OrangePi Zero2 - Allwinner H616

[Werner 499]

Before complaining about an issue read this!

 

tl;dr: Put your Zero2 and/or any other H616 based device on the shelf and WAIT for proper support to come. And no. There is no ETA. Assuming usable state end 2021/beginning 2022.

 

Software support is still work in progress and under heavy development. Provided preview images can break any time. Do not report this, we are aware of that and can/will not help you with that if you are not willing to investigate and research by yourself.

Feel free to join fellow developers to their efforts to create proper software support. But don't waste our time with complains. Thank you!

 

https://github.com/apritzel/linux/commits/h616-v5

https://github.com/jernejsk/u-boot/tree/h616-v2

https://github.com/apritzel/arm-trusted-firmware/tree/h616-v2-wip

 

 

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

I started to play with this board and obviously failed miserably creating a basic Armbian integration.

 

Anyway. These are the information I collected so far:

 

dtb extraction from Xulong image: https://pastebin.com/raw/Uni2JzBF

 

orangepimonitor 🙄  http://ix.io/2FM0

 

 

root@orangepizero2:/etc/apt# lsmod
Module                  Size  Used by
zram                   36864  2
sprdwl_ng             438272  0
sprdbt_tty             36864  2
uwe5622_bsp_sdio      294912  2 sprdbt_tty,sprdwl_ng

 

kernel config: https://pastebin.com/raw/e2jTTZ7A

[Igor 2458]

1 hour ago, Andyvec said:

Could somebody explain me how the process continues now?

 

Standard way, with additional parameter EXPERT=yes which is not documented by purpose. Things can fail and nobody will react.

https://docs.armbian.com/Developer-Guide_Build-Preparation/

 

1 hour ago, Andyvec said:

How the changes in the jernej repo merges with armbian?

 

https://github.com/armbian/build/commit/cf45b970c1101625f6522208d62d6d3f8e6a343d

 

Just build the image. 

 

 

[Andyvec 0]

Hi!

 

Many thanks for helping my and the work you are doing

I've tried building my own image and also with the "Groovy nightly" (21/01/12), and burning it with hash verification you suggested.

There is something new, but still not booting on the zero2.

 

In both cases the green light now turns on 5 seconds after getting power (in OrangePi build it's only 1 second), but the red one never turns on, not ever for a second like in the OrangePi build.

I also get no image at all, all black my screen.

 

Any clues?

[Werner 499]

2 minutes ago, Andyvec said:

I also get no image at all, all black my screen.

As I quote:

Quote

Experimental support, serial console only

This means no HDMI, no USB, no GPIO, no .....

[jernej 256]

Branch https://github.com/apritzel/linux/commits/h616-v2 is currently the best we have. With it following peripherals are supported and nothing more:

- serial

- ethernet

- SD card

- RTC

- watchdog (needed for reset)

- GPIO/I2C/SPI/UART (if you enable them manually)

- SPI flash

 

HDMI, USB and other more complex stuff is not understood enough to be implemented. If you need it, use images from OrangePi, but don't expect support here.

[Darkness 0]

Hi Gentleman,

I have this board on my desk and trying from couple of day to utilize this board and run some os on it.
Unfortunately those from armbian download is not working.
After that decided to compile my own image, but problem seems are the same.
Problem with booting because no image found.
Any suggestion from your side, where to fix the issue ? 

 

U-Boot SPL 2021.01-rc4-armbian (Jan 05 2021 - 03:01:27 +0100)
DRAM: 1024 MiB
Trying to boot from MMC1
NOTICE:  BL31: v2.4(debug):7eee1da-dirty
NOTICE:  BL31: Built : 03:01:19, Jan  5 2021
NOTICE:  BL31: Detected Allwinner H616 SoC (1823)
NOTICE:  BL31: Found U-Boot DTB at 0x4a084bd0, model: OrangePi Zero2
INFO:    ARM GICv2 driver initialized
INFO:    PMIC: Probing AXP305 on I2C
INFO:    PMIC: aldo1 voltage: 3.300V
INFO:    PMIC: aldo2 voltage: 3.300V
INFO:    PMIC: aldo3 voltage: 3.300V
INFO:    PMIC: bldo1 voltage: 1.800V
INFO:    PMIC: dcdcd voltage: 1.500V
INFO:    PMIC: dcdce voltage: 3.300V
INFO:    Changed devicetree to reserve BL31 memory.
INFO:    BL31: Platform setup done
INFO:    BL31: Initializing runtime services
INFO:    BL31: cortex_a53: CPU workaround for 855873 was applied
WARNING: BL31: cortex_a53: CPU workaround for 1530924 was missing!
NOTICE:  PSCI: System suspend is unavailable
INFO:    BL31: Preparing for EL3 exit to normal world
INFO:    Entry point address = 0x4a000000
INFO:    SPSR = 0x3c9


