Orange Pi Plus 2E now available

[Lope]

Thanks for the links.

 

We should try convince Xunlong to send a few complimentary boards to kernel devs who have the relevant experience.

 

Being 2014 28nm DDR2/3. Do you think the H3 chip has a future? Interesting that it's such a great chip at a great price, but not much interest in it...

 

The Banana Pi M3 Octa core A83T seems to have similar problems. No mainline kernel support. And it shares the same crappy design decisions as some of the previous Orange Pi boards. one USB port with a USB Hub chip. Crappy SATA chip. Etc. All that CPU performance but IO has been choked.

 

Tkaiser: Just a quick note about SMP/HYP. I think rather than SMP, uboot should be setup to bring the CPU online in HYP mode rather. These chips all support virtualization. KVM works on the RbPi2, and by default, the RPi2 bootloader starts their CPU in HYP mode. The linux kernel is setup such that if HYP support is not compiled into the kernel, the kernel switches back to SMP mode automatically; but the CPU MUST be started in HYP mode before the kernel is started for virtualization to function.

 

There's also the Odroid XU4 with the Samsung Octa-core SoC with USB3. Looks like a nice board. But again no Mainline kernel support.

 

There's one hope I just thought of

Xunlong seems to be open to your suggestions and prices their products competetively. What if Xunlong made a board with the A31S. Like the Banana Pi M2?

 

Ideal SBC:

Cost: Low
CPU: Quad or Octa core

SATA: Fast or nothing

Network: Gigabit

RAM: 1-4GB

Bootloader: Uboot HYP (virtualization enabled)

Kernel: Mainline
eMMC: None

Wifi: None

USB ports: All exposed

USB hub: Useful if SoC has less than 4 USB ports. But only pads should be exposed.

USB OTG: useful for development

CPU Voltage: High/low (user defined by trimpot within safe limits) or full range software controlled.

Power: DC barrel

Connectors: All unpopulated, sold separately. Most stuff like GPIO, USB, ethernet, audio is easy to solder in. I'd prefer solder pads for low profile and easier industrial integration.

[tkaiser]

We should try convince Xunlong to send a few complimentary boards to kernel devs who have the relevant experience.

 

Steven was open to our suggestions and the main H3 devs already have their boards or they are on their way. Also Foxconn realized (after been poked for ages to start to contribute to community!) that it would help and sent out BPi M2+ boards to some linux-sunxi devs (same with M3/A83T).

 

Regarding your kernel questions linux-sunxi IRC would be a better place. And regarding Xunlong and A31s you might be surprised that Xunlong designed this already: http://www.armbian.com/orange-pi-a31/

 

The whole story: Foxconn started the Banana Pi journey a while ago and asked Steven/Xunlong to do the ODM work for the original Banana Pi. They contracted then with SinoVoip to let them do manufacturing and with LeMaker that should do support and build up a community around. Then LeMaker got greedy, produced the Banana Pro themselve and applied for the Banana trademarks (which they had to return in the meantime and are more or less out of Banana business now) and Xunlong sold their own Banana Pi compatible A20 boards (the original Orange Pi and Pi Mini).

 

In the meantime Xunlong/Steven developed the A31s based quad core successor but switched to H3 instead since Allwinner discontinued A31/A31s before the product was ready (that's the reason only a few of these A31s based Oranges are existent). According to Steven SinoVoip does then a rip-off (the Banana Pi M2 -- when we remember how software support looked like in the beginning then the whole story sounds plausible).

 

Now Foxconn/SinoVoip did another rip-off, the BPi M2+ (they copied each and every pin mapping from Orange Pis to be as compatible as possible but the stuff they did differently results in problems: eg. the missing programmable voltage regulator being one of the reasons for overheating BPi M2+ is suffering from so badly).

