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Good question. Have you tried to use binwalk oder strings on it? One is for ramlog and should be mounted to /var/log. The other is zram which by default is half of your actual memory. In the early days SBCs hat very limited memory, so using zram was a simple way to increase that by sacrificing some cpu resources. Nowadays SBCs come with a lot more memory and some may not even need zram anymore. Depending on your setup you can disable it as well. Check /etc/default/armbian-* files.

Please give me a tip - what is purpose of /dev/mmcblk2boot block devices created? Quite small size - 4MB - ones, do they serve to something u-boot needs at boot time? There are no records for them in fstab so I assume they are created by zram, but what happens to them after boot when they aren't needed anymore? Board Orangepi 3LTS with bookworm minimal Also as a matter of wondering - why there are two zram devices: one of 1/2 of RAM (as usual) and another of quite small 50MB only, what is it for? root@heaven:~# fdisk -l <redacted> Disk /dev/mmcblk2boot0: 4 MiB, 4194304 bytes, 8192 sectors Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes Disk /dev/mmcblk2boot1: 4 MiB, 4194304 bytes, 8192 sectors Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes <redacted> Disk /dev/zram0: 987,53 MiB, 1035497472 bytes, 252807 sectors Units: sectors of 1 * 4096 = 4096 bytes Sector size (logical/physical): 4096 bytes / 4096 bytes I/O size (minimum/optimal): 4096 bytes / 4096 bytes Disk /dev/zram1: 50 MiB, 52428800 bytes, 12800 sectors Units: sectors of 1 * 4096 = 4096 bytes Sector size (logical/physical): 4096 bytes / 4096 bytes I/O size (minimum/optimal): 4096 bytes / 4096 bytes

I Did It! I Got It Working!! ES8388 Analog Audio Output Here's How (this is very easy to do): It just involves making one simple modification to the devicetree. Note: I did this with the Edge kernel. My guess is that it will also work with the Current kernel. You can also try the Vendor kernel if its devicetree has the same code. I manually applied this patch: https://patchwork.kernel.org/project/linux-rockchip/patch/20250823-orangepi5-v1-1-ae77dd0e06d7@hotmail.com/ If you scroll to the bottom where it gives the patch, the GPIO_ACTIVE_LOW needs to be changed to GPIO_ACTIVE_HIGH in the given section of the devicetree. Here's the simple / quick way to fix it, without having to go through any lengthy (re)builds. Modify the already installed devicetree file (/boot/dtb/rockchip/rk3588-orangepi-5-plus.dtb). 1. Install the package: device-tree-compiler 2. Backup the original, and convert to .dts format as follows: # Go to your devicetree directory cd /boot/dtb/rockchip/ # Make a backup of your original devicetree: sudo cp rk3588-orangepi-5-plus.dtb rk3588-orangepi-5-plus.dtb.bak # Use device-tree-compiler to convert the file from the binary .dtb format to textual .dts format (ignore the warnings) sudo dtc -I dtb -O dts -o rk3588-orangepi-5-plus.dts rk3588-orangepi-5-plus.dtb # Safety-Check Part 1: Convert right back to .dtb format (another filename), ignore the warnings. sudo dtc -O dtb -I dts -o rk3588-orangepi-5-plus-test.dtb rk3588-orangepi-5-plus.dts # Safety-Check Part 2: Compare the newly converted file with the original. They should be identical (this command should produce no output) cmp -l rk3588-orangepi-5-plus-test.dtb rk3588-orangepi-5-plus.dtb 3. Using a text editor in sudo mode, edit the text file: rk3588-orangepi-5-plus.dts Search for this phrase: simple-audio-card,hp-det-gpios I should appear exactly once in the file. # Here is what that line looks like (for me): simple-audio-card,hp-det-gpios = <0x133 0x1b 0x01>; # This is that same line before original compilation simple-audio-card,hp-det-gpios = <&gpio1 RK_PD3 GPIO_ACTIVE_LOW>; 4. Notice between the brackets, there are 3 values, separated by spaces. The third value is the value to modify from GPIO_ACTIVE_LOW to GPIO_ACTIVE_HIGH, or for us, from 0x01 to 0x00. 5. Convert your modified .dts file to a .dtb file (ignore the warnings): sudo dtc -O dtb -I dts -o rk3588-orangepi-5-plus-fixed.dtb rk3588-orangepi-5-plus.dts # Optional: Quick Comparison Check (this should output exactly 1 line with 3 numbers: [big number] 0 1) cmp -l rk3588-orangepi-5-plus-fixed.dtb rk3588-orangepi-5-plus.dtb 6. Copy the new fixed file to (overwriting) your original: sudo cp rk3588-orangepi-5-plus-fixed.dtb rk3588-orangepi-5-plus.dtb 7. Reboot (and have ES8388 analog audio out). Note: Whenever you do a kernel change or update, you will need to repeat this process until the Armbian kernel updates catch up with this patch. Here's the lengthier explanation (this is repeatable if you want to check it out yourself) 1. I downloaded the source code for version 25.8.1: https://github.com/armbian/build/releases/tag/v25.8.1 2. I extracted the archive and started the building process (./compile.sh) with the edge kernel (and a desktop image). It would not build because it rejected two of the kernel patches, but it did download everything into the cache. 3. I then found the file described in the patch: ./build-25.8.1/cache/sources/linux-kernel-worktree/6.16__rockchip64__arm64/arch/arm64/boot/dts/rockchip/rk3588-orangepi-5-plus.dts 4. In that file, I searched for the line indicated in the patch, just prior to the line to modify: simple-audio-card,aux-devs = <&speaker_amp>, <&headphone_amp>; ...and found the appropriate section. I confirmed the line that followed matched the original (incorrect) version mentioned in the patch entry. 5. I then scrolled to the top of the .dts file and looked at the files #included, to find where the GPIO_ACTIVE_LOW macro was defined. I figured dt-bindings/gpio/gpio.h was a reasonable place to look first. I found it here: ./build-25.8.1/cache/sources/linux-kernel-worktree/6.16__rockchip64__arm64/include/dt-bindings/gpio/gpio.h Near the top of the file were these #defines: /* Bit 0 express polarity */ #define GPIO_ACTIVE_HIGH 0 #define GPIO_ACTIVE_LOW 1 6. See the simple fix above for the rest. Tags: @Werner, @Igor, @laibsch @dimaxus, @EricaLina, @ricardo_brz, @eselarm

