ROCK 4 C+ Issues

Troubleshooting
1

Hello,

I have the following board:
ROCK 4 C+.
ROCKCHIP RK3399-T PROCESSOR.
DUAL CORTEX A72.
QUAD CORTEX A53.
Arm Mali T860MP4 GPU.
GIGABIT Ethernet.
Dual Channel 4GB LPDDR4.
2 Micro HDMI.

It seems as if only the vendor image will support this board. Using any other image causes the board not to boot properly. Using the vendors image, I see the green power light, the blue flashing heartbeat light, and an image is displayed on the screen to log in. Testing out other images such as the Diet Pi ROCK Pi 4 causes the board not to boot. I get the green power light, no blue flashing heartbeat light, no video on HDMI-1-2, no USB power or support, no Ethernet connection. I’ve tried an image from Armbian for the Rock Pi 4C Plus, and the board seems to boot where I have a green power light, the blue flashing heartbeat light, Ethernet Connection, USB power and support, but no video on HDMI-1-2. I’m able to use the keyboard to shutdown the system using Alt+SysRq+O. Trying to create an Diet Pi distribution image from the vendor image is challenging itself. There is a lot steps to get the vendor image to interact with Diet Pi script correctly, and you are working with an older kernel too. I have no audio, and cannot change the video resolution which is referenced in the “Make your own distribution.” documentation. I see in the Diet Pi site provided image for the Rock Pi 4, that there is a dtb specifically for the board: rk3399-rock-pi-4c-plus.dtb. I would like to use the Diet Pi image with this board vs having to mess around with other images or the vendor image creating my own distribution. Is there something that I need to reference to get this to work or am I at the beck and call of the vendor image. Any guidance would be greatly appreciated.

2

I was not able to get the Diet Pi image for the Rock 4 to work naively for the Rock 4 C+ out of the box even though there is the dtb file for it. The system just did not want to boot with the Diet Pi image. The Radxa vendor image seems to be cobbled together, and using the create an Diet Pi distribution image from the vendor image does its best to consolidate a clean install, but that does not resolve the issues with the cobbled operating system. The work that the Diet Pi team puts into their builds simplifies a lot of tasks, and makes it easy for the end user. I need a clean, up to date install of the Debian operating system, preferably a CLI (command-line interface) install like Diet Pi, but built for the Rock 4 C+.

Searching the Internet, I came about the following:
Stock Debian ARM64 Linux for the Radxa ROCK (Pi) 4C+:

This stock Debian ARM64 Linux image is built directly from official packages using the official Debian Debootstrap utility.

Being an official unmodified Debian build, patches are directory available from the Debian repos using the stock apt package manager.

The image works with the Rock 4 C+, and has Bookworm as the build.
The image is all CLI, but it as clean as it gets for CLI.

I have video, but unable to get full native 1920x1080@60.00 to work out of the box during boot other than having 1280x1024@60.02. I’m still looking for a way to force the 1920x1080@60.00 at boot.
xrandr states the following:
screen 0: minimum 320 x 200, current 1280 x 1024, maximum 4096 x 4096.
HDMI-1 connected primary 1280x1024+0+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 708mm x 398mm

I have audio, but audio is through HDMI, and cannot seem to get the analog jack to be recognized or as an available option. When checking for the sound card, the default option is the following:
default:0 hdmi-sound.
No other option is available.

I’m able to install the complete LXDE for desktop, with the video and audio limitations present.

I tried a clean install of the image with only the CLI, and ran the create an Diet Pi distribution image from the clean image. Everything seemed to run through cleanly until the reboot/restart, and that is where the system did not want to boot up. It seems as if the Diet Pi scripts replaced the dtb, and boot setup causing the system to halt.

I would like to use Diet Pi with the Stock Debian ARM64 Linux for the Radxa ROCK (Pi) 4C+ build, and have the option to toggle audio from HDMI to the analog jack as well as adjust the video resolution from 1280x1024@60.02 to 1920x1080@60.00 and above. Any guidance would be greatly appreciated @MichaIng @Joulinar

3

@MichaIng is the only one who might being able to help with this.

4

Did you try to boot with SD card? Based on another issue only eMMC does not work: Rock 4 C+ Dietpi Support? - #24 by all0gIc

5

The Diet Pi image was created on, and boot was done with a SanDisk Ultra 32GB MicroSD card. I tried both Micro HDMI ports during each boot cycle with no video, no USB power or support. I tried replacing the SanDisk Ultra 32GB MicroSD card with a fresh one with no change in boot. I replaced the HDMI cable and display with no change in boot.

6

There are a bunch of reports of problems with this variant on the Armbian forum (we use the same kernel): Faulty DTB for GPU & probably other issues for the Rock 4C+ - ROCK Pi 4 series - Armbian Community Forums
In this case forcing 1080p resolution helped. Sadly Armbian seemed to have mostly stopped to respond to non-paying users.

But HDMI and failing boot are different things. Are you sure it is not actually booting, e.g. checking router for a new DHCP client or via serial console?

I can generate an image with the dedicated ROCK 4 C+ bootloader, but it was not needed previously.

