Lion Wang

Maybe not for your use cases but for others. Not everyone has the same needs... I see use cases where size and wifi matters... Since OPi0 has heat issues,  and both other cheap small boards (opi0 and nanopi) have the annoying XR819 wifi.
 
don't start this again...  Thomas and you will fight on a personal level again, and @Tido will close the thread again...
 
Doesn't make sense... If they have an interesting board, I'm sure people from the Armbian community will work on this board (maybe not Thomas but others.. ) And as @@lex said... Edit: Getting basic armbian support for this board should not be that much work. Starting with a similar board (1.1V/1.3 V regulation) add wifi and configuration of fex for the pinheader and you'll have a basic armbian image for this board. 
 
I appreciate this, so let's start with the 4pin connector from my last post. 
 
FYI: Short version of the post with the picture which is lost somewhere in the www nirvana during upload.  I was too annoyed to write everything again...  

@tkaiser and @Lion Wang it is time to put an end point on this "fight".
 
In my option, things are getting too aggressive and boring from both sides and it is not good for both the Armbian community and SinoVoip business.
 
@Lion Wang the community & customers are not satisfied with the information you are providing about your products. As CEO you have to listen and act as soon as possible to correct what is wrong.
 
@tkaiser you are essential for Armbian community, but it has been useless to read your posts about SinoVoip.
 
My suggestion is to give the last official chance for SinoVoip with Armbian community. I suggest to port Armbian to BPI ZERO and during the porting process both sides tell everything about what is not going right or hasn't been done right. Documentation is not good? SinoVoip will fix it. We need some detailed information about the hardware? SinoVoip will provide it... and so on.
 
Let's do it, guys?
 
We all want to build an ecosystem between hardware and software and a friendly community.

I don't remember anyone linking the mainline DT for this board, so here we go:
https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/stable/linux-stable.git/commit/?id=f4ff257cd1607ef79f6647a633d6cc495529cbff
 
It's interesting to see a CPU operating points table there (so DVFS should work already), looks like Ethernet (with DSA), USB and basic peripheral interfaces (I2C, CIR, I2S, PWM, GPIO, ...) should be supported too, but don't see anything that would represent SATA or PCIe yet.

It is good to know that the R2 it is being taken seriously.  This machine has important things and, although there are very good alternatives, it has a market place.
 
I have been sending maybe 100 times by now an 825 megabytes ubuntu iso file from one R2 to another and between an R2 and a Mac Mini machine, testing different types of configurations (in the while I am creating the system I will use the R2 for).
 
Here there have some numbers that could be useful:
 
(AES 256 bit):
 
without /dev/crypto
100% CPU max
- real 0m53.189s
- user 0m44.210s
- sys  0m8.030s
 
with /dev/crypto
75% CPU max
- real 0m27.015s
- user 0m2.290s
- sys  0m17.750s
 
Checking at this test alone, it is clear that with the cryptodev driver active (and with the right openssl compiled for it), the machine it is faster processing.  And then it is the top 100% capacity when using only the CPU ... I was trying to figure how to test that remaining 25% ... so, I made a multithread program that received the data (running in a R2), and executed 4 parallel sets of openssl+sending data from the other R2.
 
The "general "throughput" for all the "bundle" gives around 45.8 MB/s.  This is much higher than the around 17 MB/s I can have with only one similar session.
 
The issue here is that the final speed can't be calculated only taking into consideration the crypto engine.  A final test would need software designed for this, because when I cypher with openssl and then send the file on ethernet, I need to "write" the file to disk and to re-read it, and the DISK is a key factor on the overall transmission speed.  An extra write is really heavy here.
 
So, if I like to see a wonderful speed without sacrificing the machine, the disk must speed up.  The final numbers for secure transmission of data must involve all the key factors : CRYPTO+DISK+NET+CPU.
 
But ... in general, I think it is good enough for my purposes.  When I have a better software platform to test all together (without punishing any of the factors), I will come to show my numbers.
 

