Shadow Ghost
Over the years, I’ve seen many users looking to repurpose their Shadow Ghost devices following Shadow's abandonment of the hardware (see also my Open Letter to Shadow post). These devices are now frequently found on eBay and similar sites. Over the past two weeks, I attempted to build a custom DeviceTree for the Ghost using kernel 6.19-rc7. I quickly managed to boot via USB, though it involved many kernel panics and a full week without network connectivity—thankfully, I had a working serial UART!
For further detail, the Shadow Ghost features an RK3399 SoC with six CPUs (four "Little" cores at 1.4GHz and two "Big" cores at 1.8GHz) and an ARM Mali-T860MP4 GPU. It is capable of hardware decoding VP9, H.264, and H.265, and includes a whopping 7.4GB of internal eMMC storage. The device is entirely fanless and features very low power consumption (~15W). The RK3399 is a versatile SoC that was (and still is) commonly found in Android TV boxes, automotive head units, and handheld game consoles.
No more teasing: I have successfully achieved a 6.19-rc7 kernel running on a Debian Trixie RootFS, modernizing the Ghost with full and stable support for:
- Ethernet: 10/100/1000 Mbps (Tested on the 1.4 model)
- Wi-Fi 5: IEEE 802.11ac
- Bluetooth 4.1
- HDMI: Including HDMI-Audio, VOP, and Panfrost GPU drivers
- Temperature Sensors: Full monitoring for both CPU and GPU
- Power Button: Now functions as a true power button with "Single Press" support for clean shutdown (while "Long Press" remains a hard shutdown)
What can I do with it?
Well, just about anything! It makes for a fantastic mini-server. You could use it to run Klipper or OctoPrint to drive your 3D printer, or set it up as a hub for Home Assistant or Jeedom. It’s powerful enough to act as a GitLab runner or a lightweight K8s node, you could even run my custom version of the Shadow Desktop for Rockchip on it if you wanted!
So, what’s next?
- Polishing: I'm still working out the kinks with the onboard sound card (3.5mm audio jack), HDMI CEC.
- Release: I am developing a simplified conversion procedure to share with my VIPs soon drop me a comment if you are interested also for early testing