Rebuilding on Armbian v24.2 (MKS-PI)

These images do not support the KLIPAD50’s internal wifi out of the box, so you would either have to replace a devicetree file (see bottom of the page) or use external USB-wifi(*) or USB-ethernet adapters. But the screen is working and spidev is available. It’s spidev0.2 instead of spidev0.0, so adjust your printer.cfg accordingly.

(*) These adapters may require additional firmwares. You can try to install them with sudo apt update ; sudo apt install firmware-misc-nonfree if yours is not detected automatically. On the other hand, this specific firmware package can break the internal wifi, even with the replaced dtb file.

Steps to set up:

Base system

Select and download an image from https://github.com/redrathnure/armbian-mkspi/releases
- if unsure, use Armbian-unofficial_24.2.0-trunk_Mkspi_bookworm_current_6.6.17.img.xz
- extract the image (e.g. using 7zip or “xz -d”, result should end in “.img” and be ~2.5GB in size)
- flash the image to the eMMC card
  - if you have an eMMC USB-Adapter: https://github.com/Sovol3d/SOVOL_KLIPAD50_SYSTEM
  - if you DONT have an eMMC USB-Adapter: https://github.com/TomasOlsson/BrickedSv07-Sv07Plus
Reboot the device and connect a keyboard (or use an USB-cable for a serial connection)
Create root password
- freely choose your own
Choose default system command shell
- if unsure, choose “1” (bash)
Please provide a username
- use “mks” if you want to stay compatible with makerbase services
Create user (mks) password
- freely choose your own
Set user language based on your location?
- if unsure, choose “Y”
- otherwise, choose the setting according to your location/needs

Klipper

Log into device using ssh, putty or serial connection
cd into home dir: cd
install KIAUH: git clone https://github.com/dw-0/kiauh
start KIAUH: cd kiauh ; ./kiauh.sh
install klipper components (that’s mostly pressing “1” or ENTER):
choose “Install” (1)
enter your password
choose “Klipper” (1)
- choose “Python 3.x” (1)
- choose number of instances (1)
- wait for install to finish
choose “Moonraker” (2)
- confirm with “Y” or ENTER
- wait for install to finish
choose “Mainsail” (3)
- when asked “Download recommended macros”: confirm with “Y” or ENTER
- wait for install to finish
choose “Fluidd” (4)
- when asked “Please enter a new Port”: enter “81”
- when asked “Download recommended macros”: confirm with “Y” or ENTER
- wait for install to finish
choose “KlipperScreen” (5)
- wait for install to finish (will take quite a while)
- when asked “Install as a service?”: confirm with “Y” or ENTER
choose “Crowsnest” (12)
- wait for install to finish
- when asked “Do you want to add ‘update manager’”: confirm with “Y” or ENTER
- when asked “Reboot NOW? [y/N]”: answer “N” or ENTER
choose “Back” (B)
choose “Advanced” (4)
- choose “G-Code Shell Command” (8)
- when asked “Do you want to continue?”: confirm with “Y” or ENTER
- when asked “Create an example shell command?”: confirm with “Y” or ENTER
choose “Quit” (Q)
Set up secondary mcu: (see https://www.klipper3d.org/RPi_microcontroller.html) cd ~/klipper ; make menuconfig
- select “Micro-controller Architecture” (press ENTER)
- select “Linux process” (press ENTER)
- press “Q” and “Y” to quit and save
- sudo make flash
- sudo cp ./scripts/klipper-mcu.service /etc/systemd/system/
- sudo systemctl enable klipper-mcu.service
- sudo service klipper restart

Fix screen rotation: sudo nano /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/01-armbian-defaults.conf

copy this text:

Section "Device"
  Identifier "default"
  Driver "fbdev"
  Option "Rotate" "CW"
EndSection
Section "InputClass"
  Identifier "libinput touchscreen catchall"
  MatchIsTouchscreen "on"
  MatchDevicePath "/dev/input/event*"
  Driver "libinput"
  Option "TransformationMatrix" "0 1 0 -1 0 1 0 0 1"
EndSection

press <CTRL-X> to quit
press “Y” to save
press ENTER to confirm filename
restart KlipperScreen:sudo service KlipperScreen restart

Freeze the kernel
- sudo armbian-config
- select “System”
- select “Freeze”

Now you should have a working (and recent) klipper installation on the Sovol KlipperScreen.

Copy your old printer.cfg - or take one of Sovol’s files for your device: https://github.com/Sovol3d/SOVOL_KLIPAD50_SYSTEM/tree/main/klipper_configuration

You will probably have to change “spidev0.0” to “spidev0.2” inside your “printer.cfg”

(unless you’ve installed the wifi-enabled dtb below - in that case, it will be spidev0.0 again).