U-Boot 2021.01-rc4-armbian (Jan 05 2021 - 03:01:27 +0100) Allwinner Technology

CPU:   Allwinner H616 (SUN50I)
Model: OrangePi Zero2
I2C:   ready
DRAM:  1 GiB
MMC:   
Loading Environment from FAT... In:    serial@5000000
Out:   serial@5000000
Err:   serial@5000000
Net:   phy interface7
eth0: ethernet@5020000
starting USB...
No working controllers found
Autoboot in 1 seconds
No MMC device available
starting USB...
No working controllers found
USB is stopped. Please issue 'usb start' first.
starting USB...
No working controllers found
ethernet@5020000 Waiting for PHY auto negotiation to complete.... done
BOOTP broadcast 1
DHCP client bound to address 10.100.2.115 (3 ms)
*** Warning: no boot file name; using '0A640273.img'
Using ethernet@5020000 device
TFTP from server 10.100.2.1; our IP address is 10.100.2.115
Filename '0A640273.img'.
Load address: 0x42000000

 

[Igor 2458]

1 hour ago, Darkness said:

After that decided to compile my own image, but problem seems are the same.

Images build from sources works - I happens that I made one image today. But there is no much change since 1st test build.

[jernej 256]

@Darkness you're using old U-Boot branch which has a bug for detecting SD cards. Armbian already uses newer, fixed U-Boot branch.

[Darkness 0]

@jernej which branch you suggested ? 

[jernej 256]

h616-v2, which is already in latest Armbian master

[Darkness 0]

12 minutes ago, jernej said:

h616-v2, which is already in latest Armbian master

May you paste whole command for built ?
If it is in branch master, then this change i have it.

Which image then i should use to built ? 

I`m using repo from armbian as it is mentioned in dev documentation (https://github.com/armbian/build/), not this one

https://github.com/apritzel/linux/commits/h616-v2

 

[Werner 499]

https://github.com/armbian/build/commit/cf45b970c1101625f6522208d62d6d3f8e6a343d

[jernej 256]

I haven't build Armbian for some time now, I'm just the guy who works on upstream U-Boot and Linux support for H616. I build all components separately and then manually put them together.

[Igor 2458]

15 minutes ago, Darkness said:

Which image then i should use to built ?

Any, master build script branch if not told otherwise. Just don't use prebuilt kernel and u-boot, clean previously build cached output/deb packages ... and most important - https://docs.armbian.com/

[Andyvec 0]

Hi,

I did compile the image yesterday and now did it again since Igor says it was working.... but it is not in my case.

 

I don't care for USB of video output. I just need Ethernet and ssh for my project.
The OS seems to start booting at least, but never establish an Ethernet connection.

 

The system seems to boot now, because in 5 seconds the green light turn on (but this is also different from OrangePi build where red light turns on prior to the green one) and the Ethernet port start blinking both lights.
But the the lights keep blinking in a wired way and never got connected to my router.
If I do a ping command (to any address) in another computer from the same network then the Ethernet light start blinking quicker.
My router config is with automatic DNS and all PnP tested with other boards.

 

This is what I did to compile the image:

Following the guide: https://docs.armbian.com/Developer-Guide_Build-Preparation/
Doing a new checkout from git in a clean folder
./compile.sh EXPERT=yes
1 - Building: Full image for flashing
2 - Do not change the kernel configuration
3 - Board: orangepizero2
4 - Kernel branch: current
5 - Ubuntu Focal LTS
6 - Standard image with console interface
Burning the img with etcher and verifying the hash matches.
Boot in the board and wait 15 minutes just in case the first boot was slower.

