Flash Firmware

This repo provides scripts to simplify flashing the OpenCCA board. You can either reuse the scripts or follow the manual steps below.

Manual Flashing

Important

The ROCK 5B uses USB-C Power Delivery (PD) for power, but PD negotiation often happens too late, causing infinite reboot loops.

We use an Anker PowerExpand 6-in-1 and a Anker Nano II.
Detailed info and compatibility list: Radxa ROCK 5B Power Supply Info.

We recommend the 16 GB Version of the Rock 5b.

More information on flashing, development, and serial console in Radxa documents Getting Started, Rock 5B.

Boot Media

Boot options: eMMC, microSD, NVMe. The built rootfs is set up to boot from eMMC. We used this chip.

Enter Maskrom Mode

1. Hold the Maskrom button (points upward)
2. Connect USB to host
3. Release the button

Flashing from Release

Use either your own build or a prebuilt image.

# Example (prebuilt systex25 version):
wget https://github.com/opencca/opencca-releases/releases/download/opencca/systex25/opencca.tar.gz
tar -xzf opencca.tar.gz

Flash steps

Flash the root file system along with the firmware onto the board. The image is configured to boot from eMMC.

Initial Flash with Root FS:

# 1. Enter maskrom mode (press buttons)

# 2. Flash SPL loader to interact with board
sudo rkdeveloptool db rk3588_spl_loader_v1.08.111.bin

# 3. Flash partitions
sudo rkdeveloptool wl 0 opencca-image-rockchip-rock5b-rk3588.img

# 4. Reboot
sudo rkdeveloptool rd

The system now reboots and boots into a Debian root file system. (Username: user, password: user).

Linux opencca-rock5b-rk3588 6.12.0-opencca-wip #wip SMP PREEMPT Thu Jul 31 08:44:48 UTC 2025 aarch64
  ___                    ____ ____    _    
 / _ \ _ __   ___ _ __  / ___/ ___|  / \   
| | | | '_ \ / _ \ '_ \| |  | |     / _ \  
| |_| | |_) |  __/ | | | |__| |___ / ___ \ 
 \___/| .__/ \___|_| |_|\____\____/_/   \_\
      |_|                                  
user@opencca-rock5b-rk3588:~$ 

Run the run_realm_vm.sh script located in the home directory to run a realm VM.

user@opencca-rock5b-rk3588:~$ ./run_realm_vm.sh

Update Firmware:
To install a modified version of TF-A, RMM, or U-Boot, run the following steps;

# 1. Enter maskrom mode (press buttons)

# 2a: Flash SPI firmware (for use with SDcard)
sudo rkdeveloptool cs 2
sudo rkdeveloptool wl 0 u-boot-rockchip-spi.bin

# 2b. Flash eMMC firmware
sudo rkdeveloptool cs 1
sudo rkdeveloptool wl 0 u-boot-rockchip-spi.bin

The u-boot-*.bin already bundles the BL1 and BL2 bootloaders together. You can also flash them manually.

sudo rkdeveloptool wl 0x40 idbloader.img
sudo rkdeveloptool wl 0x4000 u-boot.itb
sudo rkdeveloptool rd

Using Scripts

The flash.sh script automates common tasks. A Docker container sets up all dependencies (./docker/).

Usage: ./flash.sh <command>

Commands:
  spi       - Flash via SPI
  mmc       - Flash via MMC
  clear     - Clear the SPI flash memory
  maskrom   - Put device into maskrom mode and flash memory driver.
  device    - Alias for maskrom
  on        - Power on the board
  off       - Power off the board
  reboot    - Reboot the board
  minicom   - Connect to board with ttyusb
  help      - Show this help message

Copy env.template to .env and configure it before use.

Flash to eMMC

./flash.sh mmc

Flashes assets from the snapshot/ directory to eMMC.

Flash to SPI

./flash.sh spi

Flashes assets from the snapshot/ directory to SPI.

Open UART console

./flash.sh minicom