A38X ClearFog
 
I think I understand now this board.
- It is not an integrated board, but a "carrier" based one.  You purchase the carrier board and the SOM (System on Module) to make it to works as you expect.
It uses only one line for mSATA interface, the same as the R2.  Then, why the difference in speed?
It is necessary to add a mSATA to SATA adaptor to connect standard SATA drives, or to use mSATA drives.  And uBoot must be modified to allow the PCIe slot to work as mSATA.
 
- SolidRun Armada SOM A388 with eMMC : $69
- With ClearFog Base Carrier $129
- With ClearFog Pro Carrier $189
 
HummingBoard Edge
 
Similar scenario than ClearFog (using SOM).
- Only has 1 ethernet
- Quad 1 GHz NXP i.MX6 version 2GB RAM and 8GB eMMC: $191
- Needs M.2 to SATA adapter
- No USB 3.0 (only 2.0)
 
For a multi-ethernet scenario with storage, the HummingBoard is limited by the lack of native multiple RJ45 and USB 2.0 (where the second ethernet could be attached).
When only needing two ethernet, the ClearFog with Base Carrier seems to be enough.  Cost is around 50% higher than the R2.  And the Pro around 100% higher.
 
ROCK64 ... not yet available for purchase (ships until November 3 if purchased in October 16 - Pine has their history on delays)
 
- $60.89 without shipping ( 2GB version + 16 GB eMMC + USB-SATA cable ) ~ still lacks a secondary ethernet.
- It only has one USB3 port, so the bandwidth must be shared between SATA and any secondary ethernet.
 
ExpressoBin
 
- $49 in amazon
- Dual Core
- Three Gigabit Ethernet ports (1 WAN, 2 LAN)
- Independent SATA interface with its own Power Supply
- Proper 12V barrel power connector
- Mini PCIe
- Has the place to add the eMMC but it seems must be soldered there
 
--
R2 still has a place in its price/availability/performance ratio.
 
If there is an ExpressoBin with eMMC included, Quad Core and 2GB, maybe it could cost around $80.  In that case, would be a better option than the R2.
The ROCK64 lacks interfaces to provide good bandwidth when the multi-ethernet scenario is included.
It is not possible to have HummingBoard with multiple Gigabit Ethernet connections.
The Armada SOM is Dual core ... could be possible to use the HummingBoard SOM with the ClearFog carrier?
 
The main important elements are to determine if an improvement in the software can work the problems detected with the R2 for the full performance capacity.
 
In my particular case, although performance has some importance, it is not the main driver to choose one or another product.  The processing unit is more important (hence 4 cores would be better than 2), together with the integrated eMMC (I can't deal with soldering these tiny things) and the availability for connecting devices.
 
Today all them are not so perfect (taking all factors into consideration) options.  I am sure than in 6 months this will be a completely different world.
 

BPI-R2 in Armbian forun has been as a thunderstorm.  It is sad things are not in good terms, as the machine looks nice and I am sure that it could have a nice horizon with Armbian.
 
I am working a security device on these devices (an appliance containing a small network), and by now, this is the best hardware option available:  eMMc, many gigabit ethernet ports (two different networks and, in the future, different VPNs in one of them), USB 3, 2 GB RAM, SATA support, 12V power, GPIO, etc... for less than $100.
 
It is clear that the machine is a new one and it has some problems, but it is possible to deal with them.
 
- Wrong number in the partition configuration when trying to boot from eMMc fix:(http://forum.banana-pi.org/t/cant-boot-from-emmc/3826)
- Have no idea how to turn on a connected FAN in the FAN socket, although the secondary SATA has 5v and 12v and there are the GPIO pins.
- Very long time pressing the power button for the machine to start - optional fix (soldering): (http://forum.banana-pi.org/t/bpi-r2-boot-power-suppy/3647/22)
- Two SATA interfaces in the same SoC line (as a workaround, use a SATA and a USB disk, not two SATA)
- The software distribution from BPI is a mix of things ... there are even parts for Raspberry that I am sure have no relationship with the R2.  Here the grease must be cleaned.
 
