GeekBox is an upcoming Android TV box based on Rockchip RK3368 octa-core processor that doubles as a system-on-module and development board. The company has now uploaded the Android 5.1 SDK, including Linux 3.10.79 kernel, on github. It’s not for the Android SDK for RK3368, but at least it’s not just an outdated tarball, and will hopefully be regularly updated directly on github.
Beside the source code, the company also released three firmware image including Rockchip’s Light Biz OS desktop operating system based on Lollipop:
- Biz OS for GeekBox – V151208 (8th of December 2015)
- Android and Lubuntu dual boot image – V151129 (29th of November 2015)
- Android 5.1 image – V151129 (29th of November 2015)
It’s quite possible those images will also work on other Rockchip RK3368 platform with some modifications, e.g. an updated device tree file for a given hardware. I’ve downloaded Biz OS adn the dual boot image, and the firmware files are of “update.img” type, so they are not bootable from SD card.
Jean-Luc started CNX Software in 2010 as a part-time endeavor, before quitting his job as a software engineering manager, and starting to write daily news, and reviews full time later in 2011.
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That kernel is a bit old. If they intend to stick to that kernel for a long time, one might want to back-port some of the new 3368 thermal patches:
https://lkml.org/lkml/2015/10/29/55
@blu, the kernel source we have released is to match the Android-Lollipop, and we will release more source code next week about:
1. integrated the Linux mainline into Geekbox kernel source with a new branch
2. the kernel branch we used to build Ubuntu system
Meanwhile, we will also publish some articles in our forum which includes:
1. how to sync Android Lollipop Codes, and the compiling steps
2, how to build your own Geekbox Android ROMs
3, how to build your own Ubuntu system based Geekbox
4. Others
Welcome visit our forum and participate in the discussion, thank you ~
http://forum.geekbox.tv/
@Geekbox, thanks – that’s great to hear! That will save GeekBox ubuntu users (myself included ; ) a great deal of time and effort.
/heads towards the forums
Hope the new Ubuntu system will have GPU acceleration.
The menus are really laggy and slow by using software(CPU).
I was also not able to play any types of videos with MPlayer in Ubuntu, not even SD mpeg1 or an avi video, just get a black screen.
If these 2 things can be fixed, then it would be very good.