7

I have narrowed down the issues. The network connection on the Rock 4 C+ connects to the switch regardless if there is an MicroSD card inserted or not when powered up. Using a fresh image of the Diet Pi operating system for the Rock 4 C+ on an MicroSD card, inserting and powering up, I see the green power light, no blue flashing heartbeat light, no video on HDMI-1-2, no USB power. I connected a USB power tester to the available ports and receive no active power when connected using the Diet Pi image on all but one USB port. The USB port that supplies power and data is the Blue USB 3.0 port on the top-right that is closest to the Ethernet jack. The other Blue USB 3.0, and Black USB 2.0 ports are dead. When referring to no USB earlier, I was correct in my findings. I have the Rock 4 C+ connected through a KVM switch, and the keyboard and mouse was connected via single cable to the Black USB 2.0 port that is the lower left-hand side of the unit. It did not matter if I disconnected the KVM single cable and directly connected the keyboard or mouse to the Black USB 2.0 ports, the connections were still dead. There is only one active Blue USB 3.0 port to work with thus if using LXDE with a keyboard and mouse would require a hub, and that seems to work. I was able to connect my single wire KVM cable to the Blue USB 3.0, and see my keyboard and mouse light up. I was able to narrow down the issues with video. I can bypass the KVM switch video feed, and directly connect the Rock 4 C+ up to HDMI-2 which is the 2K port to the same display that is being used to have active video 1920x1080@60.00. I reconnected the Rock 4 C+ back up to my KVM switch where I had both keyboard, video, and mouse support until I rebooted the unit where video blanked out and did not recover. The Diet Pi image does not enforce HDMI force hotplug, group or mode. I had a similar issue with the Raspberry Pi, but only with video where I had to enforce HDMI force hotplug, group, mode, disable dtoverlay=vc4-kms-v3d to get the Diet Pi operating system to interact with my KVM switch. Before the changes, the Raspberry Pi would startup, display would show the unit console scrolling through its startup only to blank out the video as it tried to detect the display. I need to force hotplug and resolution on both HDMI ports if at all possible for 1920x1080@60.00.

With Diet Pi, I get the following error during boot, and have no audio via the analog port:
es8316 1-0011: ASoC: error at soc_component_read_no_lock on es8316.1-011: -6
es8316 1-0011: ASoC: error at snd_soc_component_read_no_lock on es8316.1-011: -6

I installed LXDE desktop from the Diet Pi software with sound enabling the ALSA option, but I’m unable to get the Volume Control plugin to load correctly via LXDE panel. I can select it, but the panel does not update to reflect the Volume Control was added.
The command alsamixer shows the HDMI and the Analog Jack when reviewing the sound card.

I cannot get the Leds to adjust to show the blue led as activity for the MicroSD card using the Diet Pi led control options.

I tested Armbian with similar issues to the Diet Pi image. I connected a USB power tester to the available ports to test for power. Armbian has the upper-right Blue USB 3.0 that is closest to the Ethernet jack port power no data while the lower-right Blue USB 3.0 port, and the upper-left, and lower-left Black USB 2.0 ports supplies power and data. I’m able to use the keyboard to shutdown the system using Alt+SysRq+O using any of the three USB ports except one. I can bypass the KVM switch video feed, and directly connect the Rock 4 C+ up to HDMI-2 which is the 2K port to the same display that is being used to have active video 1920x1080@60.00. I reconnected the Rock 4 C+ back up to my KVM switch where I had both keyboard, video, and mouse support until I rebooted the unit where video blanked out and did not recover. Getting sound to be identified and operational is another task for Armbian with the Rock 4 C+.

With Diet Pi, I get the following error during boot, and have no audio via the analog port:
es8316 1-0011: ASoC: error at soc_component_read_no_lock on es8316.1-011: -6
es8316 1-0011: ASoC: error at snd_soc_component_read_no_lock on es8316.1-011: -6
This is with both Bullseye, and Bookworm:
DietPi_ROCKPi4-ARMv8-Bookworm.7z
DietPi_ROCKPi4-ARMv8-Bullseye.7z

I had a similar issue with the Raspberry Pi, but only with video where I had to enforce HDMI force hotplug, group, mode, disable dtoverlay=vc4-kms-v3d to get the Diet Pi operating system to interact with my KVM switch.

The Stock Debian ARM64 Linux for the Radxa ROCK (Pi) 4C+:

This works when connected to my KVM switch, but only registers as 1280x1024@60.02 video. If I connect directly to the display and reboot, I get 1920x1080@60.00.
I get access to all 4 USB ports, USB-2.0, and USB-3.0.
I have audio, but only HDMI audio, and no Analog audio through the Jack.
I tried a HDMI dongle to VGA with audio, and that extracts audio, but prefer the analog built-in jack.
PulseAudio Application reports Analog Output, but it is going through HDMI.

FIX REQUESTS:
Overall goal is to use Diet Pi, but have an option for the following:

  • Toggle HDMI-1-2 on by default. HDMI is on regardless if there is a connected display or not.
  • Enforce HDMI hotplug, group or mode. This can aid when connected to a KVM switch.
  • Disable EDID or KMS during boot to prevent the display from being detected using a standard static resolution such as 1920x1080@60.00. This can aid when connected to a KVM switch or display that EDID cannot read.
  • Enable Analog audio, HDMI audio or both.
  • Enable all 4 USB ports, USB-2.0, and USB-3.0 by default.
  • Resolve Led status indicators. Default Green-Power-Static, Blue-Storage-MicroSD-Activity.
1 Like