There are other details, but I really don't care on them.  The machine form factor it is not really to make an entertainment center, and the only I need is to be able to check the console with the debug pins or to connect through the network.
 
If BPI and MTK could create a server distribution and not the full Mate based Ubuntu, would be very useful.  And there is a LEDE available also, although it is a different point of view.
 
--
P.S. I am waiting for some machines to make a deeper test.  In this moment I have an OPi Zero in the entrance point, so I can't check the total bandwidth ... later I will provide more data, including my own disk throughput tests.

Sorry to say this: No, it has the same problem as the Lamobo-R1: The WAN and LAN ports are bridged until the network is initialized; this allows attackers to reach inside your LAN and spread spam-bots or other bot-nets in your LAN if you use the R1 or R2 as a firewall+router.
Purchasing the R1 was a mistake.
I've spent so much time trying to get it to do at least something, but no luck.
It's in a different location from where I am located right now; packed down in a box somewhere.
-Perhaps I can use the power supply for something, but that's all. I've given up on it.

All of them. With Armbian - some 3rd party Linux might not have those screen resolutions. Original Allwinner kernel has only a few of them.
 
 
Good pick.
 

Exactly. With H3 you have the best chances for success.

1,BPI-M2+ ,just HDMI , you need use HDMI to VGA accessories line to let it support VGA.  Just BPI-M1 with VGA and HDMI port.
 
2,about H2+,H3,H5 chip , all is PIN to PIN compatibility, to support your project ,more support is about software support.
 
3,this is open source project ,you can get all design documents. we can support you.
 
4, armbian have do a good work for support allwinner H3 chip.:)
 
 
 
 
 

You mean gc2035 sensor on Banana Pi R40? I think yes, just need to change DTB (aka config.sys today) although i haven't tried.
Kernel 3.10.107 is stable and it is now time to do some serious work, as time permits i will try to expose the DTB as in A64... I will post the progress if i am successful. 

$ 15.00 ?
That's a good price for what the board offers, mini HDMI, CSI port, 512 MB and Wifi&Bluetooth. Personally i would add a 8 GB eMMC and try to keep the price below $ 20.00. Once you boot from eMMC you will never want to boot from SD card again.
BTW, Have you considered Banana Pi M2M? no HDMI but there is a MIPI DSI port to connect LCD panel, and i can say the 5" LCD is the best LCD i have tested so far, unfortunately i have damaged the LCD some how while porting it to M64. They are short on supply another sample but Nora Lee is kindly sending me another one when they are ready so i can finish all the tests, i have not tested it to the exhaustion nor did any extensive testing but there is no problem with heat and Wifi&BT works as expected and the board has been a nice surprise.
 
I have no idea about the price and availability.
 
 
 

Hi,
 
 Thanks for your answeer.
 
Is the NEO2 supported by armbian ? It has a H5 cpu and I do not see one page for it on the armbian download page.
 
I agree that with such hardware, I will not get better performance than my bananapro.
 
Nevertheless, I am not that hungry with performances.
 
Here is what I would like to do : plug a usb hub on the type A usb receptacle of the NEO /NEO2.
 
Then, plug two or three 2.5" usb disks on the hub.
 
The hub (yepkit/ykush see link in earlier post) is self powered with a 5V/3A power supply and can support three 2.5" disks in the same time. Disks are wd blue, assumed to have low consumption.
I tested this yesterday, all disks runs well.
 
This installation is designed to backup the bananapro installation. I just want to pay attention that the usb to sata link is able to pass hdparm commands like hdparm -B, hdparm -y so that I can put disks
in standby mode, for as a backup I do not need them to be running all the time.
 
Thanks for your help
 
Regards
 
 
 
 
 

Right - we have a dialogue with the vendor, we know why some people are unhappy and we know what's needed to assess the board. There's a language barrier and there are elements of documentation that have changed or are incomplete. Not every tiny thing is clear but certainly enough is clear to make a start. The vendor wants to help, they're here right now trying to. Let's stop going on about the past, things change - if they don't then I'd like an apology from Thomas for killing my grandfather in world war 2.

