Support for Libre Computer Board ROC-RK3328-CC

The Libre Computer board goes for very cheap on Amazon, and has yocto support from Firefly. What are the chances that this can work with Balena?

Would the Generic aarch64 be a fit for this? Or would I need to build a new image?

I’ve started balena-rockchip-rk3328-cc project, any support from the Balena team on how to proceed is welcome.

cc @mpous

Hi @luandro!

Interestingly, one of our Developer Advocates brought on a different Libre Computer SBC a few years ago in this IoT Happy Hour video: IoT Happy Hour #45: Building balenaOS for a Device - YouTube. It had an Allwinner SoC, so it’ll be a bit different in your case, but I think his walkthrough could be quite helpful still.

You can follow our Device Support Contribution guide here as well: meta-balena/contributing-device-support.md at master · balena-os/meta-balena · GitHub

We support the Nano Pi R2C and R2S, which use the RK3328: GitHub - balena-os/balena-nanopi-r2. I’m not sure how different the RK3328-CC is, but it may be a good place to begin investigating what’s needed to contribute support overall. I’m certainly not the expert in adding board support, but maybe just dangerous enough to get you started.

Let us know how it goes. :slight_smile:

1 Like

Thanks for the response @the-real-kenna! I’ve added the necessary git-submodules based on Balena docs and Firefly docs for the rk3328-cc. In order to trigger a build I think the next would be for the Balena team to clone or fork the repository. Who should I contact in order to advance this?

@luandro,
I can let the team know and get back to you soon. :slight_smile:

Hi. Did you build the OS locally on your development machine for this device type? Is it booting to userspace? Before we start importing the repo in the balena-os github organization, you need to have the resulting image running ok on your device.

Hi @floion, sorry for the delayed reponse.

I’m following the Youtube video above, and ran:
./balena-yocto-scripts/build/barys -k -d -m rk3328-roc-cc

I got this error:

ERROR: Unable to parse /home/dev/balena-rockchip-rk3328-cc/layers/poky/bitbake/lib/bb/parse/__init__.py
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/home/dev/balena-rockchip-rk3328-cc/layers/poky/bitbake/lib/bb/parse/__init__.py", line 127, in resolve_file(fn='conf/bitbake.conf', d=<bb.data_smart.DataSmart object at 0x7f5c5b3124d0>):
             if not newfn:
    >            raise IOError(errno.ENOENT, "file %s not found in %s" % (fn, bbpath))
             fn = newfn
FileNotFoundError: [Errno 2] file conf/bitbake.conf not found in /home/dev/balena-rockchip-rk3328-cc/build

The bitbake.conf file is under layers/poky/meta/conf where I believe is should be. Am I missing setting some PATH?

Looking at your repo, I see layers/meta-balena-rockchip is a submodule. It should not be a submodule, it should be a regular directory which adds the glue to balena.
Also, in layers/meta-balena-rockchip you have no conf/samples directory like needed. Please follow the meta-balena/contributing-device-support.md at master · balena-os/meta-balena · GitHub
Also, I see you based on Sumo, balena-roc-rk3328-cc/rk3328-roc-cc.coffee at master · luandro/balena-roc-rk3328-cc · GitHub, which is too old. You should use a newer one (dunfell, honister, kirkstone)

1 Like

@luandro,
I just wanted to make sure you saw Florin’s response, so I’m pinging you directly. :slight_smile:

thanks for the response .who should i contact in order to advance this

its a great discussion, highly beneficial and appreciable.

@luandro were you able to move forward here?

Let us know what’s the situation of your board support process.

Haven’t had time to get back to this for the past month. Will report once I do.