@Nick A sorry, i haven't got any information about the axp chip, i will do the reseacrch

@Ducdanh Nguyenthe secure boot patch is safe it doesn’t burn any fuses on your SOC. you still haven’t answered the axp chip question. If it doesn’t have one then it’s not a h313. The newer allwinner SOC’s use a axp chip for power management. If I don’t have that information then I don’t know which image to recommend.

@Nick A oh yea i used aida64 all the time (and with alot of command line commands), that's where i came up with h313 since it uses cortex-a53, the clock speed and the arch is 64bit armv8 (on 32bit mode) and about the secure boot patch, i think it's too risky (since it is a fake box and diffrent dram settings, etc,....) and i think i will buy a cable and test the su command, if it works, i will dump the boot.img and extract it

I had the precise information about data-offset from "--examine" mdadm command, and also I was in raid1, that's far less sensitive to error than raid5 or raid0 for example. I would not have been surprised that the resync, if taken to the end, would have worked... But I will never know. As far as I know, I get the data back and I'm very lucky and happy. Thank you

It's already been my intention to do so.

well, I'm certainly happy to hear the good news. consider yourself lucky. creating a raid with mdadm should certainly overwrite all your data. Maybe you got lucky, maybe because you recreated it in the exact same way as before. who knows. what counts is that you did not loose everything after all. because that sucks.

Hello and thanks for your answer. Seems that no, I'm trying R-studio now and it's finding 7 superblocks, and for now it has found 5000+ files... Will try to get this back after the scanning.

