OMV for RockPro64 (and other RK3399 devices soon)

  • Rockchip RK3399 is a pretty interesting ARM SoC since not only featuring true Gigabit Ethernet (able to achieve 940 Mbits/sec in both directions), two USB2 and two (UAS capable) USB3 SuperSpeed ports but also a PCIe implementation (PCIe 2.x with 4 lanes maximum). So both fast NVMe SSDs can be connected to the PCIe port (up to 1600 MB/s or ~45 times faster than any Raspberry Pi) as well as PCIe host controllers for SATA or additional network or USB3 ports.


    The downside is that RK3399 based ARM devices were pretty expensive in the past but recent SBC changed this: a RockPro64 for example starts at 60 bucks with 2 GB RAM (though you need to add peripherals when needed and shipping/customs/VAT as usual).


    You'll find some information for those RK3399 SBC in Armbian forum

    OMV 4 images for RockPro64 can already be found here: github.com/ayufan-rock64/linux-build/releases (please skip everything tagged as 'pre-release' and scroll down to the most recent 'release' version. Also take care that you download an image for rockpro64 and not rock64 since due to different bootloaders only the right variant will boot! And please be aware that currently development is still going on so don't expect everything working flawlessly in the beginning)


    I would suspect all the other RK3399 boards (except canceled ODROID) will get Armbian support soon and once Armbian is running it's just one additional step to either install OMV 4 on top of Armbian/Stretch or to provide full images by me.

  • And another one in the making: NanoPi NEO4: https://forum.armbian.com/topic/7750-nanopi-neo4/


    Might be an interesting choice for a small NAS with USB3 attached storage (it's 2 x USB3 and even 2 PCIe lanes exposed!) if the price tag remains low (related to DRAM which will obviously have low capacity here)

  • How is the NanoPC T4?

    Great. As usual you find more information in Armbian forum.


    @ryecoaaron: can you please upload OMV_4_NanoPC_T4.img.xz and OMV_4_NanoPi_M4.img.xz to sourceforge.net/projects/openm…ngle%20Board%20Computers/?


    NanoPi M4 is currently my favourite ARM 'toy'. As 'big' as a Raspberry Pi but way more powerful especially when it's about networking and storage performance. Real Gigabit Ethernet, 4 USB3 ports behind a great internal VL817 USB3 hub and even 2 PCIe lanes exposed on pin header: https://forum.armbian.com/topi…e-and-consumption-review/


    I proposed to evaluate a 'NAS HAT' to FriendlyELEC's CEO and fortunately he seems to agree :)


    Edit: did a quick LanTest against a 3.5" Seagate Barracuda in an external USB3 enclosure. Impressive performance out of the box: close to 100 MB/s in both directions (see review link above). RK3399 for the NAS use case looks really promising so far and FriendlyELEC did a great job with NanoPi M4.

    • Offizieller Beitrag

    can you please upload

    Uploading now.

    omv 7.0-32 sandworm | 64 bit | 6.5 proxmox kernel

    plugins :: omvextrasorg 7.0 | kvm 7.0.9 | compose 7.0.9 | cputemp 7.0 | mergerfs 7.0.3


    omv-extras.org plugins source code and issue tracker - github


    Please try ctrl-shift-R and read this before posting a question.

    Please put your OMV system details in your signature.
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  • I decided for the NanoPC T4 since it has a nice M2 Slot and no need to mess with external drives. Furthermore 12V/2A sound more reliable than 5V/4A.
    However this is my first project with OMV and a sbc. So far I understood how get the image on the SDcard. But from step I am confused how to continue up to the goal to have the system running on eMMC. Can somebody provide a link or procedure for the T4 please. Friendlyarm likes to flash the system straight onto the eMMC. OVM seems to go over the SDcard and seems to recomment to use the nand-sata-install tool?

    • Offizieller Beitrag

    still missing?