 

Regarding BPi M3's history I've no idea but this board has so many design flaws that it really can not be recommended to anybody. And yes, there it's even worse since SinoVoip/Foxconn decided to use only one single USB port (A83T has two of them) to connect both the ultra slow GL830 USB-to-SATA bridge  as well as the internal USB hub so all USB ports and pseudo SATA have to share bandwidth -- that's different on OPi Plus and Plus 2 or on the pretty similar H8 based CubieTruck + that uses one USB port for the SATA bridge and the other one for the USB hub!)

 

Looking into the future I'm curious whether this will become reality or not: https://olimex.wordpress.com/2015/07/09/allwinner-did-it-again-new-quad-core-powerful-chip-pin-to-pin-compatible-with-a10-and-a20/#comment-22806 

[Peri Noid]

This is my first post here so... Hello everybody :-)

 

Did you manage to get OPi Plus 2e correctly working with Armbian? I have such a board, I have installed Armbian on it and it boots. But... I cannot make kodi run. Also emulationstation (look at this project: http://orange314.com/RetrOrangePi, which uses the latest Armbian) has similar problems, which look like this in the dmesg:

[ 270.500808] Mali: ERR: drivers/gpu/mali/mali/common/mali_gp.c
[ 270.500845] mali_gp_stop_bus_wait() 162
[ 270.500855] Mali GP: Failed to stop bus on Mali-400 GP

In particular, Kodi shows a blank screen or a blank, black window. Seems to work, but shows nothing and is useless.

 

Does anyone have any idea, how to make it work correctly?

[fossxplorer]

I don't quite get "it will be ready Q4 of this year".

Is it a Lime board, but with 2GB RAM instead?

 

 

 

Looking into the future I'm curious whether this will become reality or not: https://olimex.wordpress.com/2015/07/09/allwinner-did-it-again-new-quad-core-powerful-chip-pin-to-pin-compatible-with-a10-and-a20/#comment-22806 

[fossxplorer]

I've really missed this great news. I did read that Orange Pi Plus 2E was being developed based on feedback from folks from Armbian a while ago.

Now i'm gonna order one to try to make  4 disks (mdraid 10, or 6)  based NAS. Looking forward like a child

 

Based on @tkaiser's comments different places, these 4 disks will be read/written in parallel and we could achieve ok performance.

THX @tkaiser! You (and others of Armbian as well) rock!

 

 

 

Just FYI: Orange Pi Plus 2E is now available for $35 and shipping costs remain the same (pretty low compared to some competitors): 

 

http://aliexpress.com/store/product/Orange-Pi-Plus-2-E-H3-Quad-Core-1-6GHZ-2GB-RAM-4K-Open-source-development/1553371_32665196281.html

 

Please remember that this board was designed based on community requests (dropping the slow GL830 USB-to-SATA bridge and the internal USB hub and exposing all 4 USB ports physically to the outside) and should make up for a really nice server with 2 GB DRAM, Gbit Ethernet and 4 USB ports (3 real hosts ports and one Micro OTG).

 

So now we have the following H3 boards with Gigabit Ethernet:

 

• Banana Pi M2+ for $33 (1 GB RAM, 8 GB eMMC, no USB hub / no shared bandwidth, only 2 USB host ports useable)

• OPi Plus 2E for $35 (2 GB RAM, 16 GB eMMC, no USB hub / no shared bandwidth, 3 USB host ports useable)

• OPi Plus for $39 (1 GB RAM, 8 GB eMMC, GL830 slow USB-to-SATA, internal USB hub / shared bandwidth)

• OPi Plus 2 for $49 (2 GB RAM, 16 GB eMMC, GL830 slow USB-to-SATA, internal USB hub / shared bandwidth)

 

SinoVoip said to release also a cost down version of M2+ without eMMC and WiFi that might be then the cheapest GbE equipped board. But since there you only get 1 GB DRAM (which might be totally ok for most use cases -- please compare with http://www.linuxatemyram.com if in doubt) and they don't use a programmable voltage regulator and always feed the SoC with 1.3V VDD_CPUX core voltage IMO spending a few bucks more to get OPi Plus 2E with twice the RAM/eMMC size, 1 more USB port, more performance and also lesser temperature/consumption is the better idea.

