Quick Start

This chapter walks through the full pipeline "host toolchain → SDK → cross compilation → deploy to the board → SSH/SCP verification" to get the first sample program running.

Overall block diagram

PC (Ubuntu x86_64)                              Host board (aarch64)
─────────────────────                           ─────────────
apt install toolchain                           /tmp/hello_rk182x
   │                                                │
   ▼                                                ▼
aarch64-linux-gnu-gcc  ─────scp/ssh────────────►  ./hello_rk182x → Hello RK182X!

The sample programs in this chapter run on the AArch64 Linux of host boards such as RK3588 and RK3576. The RK182X is a co-processor and does not directly run ordinary Linux user-space programs; if you use RTOS or dedicated firmware, use the dedicated firmware toolchain provided by the SDK.

1. Prerequisites

Requirement	Minimum	Recommended
Host OS	Ubuntu 20.04 or compatible Linux	Ubuntu 22.04 LTS
Disk space	30 GB	50 GB SSD
Memory	8 GB	16 GB
Network	Can fetch the SDK and dependencies	Stable network
Development board	AArch64 Linux host board	RK3588/RK3576 + RK182X
Connection	SSH, serial, or ADB	SSH over network

Confirm the target board architecture:

uname -m

Output:

aarch64

2. Install Basic Dependencies

On Debian/Ubuntu systems:

sudo apt update
sudo apt install -y \
    build-essential \
    gcc-aarch64-linux-gnu \
    g++-aarch64-linux-gnu \
    binutils-aarch64-linux-gnu \
    git wget curl file openssh-client

Verify the toolchain:

aarch64-linux-gnu-gcc --version
aarch64-linux-gnu-g++ --version
file --version

Output:

$ aarch64-linux-gnu-gcc --version
aarch64-linux-gnu-gcc (Debian 12.2.0-14+deb12u1) 12.2.0

$ aarch64-linux-gnu-g++ --version
aarch64-linux-gnu-g++ (Debian 12.2.0-14+deb12u1) 12.2.0

$ file --version
file-5.44
magic file from /etc/magic:/usr/share/misc/magic

You can also install QEMU if you have no development board:

sudo apt install -y qemu-user-static libc6-arm64-cross

For RKNN model conversion, use a venv:

sudo apt install -y python3 python3-pip python3-venv

python3 -m venv "$HOME/venvs/rk182x"
source "$HOME/venvs/rk182x/bin/activate"

python -m pip install --upgrade pip
python -m pip install numpy pillow onnx

For the exact RKNN Toolkit packages and Python version requirements, refer to the release notes of the corresponding SDK.

3. Get the SDK

How you obtain the SDK depends on project permissions and how Rockchip publishes it — a Git repository, a repo project, or an archive.

# Path variable (common value: $HOME/rk182x-sdk)
export RK182X_SDK="$HOME/rk182x-sdk"

# Fetch from the authorized repository (replace the address and version with actual values)
git clone --branch "<SDK_TAG>" \
    "<AUTHORIZED_SDK_REPOSITORY_URL>" \
    "$RK182X_SDK"

cd "$RK182X_SDK"

If the SDK already exists, just set the path:

export RK182X_SDK="/userdata/RK1820_RK1828_AI_SDK"
cd "$RK182X_SDK"

Check the directories:

find "$RK182X_SDK" -maxdepth 2 -type d | sort

Output (partial):

/userdata/RK1820_RK1828_AI_SDK
/userdata/RK1820_RK1828_AI_SDK/docs
/userdata/RK1820_RK1828_AI_SDK/driver
/userdata/RK1820_RK1828_AI_SDK/driver/pcie-rkep
/userdata/RK1820_RK1828_AI_SDK/examples
/userdata/RK1820_RK1828_AI_SDK/examples/anomaly-detection
/userdata/RK1820_RK1828_AI_SDK/examples/docker
/userdata/RK1820_RK1828_AI_SDK/examples/gstreamer
/userdata/RK1820_RK1828_AI_SDK/examples/rockit_yolo_detect
/userdata/RK1820_RK1828_AI_SDK/examples/vi_yolo_venc
/userdata/RK1820_RK1828_AI_SDK/examples/web
/userdata/RK1820_RK1828_AI_SDK/output
/userdata/RK1820_RK1828_AI_SDK/package
/userdata/RK1820_RK1828_AI_SDK/pkgroot
/userdata/RK1820_RK1828_AI_SDK/rknn
/userdata/RK1820_RK1828_AI_SDK/rknn/rknn3-model-zoo
/userdata/RK1820_RK1828_AI_SDK/rknn/rknn3-runtime
/userdata/RK1820_RK1828_AI_SDK/rknn/rknn3-toolkit
/userdata/RK1820_RK1828_AI_SDK/rknn/rknn-gstreamer-plugins
/userdata/RK1820_RK1828_AI_SDK/scripts

