After a ton of time porting the dts for modern kernels, i have a working release for the Bobcat 300 29X Variant To compile https://github.com/sicXnull/armbian-build/tree/Bobcat-29x . ./compile.sh build BOARD=bobcat-29x BRANCH=current BUILD_DESKTOP=no BUILD_MINIMAL=yes EXPERT=yes KERNEL_BTF=no KERNEL_CONFIGURE=NO KERNEL_GIT=shallow RELEASE=bookworm Link to Prebuilt Armbian-unofficial_26.02.0-trunk_Bobcat-29x_bookworm_current_6.18.4.img.xz First check to see if you have a compatible version. Flip the unit over and check the serial number. It will start with G290 or 295. This does not work on 28 or 285. How to Flash 1) Install Rockchip Flash Tools 2) Download bootloader (rk356x_spl_loader_ddr1056_v1.10.111.bin) attached here. 3) Boot device into LOADER mode. Plug USB Cable in to back of the unit, powered off. Open the device. With it powered on hold the reset button for 1 second, then immediately let off and hold the recovery button down until the PC recognizes you in LOADER mode 4) Follow the flash procedure found here. WARNING While I2C/Spidev is functional, i did not install Helium or the Lora packet forwarder for testing. Flash this image at your own risk if you still wish to use helium mining. rk356x_spl_loader_ddr1056_v1.10.111.bin

Yep Already tried that:- "chatgpt+gemini have given lots of ideas like patches, hooks, extensions but none of them work. (grrrrrr!)." Didn't work probably because the source is not an ASCII text file but a large CPIO binary. But....I am just running a make right now which looks like it might work..... don't want to jinx it....

I have no complaints about the developers, it’s enough for me to just know that this is not a client-side problem and that someone is working on a solution.

I suggest to try kernel-patch build command. Your changes then are compiled into a patch which is then applied to the kernel source before building.

yes i have CONFIG_INITRAMFS_SOURCE working on my server no drama. i was hoping to be able to roll my own initrd on armbian as well. LONG ANSWER: the problem is that the armbian build system does housecleaning before the kernel make starts. part of this is to delete any folder thats not part of the source tree. so the questions are: 1) where do i put it so its visible to the make? 2) how do i stop the build from deleting it? chatgpt+gemini have given lots of ideas like patches, hooks, extensions but none of them work. (grrrrrr!).