Install the operating system

This document introduces how to install Android image to Rock 3B.

Rock 3B can boot from microSD card, eMMC, SSD, so install os on microSD card, eMMC or SSD based on your choose.

Install OS on microSD card/eMMC

Before starting ROCK 3B using microSD card/eMMC, it is necessary to erase the SPI as follows:

1. Please go to Download Summary to download image.

2. Enter maskrom mode

• Disconnect the board from the power supply.
• Remove the SD card, NVME SSD and insert the eMMC module.
• Connect the USB3.0 port of the Radxa ROCK 3B to the PC side with USB cable.
• Short circuit Maskrom Key with DuPont wire to power on the development board.
• Check for USB devices
  • Linux/macOS: Check if "Bus 001 Device 112: ID 2207:350a Fuzhou Rockchip Electronics Company" is displayed after running lsusb.
  • Windows: Open RKDevTool and you will see the device in "maskrom mode".
• Unplug the short DuPont wire

3. Erase SPI as follows

Windows

Windows use rkdevtool

Linux/Mac

Linux/Mac use rkdeveloptool

dd if=/dev/zero of=zero.img bs=16M count=1
rkdeveloptool db rk3588_spl_loader_v1.15.113.bin (select the loader file downloaded in step 1)
rkdeveloptool wl 0 zero.img
rkdeveloptool rd

Preparation

• 1x microSD card / eMMC(capacity >=8GB)
• 1x microSD card / eMMC reader
• 5V power adapter (recommended [Radxa Power PD30W] (/accessories/pd-30w))

Image Download

Please go to Resource Download Summary to download the corresponding image file.

Install the system

We recommend using the open-source image flashing tool Etcher, developed by our partner Balena. Etcher has a user-friendly interface and powerful features, with support for Windows, Linux, and macOS systems. Next, we'll show you how to use Etcher to write an image to an SD card.

1. Download Etcher and install it.

Windows

Please download balenaEtcher-Setup-1.18.11.exe After the download is complete, there is no need to perform any additional actions. After downloading, you can double click it to open it without any additional operation.

Linux

Please download balena-etcher_1.18.11_amd64.deb. Once the download is complete, please install it by executing the following command in the terminal:

sudo dpkg -i balena-etcher_1.18.11_amd64.deb

2. Open Etcher

   

3. Open Etcher and click Flash from file to select the image to write to.

   

4. Click Select target to select the device, please select carefully.

   

5. Click Flash! Start writing and wait for the write progress bar to complete.

   

6. When writing the image successfully, Etcher will display Flash Complete!.

   

**If there is an error in flashing, please try again. **

7. Starting the system

After successfully burning the microSD card according to the above steps,
insert the microSD card into the MicroSD slot of (as shown
below), power on the system with the  power adapter, and
then the system will start booting and HDMI will display the desktop.

tip

Recommended official 30W adapter Radxa PD 30W adapter.

8. Logging in to the system

After the system has started, log in using the radxa account with the password radxa.

Start the system

• After successfully burning the microSD card/ eMMC as described above, insert the slot of the ROCK 3B.
• The power supply interface of ROCK 3B is USB 2.0 OTG Type C port, please use Type-C cable to connect the power supply port and the adapter.

tip

Radxa ROCK 3B supports QC 3.0/2.0 adapter, 9V/2A, 12V/1.5A. Radxa recommends using the Radxa Power PD30W.

Install OS on SPI-NVME

Preparation

Prepare the installation media

• 1x NVME ssd （M.2）

Prepare the image file

Please go to Download Summary to download image.

System installation

1. Connect the micro usb cable to the host computer.
2. Enter Maskrom mode.

• Disconnect power to the board
• Remove the SD card,eMMC module and insert the NVME SSD.
• Connect the USB3.0 port of the Radxa ROCK 3B to the PC with USB A-A.
• Short the Maskrom key.
• Power up the board.
• Unplug the short DuPont wire

Linux

Install rkdeveloptool

rkdeveloptool is Rockchip's software for USB burning on Linux/macOS platforms.

The rkdeveloptool can be thought of as an upgrade_tool for the open source version.

If your operating system does not provide rkdeveloptool, you will need to compile and install it from source.

Debian

Execute the following command from the command line to install:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install -y libudev-dev libusb-1.0-0-dev dh-autoreconf pkg-config libusb-1.0 build-essential git wget
git clone https://github.com/rockchip-linux/rkdeveloptool
cd rkdeveloptool
wget https://patch-diff.githubusercontent.com/raw/rockchip-linux/rkdeveloptool/pull/73.patch
wget https://patch-diff.githubusercontent.com/raw/rockchip-linux/rkdeveloptool/pull/85.patch
git am *.patch
autoreconf -i
./configure
make -j $(nproc)
sudo cp rkdeveloptool /usr/local/sbin/

Ubuntu

Execute the following command from the command line to install:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install -y libudev-dev libusb-1.0-0-dev dh-autoreconf pkg-config libusb-1.0 build-essential git wget
git clone https://github.com/rockchip-linux/rkdeveloptool
cd rkdeveloptool
wget https://patch-diff.githubusercontent.com/raw/rockchip-linux/rkdeveloptool/pull/73.patch
wget https://patch-diff.githubusercontent.com/raw/rockchip-linux/rkdeveloptool/pull/85.patch
git am *.patch
autoreconf -i
./configure
make -j $(nproc)
sudo cp rkdeveloptool /usr/local/sbin/

On Ubuntu 22.10 and later you can install it from the command line: sudo apt-get install rkdeveloptool

ArchLinux

rkdeveloptool can be installed from the AUR .