    Not sure what happened. Uploading it now.

    omv 7.0-32 sandworm | 64 bit | 6.5 proxmox kernel

    plugins :: omvextrasorg 7.0 | kvm 7.0.9 | compose 7.0.9 | cputemp 7.0 | mergerfs 7.0.3


    omv-extras.org plugins source code and issue tracker - github


    Please try ctrl-shift-R and read this before posting a question.

    Please put your OMV system details in your signature.
    Please don't PM for support... Too many PMs!

  • Friendlyarm likes to flash the system straight onto the eMMC

    You should become familiar with their way to flash eMMC anyway since eMMC on NanoPC-T4 can not be removed and boot priority for eMMC is always higher than SD card (unfortunately).


    I bricked my NanoPC-T4 recently while developing/testing nand-sata-install and now have a bootloader on the eMMC that doesn't find the rootfs or kernel (don't know -- still too lazy to connect a serial console). Anyway: as soon as the RK3399 finds a bootloader signature on the eMMC it tries to boot from there so a corrupted OS image on the eMMC prevents you booting from SD card to my knowledge (asked FriendlyELEC on Saturday -- maybe I get tomorrow an answer).


    TL;DR: If you're not familiar with Rockchip's Maskrom mode and have the equipment to flash the eMMC over USB please don't use nand-sata-install at the moment.


    On all my previous Rockchip boards the eMMC was always socketed so I simply did not realize how awful a broken image on the eMMC might be (and I'm currently in the situation to not be able to access eMMC via USB since all x86 boxes here run macOS and the Linux thingies are all based on ARM so no Rockchip utility for me)

  • You should become familiar with their way to flash eMMC anyway since eMMC on NanoPC-T4 can not be removed and boot priority for eMMC is always higher than SD card (unfortunately).
    I bricked my NanoPC-T4 recently while developing/testing nand-sata-install and now have a bootloader on the eMMC that doesn't find the rootfs or kernel (don't know -- still too lazy to connect a serial console). Anyway: as soon as the RK3399 finds a bootloader signature on the eMMC it tries to boot from there so a corrupted OS image on the eMMC prevents you booting from SD card to my knowledge (asked FriendlyELEC on Saturday -- maybe I get tomorrow an answer).


    TL;DR: If you're not familiar with Rockchip's Maskrom mode and have the equipment to flash the eMMC over USB please don't use nand-sata-install at the moment.


    On all my previous Rockchip boards the eMMC was always socketed so I simply did not realize how awful a broken image on the eMMC might be (and I'm currently in the situation to not be able to access eMMC via USB since all x86 boxes here run macOS and the Linux thingies are all based on ARM so no Rockchip utility for me)

    Is the released image (NanoPC T4) developed to use on SDcard or eMMC? Or how was it developed - on SD or eMMC?
    How is the boatloader setup - does it scan for any bootable drive in a fixed order - i.e. first eMMC, second SDcard, third USB, m2.SATA.....).
    I like to get it running on eMMC or m2.SATA to have a reliable and fast solution. But I don't like to brick my device as you did. It looks like I am a little bit early with my project since I can't realy find good procedures to this topic and I am not the expert with Linux and setting up bootable drives.

  • m2.SATA

    There is no SATA with RK3399.


    The image has been created the Armbian way (fully automated -- we don't fiddle around with images manually, they're all created 100% from scratch and then tested afterwards) and will work when running from SD card or eMMC (when you burn it directly to eMMC using the FriendlyELEC method and in my tests also when using nand-sata-install).


    I also tried booting from SD card with rootfs on NVMe (works), booting from eMMC with rootfs also on eMMC (works) but what bricked my board was booting from eMMC and rootfs on NVMe. All the time using nand-sata-install. No idea what happened since still too lazy to fiddle around with serial console (the Rockchip boards all use an insanely high baud rate most of my USB UART adapters can't cope with)

  • I appreciate your fast support. Things are getting more clear to me. So the nand-sata-install works as long as boot and rootfs are both on eMMC and not somwhere else. So the only constelation I should prevent is to have boot on eMMC and rootfs somwhere else.
    So if I use the nand-sata-install to move it to eMMC is there something I should be very careful about? Do you may may have a link to a procedure.
    I dont like to ask for to much but I have three difficulties a) I am a beginner, b) English language c) the nano T4 is pretty expensive and I do not like to brick my device.
    If I would change my mind to be on the very save side. Is there a big difference in performance if I run OMV completely from SD card? I gues most parts of the system are handeled in RAM and read/write on SDcard should be limited during normal operation?

