Orange PI 3 LTS worked great with Armbian 22, but not yet on 23

[pierre-pret]

With Armbian 22 (kernel 5.15 and bullseye/jammy) the Orange PI 3 LTS worked great including WiFi, ETH, Bluetooth. Partly thanks to @Ukhellfire and @going. Downloadable here:

https://xogium.performanceservers.nl/archive/orangepi3-lts/archive/

 

Below is what I find the status is for the new Armbian 23 images provided for here : https://www.armbian.com/orangepi3-lts/

 

Branch current: Main downloads

Armbian 23 with kernel 6.1 bookworm: It boots, but every 3rd or 4th keystroke is ignored. No ETH, no WiFi.

Armbian 23 with kernel 6.1 jammy: It boots, keystrokes are OK, ETH is OK, but WiFi doesn't work.

 

Branch edge: Rolling release downloads

Armbian 23 with kernel 6.4 bookworm: Doesn't boot, no board lights come on.

Armbian 23 with kernel 6.4 lunar: Doesn't boot, no board lights come on.

 

Branch edge: When I build myself

There doesn't seem to be any selection to make edge boot regardless of kernel (5.15, 6.1 or 6.4) or bookworm/bullseye.

 

Branch current: When I build myself

I found a way to get a good build of Armbian 23: use branch current with legacy kernel 5.15: 

1) Checkout the last current commit: https://github.com/armbian/build/commit/6af50cfcdd46661038fd30c71548362012df6438

2) Edit config/boards/orangepi3-lts.csc and add support for legacy kernel: KERNEL_TARGET="legacy,current,edge"

3) Build legacy bullseye: ./compile.sh build BOARD=orangepi3-lts BRANCH=legacy RELEASE=bullseye

 

@Igor I can send free Orange PI 3 LTS boards to US based Armbian contributors if it can improve community support of this board.

[going]

git checkout -b test c6e450189f140db5ffc0167b035dfbec6304fabb

@pierre-pret Will a working image be assembled on this commit?

[Gunjan Gupta]

@pierre-pretCould you please create and test an image from my branch https://github.com/viraniac/armbian_build/tree/opi3

[Igor]

On 7/10/2023 at 4:58 AM, pierre-pret said:

Armbian 23 with kernel 6.4 bookworm: Doesn't boot, no board lights come on.

Armbian 23 with kernel 6.4 lunar: Doesn't boot, no board lights come on.

 

Few hours before leaving for vacations, I found out the same. I didn't have time to debug ... there is something wrong with u-boot / ATF settings. We have some ideas but I am out of office and can't test.

 

On 7/10/2023 at 4:58 AM, pierre-pret said:

to US based Armbian contributors if it can improve community support of this board.

 

Thanks for your offer, but sadly that helps little. We have virtually unlimited access to cheap hardware - most vendors happily send us whenever we need them - one engineering hour costs more then one hardware pcs. Time is a problem. Not many can afford to work weeks and weeks straight and pay all the living expenses. To support competitors that skips all this and for you that usually don't even notice or care. (generally speaking)

Allwinner wise, not just this SoC or this board specifically - for https://armbian.atlassian.net/browse/AR-1502 we wasted several weeks, we made some progress, we made expenses to upgrade test gears, we lost hundreds of hours ... nobody even noticed. If you want to help improving support, help with your time and expertise. I can sent you a free board too  

[Gunjan Gupta]

@pierre-pretWe have recently done a lot of fixes for this board. Some are included in latest 23.8.3 image while others (for things like ethernet fix and wrong ram size detection by u-boot on reboot) are available from beta repository. If you try building an image again now. I believe you will have much smoother experience. Feel free to let us know if you face any issues.

[vuhuy]

Quick update for other users wondering. WiFi, ethernet and UART3 works all fine for me currently. Prebuild image, no beta repository, just all stock.

 

Image: Armbian 23.11.1 Bookworm

Kernel: 6.1.63-current-sunxi64

 

Thank you contributors/community.