 

BTW: WiFi capabilities not mentioned intentionally since in my opinion those cheap SDIO 2.4 GHz implementations are all not worth a look (or time/efforts to get the crappy drivers running)

 

[tkaiser]

I don't quite get "it will be ready Q4 of this year".

Is it a Lime board, but with 2GB RAM instead?

 

I don't know what Olimex plans. But Tsvetan was talking about a new SoC from Allwinner that should be pin compatible to A20. And pin compatibility should then also mean feature compatibility (so this quad core SoC should also feature SATA -- maybe with the same sequential write speed limitation that A20 already shows. But in case this new SoC is CPU wise comparable to H3 or A33 then both increased CPU and DRAM clockspeed might automagically improve SATA throughput -- see post #10 here, comparison of the same A20 device with 'normal' and overclocked settings)

[Ford Prefect]

Hi

As far as WIFI is concerned on gigabit Ethernet boards I think it can only be useful if it can work  as access point and blue tooth and without

reducing the number of real USB ports.

To keep the price low and ease integration solder pads and unpopulated connectors would be a good idea.

Pins for an RTC battery too.

A female connector instead of the male one for GPIO would simplify the life of many.

Having access to the 3 grounded audio-in pins would be nice too.

[fossxplorer]

There is a board called WiTi with 2 SATA, now WiTi 2 is being planned on mqmaker's forum. It looks really nice and reasonably priced (the old one).

But it's some MTK MIPS chips.

@tkaiser, you don't support MIPS arch right?

[wildcat_paris]

@fossxplorer

 

ARMbian is focused on ARM so far... else we may need to start Mipsbian

[martinayotte]

MIPSbian ...

[fossxplorer]

Unfortunately, i see one buyer has given the following feedback:

Board came defective! two weeks trying to run on Linux and android did not happen. then long conversation with the Chinese friends shipping logs boot and finally they admit that the internal memory card is faulty. it, replace charge refused! they say wait decision when will the boss. but the boss decided nothing more than 10 days. shorter than buying at your own risk. I advise you not to confirm receipt until all thoroughly check. and it is better to take raspberri!

• 
• 
• 
  

 

Additional Feedback

What can I say, the seller no more answers! ignore...     I mean when doing business like this and selling boards like hot cakes, it can't be hard to replace that board to that buyer Xunlong?    

[wildcat_paris]

@fossxplorer

Xunlong seems a good vendor. Maybe they decided to ignore him because he was rude.

 

Projects like Pine64 or Turris Omnia got threats from some crazy backers to the point => it is madness. Every project has drawbacks, even QA tested boards.

But customers has to be gentle.

 

I have over 100+ orders of DIY/electronic components (IC) over 6 months from Asia.

Maybe less than 4% went bad

 

Recently a seller on Amazon has a batch of ina219 current sensors, probably 80% of them are broken.

I bought 3, I discussed kindly about 2 of them being "broken" (resistance between GND and VCC is 4 Ohms, almost a short circuit -- working ina219 have 20 M Ohms)

They send quickly 2 others for replacement, tested as also broken on arrival. I explained them and they refunded me the 2. I told them to return their stock to avoid the issue with other customers (or test the component).

 

(I ordered 3 others from another vendor on ebay, all 3 ina219 are OK)

[Xer0]

There is a board called WiTi with 2 SATA, now WiTi 2 is being planned on mqmaker's forum. It looks really nice and reasonably priced (the old one).

But it's some MTK MIPS chips.

it's the MT7621, a chip used in routers like the Xiaomi Mini

will run OpenWRT even with almost-mainline kernel (4.6)

but i doubt it has the power to run a full distro like Armbian

[Pierrot]

On the Orange pi website it's impossible to download an image for this model (Orange pi plus 2e).  Links are dead since 2 months.

Lubuntu image : dead link

armbian image : not fonctionnal

 

software level , orange pi does not provide at all!

[Igor]

Armbian image works. 