I've got this board, I'll answer questions to the best of my ability. It's running, it's stable, it's definitely more achievable than some boards that have been bought up in the past for Armbian.
 
The R2 uses a 12v supply with a 2.1 x 5.5 mm connector - at least a 2 amp supply is needed.  The first production batch is board revision v1.1. It has two upright SATA ports, a 4 pin power connector to the one side of the SATA ports, a 2 pin power connector between the SATA ports and a molex branded clip to hold full length mPCIe cards - mounting holes are present for half length cards - standard risers of 2mm height, 2mm width should be used for half length cards. This is what the v1.1 of the board looks like :

The WIFI/BT chip is the MT6625L - it may be the case that they used a different chip in a previous revision - I don't know, but the manual says MT6625L - the chip says MT6625L. I've searched high and low on google - I can't find AP6212 in reference to this board. If you're upset by this then please elaborate because I might be missing something obvious. The 6 pin connector for the battery appears to be a micro JST SH connector with a 1mm pin spacing. I have such plugs and they fit, I will ask the vendor for confirmation. In the meantime, here is a page where the connector I have can be purchased (http://www.hobbyrc.co.uk/jst-sh-6-pin-connectors-10mm-pin-spacing-w-150mm-wires) Here is a link to the current logical schematic for this board - https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B4PAo2nW2KfnbVZzeDJERGd2SDg/view?usp=sharing Here is a link to the current physical layout of the board - https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B4PAo2nW2KfnenRRNGhmc29IZ2c/view?usp=sharing Here is a link to the datasheet for the MT7623N - https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B_YnvHgh2rwjR3pwSzNrS1Nqdjg/view?usp=sharing If you need to know the ID of certain chips, please ask me and I'll tell you what's written on the chips I have. Here is a link to the github of the R2-BSP kernel. U-boot sources are also in this repository - https://github.com/BPI-SINOVOIP/BPI-R2-bsp Here are some patchwork links to various developers currently working on drivers/patches for Mediatek chips :
https://patchwork.kernel.org/project/LKML/list/?submitter=169671
https://patchwork.kernel.org/project/LKML/list/?submitter=13291
https://patchwork.kernel.org/project/LKML/list/?submitter=166241
https://patchwork.kernel.org/project/LKML/list/?submitter=133171
https://patchwork.kernel.org/project/linux-mediatek/list/?submitter=171503
(This list may not be exhaustive) Here is a link to the BPI-R2 section of the Banana Pi forum - http://forum.banana-pi.org/c/Banana-Pi-BPI-R2 The board is incapable of time travel, opening portals to other dimensions or fixing failed marriages. Hopefully this isn't a problem.

That was one issue with one board - Rasberry Pi had voltage issues with one of their past boards if I remember correctly - 100ma draws on the USB ports causing large voltage drops on the 5v rail?

I seem to remember millions of xboxes dying due to overheating issues - tesla's catching fire - these things happen.

Again pointing out faults in past boards isn't a reflection on new designs - with enough research I'd wager I could find design issues with at least one past board from nearly all of the established vendors.

I believe it fills a niche that nothing else currently does in that price bracket. The R1 was popular and no doubt many people here at least initially were keen to try it - the R2 packs more of a punch and it's early days.

I will return when I have more knowledge to draw upon regarding the R2 if people are keen to discuss it with me.

Hi all,
 
I tried to share my experience about how to burn preloader/uboot/OpenWRT image, and then boot from eMMC on BPI-R2...
 
