driver, click the "驱动卸载" button.

If your device is in

Rockusb Mode

 or

Maskrom Mode

, you'll find a "Rockusb Device" in the device manager:


Installing AndroidTool

Flashing tool selection and download:

Flashing Raw Firmware: AndroidTool_v2.39

Flashing RK Android7.1 Firmware: AndroidTool_v2.38

Flashing RK Android8.1 Firmware: AndroidTool_v2.58

Flashing RK Linux(GPT) Firmware: AndroidTool_v2.58

Download

AndroidTool

, extract it. Locate the file named "config.ini", and edit it by
changing the 4th line from "Selected=1" to "Selected=2", in order to
select English as the default user interface language.

Launch "AndroidTool.exe":


If your device is in

Rockusb Mode

, the status line will be "Found One LOADER Device".

If your device is in

Maskrom Mode

, the status line will be "Found One MASKROM Device".

Flashing Raw Firmware

Raw Firmware

 needs to be flashed to offset 0 of eMMC storage. However, in

Rockusb Mode

, all LBA writes are offset by 0x2000 sectors. Therefore, the device
has to be forced into

Maskrom Mode

.

To flash

Raw Firmware

 to the eMMC using

AndroidTool

, follow the steps below:

Force the device into Maskrom Mode.

Run AndroidTool.

Switch to the "Download Image" tab page.

Keep the first line of the table unchanged, using the default loader
file.

Click the right blank cell on the second line, which will pop up a
file dialog to open the Raw Firmware file.

Click the "Run" button to flash.


Flashing RK Firmware

To flash

RK Firmware

 to the eMMC using

AndroidTool

, follow the steps below:

Force the device into Rockusb Mode or Maskrom Mode.

Run AndroidTool.

Switch to the "Upgrade Firmware" tab page.

Click the "Firmware" button, which will pop up a file dialog to open
the RK Firmware file.

The firmware version, loader version and chip info will be read and
displayed.

Click the "Upgrade" button to flash.

Tips:If you want to flash different system or fail to flash, please
read

Flashing Instructions

 carefully.

Flashing Partition Image

Depending on the original firmware of the development board, flashing
the partition image to eMMC will be different.

Raw Firmware

To flash

Partition Image

 to the eMMC using [AndroidTool_v2.39], follow the steps below:

Force the device into Rockusb Mode or Maskrom Mode.

Run AndroidTool.

Switch to the "Download Image" tab page.

Keep the first line of the table unchanged.

Delete all others unused rows by selecting "Delete Item" from the
right-click popup menu.

Add partition image to flash by selection "Add Item" from the right-
click popup menu.  Check on the checkbox on the first cell.  Fill in
the address with the sector offset (plus 0x2000 if in Maskrom Mode) of
partition in parameter.txt file.  Click the right blank cell to browse
to the Partition Image file.

Click the "Run" button to flash.

Note

:

You can add multiple partitions to flash by repeating step 6.

You can skip the partition flashing by checking off the checkbox in
front of the address cell.

In Maskrom Mode, you must add 0x2000 to the sector offset of the
partition in parameter.txt. See Partition Offset for more detail.

RK Firmware

Use "AndroidTool_v2.38" to flashing "RK Android7.1" firmware
partitions with default configuration.

Use "AndroidTool_v2.58" to flashing "RK Android8.1" firmware
partitions with "rk3328-Android81.cfg" configuration, Right-click the
blank section, click "load config", and select the corresponding
configuration file.

Use "AndroidTool_v2.58" to flashing "RK Linux (GPT)" firmware
partitions with default configuration.

To flash

Partition Image

 to the eMMC using

AndroidTool

, follow the steps below:

Force the device into Rockusb Mode.

Run AndroidTool.

Switch to the "Download Image" tab page.

Make sure the path to the image file is correct. If necessary, click
the blank table cell to the right of the path to reselect it.

Click the "Run" button to start the upgrade. After the upgrade, the
device will restart automatically.


upgrade_tool

upgrade_tool

 is a close-sourced command line tool provided by Rockchip, which
supports flashing

Raw Firmware

,

RK Firmware

 and

Partition Image

 to the eMMC.