Directory structures may differ between SDK versions; common directories:

rk182x-sdk/
├── docs/                 # SDK documents
├── examples/             # Sample programs
├── driver/               # Driver source
├── rknn/                 # RKNN Toolkit, Runtime, or Model Zoo
├── scripts/              # Build and deploy scripts
├── output/               # Build output
└── pkgroot/              # Target-board runtime libraries or tools

4. Configure the Cross-Compile Environment

export ARCH=arm64
export CROSS_COMPILE=aarch64-linux-gnu-

Verify:

printf 'ARCH=%s\n' "$ARCH"
printf 'CROSS_COMPILE=%s\n' "$CROSS_COMPILE"

"${CROSS_COMPILE}gcc" --version

Output:

ARCH=arm64
CROSS_COMPILE=aarch64-linux-gnu-
aarch64-linux-gnu-gcc (Debian 12.2.0-14+deb12u1) 12.2.0

Make it permanent:

echo 'export RK182X_SDK="/userdata/RK1820_RK1828_AI_SDK"' >> "$HOME/.bashrc"
echo 'export CROSS_COMPILE=aarch64-linux-gnu-' >> "$HOME/.bashrc"
echo 'export ARCH=arm64' >> "$HOME/.bashrc"

source "$HOME/.bashrc"

5. Build and Run the First Program

Create hello_rk182x.c:

#include <stdio.h>
#include <unistd.h>

int main(void)
{
    printf("Hello RK182X!\n");
    printf("PID: %d\n", getpid());
    return 0;
}

5.1 Cross-Compile on the Host

aarch64-linux-gnu-gcc \
    -Wall \
    -Wextra \
    -O2 \
    hello_rk182x.c \
    -o hello_rk182x

Inspect the binary:

file hello_rk182x

Output:

hello_rk182x: ELF 64-bit LSB pie executable, ARM aarch64, version 1 (SYSV), dynamically linked, interpreter /lib/ld-linux-aarch64.so.1, BuildID[sha1]=48533707313881615a22527bb4743e308ce86943, for GNU/Linux 3.7.0, not stripped

Newer Ubuntu GCC builds PIE by default; pie executable in the output is normal.

Confirm the architecture further:

readelf -h hello_rk182x | head -20

Output (key line):

  系统架构:                          AArch64

5.2 Run on the Development Board

Set the board information:

export TARGET_USER=linaro
export TARGET_IP=<board-ip>
export TARGET="$TARGET_USER@$TARGET_IP"

Confirm the board architecture:

ssh "$TARGET" 'uname -m'

Output:

aarch64

Copy and run:

scp hello_rk182x "$TARGET:/tmp/"

ssh "$TARGET" \
    'chmod +x /tmp/hello_rk182x && /tmp/hello_rk182x'

Output:

Hello RK182X!
PID: 24027

5.3 Compile Directly on the Board

The board already has a native GCC:

gcc hello_rk182x.c -o hello_rk182x
./hello_rk182x

6. Troubleshooting

Symptom	Cause	Fix
`Exec format error`	AArch64 program run on x86_64	Run under QEMU: `qemu-aarch64-static -L /usr/aarch64-linux-gnu ./hello_rk182x`, or push it to an aarch64 board
`/lib/ld-linux-aarch64.so.1` not found	Target-board runtime libraries missing for dynamic linking / wrong QEMU sysroot	`ls -l /lib/ld-linux-aarch64.so.1` + check the `-L` path
Cross compiler command not found	Toolchain not installed / wrong prefix	`apt install gcc-aarch64-linux-gnu` + `command -v aarch64-linux-gnu-gcc`
Cannot SSH to the board	Wrong IP / username / network	`ping <IP>` + `ssh <user>@<IP>` to check

7. Next Steps

Hardware Installation & Verification — card installation + health check
Environment Setup — 30-second overview
Vendor SDK Data Extraction — key parameters / host reference values quick reference