For anyone looking for simple instructions to install the official Armbian image for "H96 Max V56" (as of August 30th, 2025) using a Linux PC (e.g. Ubuntu Desktop 24.04): 1. Install the "rkdeveloptool" tool first, as instructed in: https://docs.radxa.com/en/zero/zero3/low-level-dev/rkdeveloptool?host-os=debian sudo apt-get update sudo apt-get install -y libudev-dev libusb-1.0-0-dev dh-autoreconf pkg-config libusb-1.0 build-essential git wget git clone https://github.com/rockchip-linux/rkdeveloptool cd rkdeveloptool autoreconf -i ./configure make -j $(nproc) sudo cp rkdeveloptool /usr/local/sbin/ At the time of writing, this installed version 1.32. If you installed "rkdeveloptool" from Ubuntu's repos, it would install version 1.0 which may work, but let's be on the safe side here... 2. Connect and boot the device to loader/maskrom mode 2.1 While pressing the reset button (back/right) with a pin, connect the USB 2.0 port (back/left) and the power cable. Gotta be careful here not to miss the reset button pressing while connecting the cables. 2.2 Use the rkdeveloptool tool to identify the device and the mode it is on ("loader" or "maskrom"). $ rkdeveloptool ld ...should show the connected device if point 2.1 was successful - e.g. on my 8GB RAM device it printed this: DevNo=1 Vid=0x2207,Pid=0x350a,LocationID=304 Loader Or after I had already flashed Armbian, it would show: DevNo=1 Vid=0x2207,Pid=0x350a,LocationID=304 Maskrom (If you installed "rkdeveloptool" from Ubuntu's repo, the command is "rkdeveloptool list" if I recall correctly - every other "rkdeveloptool" command following though is the same) Now grab the latest release of Armbian for this device. At the time of writing it was: https://github.com/armbian/community/releases/download/25.11.0-trunk.106/Armbian_community_25.11.0-trunk.106_H96-tvbox-3566_bookworm_current_6.12.44_minimal.img.xz (the name of the device is on the filename) Extract the included .img file with (sudo apt install xz-tools): $ unxz Armbian_community_25.11.0-trunk.106_H96-tvbox-3566_bookworm_current_6.12.44_minimal.img.xz 2.2.1 If in "loader" mode (see the last part of the command's output above), simply flash Armbian directly. E.g. $ sudo rkdeveloptool wl 0x0 Armbian_community_25.11.0-trunk.106_H96-tvbox-3566_bookworm_current_6.12.44_minimal.img (if you attempt to flash the attached bootloaders, you'll get a "device not supported" error - Armbian already contains a bootloader) 2.2.2 If in "maskrom" mode (e.g. if you are re-flashing Armbian), flash the bootloader first: # For the 8GB RAM device use the attached (in this post) H96-MAX-8gb-MiniLoaderAll.bin file $ sudo rkdeveloptool db H96-MAX-8gb-MiniLoaderAll.bin # For the 4GB RAM device use the attached (in this post) H96-MAX-4gb-MiniLoaderAll.bin file $ sudo rkdeveloptool db H96-MAX-4gb-MiniLoaderAll.bin ...and then re-flash Armbian as you did the first time: $ sudo rkdeveloptool wl 0x0 Armbian_community_25.11.0-trunk.106_H96-tvbox-3566_bookworm_current_6.12.44_minimal.img 2.3 Reboot the device with: $ sudo rkdeveloptool rd Done! If all goes well, once you reboot the device you will be asked to set a root password and optionally a sudo user. Rebooting afterwards you should now be greeted with: _ _ _ _ _ /_\ _ _ _ __ | |__(_)__ _ _ _ __ ___ _ __ _ __ _ _ _ _ (_) |_ _ _ / _ \| '_| ' \| '_ \ / _` | ' \ / _/ _ \ ' \| ' \ || | ' \| | _| || | /_/ \_\_| |_|_|_|_.__/_\__,_|_||_|_\__\___/_|_|_|_|_|_\_,_|_||_|_|\__|\_, | |___| |__/ v25.11 rolling for h96-tvbox-3566 running Armbian Linux 6.12.44-current-rockchip64 Packages: Debian stable (bookworm), possible distro upgrade (trixie) Updates: Kernel upgrade enabled and 2 packages available for upgrade Support: for advanced users (rolling release) IPv4: (LAN) 192.168.1.10 (WAN) 1.2.3.4 Performance: Load: 3% Uptime: 2 min Memory usage: 2% of 7.50G CPU temp: 40°C Usage of /: 3% of 57G Commands: Configuration : armbian-config Upgrade : armbian-upgrade Monitoring : htop Last login: Sat Aug 30 12:47:54 2025 Key points: - If you do this the first time, it's obviously a matter of just flashing the latest Armbian image directly. - You don't need to open the device or compile Armbian. - It's simpler than 2 years ago when I bought the device thanks to people like @Hqnicolas (muito obrigado Nicolas!) H96-MAX-4gb-MiniLoaderAll.bin H96-MAX-8gb-MiniLoaderAll.bin

please be more specific, what happened exactly? where did you get that statement that netplan or networkmanager are not supposed to touch firewall settings? when you bring a network interface up or down that can obviously affect firewall rules.

you just overwrote all your data. sorry for the bad news.