Installing upgrade_tool

Flashing tool selection and download:

Flashing Raw Firmware or Android7.1: upgrade_tool_v1.24

Flashing RK Firmware or Android8.1 : upgrade_tool_v1.34

   upgrade_tool Download Link

Download

upgrade_tool

, and install it to your Linux host:

   unzip Linux_Upgrade_Tool_v1.24.zip
   cd Linux_UpgradeTool_v1.24
   sudo mv upgrade_tool /usr/local/bin
   sudo chown root:root /usr/local/bin/upgrade_tool
   sudo chmod 0755 /usr/local/bin/upgrade_tool

Then add "udev" rules by instructions

here

, in order to have permission for the normal user to flash Rockchip
devices. If you skip this, you must prefix the following commands with
"sudo" to have the right permission.

Flashing Raw Firmware

Raw Firmware

 needs to be flashed to offset 0 of eMMC storage. However, in

Rockusb Mode

, all LBA writes are offset by 0x2000 sectors. Therefore, the device
has to be forced into

Maskrom Mode

.

To flash

Raw Firmware

 to the eMMC using

upgrade_tool

, follow the steps below:

Force the device into Maskrom Mode.

Run:  upgrade_tool db
out/u-boot/rk3328_loader_ddr786_v1.06.243.bin upgrade_tool wl 0x0
out/system.img upgrade_tool rd           # reset device to boot

Note:

rk3328_loader_ddr786_v1.06.243.bin is the copied loader file after
compiling U-Boot. It can also be downloaded from here (choose
rk3328_loader_xxx.bin file).

system.img is Raw Firmware after packing, which can also be Raw
Firmware downloaded from official site (decompress first).

Flashing RK Firmware

To flash

RK Firmware

 to the eMMC using

upgrade_tool

, follow the steps below:

Force the device into Rockusb Mode or Maskrom Mode.

Run:  upgrade_tool uf update.img

if the upgrade failed, please erase the eMMC:

   upgrade_tool ef update.img

Flashing Partition Image

You can write individual

Partition Image

 to the eMMC. Depending on the original content of the eMMC, the
instructions can be somewhat different.

Raw Firmware

If the original firmware format is raw, chances are that it is using
the "GPT" partition scheme, and the predefined offset and size of each
partition can be found in "build/partitions.sh" in the SDK. See

Partition Offset

 for more detail.

To flash

Partition Image

 to the eMMC using

upgrade_tool

, follow the steps below:

Force the device into Maskrom Mode.

Use upgrade_tool to flash the Partition Image:  upgrade_tool db
out/u-boot/rk3328_loader_ddr786_v1.06.243.bin upgrade_tool wl 0x40
out/u-boot/idbloader.img upgrade_tool wl 0x4000  out/u-boot/uboot.img
upgrade_tool wl 0x6000  out/u-boot/trust.img upgrade_tool wl 0x8000
out/boot.img upgrade_tool wl 0x40000 out/linaro-rootfs.img
upgrade_tool rd         # reset device to boot

RK Firmware

If the original firmware format is Rockchip, it is using the
"parameter" file for partition scheme, and you can use the partition
name to flash

Partition Image

 directly.

To flash the

Partition Image

 to the eMMC using

upgrade_tool

, follow the steps below:

Force the device into Rockusb Mode.

Use upgrade_tool to flash the Partition Image:

Android7.1

   upgrade_tool di -b boot.img
   upgrade_tool di -k kernel.img
   upgrade_tool di -s system.img
   upgrade_tool di -r recovery.img
   upgrade_tool di -m misc.img
   upgrade_tool di resource resource.img
   upgrade_tool di -p parameter   # flash parameter
   upgrade_tool ul bootloader.bin # flash bootloader

Android8.1

   sudo upgrade_tool ul bootloader.bin # flash bootloader
   sudo upgrade_tool di -p paramater   # flash parameter
   sudo upgrade_tool di -uboot uboot.img
   sudo upgrade_tool di -trust trust.img
   sudo upgrade_tool di -m misc.img
   sudo upgrade_tool di -baseparameter baseparameter.img
   sudo upgrade_tool di -b boot.img
   sudo upgrade_tool di -k kernel.img
   sudo upgrade_tool di -resource resource.img
   sudo upgrade_tool di -r recovery.img
   sudo upgrade_tool di -s system.img
   sudo upgrade_tool di -vendor vendor.img
   sudo upgrade_tool di -oem oem.img

