Stuff I have heard recently on crowdsupply
There are at least four projects I see that are starting to work towards selling RK3588 in their design.
Mnt Reform, Pocket Mnt Reform, Next Mnt Reform and Genbook RK3588.
Can anyone tell me what if anything they think/know is non-libre about it? And before anyone says this, the boot blob no longer is needed,
Just as a heads up.
From my understanding, the DDR Training Blob is still closed source? I'm not as knowledgeable about these things, and don't know if that's changed since.
Would appreciate if one of the others could confirm.
Same
I sent the wrong link. Here's a link that mentions the DDR Trainint Blob.
Your link is 3 months older though from what I see compared to mine.
I think it has been already done, given that.
Unless there is a more recent link to contradict it.
Well there is this too from just looking around. Says to compile U-Boot for RK3588, you need that DDR init blob. Seems to be updated around a month ago, so I guess we can assume we still need it?
Also, on Rockchips website (I assume this is theirs anyways) they list all of their SOCs that are supported in mainline U-Boot. There seems to be no mention of the RK3588, which is probably because of that annoying blob.
https://opensource.rock-chips.com/wiki_U-Boot
Its a real shame too, I'd love to play with the RK3588 myself.
Hmm... perhaps you are right. Either that or it hasn't quite been added to uboot yet maybe due to being in beta
Cannot say for sure. But in either case, its too soon.
Some discussions on the matter.
Just a quick update:
So maybe it will be liberated in future.
"Other than that, Rockchip provided an open source version for the Trusted Firmware-A (TF-A), which got merged and should become part of the v2.12 release."
Awsome!
"On the boot side that just leaves the DDR memory training a closed source binary."
Shucks.
Its almost there and if done, even the pocket mnt reform/other reforms with rk3588 will be runnable with only libre software.
The DDR training blob is still very much there.
Yeah, but that isn't the only problem I notice. Alyssa of panfrost hasn't told me if the GPU blob is still needed. Which... is annoying.
G610 is now supported by panfrost:
https://docs.mesa3d.org/drivers/panfrost.html
This seems to have gone a long way:
https://www.collabora.com/news-and-blog/news-and-events/pancsf-a-new-drm-driver-for-mali-csf-based-gpus.html
https://www.collabora.com/news-and-blog/news-and-events/release-the-panthor.html
https://www.collabora.com/news-and-blog/news-and-events/taming-the-panthor-opengl-es-31-conformance-achived-mali-g610.html
https://www.collabora.com/news-and-blog/news-and-events/panvk-v10-support.html
Well that is good news. Thank you for the info.
Just the boot blob then...
Yes, just that nasty little boggart of a DDR training blob.
I bet that will be dealt with soon.
What makes you believe so?
panfrost devs working on RK3588, that's why.
One of them is Alyssa who was working on the libreboot program a while ago.
She seems to be skilled at this.
Alyssa has been a driving force to both Lima and Panfrost for years, but one of the Collabora blog posts says that she has since moved on to other projects.
Anyway, the DDR training blob is out of scope of the Panfrost project. So it will probably remain there for the foreseeable future.
I guess time will tell, won't it.
Foreseeable future is an interesting phrase though. How much do people even see about the future?
But yeah, someone I am sure will work on that sooner or later.
> someone I am sure will work on that sooner or later.
This very much sounds like wishful thinking. I thought you may have heard of a specific project working on it, which could have made the removal of the DDR training blob foreseeable. I am disappointed.
By the way, which Rockchip SoC are you currently using?
>"I am disappointed."
Sounds ominous. Are we doing Hamlet today? "Alas, poor Yorick"!
Like most AI chatbots, you are mixing up the graveyard scene and the foretelling.
The Foretelling is the first Blackadder episode.
I must have been hallucinating again.
Wishful thinking you say... well, I suppose it is, but its also possible that its still being worked on. Rk3588 was being worked on prior to this. I don't have a rk3588 yet. I have a rockpro64 which has rk3399. I have yet to use it for a while though.
In any case, sometimes no news is misleading towards nothing happening. Although, I suppose I could do a search if I wanted. I just hadn't thought to for a while because of other blockades rk3588 had till now.
Btw, there is this:
not sure where things are now though.
Back to the future:
https://trisquel.info/en/forum/stuff-i-have-heard-recently-crowdsupply#comment-178095
Enjoy the ride.
Yeah true I forgot
Can you download the ddr training blob? If so where? Can you tell
if reverse engineering the blob is easy, difficult
or impossible? Are there people who if they get enough
money can reverse engineer the blob? Thank you.
> Can you download the ddr training blob?
Yes.
> If so where?
I cannot tell, that would be in breach of the Community Guidelines.
> Can you tell if reverse engineering the blob is easy, difficult or impossible?
Everybody can tell that it has been sitting there for a very long while and it is still there, that as of Thu, 27 Mar 2025, "there is no plan for open source the ddr init binary recently for rk35xx SoCs" and that the license says you cannot reverse-engineer "except as expressively authorized by Rockchip in writing".
> breach of the Community Guidelines
Because the blob is non free software? If so that is counterproductive if
there are people who want to have a go reverse engineering the software.
You can tell how to get the blob here
https://paste.3server.de/?1607a92c9fea689e#F5woVNHyMYE8QUtoVirPpv9UFWjvUprgki5EnJLj7F9f
Everybody else are forbidden to click the link.
> license says you cannot reverse-engineer "except as expressively authorized by Rockchip in writing
Are you located in usa? I have explained the matter previously on this forum. European law grants a user who has obtained legal access to a piece of software the right to test and improve said software. It makes no difference if such testing and improving requires the software user to reverse engineer said software. The software user can not sell or distribute for free the software he has tested or improved.
If you are located in usa I do not think you are getting into legal troubles should you assess if reverse engineering the blob in question is an easy, difficult or impossible task. Can you tell the level of difficulty?
> if there are people who want to have a go reverse engineering the software
I am pretty sure I found the binary blob following a trail that started in this very forum, in a post from some years ago. If I was able to find it almost inadvertently, I would imagine that anyone actually interested in doing anything out of it can find it easily.
Why not ask the very people who are working on the RK3588?
>"I would imagine that anyone actually interested in doing anything out of it can find it easily."
There are more things in Heaven and Earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy.
if rk3588 becomes able to run on free software then how does that relate to the
mainboards the cpu will be put on? Will every mainboard running a rk3588 be
able to work on free software? Or will it be a matter of specific mainboards
and only those will be able to run on free software? I noticed the orange pi 5b
plus has a rk3588. Thank you.