Re: [yocto] looking for YP-supported Rockchip RK3588-based eval board

On Wed, 5 Nov 2025, Quentin Schulz via lists.yoctoproject.org wrote:

>
>
> On 11/5/25 6:04 PM, Robert P. J. Day via lists.yoctoproject.org wrote:
> > On Wed, 5 Nov 2025, Robert P. J. Day wrote:
> >
> >>
> >>    (caveat: i have *no* experience with rockchip processors so i am
> >> entirely at the mercy of people who want to make recommendations.)
> >>
> >>    a friend wants me to advise on a good choice for a RK3588-based
> >> evaluation board, and has already purchased a banana pi bpi-w3:
> >>
> >>    https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005009156110477.html
> >>
> >>    that looks like a decent and fairly powerful baord, but i notice
> >> that the banana pi is not a supported MACHINE in meta-rockchip:
> >>
> >>    https://git.yoctoproject.org/meta-rockchip/tree/conf/machine
> >>
> >> so can anyone suggest something equivalent in terms of pure horsepower
> >> that would be equivalent and has solid YP support? i am totally open
> >> to good advice.
> >
> >    i will also point out that i see some mention that the RK3588 is not
> > fully open source, while the earlier RK3399 is:
> >
> > https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40497232
> >
>
> Outdated info, only the first stage bootloader (TPL also called DDR bin by
> Rockchip; it runs in EL3, who knows what it does) is closed-source still. BL31
> (TF-A) can be replaced by upstream TF-A.
>
> The first stage is being reverse-engineered right now by some people from
> oreboot I believe. If and how this will come out is a different topic.
>
> Note that the ARM Mali GPU also requires a blob (from linux-firmware), so do
> all Mali GPUs based on the CSF "architecture" (which is probably every recent
> version and upcoming). Open-source drivers (panthor/panfrost in Linux kernel
> and mesa) though.

One other thing to note is the camera related IP blocks are really only
supported with Rockchip's own layer with its old forks of the kernel,
U-boot, etc.  Based on this presentation on Rockchip camera support at
OSS EU:

https://elinux.org/images/2/20/Osseu25-mriesch-rk35-camera.pdf

mainline support is probably a long ways off, sadly.

With respect to specific boards, we have folks using the FriendlyElec
NanoPC-T6 for AGL demos, and it's seemed reasonable.

Scott