 

@Igor: Did you do something different to build the image?

@Darkness: You should already have this change, check this file "config/sources/families/sun50iw6.conf", you shuld have BOOTBRANCH='branch:h616-v2' instead of v1.

[jernej 256]

At this point only serial console will help you debug issue.

[Darkness 0]

1 hour ago, Andyvec said:

Hi,

I did compile the image yesterday and now did it again since Igor says it was working.... but it is not in my case.

 

I don't care for USB of video output. I just need Ethernet and ssh for my project.
The OS seems to start booting at least, but never establish an Ethernet connection.

 

The system seems to boot now, because in 5 seconds the green light turn on (but this is also different from OrangePi build where red light turns on prior to the green one) and the Ethernet port start blinking both lights.
But the the lights keep blinking in a wired way and never got connected to my router.
If I do a ping command (to any address) in another computer from the same network then the Ethernet light start blinking quicker.
My router config is with automatic DNS and all PnP tested with other boards.

 

This is what I did to compile the image:

Following the guide: https://docs.armbian.com/Developer-Guide_Build-Preparation/
Doing a new checkout from git in a clean folder
./compile.sh EXPERT=yes
1 - Building: Full image for flashing
2 - Do not change the kernel configuration
3 - Board: orangepizero2
4 - Kernel branch: current
5 - Ubuntu Focal LTS
6 - Standard image with console interface
Burning the img with etcher and verifying the hash matches.
Boot in the board and wait 15 minutes just in case the first boot was slower.

 

@Igor: Did you do something different to build the image?

@Darkness: You should already have this change, check this file "config/sources/families/sun50iw6.conf", you shuld have BOOTBRANCH='branch:h616-v2' instead of v1.

Hi, yes everything is fine with this image.
Thanks for all for help.

My bad that i used precompiled images instead of compiling new one.
After that when i choose the correct option everything is fine.

I can login using some uart devices, and have console access.
But i cannot setup networking.

when i do 
 

ls /sys/class/net

Then listing lo and eth0 interfaces.
when putting configuration to /etc/network/interfaces 

 

 auto eth0
 allow-hotplug eth0
 iface eth0 inet dhcp

It`s booting but there is a problem to raisup interfacerange pi
 

● networking.service - Raise network interfaces
     Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/networking.service; enabled; vendor pr>
     Active: failed (Result: timeout) since Wed 2021-01-13 23:14:26 UTC; 27s ago
       Docs: man:interfaces(5)
    Process: 388 ExecStart=/sbin/ifup -a --read-environment (code=exited, statu>
   Main PID: 388 (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)

Jan 13 23:09:19 orangepizero2 ifup[388]: ifup: waiting for lock on /run/network>
Jan 13 23:14:15 orangepizero2 systemd[1]: networking.service: start operation t>
Jan 13 23:14:15 orangepizero2 ifup[388]: Got signal Terminated, terminating...
Jan 13 23:14:26 orangepizero2 systemd[1]: networking.service: Failed with resul>
Jan 13 23:14:26 orangepizero2 systemd[1]: Failed to start Raise network interfa>
Warning: journal has been rotated since unit was started, output may be incompl>

 

[  +0.020481] systemd[1]: Starting Raise network interfaces...
[  +0.185134] dwmac-sun8i 5020000.ethernet eth0: PHY [stmmac-0:01] driver [RTL8211F Gigabit Ethernet] (irq=POLL)
[  +0.001655] dwmac-sun8i 5020000.ethernet eth0: No Safety Features support found
[  +0.000020] dwmac-sun8i 5020000.ethernet eth0: No MAC Management Counters available
[  +0.000007] dwmac-sun8i 5020000.ethernet eth0: PTP not supported by HW
[  +0.000669] dwmac-sun8i 5020000.ethernet eth0: configuring for phy/rgmii-id link mode
[  +0.546623] random: crng init done

 

Any suggestion ? 

Seems like USB port is not working as well.
Hub is identifying but plugged devices are not recognized
 

orangepizero2:~:# lsusb
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
orangepizero2:~:#

 

[Igor 2458]

1 hour ago, Darkness said:

Any suggestion ? 

Reality check for supported devices https://github.com/armbian/build#support This one is not supported. It is on you to find out and fix. Or wait.

