Rongpin King3399

Installing Armbian on eMMC

This guide describes how to install Armbian onto the internal eMMC.

What you will need?

  1. PC on Windows. This is the only way we verify to be working.

  2. USB-C to USB-A cable. C-to-C cable might work as well.

  3. 12V 2A power adapter with a barrel plug connector.

Downloading Armbian

King3399 is not officially supported by Armbian. Ophub is a project dedicated to providing mainline Armbian for unsupported platforms such as TV boxes and development boards.

  1. Find the latest Armbian release on https://github.com/ophub/amlogic-s9xxx-armbian/releases

  2. In Release’s Assets, download a build for king3399 platform – it should be in the file name.

  3. Decompress a downloaded .img.gz file.

  4. Perfect! Now you have an Armbian_xx.xx.x_rockchip_king3399_xxx.img file suitable for flashing.

Installing driver and flash utility

Install driver for Rockchip USB bootloader.

zip
DriverAssitant v5.1.1.zip9.33 MB

Download and extract RKDevTool. This archive already includes the configuration file and loader binary.

zip
RKDevTool v2.86 (BKSP).zip2.59 MB

Preparing a flash utility

Open RKDevTool. You should see exactly the same configuration:


Make sure that:

  • Both rows are ☑️ Checked.

  • Addresses matches the screenshot.

  • Names matches the screenshot.

  • Write by Address is ☑️ Checked (marker #3 on the screenshot).

  • DevTool properly detected the loader file. If not, click on an empty cell next to “Path” (marker #1), then select rk3399_loader_v1.27.126.bin file from RKDevTool’s Image directory.

  • Click on Row #2 empty cell (marker #2), and select the Armbian image you downloaded.

Booting into MASKROM

Connect the board USB-C connector to USB-A on your PC. Plug the 12V power adapter.


Now it’s time to go MASKROM mode:

  1. Press and hold “USB Boot” button.

  2. While holding “USB Boot”, press “Reset” button for 2 seconds.

  3. Release “Reset”, and hold “USB Boot” for 10 seconds.

RKDevTool must now report “Found One MASKROM Device”:


Troubleshooting

  • Device goes to FLASHROM rather than MASKROM mode – remove the power plug, wait for a few seconds, then plug the power and try again.

  • Device disconnects abruptly – use another USB cable, restart RKDevTool, power cycle the board.

  • Nothing happens after I perform the button flow – power cycle the board.

Flashing

Now it’s time to finally press “Run” and hope for the best. When flashing is done, board should reboot automatically.

Additional Resources

RTC

RTC is inside RK808 PMIC. Battery is CR1220.

WWAN slot

Onboard mPCIe slot is USB-only. RK3399 PCIe lanes aren’t exposed neither to the slot nor anywhere else on board.

Microphone

Note that there is a small microphone near the edge of the board. You probably would like to remove it before use. It’s through-hole, so removal is quite simple.

Antennas

  • 2.4G – there is an onboard antenna. Not the best, but kinda usable.

  • 5G – you absolutely need an external antenna for that.