 

http://docs.armbian.com/User-Guide_Getting-Started/

[tkaiser]

BTW: I failed miserably hacking together a working .dts for kernel 4.7 the last two days (to be able to start optimizing throttling) but since I wanted to help a guy preparing a benchmark article comparing a number of SBC I then just searched for a way to provide a mainline kernel image with H3 running at 1296 MHz.

 

The following will let OPi Plus 2E run with 4.6-rc1 without throttling (so don't try this at home, heatsink + fan are mandatory otherwise H3 could be damaged permanently!). Grab our preliminary 5.07 Armbian image for BPi M2+ from here:  http://linux-sunxi.org/Banana_Pi_M2%2B#OS_images

 

Then boot this image, change root pwd and create a normal user account as usual and do the following as root:

wget http://kaiser-edv.de/tmp/w8JAAY/linux-u-boot-dev-orangepiplus2e_5.17_armhf.deb.bz2
bunzip2 linux-u-boot-dev-orangepiplus2e_5.17_armhf.deb.bz2
dpkg -i linux-u-boot-dev-orangepiplus2e_5.17_armhf.deb
sed -i 's/${fdtfile}/sun8i-h3-bananapi-m2plus.dtb/g' /boot/boot.cmd
mkimage -C none -A arm -T script -d /boot/boot.cmd /boot/boot.scr
rm /etc/apt/sources.list.d/armbian.list
reboot

Optional steps (better user experience ):

MyBoard="Orange Pi Plus 2E"
MyBoardName="$(echo "${MyBoard}" | tr '[:upper:]' '[:lower:]' | sed -e 's/+/plus/' -e 's/\ //g' -e 's/2mini$/2/g' -e 's/plus2$/plus/g')"
cat <<-EOF >/etc/armbian-release
# PLEASE DO NOT EDIT THIS FILE
BOARD=${MyBoardName}
ID="${MyBoard}"
VERSION=5.07
LINUXFAMILY=sun8i
BRANCH=dev
ARCH=arm
EOF
wget -q -O - https://raw.githubusercontent.com/igorpecovnik/lib/master/scripts/armhwinfo >/etc/init.d/armhwinfo
wget -q -O - https://raw.githubusercontent.com/igorpecovnik/lib/master/scripts/firstrun >/etc/init.d/firstrun
wget -q -O - https://raw.githubusercontent.com/igorpecovnik/lib/master/scripts/armbianmonitor/armbianmonitor >/usr/local/bin/armbianmonitor
sed -i "s/bananapim2plus/${MyBoardName}/" /etc/hostname

(also think about editing /etc/network/interfaces to set up a static IP configuration since with this image you get a random Ethernet MAC address on every reboot)

 

How is it possible to use an image for BPi M2+ with Orange Pi Plus 2E? Since they are nearly identical from a hardware perspective (1 USB port not exposed as receptacle on M2+, different count of board leds, different WiFi/BT chip used, different voltage regulation, M2+ prone to overheating). So by using the BPi M2+ image with M2+ device tree you only 'loose' the 3rd USB port on Plus 2E (can be fixed by adding the device tree node).

 

Please be aware that such an image is only good for testing in a lab (with heatsink + fan!) since it's not upgradable and also the Ethernet driver is in a pretty early state (this is stuff from early April!)

 

The updated u-boot package contains jemk's latest u-boot patch and sets CPU clockspeed fixed to 1296 MHz regardless of cpufrequtils settings used. 'armbianmonitor -u' output: http://sprunge.us/QdMi

[Bernard S.]

Just FYI: Orange Pi Plus 2E is now available for $35 and shipping costs remain the same (pretty low compared to some competitors): 

 

http://aliexpress.com/store/product/Orange-Pi-Plus-2-E-H3-Quad-Core-1-6GHZ-2GB-RAM-4K-Open-source-development/1553371_32665196281.html

 

Please remember that this board was designed based on community requests (dropping the slow GL830 USB-to-SATA bridge and the internal USB hub and exposing all 4 USB ports physically to the outside) and should make up for a really nice server with 2 GB DRAM, Gbit Ethernet and 4 USB ports (3 real hosts ports and one Micro OTG).