1.Download flash tool from https://spflashtool.com/
windows: https://spflashtool.com/download/SP_Flash_Tool_v5.1628_Win.zip 
linux: https://spflashtool.com/download/SP_Flash_Tool_exe_Linux_64Bit_v5.1520.00.100.zip
 
2. Install MT65xx drivers for your windows PC. You need to install drivers in order to connect your device properlyhttps://spflashtool.com/download/MediaTek_USB_VCOM_drivers.zip
 

3. Hardware setup before starting up hacking the board
 
  1) use 12v power adaptor
2) use micro usb to supply extra power when developing on the board that would help reload the images through flash tool (will be introduced in section 4 as the following) just by power off/on to the board manually after images are all selected done.
3) use console to retrieve the log for debugging purpose
4) that is wan port
5) that is lan3 port, so the intermediate ports are listed as lan0, lan1, lan2, and lan3 reviewing from wan port
 
4.Flash tool configuration
 
  1) download agent: MTK_AllInOne_DA.bin
2) BPI-R2_OpenWRT_scatter.txt ( https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B6wnb6XNnEQVUXFYWXNUVlFTbnpWVGNPV2NnaEZjX2xjRTZv )
3) Images
    - Preloader: preloader_iotg7623Np1_emmc.bin ( https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B6wnb6XNnEQVTHZiazNzaGduZVh3VkxBQVRBOFRRYmN1MWt3 )
    - GPT (named MBR here): MBR ( https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B6wnb6XNnEQVcEhDWTJ3NnZ5V3ZiTVlBQl81VkZtRndKeXFJ )
    - Uboot: mt7623_lzma.uboot ( https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B6wnb6XNnEQVVWdDa0FGTGlQUnNWNmg1OENzRkplN1JVeWxV )
    - BOOTIMG: lede-mediatek-32-uImage-mt7623n-bananapi-bpi-r2-initramfs ( https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B6wnb6XNnEQVMXRJV1ZLZkVqYl9td3FlTWR0bERJeEtoRFlZ )
4) press download button on Flash tool
5) power off BPI-R2
6) power on BPI-R2, and then flash tool will update image automatically.
5 system hang here after upgrading images.
 
  6 try to power off BPI-R2, and on. finally, you can boot from eMMC and see uboot menu. please choose 1 to download OpenWRT FW via TFTP server (e.g., Tftpd64)
 

update schematic : 2017-08-24
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B4PAo2nW2KfnbzQ5MTB5eXNEN1U/view?usp=sharing

Hi Johnny
 
I'm  a software engineer for maintaining  the source code of BPI-R2 Linux 4.4 .x.  Looks like you have a patch for enabling HDMI audio on R2 board, would you pleae share it with me? I'd like to add it it to github, thanks in advance. 
Many thanks for your attention to your R2 products, you know a few features(wifi, bt and mipi) are not implemented  yet in Linux 4.4.x, but we are working on them with MTK team, hope it will be ready  soon.

Yes I can, I'll also provide the output of any commands/tests you want me to run - I'm in the middle of something right now but I'll provide the logs as soon as I have time in the next few days. If required I will also be willing to provide SSH access into the R2 to yourself and anybody you trust subject to your word that you'll treat the gear and my home internet connection with respect.

I have tried a 2.5" 750GB seagate spindle drive in both SATA ports - mounted an NTFS partition, transferred multiple gigs of data both times, placed the drive back into my laptop and then calculated and compared hashes - no problem. A blue LED near the SATA ports flashed on disk activity.

This is certainly not an exhaustive test and I'm afraid I don't have two SATA+power connectors to test two drives simultaneously. I will order another for that purpose.

Yes the power-up is fine - you currently have to hold the power button down for around 10 seconds to boot the board - I may be imagining things but it seemed the length of time needed to hold the button down was shorter when I used a recompiled kernel that was smaller by around 1MB - if I wasn't imagining it then that suggests that u-boot/kernel/whatever is being loaded at this point. The spindle drive spun up during this phase.

I made one attempt to boot from the eMMC and I was unsuccessful - I may have done something wrong so I will try again for you. I am able to create partitions on the eMMC and read/write data just fine however.

I see and understand -it's definitely the MT6625L - I can't speak for the vendor but yes - that was naughty. Somebody probably saw the table, noticed it was a close match for the current status but didn't look closely enough. I doubt that action was looked upon kindly at BPi either and I certainly don't believe that such things are a reflection of the hardware design.