Enter Maskrom Mode

Using rkdeveloptool

Write to a file

tip

rkdeveloptool does not automatically decompress compressed files when writing to them.

You must first extract the used files and specify the extracted files in rkdeveloptool.

tip

rkdeveloptool does not support the selection of a Maskrom device, nor the selection of a storage medium to be written to. Normally, when using rkdeveloptool, only one device and one storage medium are connected in hardware. This step cannot be controlled by software.

If you need to write to multiple devices at the same time, use upgrade_tool.

1. Extract the image file (See File Download above for details of the image file, here rock_debian_bullseye-_desktop_release_b1.img.xz is used as an example)

xz -d rock_debian_bullseye-_desktop_release_b1.img.xz (if the image file is gz format，then use `gunzip -d xxx.gz` command)

2. Flash Loader(See File Download above for details of the loader file，here rkxxxx_spl_loader_v1.xxx.bin is just an example)

sudo rkdeveloptool db rkxxxx_spl_loader_v1.xxx.bin

3. Flash System Image (Here rock_debian_bullseye-_desktop_release_b1.img is an example, use the file got from step1 as a replacement)

sudo rkdeveloptool wl 0 rock_debian_bullseye-_desktop_release_b1.img

Reboot

sudo rkdeveloptool rd

Login

After rebooting the device, you can log in to the system via HDMI or serial port.

mac

Install rkdeveloptool

rkdeveloptool is Rockchip's software for USB burning on Linux/macOS platforms.

The rkdeveloptool can be thought of as an upgrade_tool for the open source version.

If your operating system does not provide rkdeveloptool, you will need to compile and install it from source.

Please install Homebrew first and then run the following command from the command line to install it:

brew install automake autoconf libusb pkg-config git wget
git clone https://github.com/rockchip-linux/rkdeveloptool
cd rkdeveloptool
wget https://patch-diff.githubusercontent.com/raw/rockchip-linux/rkdeveloptool/pull/73.patch
wget https://patch-diff.githubusercontent.com/raw/rockchip-linux/rkdeveloptool/pull/85.patch
git am *.patch
autoreconf -i
./configure
make -j $(nproc)
cp rkdeveloptool /opt/homebrew/bin/

Enter Maskrom Mode

Using rkdeveloptool

Write to a file

tip

rkdeveloptool does not automatically decompress compressed files when writing to them.

You must first extract the used files and specify the extracted files in rkdeveloptool.

tip

rkdeveloptool does not support the selection of a Maskrom device, nor the selection of a storage medium to be written to. Normally, when using rkdeveloptool, only one device and one storage medium are connected in hardware. This step cannot be controlled by software.

If you need to write to multiple devices at the same time, use upgrade_tool.

1. Extract the image file (See File Download above for details of the image file, here rock_debian_bullseye-_desktop_release_b1.img.xz is used as an example)

xz -d rock_debian_bullseye-_desktop_release_b1.img.xz (if the image file is gz format，then use `gunzip -d xxx.gz` command)

2. Flash Loader(See File Download above for details of the loader file，here rkxxxx_spl_loader_v1.xxx.bin is just an example)

sudo rkdeveloptool db rkxxxx_spl_loader_v1.xxx.bin

3. Flash System Image (Here rock_debian_bullseye-_desktop_release_b1.img is an example, use the file got from step1 as a replacement)

sudo rkdeveloptool wl 0 rock_debian_bullseye-_desktop_release_b1.img

Reboot

sudo rkdeveloptool rd

Login

After rebooting the device, you can log in to the system via HDMI or serial port.

Windows

Install RKDevTool

RKDevTool is Rockchip's software for USB burning on Windows platform. If RKDevTool is not installed on your Windows host, please follow the steps below to install it.

Please download and extract the following files to install RKDevTool:

• RKDevTool v2.96 (Includes Chinese documentation)
• DriverAssistant v5.0

Installation of drivers

Download and unzip DriverAssistant, then execute DriverInstall.exe and click the Install Driver button to install the driver. If you have already installed another version of driver, please click Uninstall Driver to uninstall the driver first, and then reinstall it again.

Install RKDevTool

unzip RKDevTool_Release_v2.96_zh.zip ，click RKDevTool.exe to open.

Enter Maskrom mode

If the operation is normal, RKDevTool will prompt A MASKROM device was found.

Follow the steps below to flash the operation image

System startup

Rock 3B

• Power on the Rock 3B via the DC adapter.
• The Rock 3B will boot up with the green power LED on.

Frequently Asked Questions

Reference