 

So now we have the following H3 boards with Gigabit Ethernet:

 

 

• Banana Pi M2+ for $33 (1 GB RAM, 8 GB eMMC, no USB hub / no shared bandwidth, only 2 USB host ports useable)

• OPi Plus 2E for $35 (2 GB RAM, 16 GB eMMC, no USB hub / no shared bandwidth, 3 USB host ports useable)

• OPi Plus for $39 (1 GB RAM, 8 GB eMMC, GL830 slow USB-to-SATA, internal USB hub / shared bandwidth)

• OPi Plus 2 for $49 (2 GB RAM, 16 GB eMMC, GL830 slow USB-to-SATA, internal USB hub / shared bandwidth)

 

SinoVoip said to release also a cost down version of M2+ without eMMC and WiFi that might be then the cheapest GbE equipped board. But since there you only get 1 GB DRAM (which might be totally ok for most use cases -- please compare with http://www.linuxatemyram.com if in doubt) and they don't use a programmable voltage regulator and always feed the SoC with 1.3V VDD_CPUX core voltage IMO spending a few bucks more to get OPi Plus 2E with twice the RAM/eMMC size, 1 more USB port, more performance and also lesser temperature/consumption is the better idea.

 

BTW: WiFi capabilities not mentioned intentionally since in my opinion those cheap SDIO 2.4 GHz implementations are all not worth a look (or time/efforts to get the crappy drivers running)

Just wanted to thank you for this post comparing all the OPi out there. Frankly, I would have thought that's the job of the manufacturer but nope, can't find the info anywhere else.

[gene1934]

Just rx'd my OPi plus 2E. Will need heat sinks.  But its booting in some far eastern pictograph language, and will NOT even waste time trying to boot from a micro-sd card that boots a raspi just fine.  There is a couple blinks from the green led, but without docs, I have no clue what that might be telling me.

 

I intend to use this OPi Plus 2e as an x rendering machine for the RPi which is to be running a lathe with linuxcnc when I am all setup.  That, while not fully configured yet, is rendering on a logged in x86 machine just peachy.

 

Docs seem to be non-existent, or at least google can't find them.

 

Any help in getting it to boot from the sd card instead of the boot its finding would be most appreciated.

 

Thank you, Gene

[gnasch]

Hello

the orange pi's are not software compatible to raspi images.

the docs are here: https://docs.armbian.com/User-Guide_Getting-Started/

 

best,

gnasch

[Zao]

Can someone elaborate a little on the current state of the 2e? The board seems to have everything I need, but the above discussion worries me a little.

 

Thanks in advance!

[jernej]

It is fully supported by Armbian, just write Armbian image to a SD card and you are good to go.

[gene1934]

It is fully supported by Armbian, just write Armbian image to a SD card and you are good to go.

 

But then I read that it is not ready for prime time. Ethernet is said broken, no idea when it might be fixed, and that's vital, and so is hdmi, and that's vital as I intend to use the advanced graphics advertised as an X renderer, doing the X stuff exported by a raspi, which does render nicely on a x86 box right now.  But I will not have room for that huge old dell in the final setup. The environment is dirty with flying metallic bits that the dell will suck in and kill itself with.

 

So are you in a position to advise when it will be available and all working?

 

Thank you jernej.

 

Cheers, Gene

[Zao]

It is fully supported by Armbian, just write Armbian image to a SD card and you are good to go.

Thanks. Is nand and throttling also usable? That's one of the main reasons to go for the 2e.

[carsonip]

Does anyone have Mali GPU working well on their Orange Pi Plus 2E or OPi+2?

[jernej]

Ethernet is said broken, no idea when it might be fixed, and that's vital, and so is hdmi, [snip]

 

Where did you get that ideas? If you are ok with Allwinner provided (BSP) kernel (3.4.113), all things should work. Granted, Mali bug was fixed only two days ago and didn't yet come into stable release. HDMI under BSP kernel supports only standard resolutions, but that should not matter for most users. 1080p or 720p resolutions cover most screens. There were never an issue with ethernet on BSP kernel, AFAIK.

