What should the correctly enabled I2C service (for a 40x2 LCD) look like on Bananapim2pro? Should I edit the armbianEnv.txt file and add, for example, the following entry: overlays=i2c0 i2c1? The armbian-config service is a bit confusing, and after editing it, I get this: ........................ verbosity=1 console=both overlay_prefix=meson fdtfile=amlogic/meson-sm1-bananapi-m2-pro.dtb rootdev=UUID=a4fb8074-c453-45da-ab31-4d61dca46cfa rootfstype=ext4 overlays=i2cA i2cB usbstoragequirks=0x2537:0x1066:u,0x2537:0x1068:u .................. There are other options, but they probably don't apply to bananapim2pro. : sm1-odroid-c4-i2c0 g12b-bananapi-cm4-i2c2 g12a-radxa-zero-i2c-ao....

Nicely done. As some additional thoughts: 1. Fragment 0 and 2 of your .dts point to the same spot. They could be combined if you'd like. 2. The util-linux-extra package should be part of the core Ubuntu distribution. An apt install should have been enough, though you may need to enable the universe repository. 3. If you have a /dev/rtc1 device, that suggests that you have an rtc0 as well, and if you disable it, the kernel will natively load and store time to the one you provided. A quick glance at the .dts suggests one at /soc/bus@ff800000/rtc@a8. Adding one final fragment to your overlay like the below might allow you to skip need of hwclock, and both SystemD services for your RTC. See my note about CONFIG_RTC_HCTOSYS_DEVICE and CONFIG_RTC_SYSTOHC_DEVICE above. fragment@3 { target-path = "/soc/bus@ff800000/rtc@a8"; __overlay__ { status = "disabled"; }; }; 4. If you're up for it, submit a PR to create a dtbo for the I2C buses on the M5? Contributions to the project are always welcome.

I'm sorry but, lmao, this is entertaining to read. The sd card is OBVIOUSLY corrupt, it even TELLS YOU THAT in what you posted. But you think what I am seeing should tell me it fubar. That fact that this configuration works perfectly for 6 or 7 other machines in this house long string of cat5 or cat6 cable seems to be blowing right on by. This can't be true for all 4 u-sd cards I''ve tried. The last 2 were brand new, even faster rated cards, but all are 128gig sandisk's 1: the image itself has a dos table, which doesn't work above 32gigs acc what I have read and this prevents mounting the written images for installation in a card reader, but the used partition is ext4, so it boots ok but takes a long time because the net failure blocks the boot for many minutes 2: so I back up to a 25_05 image, and at one time had it booting the 6_18 kernal, but still no net which is the original problem. ATM I am wasting my time on a 25_05 build image which is running just fine on another bpi-m5 driving a 3d printer about 10x faster than OOTB. So I'd suggest you pass this one off to someone who knows how to make a 50 line /etc/hosts file work without a dhcp because I'm doing it on 2 other wintel boxes, an rpi4b running bookworm and 3 bpi-m5's running noble on 3d printers. The best I can do is post a pix of the 'netplan status --all" screen and somebody tell me whats wrong instead of berating me for not running a dhcp server properly.

I'm sorry but, lmao, this is entertaining to read. The sd card is OBVIOUSLY corrupt, it even TELLS YOU THAT in what you posted. It's probably a good idea to go back to the basics and learn linux properly if you don't know what a msdos (MBR) partition table is. https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/289389/what-are-the-differences-between-the-various-partition-tables As for how to NORMALLY SETUP A NETWORK, you can read my earlier responses, no host files on the devices, no hardcoded ip, just a correctly configured dhcp server that delivers the CORRECT IP:s to all devices. Then the dns server on the network (dnsmaq in this case) resolves desired domains to local ip:s. That way, there is NO NEED to do ANY CONFIG on the devices, it is all done on the entire network.

@Nick A Thank you, can you publish a server image for the Radxa A7Z with kernel 6.18?