guidol

So, a few days later .....
 
After spending several hours with my box including multiple head-banging on my desk, I found a surprisingly simple solution for an automated boot. But first some infos:
 
1. Many of the RT1295-Boxes seem to have encrypted bootloaders (and kernel images) which makes it close to impossible to build new ones. One notable exception is (according to the firmware images) the Zidoo-line. If I understand correctly, it should be very dangerous to flash a Zidoo-box with another firmware (Lake, Beeling, Probox), because if the filenames containing words like "efuse" have a deeper meaning, then you can never again flash the Zidoo-Firmware. If someone knows more about this topic, I would be very interested to hear about.
 
2. The GitHub-repo from BPI is bizarre, to say the least. They included a bunch of software to build encrypted firmware, which should not be needed for the BPI-W2. I could not get it to work, but maybe some others are able to do it. If someone can succeed, then point 1 shines in another light. At least you can build the dvrboot.bin and dvrboot.exe.bin yourself and I do not understand, why they (the bananapi-guys) describe cumbersome ways in their forum to download all that stuff from somewhere as a binary. I could not test these files on my Lake-1-box because of point 1, so it could be that they do not really work.
 
3. In the end it was relatively simple. In the first u-boot, you can modify and (!!) save the bootcmd and (!!) you can pass multiple commands to it. You have to:
env edit bootcmd then You will be asked for the new value and have to insert:
sd read $kernel_loadaddr 800 954a; sd read $fdt_loadaddr a440 5d; env set bootargs earlycon=uart8250,mmio32,0x98007800 console=ttyS0,115200 noinitrd root=/dev/mmcblk0p1 rootfs=ext4  init=/sbin/init; b2ndbc; bootr Please keep in mind that you have to use my "special" SD-card, where the kernel image and the dtb a written to the blocks 0x800 and 0xa440.
That's it for the moment.
 
If I find something new, I will update this thread. Feel free to ask.

Hi @dispo, nice catch!  I just enabled the CPU activity LED trigger in the kernel (https://github.com/armbian/build/commit/fd3b83136b9baa62326feea28d14d44736b6f448).  With this change you can set the LED trigger to "activity" and the LED will flash based upon instant CPU load (across all cores).

It has not been intentionally removed ...
When a new kernel branch appears, there is a new defconfig for it. If we don't meticulously doing diff between old and new defconfig, it is easy to forget some drivers, and if no one report the missing, it can stay like that for months ...
Now that we know, I will add this one the NEXT and DEV defconfig for future builds !
 
EDIT : Done ! https://github.com/armbian/build/commit/d1f8564edb614c655d818b860320706ce6fca258
EDIT2 : The above commit is for sunxi ! For meson64, here it is : https://github.com/armbian/build/commit/93207705504400ae8fa4c28e4bfccd99803cbbfa

No its the password from the Movie "Wargames" which is WOPR searching for

Yes. Or Debian with the same kernel. Depends on your taste  
As for myself I prefer Debian as the directly by Debian maintained packages count is way higher than by Ubuntu.
Lots of packages on Ubuntu are Universe or Multiverse which means there is no guarantee for support or (even critical) fixes.

Since the last year (and around v3.3 of pihole) it isnt recommend to use pihole with debian jessie anymore:
https://pi-hole.net/2018/02/14/pi-hole-v3-3-released-its-extra-special/

So pihole will run much smoother with debian strech (or Ubuntu bionic).

https://github.com/armbian/firmware/commit/bddd21b7f895be9f0c37e435f0a7ac84405c6091

Well, Oshpark turned around my order in 5 days, so I was able to build one today:
 

 
So far no problems, 5.16 V open circuit voltage, nominal design intent was 5.20, so within tolerance.

does also -including Desktop- work on my T95K-Pro
as before ethernet only via USB-Dongle or  WiFi wlan0 via the nvram_ap6330.txt-copy-"trick":
 
nvram_ap6330.txt

cnx-software-Link: https://www.cnx-software.com/2019/01/19/orange-pi-3-allwinner-h6-sbc/
 
Quote from cnx-software:
 
...but who want to use a OrangePi with a OrangePi-image?
The H6-support of armbian is very limited - so I wouldnt buy a H6-board now
 
Last year I did buy a NanoPi K1 Plus because the H5 is much better supported.
The H6 is also "only" a QuadCore A53 like the H5 - so only the newer Mali T720 GFX is the difference.
 
