Ubuntu 12.04 Now Boots on Rockchip RK3188 mini PCs (T428, MK908, Rikomagic MK802 IV…)


After the release of the RK3188 Linux kernel source code last week, Ian Morrison (Linuxium) has managed to boot Ubuntu 12.04 with XFCE desktop on Tronsmart T428. However, as Tronsmart refused to release their source code, further Linux development is likely to happen on Rikomagic MK802 IV, because Rikomagic released the code for their device, so development work will be easier.

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AFAIK, this is the first time Linux boots natively on RK3188 devices, so it’s still early stage (no Wi-Fi, Bt or graphics acceleration), but if you still want to give it a try here are the instructions (for T428):

1. Create a SDCARD with an Ubuntu 12.04 root file system on it and ensure it is labeled as “linuxroot” (Visit Slatedroid for details)
   
2. Flash your RK3188 minipc with rooted stock 4.1.1 ROM. (Optional. Not needed if you ROM is already rooted)
   
3. Boot Android, and install Android Terminal
   
4. Flash t428-3.0.36-linuxium-test+-kernel.img as recovery.img with RKAndroidTool. (I can’t find the binary, and my Internet connection does not allow me to access all files right now, but you may want to follow the build instructions to get the image.) [Update: See comment for kernel binary and modules]
   
5. Reboot your mini pc, start the Terminal in Android, type “su” to become root, and finally type “reboot recovery” to reboot into Linux.
   

It’s safe to try as those instructions should not affect your Android installation.
Ian also ran some benchmarks from Phoronix Suite to compare Linux performance in a chroot in Android via Linux Complete Installer (T428-ubuntu-complete) and native Linux (t428-linuxium). The third column is for an RK3066 mini PC (iStick A200) running Linux natively.
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None of those tests do not require a graphical interface, and results are pretty close. Native Linux has a slight advantage with many of them, but for some reasons Linux running in Android appears to have a clear edge for PyBench.
PicUntu developers are already aware of this progress, so you can expect RK3188 PicUntu soon. Further details are available on Mini PC G+ Community including logs, kernel config, and some documentation.

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