my experience. H96 board with rk3399.
Take the distro from Orangepi site, dd it on the SD-card. insert and turn on power. It is running.
Later, the kernel changed (recompiled by me) to
root@localhost:~# uname -a
Linux localhost 4.4.114 #11 SMP Mon Mar 12 08:46:26 UTC 2018 aarch64 aarch64 aarch64 GNU/Linux
The problem is with dtb file: partially it works.
USB2 is ok, HDMI is ok, Ethernet is ok.
But:
[ 0.809301] cdn-dp fec00000.dp: Direct firmware load for rockchip/dptx.bin failed with error -2
(file dptx.bin present)
So, USB3 (and DP) is off (both type-C and normal USB3 blue socket; it works in Android on the same board; dtb file taken is the same as in Android distro).
Also, I cannot check AV output and ALSA shows only SPDIF, that has no controls.
I think the only need is any correct dtb file to work with the board.