I fixed in the past some problems with sata drive by setting to "rolling" the sources in armbian-config. A few day ago I wanted to upgrade to trixie (debian 13) sources. I forgot to set up again the armbian-config sources to "stable" and I went in a bad situation with my raid1 : it completely disappeared from /etc/mdadm/mdadm.conf, and was unable to mount. After several struggling with the command line tools, I managed to get it recreated by the following command : mdadm --create --force /dev/md0 \ --level=1 \ --raid-devices=2 \ /dev/sdc1 /dev/sdd1 \ --metadata=1.2 --data-offset=$(( 264192/2 ))K Now it seems to be syncing, but I think the filesystem was damaged... (though I don't now, perhaps all be ok again after sync) Is there a way other than photorec to get my data back ? Thanks a lot.

@Ducdanh Nguyen can you see your axp chip? never heard of bigfish. Is that a heat sink on your SOC? Not sure why it has no writing on it. Install this android app it should give you more information https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.finalwire.aida64&hl=en_CA&pli=1 Did you apply the secure boot patch?

Specifically, your board is "Community Maintained" That means it is not supported by Armbian resources (beyond the automated infrastructure to make builds and host them for the community) https://docs.armbian.com/User-Guide_Board-Support-Rules/#community-maintained

@Nick A su binary installed, but not working correctly, i don't know why, the chip is def h313 because i used cat /proc/cpuinfo(and others) and with grok commands i can confirm it uses cortex-a53 (which includes in h313) and bigfish manufactor/ or codename idk but it's part of allwinner, i mean enought to prove that mine is h313

@dale you need a display overlay that is compatible with tm16xx. OpenVFD overlays are NOT supported. You can read README.md and dt-bindings documentation at https://github.com/jefflessard/tm16xx-display But note that there has been many changes recently to the code base since the driver is currently in review process to be upstreamed into mainline kernel (targeting v6.18). So double check which bindings version format has been integrated into Armbian rockchip64. The GitHub repo also contains a vfd-convert utility to automatically convert OpenVFD configuration files to expected tm16xx DTSO. But : 1. It requires OpenVFD conf file, not dtso. 2. You may need to go through file history to get the version matching of what has been integrated into Armbian rockchip64.

@Ducdanh Nguyen do you know which axp chip you have on your board? It’s a very small chip with axp written on it. I don’t see the H313 markings on your SOC chip. Are you sure you have a H313? If you don’t see an axp chip you might not even have a allwinner SOC. If your android is rooted then it probably has one installed.

If you can solve the problem, please share it with the community.

@Jean-Francois Lessard I'm sorry for the typo. Yes the controller is tm1628. ls /sys/class/leds --> shows empty. Dmesg doesn't show any message for tm16xx. I've attached the working overlay source for openvfd which I have the clock digits working at least with. (The full icons would be card, usb, Low wifi, hi wifi, apps and eth) openvfd_x98h.dts

To replace an image on the eMMC, the MASKROM mode is not necessary. It is only required when the firmware is so damaged that it no longer works, but the signature is still intact and the MASKROM code still executes it. To replace an image, it is sufficient to boot from a rootfs that is not on the eMMC and replace it from there. And the good thing about it is that no device-specific hacks are necessary, just a properly configured bootflow. Furthermore, it is also self-contained, as no external devices with special software or other dependencies are necessary. It can also be automated in such a way that it runs unattended and the user only has to start the process initially.

Wait @Nick A when a device is rooted, do i need a root manager???

@Nick A i flashed it to my card and it's not booting to armbian...

Customizing image and customizing kernel are different tasks. For latter use the code { font-family: Consolas,"courier new"; color: crimson; background-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.2); padding: 2px; font-size: 105%; } kernel-config command and then copy over the created config file from output to userpatches. The framework will look for custom kernel configuration files and uses them if they're detected. More details here: https://zuckerbude.org/armbian-using-kernel-config/