Linux(GPT)

   upgrade_tool ul $LOADER
   upgrade_tool di -p $PARAMETER
   upgrade_tool di -uboot $UBOOT
   upgrade_tool di -trust $TRUST
   upgrade_tool di -b $BOOT
   upgrade_tool di -r $RECOVERY
   upgrade_tool di -m $MISC
   upgrade_tool di -oem $OEM
   upgrade_tool di -userdata $USERDATA
   upgrade_tool di -rootfs $ROOTFS

Note:

-b is a predefined shortcut for boot partition. If no shortcuts are
available, use partition name instead (resource in above example).

You can customize kernel parameters and partition layout according to
Parameter file format. Once the partition layout is changed, you must
flash the parameter file first, before reflashing other changed
partitions.

FAQ

If errors occur due to flash storage problem, you can try to low
format or erase the flash by:

   upgrade_tool lf   # low format flash
   upgrade_tool ef   # erase flash

rkdeveloptool

rkdeveloptool

 is an open-source command line flashing tool developed by Rockchip,
which is an alternative to the close-source

upgrade_tool

.

rkdeveloptool


DOES NOT

 support proprietary

RK Firmware

.

Installing rkdeveloptool

First, download, compile and install

rkdeveloptool

:

   #install libusb and libudev
   sudo apt-get install pkg-config libusb-1.0 libudev-dev libusb-1.0-0-dev dh-autoreconf
   # clone source and make
   git clone https://github.com/rockchip-linux/rkdeveloptool
   cd rkdeveloptool
   autoreconf -i
   ./configure
   make
   sudo make install

Then add "udev" rules by instructions

here

, in order to have permission for the normal user to flash Rockchip
devices. If you skip this, you must prefix the following commands with
"sudo" to have the right permission.

Flashing Raw Firmware

Raw Firmware

 needs to be flashed to offset 0 of eMMC storage. However, in

Rockusb Mode

, all LBA writes are offset by 0x2000 sectors. Therefore, the device
has to be forced into

Maskrom Mode

.

To flash

Raw Firmware

 to the eMMC using

rkdeveloptool

, follow the steps below:

Force the device into Maskrom Mode.

Run:  rkdeveloptool db
out/u-boot/rk3328_loader_ddr786_v1.06.243.bin rkdeveloptool wl 0x0
out/system.img rkdeveloptool rd           # reset device to boot

Note:

rk3328_loader_ddr786_v1.06.243.bin is the copied loader file after
compiling U-Boot. It can also be downloaded from here (choose
rk3328_loader_xxx.bin file).

system.img is Raw Firmware after packing, which can also be the Raw
Firmware downloaded from official site (decompress it first).

Flashing Partition Image

The following instructions

ONLY APPLIY

 to boards which are flashed with

Raw Firmware

 and use "GPT" partition scheme. The predefined offset and size of
each partition can be found in "build/partitions.sh" in the SDK. See

Partition Offset

 for more detail.

To flash

Partition Image

 to the eMMC using

rkdeveloptool

, follow the steps below:

Force the device into Maskrom Mode.

Run:  rkdeveloptool db
out/u-boot/rk3328_loader_ddr786_v1.06.243.bin rkdeveloptool wl 0x40
out/u-boot/idbloader.img rkdeveloptool wl 0x4000
out/u-boot/uboot.img rkdeveloptool wl 0x6000    out/u-boot/trust.img
rkdeveloptool wl 0x8000    out/boot.img rkdeveloptool wl 0x40000   out
/linaro-rootfs.img rkdeveloptool rd           # reset device to boot

udev

Create "/etc/udev/rules.d/99-rk-rockusb.rules" with following content

1

. Replace the group "users" with your actual Linux group if
neccessary:

   SUBSYSTEM!="usb", GOTO="end_rules"

