Compiling Linux Firmware

In this chapter, we’ll walk through the steps of compiling Linux firmware for ROC-RK3328-CC.

Preparation

The Linux firmware is built under the following environment:

  • Ubuntu 16.04 amd64

Install following packages:

sudo apt-get install bc bison build-essential curl \
     device-tree-compiler dosfstools flex gcc-aarch64-linux-gnu \
     gcc-arm-linux-gnueabihf gdisk git gnupg gperf libc6-dev \
     libncurses5-dev libpython-dev libssl-dev libssl1.0.0 \
     lzop mtools parted repo swig tar zip

Download the Linux SDK

Create the project directory:

# create project dir
mkdir ~/proj/roc-rk3328-cc
cd ~/proj/roc-rk3328-cc

Download the Linux SDK:

# U-Boot
git clone -b roc-rk3328-cc https://github.com/FireflyTeam/u-boot
# Kernel
git clone -b roc-rk3328-cc https://github.com/FireflyTeam/kernel --depth=1
# Build
git clone -b debian https://github.com/FireflyTeam/build
# Rkbin
git clone -b master https://github.com/FireflyTeam/rkbin

You can also browse the source code online using the github links above.

The board building config is within:

build/board_configs.sh

Compiling U-Boot

Compile U-Boot:

./build/mk-uboot.sh roc-rk3328-cc

Ouput:

out/u-boot/
├── idbloader.img
├── rk3328_loader_ddr786_v1.06.243.bin
├── trust.img
└── uboot.img
  • rk3328_loader_ddr786_v1.06.243.bin: A DDR init bin.
  • idbloader.img: Image combined with DDR init bin and miniloader bin.
  • trust.img: ARM trusted firmware.
  • uboot.img: U-Boot image.

Related files:

  • configs/roc-rk3328-cc_defconfig: default U-Boot config

Compiling Kernel

Compile kernel:

./build/mk-kernel.sh roc-rk3328-cc

Ouput:

out/
├── boot.img
└── kernel
    ├── Image
    └── rk3328-roc-cc.dtb
  • boot.img: A image file containing Image and rk3328-roc-cc.dtb, in fat32 filesystem format.
  • Image: Kernel image.
  • rk3328-roc-cc.dtb: Device tree blob.

Related files:

  • arch/arm64/configs/fireflyrk3328_linux_defconfig: default kernel config
  • arch/arm64/boot/dts/rockchip/rk3328-roc-cc.dts: board dts
  • arch/arm64/boot/dts/rockchip/rk3328.dtsi: soc dts

To customize the kernel config and update the default config:

# this is important!
export ARCH=arm64

cd kernel

# first use default config
make fireflyrk3328_linux_defconfig

# customize your kernel
make menuconfig

# save as default config
make savedefconfig
cp defconfig arch/arm64/configs/fireflyrk3328_linux_defconfig

NOTE: The build script does not copy kernel modules to the root filesystem. You have to do it yourself.

Building Root Filesystem

You can download the prebuilt root filesystem or build one yourself by following Building Linux Root Filesystem.

Packing Raw Format Firmware

Place your Linux root filesystem image file as out/rootfs.img.

The out directory should contain the following files:

$ tree out
out
├── boot.img
├── kernel
│   ├── Image
│   └── rk3328-roc-cc.dtb
├── rootfs.img
└── u-boot
    ├── idbloader.img
    ├── rk3328_loader_ddr786_v1.06.243.bin
    ├── trust.img
    └── uboot.img

2 directories, 8 files

To create the [Raw Firmare]:

./build/mk-image.sh -c rk3328 -t system -r out/rootfs.img

The command above will pack the neccessary image files into out/system.img, according to this Storage Map.

To flash this Raw Firmware, please follow the Getting Started chapter.