[Werner 499]

5 hours ago, Darkness said:

Seems like USB port is not working as well.
Hub is identifying but plugged devices are not recognize

As I quote myself...

 

On 1/12/2021 at 5:48 PM, Werner said:

As I quote:

This means no HDMI, no USB, no GPIO, no .....

 

[Darkness 0]

Ok thanks guys for your support.
I will try to manage something on my own.

[yam1 33]

Just another data point, the following code initializes an ili9341 display on DRM, but there is something else wrong with SPI or driver (but tested driver and it works under H6). One could see the display initializes under X, but the mouse pointer is kind of messed up (1st pic), also X terminal is garbled (2nd pic) . X would then eventually shut down because of lack of input device or something else.

 

1_ili9341.dts

 

Note: Same behavior with fbdev driver.

[fward 0]

Ladies and gentlemen, there's an official open source Linux 4.9 implementation. Links:

https://github.com/orangepi-xunlong/linux-orangepi/tree/orange-pi-4.9-sun50iw9

Device Tree:

https://github.com/orangepi-xunlong/linux-orangepi/tree/orange-pi-4.9-sun50iw9/arch/arm64/boot/dts/sunxi

 

Linux 4.9 has no mali GPU support, so I'm hoping the newest mainline or linux-sunxi would get it work.

[jernej 256]

BTW, workaround for H616 USB on mainline was found. So soon proper solution will be devised.

[Werner 499]

I guess the new patches will be introduced once sunxi-dev is pushed to 5.11.y. Though nobody started working on that yet.

[yar83 0]

Hi all! 

 

I've bought two OPi Zero 2 from Ali. Taken for them SanDisk Extreme A1 microSD cards. Used recommended here SD Memory card Formatter, formated cards, and used balenaEtcher to burn ISO on the card. ISO were taken from https://www.armbian.com/orange-pi-zero-2/#kernels-archive-all. After burning, checking process shown that all is correct. For power sully I tried typical phone charger with 5V/2A output, another phone charger with 5V/3A output and finally dedicated power supply with 5V/5A output. SBCs were connected to monitor by microHDMI cable that was preliminarily tested. Both SBCs show nothing, totally, nor LED flash, nor any data on monitor, nothing. While connected to each of used power supplies I checked the voltage on 2 and 6 pins, it was 4.8V, 4.9V and 5.9V respectively. Now I'm at dead end with all my efforts, don't know what to do more. Thanks for reading this strengthless moaning.

Edited January 29, 2021 by yar83
May be a photo will reveal something more.

[Werner 499]

The short and hurting answer: Next time buy a board that has proper software support

 

The long and.... hurting answer: The H616 is quite new and its support status is to be considered experimental AT MOST. For now you are stuck with experimental Armbian images which can break at any time and nobody will invest time to fix asap. Or use vendor provided images which are usually poor quality and build on top of outdated software.

If you really wanna do serious stuff with it do what I did: Put it on the shelf and let it sit there for about a year from now. Then come back to it.

[jernej 256]

@yar83 you really didn't read this thread, right?

[Werner 499]

I added a hint at the very beginning of this topic about H616's current status.

[jernej 256]

@Werner note that Linux v5 branch omits USB support for upstreaming reasons. However, if you pick v4 and this patch, USB should work well now. For Armbian purpose, v4 is better.

[Werner 499]

Yeah already noticed that since I frequency dig through the mailing list for ARM

 

[Ronald Van Der Veen 0]

Hi all, thanks for the effort taken to try and make armbian to the orangepi sero 2 H616. I've got one of these devices myself and wanted to give the available precompiled images a go. And yes I know there's no support. and also know most things will not work (yet).

 

Just wanted to let you know that i've got the same experiance with the images as other newbies. The recommended buster image of januari 25 isn't booting from SD. probably becuase this image is using bootbranch v1

When I do compile my own version, It boots perfectly but I do run in to the same problem with the ethernet controler. I'm under the impression that eth0 should work. But maybe my bad.

The eth0 becomes ready wit an IPv6 apipa address. DHCP recuests do fail on the device. setting up a fixed ip won't help either. I'm able to ping the adapters assigned IP, but i'm unable to reach the gateway.