   # RK3036
   ATTRS{idVendor}=="2207", ATTRS{idProduct}=="301a", MODE="0666", GROUP="users"
   # RK3229
   ATTRS{idVendor}=="2207", ATTRS{idProduct}=="320b", MODE="0666", GROUP="users"
   # RK3288
   ATTRS{idVendor}=="2207", ATTRS{idProduct}=="320a", MODE="0666", GROUP="users"
   # RK3328
   ATTRS{idVendor}=="2207", ATTRS{idProduct}=="320c", MODE="0666", GROUP="users"
   # RK3368
   ATTRS{idVendor}=="2207", ATTRS{idProduct}=="330a", MODE="0666", GROUP="users"
   # RK3399
   ATTRS{idVendor}=="2207", ATTRS{idProduct}=="330c", MODE="0666", GROUP="users"

   LABEL="end_rules"

Reload the udev rules to take effect without reboot:

   sudo udevadm control --reload-rules
   sudo udevadm trigger

Partition Offset

GPT Partition

The offset of partition image can be obained by following
command(assuming you are in the directory of Firefly Linux SDK):

   (. build/partitions.sh ; set | grep _START | \
   while read line; do start=${line%=*}; \
   printf "%-10s 0x%08x\n" ${start%_START*} ${!start}; done )

which gives result of:

   ATF        0x00006000
   BOOT       0x00008000
   LOADER1    0x00000040
   LOADER2    0x00004000
   RESERVED1  0x00001f80
   RESERVED2  0x00002000
   ROOTFS     0x00040000
   SYSTEM     0x00000000

parameter

If

RK Firmware

 is used, "parameter.txt" is used to define partition layout.

Here's a handy script to list the partition offsets in
"parameter.txt":

   #!/bin/sh

   PARAMETER_FILE="$1"
   [ -f "$PARAMETER_FILE" ] || { echo "Usage: $0 <parameter_file>"; exit 1; }

   show_table() {
       echo "$1"
       echo "--------"
       printf "%-20s %-10s %s\n" "NAME" "OFFSET" "LENGTH"
       for PARTITION in `cat ${PARAMETER_FILE} | grep '^CMDLINE' | sed 's/ //g' | sed 's/.*:\(0x.*[^)])\).*/\1/' | sed 's/,/ /g'`; do
           NAME=`echo ${PARTITION} | sed 's/\(.*\)(\(.*\))/\2/'`
           START=`echo ${PARTITION} | sed 's/.*@\(.*\)(.*)/\1/'`
           LENGTH=`echo ${PARTITION} | sed 's/\(.*\)@.*/\1/'`
           START=$((START + $2))
           printf "%-20s 0x%08x %s\n" $NAME $START $LENGTH
       done
   }

   show_table "Rockusb Mode" 0
   echo
   show_table "Maskrom Mode" 0x2000

Save it as a script in "/usr/local/bin/show_rk_parameter.sh" and give
the script executing permission.

Here's an example of showing partition offsets defined in "RK3328
Android SDK":

   $ show_rk_parameter.sh device/rockchip/rk3328/parameter.txt
   Rockusb Mode
   --------
   NAME                 OFFSET     LENGTH
   uboot                0x00002000 0x00002000
   trust                0x00004000 0x00004000
   misc                 0x00008000 0x00002000
   baseparamer          0x0000a000 0x00000800
   resource             0x0000a800 0x00007800
   kernel               0x00012000 0x00010000
   boot                 0x00022000 0x00010000
   recovery             0x00032000 0x00010000
   backup               0x00042000 0x00020000
   cache                0x00062000 0x00040000
   metadata             0x000a2000 0x00008000
   kpanic               0x000aa000 0x00002000
   system               0x000ac000 0x00300000
   userdata             0x003ac000 -

   Maskrom Mode
   --------
   NAME                 OFFSET     LENGTH
   uboot                0x00004000 0x00002000
   trust                0x00006000 0x00004000
   misc                 0x0000a000 0x00002000
   baseparamer          0x0000c000 0x00000800
   resource             0x0000c800 0x00007800
   kernel               0x00014000 0x00010000
   boot                 0x00024000 0x00010000
   recovery             0x00034000 0x00010000
   backup               0x00044000 0x00020000
   cache                0x00064000 0x00040000
   metadata             0x000a4000 0x00008000
   kpanic               0x000ac000 0x00002000
   system               0x000ae000 0x00300000
   userdata             0x003ae000 -