Numpy

Numpy is required for input shaping, so it’s a good idea to install it right now.
(Thanks to Vasyl Gontar for this hint)

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install python3-numpy python3-matplotlib libatlas-base-dev libopenblas-dev
~/klippy-env/bin/pip install -v numpy

Sovol mods

Modifications from Sovol useful for this image:

(See sovol_mods for details about the packages)

Beeps when pressing touchscreen
- Download: makerbase-beep-service.deb
- To install:
  - Upload the *.deb to your device, e.g. using the web-frontend: Navigate to “G-CODE-FILES”, then use the upload button (the one with the up-arrow). Or use scp, winscp or whatever you like.
  - Log into the device (ssh/putty/serial)
  - sudo dpkg -i printer_data/gcodes/makerbase-beep-service.deb
  - (change the path, if you’ve uploaded to a different location)
  - fix access rights to gpio82:
    - sudo nano /etc/rc.local
    - add following lines (before the exit 0 line)
    - chgrp mks /sys/class/gpio/gpio82/value
    - chmod g+w /sys/class/gpio/gpio82/value
- To uninstall:
  - sudo dpkg -r makerbase-beep-service
Automounting USB-drive
- Download: makerbase-automount-service.deb
- Install/uninstall with dpkg -i/dpkg -r as shown above
Powerloss recovery (plr)
- Unofficial package: plr-klipper.deb
- Install/uninstall with dpkg -i/dpkg -r as shown above
- Sovol’s printer.cfg makes use of plr, so it’s recommended to either install this package, or remove these entries as shown here
Splash screen
- Afaik it’s not possible to directly use Sovols original boot animation, as it is in a different format (old kernel based vs. actual plymouth). The file resides in /usr/lib/firmware/bootsplash.armbian and is ~250MB big. I haven’t found a way to decompile it into separate pictures - if someone does, it will probably be possible to “cook” a plymouth style boot animation from it.
- Enable plymouth splash screen:
  - Become root: sudo su (enter password when asked)
  - Edit /boot/armbianEnv.txt and change it to bootlogo=true
  - List available themes: plymouth-set-default-theme -l
  - Select a theme (e.g. “solar”): plymouth-set-default-theme solar ; update-initramfs -u
  - Restart the system: reboot
  - Themes are defined in /usr/share/plymouth/themes/

Internal wifi + spidev

Replacing the dtb from the redrathnure image with Sovol’s version of rk3328-roc-cc.dtb enables the internal wifi of the KLIPAD50 board, but does not create the spi device. With the following change, /dev/spidev0.0 will be created as well.

--- rk3328-roc-cc-org.dts	Sat Mar 09 16:36:40 2024
+++ rk3328-roc-cc-new.dts	Sat Mar 09 17:33:57 2024
@@ -860,7 +860,7 @@

 		spi_for_cs2@0 {
 			reg = <0x00>;
-			compatible = "rockchip,spi_test_bus1_cs2";
+			compatible = "armbian,spi-dev";
 			pinctrl-names = "default";
 			pinctrl-0 = <0x35>;
 			spi-max-frequency = <0x4c4b40>;

Source of Sovol’s rk3328-roc-cc.dtb from 5.16.20 kernel rk3328-roc-cc_dts

Successfully tested with these images:

0.3.2-24.2.0-trunk: Armbian-unofficial_24.2.0-trunk_Mkspi_bookworm_current_6.1.76.img.xz

0.3.4-24.2.0-trunk: Armbian-unofficial_24.2.0-trunk_Mkspi_bookworm_current_6.6.17.img.xz

0.3.4-24.2.0-trunk: Armbian-unofficial_24.2.0-trunk_Mkspi_bookworm_edge_6.7.5.img.xz

Additional notes:

I had some wifi-performance issues with 6.7.5, not sure if that was just by chance.
The wlan0 device did not show up when “firmware-misc-nonfree” was installed. Reverting to armbian-firmware fixed this.
To edit the dtb file on your own, use
- dtc -I dtb -O dts -o rk3328-roc-cc.dts rk3328-roc-cc.dtb to decompile it to source form and
- dtc -I dts -O dtb -o rk3328-roc-cc.dtb rk3328-roc-cc.dts to compile it back to binary form
The dtb files reside in the fat32 partition, you can easily replace them directly after writing the USB-stick or eMMC. So on the first boot you will automatically be asked to configure wifi. If you set it up using an USB-keyboard instead of a serial line, keep in mind that it uses US-keylayout when entering the passwords.

Here is a compiled version of the devicetree file: rk3328-roc-cc.dtb

Download and replace /boot/dtb/rockchip/rk3328-roc-cc.dtb with this version and reboot.

Crowsnest / camera streaming

The camera device will probably change after the update. Use v4l2-ctl --list-devices to check the available devices and change crowsnest.conf accordingly. (My camera now uses /dev/video3)
crowsnest may have problems initializing the camera after reboot. Workarounds:
- Manually restart crowsnest service (works reliably, but sucks)
- Add a pause to crowsnest initialization, as described in https://github.com/mainsail-crew/crowsnest/issues/117#issuecomment-1806943132
  - Adding a pause made the startup more reliably, but still not always (tested 5 and 10 seconds)
    - CROWSNEST_ARGS="-c /home/mks/printer_data/config/crowsnest.conf -s 10"
  - Make sure there aren’t any backup copies of ~/printer_data/systemd/crowsnest.env, as they might override the new setting.

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