  • Is there a big difference in performance if I run OMV completely from SD card?


    Not at all. It really doesn't matter as long as you use our flashmemory plugin (which is active by default on all the ARM devices).


    Wrt nand-sata-install and the challenges involved... this is low-level stuff happening in Armbian so better visit https://forum.armbian.com/topic/7498-nanopc-t4/ (me still not that familiar with Rockchip boot procedures -- I start to love the Allwinner way of doing things since with Allwinner SoCs it's impossible to brick your device since you're always able to boot from SD card)

  • Not at all. It really doesn't matter as long as you use our flashmemory plugin (which is active by default on all the ARM devices).


    Wrt nand-sata-install and the challenges involved... this is low-level stuff happening in Armbian so better visit https://forum.armbian.com/topic/7498-nanopc-t4/ (me still not that familiar with Rockchip boot procedures -- I start to love the Allwinner way of doing things since with Allwinner SoCs it's impossible to brick your device since you're always able to boot from SD card)

    Did some testing with NanoPC T4. It runs very fast. With an attached M.2 PCIe SSD I get transfer rates over LAN of average 920Mbit/s. But I guess the bottleneck is now my router. I am really impressed by the RK3399 Chipset. For a price of less than 150$ you get similar performance like a high end consumer NAS. But IDLE Power is 2,5 Watt with an efficient power supply. Power under load is max 6 Watt under Load (writing on PCIe SSD intel 660p).
    >> Extremely high transfer speeds, low power consumption, low price (except SSD), small physical dimensions, no wiring to external drives (all in a small box) <<

  • I get transfer rates over LAN of average 920Mbit/s. But I guess the bottleneck is now my router.

    920 Mbits/sec while being a pretty good value can be achieved with cheaper storage as well on all the modern ARM thingies (you get this even with an USB3 attached HDD, see test with another RK3399 device). And you should keep in mind that with Gigabit Ethernet you won't exceed 950 Mbits/sec anyway (talking about TCP/IP)

  • Not at all. It really doesn't matter as long as you use our flashmemory plugin (which is active by default on all the ARM devices).


    Wrt nand-sata-install and the challenges involved... this is low-level stuff happening in Armbian so better visit https://forum.armbian.com/topic/7498-nanopc-t4/ (me still not that familiar with Rockchip boot procedures -- I start to love the Allwinner way of doing things since with Allwinner SoCs it's impossible to brick your device since you're always able to boot from SD card)

    Did some testing with NanoPC T4:
    - extremely high transfer speeds of 920Mbit/s over LAN (read/write on PCIe SSD Intel 660p)
    - low power consumption (2,5 Watt IDLE, 6 Watt writing on PCIe SSD Intel 660p)
    - low price, less than 150$ (except SSD)
    - small physical dimensions
    - no wiring to any external drives (all in one small box)
    I am really impressed by the high I/O performance and the low power consumption.

  • There is only one thing that seems to be an issue with NanoPC T4 and running the system from SD card.
    For some reason the system update is not working properly. I am getting an error with following message.


    Failed to execute command 'export PATH=/bin:/sbin:/usr/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/local/sbin; export LANG=C; apt-get update 2>&1' with exit code '100': Get:1 file:/var/cache/openmediavault/archives InReleaseIgn:1 file:/var/cache/openmediavault/archives InReleaseGet:2 file:/var/cache..................................................................

  • Not sure what happened. Uploading it now.

    Is the image for NanoPi M4 the same as for NanoPC T4? I downloaded and intsalled the image for the T4 on a T4 but after connecting via SSH armbian says it is the M4 board. Could it be the images are mixed up? Or both are the same? At least the M4 image is running on my T4.

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