Rock 2A not booting Android Image

#1

Hello,

I recently bought a Rock 2A to use as a cheap local media player. For this I wanted to use the Android image. As an aside, the Debian Image for 2A is starting up successfully with the same setup.

So I am trying to run the Android Image from https://docs.radxa.com/en/rock2/rock2a/download (rock2a_android13_box_20240619_gpt.zip).

I followed this manual under Windows: https://docs.radxa.com/en/rock2/rock2a/other-os/android/install-os

I just had to extract zip-file first to get the .img, which I then flashed with Etcher.

Upon booting with the micro-Sd card inserted, I only get a steady green light, no display output.

What could be the problem? I flashed the image multiple times and also waited for a few minutes for some changes, but the steady green light didn’t change and I never got any display output.

Thanks!

#2

Follow up:

I also sent my issue via mail to support 2 days ago. I haven’t received any answer.
But when I checked the github today, I saw that they uploaded an updated Android Image especially for 2A: https://github.com/radxa/manifests/releases/tag/radxa-rock2a-20241230

Fix rock 2a SD card startup

After flashing this version to the MicroSD card this version was working! It is in Chinese language by default, had to change it to English manually.

Unfortunately there is only the Media Center app by Rockchip included, which doesn’t output any audio for the movie I tried and also displays in the wrong aspect ratio. So next thing I’ll have to figure out is how to change this and also how to sideload apps / install the Play store!

Happy new year and cheers for reading!

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#3

To sideload apps, just put some onto a USB and open in a file manager.

Can you try some videos - how it deals with playback acceleration?

#4

Unfortunately there is no file manager included in the image.

But I received another answer from Support (I somehow missed the first reply) where they replied that Apps can be installed via Webbrowser or Wireless ADB. The later option worked for me and I could install a File Browser, VLC and Kodi.

I tried a 1080p movie encoded with H265 which worked just fine in both VLC and Kodi (in the correct Aspect Ratio) and I could also select/display subs. Audio was also playing, unlike with the default Media Center App. I can try out a 4k H265 file another day. Unfortunately I don’t have any high bitrate stuff here and only a 1080p monitor without HDR.

I also installed PPSSPP (Legacy) to play Ridge Racer. Unfortunately the performance was very bad (~6fps) and also no Vulkan Support. I think I’ll have to emulate games on another platform ^^

But I must say I am positively impressed by Radxa’s prompt support!

Next thing I would like is having the Play Store on the device. Let’s see how far I can get :slight_smile:

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