The OPi 3 H6 would be nice for the price if the complete hardware is supported by armbian
 
https://aliexpress.com/store/product/Orange-Pi-3-H6-1GB-LPDDR3-8GB-EMMC-Flash-Gigabyte-AP6256-Bluetooth5-0-4-USB3-0/
 
 
 
 

I've just built and tested a new image for OPiOne with 4.20.2 and v2018.11, and it works perfectly ...
 
So, maybe your image was corrupted, or your SDCard flaky, did you use Etcher to burn it ?

Stumbled across this while working on something else not ARM related, but it's pretty cool - since Armbian is looking at devices that have eMMC, this might be useful
 
https://github.com/pepe2k/u-boot_mod
 
Short story - it's a uBoot with a micro web server that supports flashing images, including uBoot itself - basically it turns things into a bit of a fail-safe as long as uBoot can execute...
 
(those playing with the fire that is uBoot, keep your UART connections handy)
 
Do I have some security concerns - absolutely yes... but no different than the UEFI that is on many x86 boards these days.
 

Thanks to ASUS, I got my hands on one of these after seeing what appeared to be a giant heat sink fin integrated into the top of the case.  This case may be of interest to non-Tinker owners as well, it is not designed like the equivalent Pi cases with a fixed aluminum stud touching the SoC.  Instead it has a small aluminum block that has an adhesive side, and a thermal pad side, and is clamped down onto the processor by putting the two halves together.  This allows some freedom on the location of the SoC relative to the lid.
 
First off, same nice packaging the Tinker owners are familiar with:
                         
 
The case itself is quite heavy, and a nice color/texture, although the finish is most likely not 100% on this one, as it's pre-production
 
The reason for the weight becomes immediately obvious when pulling the two halves apart:

All I can say about this is, if the thermal pad/adhesive aluminum block fit properly, there is a lot of thermal mass here, and I'm perfectly alright with ASUS calling this fanless.  The extrusion is very thick, over 8mm in places.  Now for the bottom, a comparatively much thinner stamped part, the embossing does it's work to strengthen the base adequately.
 
Something important to notice in this picture:  The Tinker sits on aluminum studs, and does not bolt down.  The heat sink block holds it in place.  I have been told that the two additional holes you see here to the left side of the base are for a VESA mount adapter:
https://www.asus.com/Destkop-Accessories/VivoPC_VESA_Mounting_Kit/
 
I can't verify (no hardware), but the holes are 85mm apart and threaded.
 
Board fits nicely:
                                 
 
Now, putting it together only involves 1 thumb screw once you've gotten the aluminum block bit sorted out (a little bit of a balancing act, but not really a problem.  This would be my only feedback where I think a different option would have been better:  The thumbscrew is located at a position so as to be on center with the SoC.  This makes sure the whole stack is making contact, but it also creates a pivot point which rattles when you move the case around.  Not a problem for 90% of people, to be honest.  In my humble opinion, 2 thumb screws, one to each side, making it a bit more rigid once assembled.  Oh, I also pulled out some rubber feet and put them on it, none were provided in the box, and I like the grippy feet.
 

 
 
 
My unofficial testing shows the case very easily outperforming the tiny heat sink thermally, so in that respect it wins.  Aesthetically it is a very nice looking product, of course I'd say that should be expected.  I'll follow with something a bit more empirical later on.

That's right analog sound seems available (as shown by /proc/asound/cards) when using  a pine64 5.70 next image with nanopi a64 but no sound ever comes out of the connection, wifi does work.

Yes. DEV is probably too fragile atm - 4.19.y has good enough support for A64 in general and probably with the correct DTB everything should work. (but temperature sensor IIRC)

Our's also came from here but not sure about the version/branch. Anyway, I plan doing some research and updating this driver when we move to 4.20+

Thank you and likewise  Credits go to many people within Armbian and general Linux community. 