 

Things are different on mainline (4.9) kernel. Most things are WIP but most HW units work if you are ok with experimental drivers. HDMI is still special story. At first it will support only standard resolutions, same as in BSP kernel. However, I wrote U-Boot HDMI driver, which seems to properly support almost any resolution. So there is room for improvement, but it will take some time.

 

 

Thanks. Is nand and throttling also usable?

 

What NAND? You mean onboard eMMC, right? eMMC has basically same interface as SD card and it is supported a long time. What throttling do you reffering? If you mean CPU throttling, then this was one of the first thing fixed and refined multiple times later. I think it is as good as it could get.

 

 

Does anyone have Mali GPU working well on their Orange Pi Plus 2E or OPi+2?

 

You already get your answer, but I will repeat it here. It was fixed two days ago and it should hit stable in next update.

[Zao]

Thanks for the clarification jernej. And yes, I was referring to emmc and the CPU throttling

[gene1934]

Ok, will give it one more try. I have Samsung 32Gb sd's, and downloaded the 5.20 legacy desktop image last night, and I've printed the getting started pages.  My sd r/w gizmo is out in the garage atm, but will see about it come a civilized local time since its just before 4 am locally.

 

One other thing, I am not a fan of forums, and this one is quite distracting in that the message I get via email, doesn't link back to your reply, but stops someplace where its about 10-20 clicks of the mouse to find this thread and your reply.  If you folks prefer a forum, can this not be fixed to link directly to your reply?

[jernej]

Don't forget to update to latest version through apt-get dist-upgrade

 

I don't know about notification e-mails as I don't use them.

[Igor]

One other thing, I am not a fan of forums, and this one is quite distracting in that the message I get via email, doesn't link back to your reply, but stops someplace where its about 10-20 clicks of the mouse to find this thread and your reply.  If you folks prefer a forum, can this not be fixed to link directly to your reply?

 

 

I also don't use this feature but just checked - it works exactly as expected, a single click. Read you email once again.

 

Just after the greeting, you can find this:

 

The topic can be found here:http://forum.armbian.com/index.php/topic/2808-orange-pi-zero-went-to-the-market/?view=getnewpost

If you have configured in your control panel to receive immediate topic reply notifications, you may receive an

email for each reply made to this topic. Otherwise, only 1 email is sent per board visit for each subscribed topic. 

This is to limit the amount of mail that is sent to your inbox.

[gene1934]

Don't forget to update to latest version through apt-get dist-upgrade

 

I don't know about notification e-mails as I don't use them.

Ok, finally got it to boot, but only after telling my router to increase its dhcp client count to 2 to 10.

 

Then it finally worked, and I have done the apt-get update, apt-get upgrade, this from a 5.20 install.

 

Then I found the reason for my sudden jump in bandwidth usage as shown on my net bill, it jumped from 15 or 30 Gb to 80 last month, and there were at times as high as 4 androids logged in.

I don't use the wifi here, so I shut it off.  So I expect a have 2-4 local android users upset. Tuff.

 

However, the screen is a pale green/yellow in the highlights, and where its supposed to be dark is best described as some sort of a cross between magenta and burple. Unplug the cable and plug it back into the r-pi it has to work with and the display is in normal full color when I startx.

 

So I looked the board and the hdmi socket over with a glass quite a bit stronger that a jewelers loup, saw some dust here & there so gave it a blow job with about 90 psi from an inch.  Looks lox clean now, but the display is still hard on the eyes.  No cold solder joints to be seen either.  FWIW, I am a C.E.T., and a retired broadcast engineer whose last 20 years were as the Chief, and sometimes only engineer at a CBS affiliate here in the states. Only 1 piece of gear was returned to the maker for rep[airs, at their insistence in that 20 years. 

 

So its defective with the display that mucked up, whats my next step?

 

Thanks, Gene