I like the people I've spoken to so far, they're a friendly bunch  manners and respect are very important in China - please understand that they want to help, they really do care and they'd like a good working relationship with the open source community. They are improving matters and they are aware of the problems of the past. I implore people to extend the same courtesy that is given to other vendors - I've read about endless faults and flaws with Orange boards right here on this forum - far more than anything I've seen for a Banana board - yet people that attack BPi happily defend serious flaws elsewhere.

I became convinced that people here were being paid by OPi after a couple of days of reading the hypocrisy - I can't be the only one that thinks this - things seem to be very biased - citing issues that have nothing to do with the hardware - while covering up the flaws of other vendors. This is not good for Armbian - the close association with Sunxi whom bash every banana board in the opening sentence of their wiki - while lauding the professed faults as features on other boards.

I wonder who's prominent in both the Armbian community and the sunxi community - can you think of anybody? if they're not being paid to vilify Banana then I'll eat my hat. Well I'll buy a hat and then eat it - you can pick the colour.
 
This situation and attitude is untenable - I really like Armbian, I want to work with you, contribute - I really do! but if the bias and fragile logic doesn't stop when it's obvious that concerns have been met? then I'm sorry - I'll have no choice but to fork into a new project - one that supports everything Armbian does - plus all the things they're paid not to. Yes I know it's hard work, yes I know community matters but if such bias becomes known in the world of SBCs? I won't have a problem supporting RPi, Banana - in fact I'll specifically add anything Armbian refuse to support and I and my associates are more than capable if currently less experienced - what outcome do you predict in the long term?

For my part I chose the board that best suited my requirements - which are already met by the R2 and the current state of support. It's quite unique and offers great potential given the two mPCIe (well one plus a through hole pinout that will disable one USB3 port - who doesn't like soldering?  ), GB switch/wan and so forth - yes I know specs <> functionality because the software support is critical - but if the software support is there - is this not a great board?

I'll do all I can and exhaust every option of working with Armbian that I can - that's what I really want.

i am not do development now . more than 7 years , so , i make a mistake .  i will let gary join this discuss . 
 
anymore , i not  badger with you, you can do everything if you like .  i also do banana pi ,  this is my love.  even it make you not happy , I have chosen to ignore you for more than a year.  you want me still ???
 
 

we now main working on Linux 4.4, this is our development in progress , now about issue for kernel 4.4 
 
have support :
 
support HDMI support GMAC * 5 (2 real GE ports, 1 is WAN port, another is connected to 4 LAN ports) support SATA * 2 support eMMC (support boot from eMMC) support IR support OTG support PWM (PWM1/PWM2/PWM3, PWM4 and PWM5 are not supported) support USB 3.0 * 2 support mPCIe  
issue: 
 
1：wifi  driver for MTK6625L
2：VPU&GPU 
3：MIPI driver
 
update : launcher have running success on linux 4.4 kernel ,maybe wifi will ready soon ,it is a hard work
 

 
i will let gary add this group ,and he will maybe answer more .

please note below:
1, you look at all your statements, whether it's for any banana a product, how terrible it is, and why we should pay attention to someone who makes me feel sick. 
2. Look at all the statements you made on armbian BBS, and everyone thinks you are the face of armbian.I even think of you are one of orange PI member .You're out of your normal moral compass.You may never learn to respect others. 
3,note ,you are not a god for arm community.
 
PS:  i want to know , why you always attack us , what can you get or what are you want to get .
 

Perhaps as an aid to our mutual understanding, would it be possible to link to a schematic and all released technical documents here, and provide an up to date image/layout of the board?  I see a few things on the Banana Pi site that are... awkward.  There are at least 2 revisions of the board on display with different port layouts, and the power jack next to the microUSB is labelled as "12 V"  is that accurate?  I don't know what that PMIC is off hand, so I'd be very unlikely to use that power jack unless you provided the adapter. 
 
I think there is potential, however I am an automotive engineer, everything document I make must be defensible in a court of law, so I am very specific and I require a lot of verified documentation. 
 