The key is to reverse compile dtb to dts, then you get easy readable format of the file. So when you want to change this led to PH20, try this:
 
in first section: allwinner,pins = "PH20"
 
in second section:
 
gpios = <0x1a 0x7 0x14 0x0>;
 
This should work.
I found this way by reverse engineering, but once more gpios parameters:
 
0x1a - I dont konow
0x7 - port group, group is "H"=7 (A=0 etc)
0x14 - port number is 20 (PH20) and when you convert 20 to hexadecimal = 0x14.
 
PM

edit the file /etc/default/cpufrequtils 
the save and reboot:
 
# WARNING: this file will be replaced on board support package (linux-root-...) upgrade ENABLE=true MIN_SPEED=240000 MAX_SPEED=816000 # GOVERNOR=ondemand GOVERNOR=conservative I got my OPi Zero in the original black cube case and the Zero is arounf 54-55 degree:
 
12:52:57:  240MHz  0.03   1%   1%   0%   0%   0%   0% 54.7°C  0/6 12:53:02:  240MHz  0.10   2%   1%   0%   0%   0%   0% 54.6°C  0/6 12:53:08:  240MHz  0.09   1%   1%   0%   0%   0%   0% 54.1°C  0/6 12:53:13:  240MHz  0.09   1%   0%   0%   0%   0%   0% 54.5°C  0/6 12:53:18:  240MHz  0.08   1%   1%   0%   0%   0%   0% 54.7°C  0/6 12:53:24:  240MHz  0.07   1%   1%   0%   0%   0%   0% 55.4°C  0/6 12:53:29:  240MHz  0.07   1%   0%   0%   0%   0%   0% 54.5°C  0/6  

As per @TonyMac32 suggestion, I changed sdmmc pins to get higher strength, and committed that yesterday, it seems to fix the issue.
Tony had also the HDMI working last night, but he didn't committed that yet, too tired to avoid going to sleep ...

I am using a Phicomm N1
Armbian runs well on it.
CPU: Amlogic S905D, ARM Cortex-A53, Quad Core 2GHz
GPU: ARM Mali™-450, 4K@60fps Hardware acceleration support, HDMI 2.0
RAM: K4B4G1646E, DDR3-1866MHz 512MB*4=2GB
ROM: KLM8G1GEME, 8GB eMMC
Port: 1*HDMI 2.0; 2*USB2.0; 1*Gigabit Ethernet
Power Adapter: Input 110-240V～50/60Hz AC; Output 12V/2A DC
Ethernet: RTL8211F Gigabit Ethernet
WIFI/Bluetooth: CYW43455 (same as Raspberry Pi 3B+) 2.4G/5G WiFi IEEE 802.11n/ac with Integrated Bluetooth 4.1
 
and a Phicomm T1
CPU: Amlogic S912, ARM Cortex-A53, Octa Core 1.5GHz
GPU: ARM Mali™-820, 4K UHD, DOLBY H.265(HEVC)
RAM: 2GB
ROM: 16GB eMMC
Port: 1*HDMI 2.0; 1*USB2.0; 100m Ethernet
Power Adapter: Input 110-240V～50/60Hz AC; Output 5V/2A DC
WIFI/Bluetooth: 2.4G/5G WiFi IEEE 802.11n/ac with Integrated Bluetooth 4.1
【Remark: I cannot find a specified DTB file for this device】
 
and there is another device to recommend.  ZTE9 FunBox.
I hope this box will be supported by Armbian Linux.
The FunBox is powered by NVIDIA’s Tegra4 processor, based on the A15 architecture, and the superior graphics performance is delivered by a 72-core GeForce graphics processor with 2GB DDR3L memory and 8GB of Flash memory.
The specifications make the FunBox the highest performance home entertainment console in 2014.
 
 

Aha!  I only turned up the V1.1 datasheet that does not specify the "G" variant.

Sure, if I can help. I'm a beginner in Linux but have a lot of experience with uC programming.
I'm always looking for aunt google before I 'engage' forum.
But for beginner, the biggest problem is: how do I ask the question?! 
 
I'm always saying my friends: I can not program, but I can google. 
 
Thank again...

please check this url: https://yadi.sk/d/pHxaRAs-tZiei/5.41/no-mali
 

guidol!
 
It is working absolutely perfect.
 
In most programming forums you get arrogantly stupid answers (guys who just want to satisfy quote, who has more answers today).
Here you get the right help. Thank you. 
 
Andy