Efforts to develop firmware for H96 MAX V56 RK3566 8G/64G

GmP · December 13, 2025

First of all, thank you to @Hqnicolas and all the members for this great effort.

Just bought an H96 rk3566, having this hardware configuration:

BOARD LABEL: HCY-RK3566-1X32-V20 2023-01-13
SOC RK3566
PMIC RK809-5
LAN RTL8211F
DISPLAY FD6551
WIFI AIC8800D40
eMMC H26M74002HMR - SK Hynix eMMC 5.1 NAND Flash 64Gb.

It seems to be a mix of the other versions described in this topic, although very close to the one of @WINEDS (thanks for the hints).

Everything seems to work so far.

Installed using rockchip dev tools, as advised.

here its:

_ _ _ _ _
/_\ _ _ _ __ | |__(_)__ _ _ _ __ ___ _ __ _ __ _ _ _ _ (_) |_ _ _
/ _ \| '_| ' \| '_ \ / _` | ' \ / _/ _ \ ' \| ' \ || | ' \| | _| || |
/_/ \_\_| |_|_|_|_.__/_\__,_|_||_|_\__\___/_|_|_|_|_|_\_,_|_||_|_|\__|\_, |
|___| |__/
v26.2 rolling for h96-tvbox-3566 running Armbian Linux 6.12.61-current-rockchip64

Packages: Debian stable (trixie)
Support: for advanced users (rolling release)
IPv4: (LAN) 192.168.111.228, 192.168.111.91 (WAN) xxxxxxxxxxx
Containers: big-bear-photoprism-db

Performance:

Load: 8% Uptime: 46 minutes
Memory usage: 6% of 7.50G
CPU temp: 38°C Usage of /: 31% of 57G

To enable Bluetooth I have used this small overlay in /boot/overlay-user/ (which enables SPDIF as well):

/dts-v1/;
/plugin/;

/*   &{/serial@fe650000}  */
   &uart1 {
            status = "okay";
            dma-names = "tx\0rx";
            bluetooth {
                status = "disabled";
            };
        };


    &spdif { 
         clock-names = "mclk\0hclk";
         status="okay";     
    };

The followings are the drivers used for wifi-bluetooth

wget https://github.com/radxa-pkg/aic8800/releases/download/4.0%2Bgit20250410.b99ca8b6-3/aic8800-firmware_4.0+git20250410.b99ca8b6-3_all.deb

wget https://github.com/radxa-pkg/aic8800/releases/download/4.0%2Bgit20250410.b99ca8b6-3/aic8800-sdio-dkms_4.0+git20250410.b99ca8b6-3_all.deb

dpkg -i aic8800-firmware_4.0+git20250410.b99ca8b6-3_all.deb 

dpkg -i aic8800-sdio-dkms_4.0+git20250410.b99ca8b6-3_all.deb

Service to enable bluetooth :

[Unit]
Description=Bluetooth HCI Attach (AIC8800)
After=systemd-modules-load.service
Requires=systemd-modules-load.service

After=dev-ttyS1.device
Requires=dev-ttyS1.device

[Service]
Type=oneshot

# Load AIC module
ExecStartPre=/sbin/modprobe aic8800_btlpm_sdio

# Just a small delay
ExecStartPre=/bin/sleep 2

# Attach HCI
ExecStart=/usr/bin/hciattach -s 1500000 /dev/ttyS1 any 1500000 flow nosleep

To re-enable display in Linux 6.12 another small overlay is required: (the display itself it is not scrolling and available at: /sys/class/leds/display/value )

/dts-v1/;
/plugin/;


 &{/i2c-aux-display} {

            compatible = "i2c-gpio";
            #address-cells = <0x01>;
            #size-cells = <0x00>;

            display@24 {
                compatible = "fdhisi,fd6551";
                reg = <0x24>;
                #address-cells = <0x01>;
                #size-cells = <0x00>;

                tm16xx,digits = [04 03 02 01];
                tm16xx,segment-mapping = [00 01 02 03 04 05 06];

                led@0,0 { reg = <0x00 0x00>; function = "alarm"; };
                led@0,1 { reg = <0x00 0x01>; function = "usb"; linux,default-trigger = "usb-host"; };
                led@0,2 { reg = <0x00 0x02>; function = "pause"; linux,default-trigger = "mmc2"; };
                led@0,3 { reg = <0x00 0x03>; function = "play"; linux,default-trigger = "mmc0"; };
                led@0,4 { reg = <0x00 0x04>; function = "colon"; };
                led@0,5 { reg = <0x00 0x05>; function = "lan"; linux,default-trigger = "stmmac-0:00:link"; };
                led@0,6 { reg = <0x00 0x06>; function = "wlan"; linux,default-trigger = "mmc1"; };

                digits { status = "disabled"; };
                leds { status = "disabled"; };

           };
 };

rk3566-bt-fix.dtso rk3566-led-fix.dtso

Edited December 13, 2025 by GmP

secondstar · December 22, 2025

Could anyone advise the simple example on how to play media files using hardware decoding on VPU?

I use actual version of Armbian with Edge kernel

user@h96-tvbox-3566:~$ uname -a
Linux h96-tvbox-3566 6.18.0-rc7-edge-rockchip64 #1 SMP PREEMPT Sun Nov 23 22:53:16 UTC 2025 aarch64 aarch64 aarch64 GNU/Linux

and seems that rkvdec is available

user@h96-tvbox-3566:~$ v4l2-ctl --list-devices
rockchip,rk3328-vpu-dec (platform:fdea0000.video-codec):
        /dev/video2
        /dev/media1

rockchip,rk3568-vepu-enc (platform:fdee0000.video-codec):
        /dev/video3
        /dev/media2

rockchip-rga (platform:rga):
        /dev/video1

rkvdec (platform:rkvdec):
        /dev/video0
        /dev/media0

then I've installed MPV player from Armbian repository using apt command, but it seems that it doesn't support hardware decoding. I tried to use different hwdec options (rkvdec, rga, rkmpp, hantro....) but got "Unsupported hwdec" each time.

user@h96-tvbox-3566:~$ mpv -hwdec=rkvdec --vo=gpu big_buck_bunny_1080p_h264.mov 
 (+) Video --vid=1 (*) (h264 1920x1080 24.000fps)
 (+) Audio --aid=1 --alang=eng (*) (aac 6ch 48000Hz)
Unsupported hwdec: rkvdec
AO: [pulse] 48000Hz 5.1 6ch float
VO: [gpu] 1920x1080 yuv420p
Exiting... (Quit)

GBEM · December 30, 2025

Greetings, H96 Max V56 developers,

I got 1Gb Ethernet, basic WiFi6, and the full Bluetooth5.4 suite of capabilities from the new H96 hardware, running my 6.12.44 kernel, Home Assistant OS port.

Thanks especially @WINEDS for the stellar foundation, and to @GmP for the final piece of the Bluetooth puzzle.

GBEM 👽

Edited December 31, 2025 by GBEM

GBEM · January 17

Heya,

Of interest to anyone encountering the 2025 AIC8800 WiFi and Bluetooth hardware, and who is using Buildroot; this is the package that builds and installs everything into a Home Assistant image.

Of academic interest in the present discussion also, offering minor suggestions in dts and service file. The build process may be portable?

👽

aic8800.zip

Edited January 19 by GBEM