I am by no means looking for perfection, but it should be accurate enough that I can
Follow it without destroying the device Compile a generic linux without relying explicitly on your repo. Observe something near the advertised performance specs during empirical testing Identify all the right parts found in documentation. We need a thread where @Lion Wang @Nora Lee and @sean.wang are following and replying as is needed.  We are not asking any questions that should be unexpected, most vendors provide schematics and most vendors have reasonably accurate datasheets.  Our feedback should be very carefully considered, we are an educated user base, something development teams almost never have access to.  We have people that use these single board computers in industrial and other applications, when they say "It would be really great if..."  They know what they're talking about.
 
Now, I do not speak for the team, I only speak for myself and hopefully as a sane and intelligent individual:  My recommendation on getting Armbian support for boards is to come here, reach out to the Armbian community, and provide accurate and complete documents, ask us questions, listen to our answers, etc.
 
Lion_Wang, the figure you posted shows WiFi + BT as OK, but you say it isn't complete.  I see it's listed as AP6212 here, but on the R2 manual it says:  " banana pi BPI-R2 have support MTK6625L wifi&BT 4.1 chip onboard. "  <---  That is the sort of thing that causes trouble and upsets people.
 
The schematics are better than nothing, but they are scrubbed of IC names, values, etc, so really there is a limit to what value they are.  I do at least see +12V being specified there, and consistently through, so OK.  I was bracing myself for magic smoke everywhere...

Tks for some Armbian devlopers' feekback and good advice that is real SBC spirit to assist Banana Pi HW and SW progress. We improve HW in order to achieve max. performance by our customers' requirement as well as developers welcome that too. 
 
Happy to hear many developers give us positive comment and would like to support R2 development. Once we have new models, we'll notice sooner.
 
 
 
 

1. I respect all the work done by armbian, and they do a lot of work, especially igor. I respect anyone who does anything for the open source community, and all work should be respected.I also want to work closely with armbian at Open source development, but the way must be correct.
2. All of TK's comments, I don't know where I have offended him, and you can see that his comments are full of malice and disgust, so most of them, I can only choose to ignore them.A product, especially an open source product, can't be perfected all at once, and if you try to find a reason to attack, there will be countless ways to attack, but it won't improve anything.We need all of us to do what we can to support ourselves, even if it's a little bit of a word of affirmation.Sometimes, standing and watching, not talking, is also a support.
3. I have been working on LINUX product software and hardware development for 17 years and have learned how to cooperate with the chip original factory.What I do now is try to make the chip plant open source a bit, provide as much information and technology as possible, and slowly promote the development of open source.
4. Regarding R2, I want to really understand the hardware people, understand how much work we have done, and how much effort MTK has made to support this project.That's what's going on.TK can't easily veto everything just because of the subjective judgment of his own knowledge. It's unfair.
5, we must have done many things wrong, which is a process of learning.If this process makes some people uncomfortable, I'm here to say I'm sorry.
6. For TK, he even attacks my English very bad, YES, maybe we can communicate in Chinese, rest assured, here I will not make fun of your poor Chinese.

I can agree with one thing - IMO it's better to ignore the hardware ot its vendor instead of constantly throwing dirt at them hoping that things will change. Instead of actively trying to improve them (which doesn't work as can be seen) let them improve themselves if they want the attention and possible software support.
 
While @tkaiser IMO spends too much time being negative about the vendor and/or hardware, he raises at least 3 valid points that apply to this vendor in general:
Wrong or incomplete technical specifications and documentation False advertising Hardware design issues While I didn't pay too much attention to the BPi R2 board, with other boards those points would cause some problems: people that buy hardware by public information and specifications won't be able to use some of the claimed features, and hardware design issues may result in either stability issues or inability to use some of the features without hardware mods (or both).
So R2 should be poked with a long stick first (to check if any of those points apply to this board), then somebody (not the vendor!) has to do stability tests and check if primary hardware features (LAN, SATA, mPCIe, wireless) are working as expected, and after that it's OK to start work on mainline based configuration.