Radxa ROCK 3 Model A (RK3568), howto install Archlinux Arm?

#1

Hi All,

I’m looking to buy the ROCK 3 single board PC [1], based on the Rockchip RK3568. I would like to install Arch linux on this board, and use it to build a NAS (by using a JMB585 M.2 to sata converter, and several JMB57 SATA expanders for a maximum of 25 SATA drives)

On the platform page [2] I don’t see the ROCK 3, nor the RK3568. (only the ROCK64 is listed)

I’ve downloaded and extracted ArchLinuxARM-aarch64-latest.tar.gz as mentioned by the generic instructions [3].
In /boot/dtbs/rockchip I see the file one file for this SOC, rk3568-evb1-v10.dtb, but this file is not for the ROCK 3.

On this WIKI, there are instructions [4] to build a debian image for the ROCK 3. On this page they mention instructions resulting in a kernel, uboot and rk3568-rock-3-a.dtb Can these files be used to run the arch linux root filesystem?

Is the above procedure the correct way to install Arch linux on this board?
Has anybody already installed arch linux on the ROCK 3?
Are there reasons why using this board as the basis of a NAS is a dumb idea?

PS, I’ve also posted this question on the ArchLinuxArm forum [5]
PPS: I’ve removed the links for now, as that caused this post to be flagged as spam

Kind regards,
Cedric

#2

Rock3A dts is recently upstream so it will take some time to make it to the arch linux kernel.

If you would like to try Manjaro Arm which is based on Arch Linux Arm then you can try the test images from here
These are very early development images so there are many things which might not work example usb host hub, as so far only 1 usb works.

No I use another arm board as NAS but with only 1 x 4TB Drive.
I cannot answer about 25 drives as technically it cannot handle a lot of bandwidth if that is what you’re looking for.

Instead you can try something with RK3568 computer module along with a pcie2/3 sata connection I am not sure how many carrier boards are available for it yet.

#3

Thanks spikerguy,

I will check out the Manjaro Arm images.

How do you define “a lot of bandwidth”? As a NAS it can’t go faster than the 1Gbit networkcard can provide. Also, I’m planning to use pairs of old/small/free/slow hard drives, and old/small/free/slow SSD’s. The SSD’s then cache the read/writes to the hard drives, ideally up to the point that they are almost always stopped. Finally I plan to use btrfs redundancy and error correction on top of that. That requires a lot of SATA ports, but not a lot of bandwidth.

The datasheet of the JMB585 states it’s almost the PCIe Gen3x2 line bandwidth, but they don’t give an exact number. Both chips state they run SATA at 6Gb per second, but of course the end drive has to share that 6Gb/sec with 4 other drives.



The bandwidth of PCIe Gen3x2 should be 2GB per second, according to this web site:
https://www.anandtech.com/show/2412/2

if my math is correct, PCIe Gen3x2 has enough bandwidth (16Gb/sec) to almost saturate 3 SATA links (18Gb/sec).

Has anybody benchmarked the read/write speed with an PCIe Gen3x2 on the M.2 connector?
Has anybody benchmarked the read/write speed via the LAN port over samba?

Cheers,
Cedric

#4

Atleast not on Mainline kernel as the drivers for pcie3 are not present in mainline kernel, someone should test drive it on BSP kernel.

BTW about this, I completely forgot that Rock3A is rk3568 while I was thinking it is RK3566.
So yea you can make full use of the pcie3 with both lanes use for the pcie-sata adaptor.

Concurrent read/write in multiple devices, but as you said you don’t want a perfomance based nas instead just slow and stead one then it should do the job.

#5

This tread mentions only 10mb/s via the gigabit LAN port using netcat and UDP. That’s not enough for me. Has this been fixed?

#6

Not as far as i can tell. :frowning: