How to install armbian in h618?

[robertoj]

I hope it works for you

 

I wish to have NickA's Armbian patches in Linux 6.11+, because I need to use its improvements for my new LCD screen  

[afiftyp]

Hi @Nick A,

there is a typo in v20241125/patch/u-boot/u-boot-sunxi/dts-Transpeed-8K618-T-Add-Transpeed-8K618-T-board-support.patch

It adds sun50i-h618-transpeed-8k618-t.dts to the Makefile instead of .dtb

 

[Nick A]

Yup, I saw that. It still compiles not sure why. At the time I didn't correct the mistake because it would break other board patches that were added after mine. I don't know if anyone is working on adding their own board now. I'll fix it. If people are getting u-boot compile errors with their fork then this is the reason.

Thanks for the reminder.

 

Edited January 23 by Nick A

[Nick A]

Afiftyp, 

I tested your patches. First boot the kernel detected my bluetooth module.

[   15.837115] Bluetooth: hci0: BCM: features 0x2f
[   15.860556] Bluetooth: hci0: BCM4335B0 JA-3G SemcoB62 AFH_LimitPwr_EDR2 2STOPBIT-0343
[   15.860579] Bluetooth: hci0: BCM4335A0 (002.001.006) build 0347

But after multiple reboots I would get hci1.

[    9.987983] Bluetooth: hci1: command 0x0c03 tx timeout
[    9.988039] Bluetooth: hci1: BCM: Reset failed (-110)

Also some new panfrost errors.

[   58.359410] panfrost 1800000.gpu: js fault, js=0, status=DATA_INVALID_FAULT, head=0xa1cdec0, tail=0xa1cdec0

 

Edited January 23 by Nick A

[afiftyp]

Quote

I tested your patches. First boot the kernel detected my bluetooth module.

Interesting, my Magcubic H618 board shows a similar issue since i got wifi working completely independent of this patch.

On every reboot the brcmfmac4330 wifi module fails to initialize but the Bluetooth part is OK. On every power cycle both modules initialize correctly.

Quote

[    1.971468] mmc0: Failed to initialize a non-removable card

Instead of

Quote

[    2.027847] mmc0: new high speed SDIO card at address 0001

So I have some doubt that the root cause of the problem is from the patch.

[afiftyp]

Quote

Yup, I saw that. It still compiles not sure why. At the time I didn't correct the mistake because it would break other board patches that were added ...

I'm currently working on a Tanix TX6 board (no s printed on the housing). On the backside it sates TX6-P. It seems to have a H618 chip but DDR4 Ram and brcmfmac43342 wifi module.

Originally I thought that the box is plain H6 based as I wanted exactly the TX6 as it is supported by LibreELEC. Bad luck with that kind of chameleons ☹️

So far I managed to configure a u-boot that has the DDR4 support by taking some orangepi as an example.

As a starting point for armbian I used the transpeed-8k618-t.dtb and that allows me to boot (in most cases). Occasionally the kernel crashes very early after start.

I also had to add a patch to the kernel to support the wifi chip; the firmware is already in the armbian firmware package.

So far hdmi, wifi, Bluetooth, 100m Eth, and the USB3 port is working. The 2 USB2 ports aren't. Other things I didn't test to far.

Need to further dig into the Android fdt to see how it is configured there.

[Nick A]

Are you using Orangepie's DRAM settings? Or did you extract your boxes DRAM settings? 

 

For USB2 ports you probably need this in your dts

&ehci2 {
	status = "okay";
};

&ohci2 {
	status = "okay";
};

 

[afiftyp]

DRAM settings extracted from the Android image

Thx, I'll try the dts change.

[Nick A]

 I just started working on a new project using the latest Armbian build and warpme's 6.12 kernel patches. I'm going to add warpme's u-boot patches next. The Edge builds will use warpme's 6.12 patches for now. This should make it easier to add boards already supported by warpme.  

Edited January 25 by Nick A

[MMorales]

Hello everyone!
After swiched to a bigger minipc server i want to come back my 2 transpeed h618 to their original firmwares but...
its imposible to me install the original image. I tried with every program connecting by usb cable and trying to boot from sdcards but after armbian installation nothing works.

phoenisUSBpro keeps in that stage when i connect the box with the av button pushed. and if i press "stop" the "device connecting" alertbox appears. and never connects.
I remember to install before this images with the same program but now nothing works. 
Any tip? thanks 

Edited January 26 by MMorales

[robertoj]

On 11/8/2024 at 12:45 PM, Nick A said:

This patch is in all my builds. For orangepiezero3 I would use my main branch. I haven't test the other branches with zero3.

 

If you are using my main branch, you can disable any patch by adding (-) infront of the patch list files series.armbian and series.conf located in 

https://github.com/NickAlilovic/build/tree/main/patch/kernel/archive/sunxi-6.7

 

Edited November 8, 2024 by Nick A

@Nick A

Has anyone updated the NickA's v4l2/cedrus patches, to work with Linux 6.11 or greater?

 

[UnhealthyTweak]

Hi again,

The question was already asked a couple of times by some people in this thread

But I don't see anyone reporting back after getting a hint from Nick.

 

I don't even know where to start looking for information, the problem is I do have android and armbian DTS (attached)

Armbian is for a different board - transpeed instead of tanix tx68.

 

How do I know which parts to change and how? I tried some changes with WIFI parts of the config, to more or less match parts from android into armbian, but there are undefined variables, it won't compile. I don't know - some symbols, addresses etc.

I tried https://github.com/goecho/aic8800_linux_drvier today, the driver compiles and loads just fine, but there is no new device in `ip link` command.

 

Starting to think that maybe using AOSP + docker on it could be easier than fixing DTB for Armbian?

 

Thank you

android.txt armbian.txt

[Nick A]

Hi @UnhealthyTweak

Try this build. Choose the board x98h.

git clone https://github.com/NickAlilovic/build.git --branch v20250306

 

Wifi works using the aic8800 driver but I used the nmcli commands to connect.

https://askubuntu.com/questions/377687/how-do-i-connect-to-a-wifi-network-using-nmcli

nmcli device wifi connect <AP name> password <password>

 

 

I think the only changes you need is your mmc0. Instead of 5 and 6 change it to 8 and 16 for both u-boot and kernel patches.

	cd-gpios = <&pio 8 16 GPIO_ACTIVE_LOW>;	/* PI16 */

https://github.com/NickAlilovic/build/blob/v20250306/patch/u-boot/u-boot-h616/171-add-x98h-defconfig.patch#L138C2-L138C70

https://github.com/NickAlilovic/build/blob/v20250306/patch/kernel/archive/warpme-6.12/2001-arm64-dts-allwinner-h618-add-x98h.patch#L169

Edited March 15 by Nick A

[Nick A]

@UnhealthyTweak warpe updated the wifi driver. I can’t test it this weekend.

 

https://github.com/warpme/minimyth2/commit/bcb3cf537d5c6ebbd5144901cc556e0e28fbdca5

[firepower]

Tanix TX6 IR Remote key scan codes. 

I have both transpeed-8k.toml and tanix-tx6.toml files installed with both remotes working.

 

1> sudo apt-get install ir-keytable

2> copy the attached file tanix-tx6.toml to /etc/rc_keymaps/protocols/

3>  add the following line to your /etc/rc.local

ir-keytable -p NEC -w /etc/rc_keymaps/protocols/transpeed-8k.toml

ir-keytable -p NEC -w /etc/rc_keymaps/protocols/tranix-tx6.toml

 

 

 

tanix-tx6.toml

transpeed-8k.toml

Edited 8 hours ago by firepower

[firepower]

I built latest image Armbian-unofficial 25.05.0-trunk noble, Kernel 6.12.11-edge-sunxi64 tested on Vontar H618 and Tanix TX6

I  can't get IR remote to work doing same steps as on previous builds.

also

 dmesg | grep -i bluetooth

is blank where previous build had info and errors about bluetooth.

maybe due to changes from using warpme patches?

 

 

Edited yesterday at 05:21 PM by firepower

[Nick A]

I'm missing a few patches for bluetooth:

https://github.com/NickAlilovic/build/blob/v20241125/patch/kernel/archive/sunxi-6.10/patches.armbian/Code-to-enable-Internal-OSC-Clock-Auto-Calibration.patch
https://github.com/NickAlilovic/build/blob/v20241125/patch/kernel/archive/sunxi-6.10/patches.armbian/Add-Bluetooth-transeed8k.patch

 

Not sure about IR.. the device node is in the transpeed.dts

&ir {
	status = "okay";
};

 

Maybe I need to enable IR in the kernel config?

I see this option enabled. 

CONFIG_IR_SUNXI=m

and this

CONFIG_LIRC=y

 

6.12

https://github.com/NickAlilovic/build/blob/v20250329/config/kernel/linux-sunxi64-edge.config

6.10

https://github.com/NickAlilovic/build/blob/v20241125/config/kernel/linux-sunxi64-edge.config

Edited yesterday at 07:15 PM by Nick A

[firepower]

Are you able to enable 3 usb ports by default, as Tanix TX6 has 3, and the transpeed-8k build works on it but only 2 usb ports are enabled.

 

Edited yesterday at 08:03 PM by firepower

[Nick A]

Warpme's patches has 4 usb nodes enabled. I had to do the same on one of my boards.

 

https://github.com/NickAlilovic/build/blob/v20250329/config/boards/transpeed-8k618-t.csc

Instead of making patches you could create a Armbian board config for your Tanix TX6s. All you have to do is change the BOARD_NAME="Tanix TX6s AXP313",  BOOTCONFIG="tanix_tx6s_axp313_defconfig" and file name. This will allow you compile warpme patches below. You can do the same for Vontar. 

 

https://github.com/NickAlilovic/build/blob/v20250329/patch/u-boot/u-boot-h616/153-add-tanix_tx6s_axp313_defconfig.patch

https://github.com/NickAlilovic/build/blob/v20250329/patch/kernel/archive/warpme-6.12/0646-arm64-dts-allwinner-h616-add-Tanix-TX6s-axp313-TVbox.patch

+&ehci0 {
+	status = "okay";
+};
+
+&ehci1 {
+	status = "okay";
+};
+
+&ehci2 {
+	status = "okay";
+};
+
+&ehci3 {
+	status = "okay";
+};
+
+&ohci0 {
+	status = "okay";
+};
+
+&ohci1 {
+	status = "okay";
+};
+
+&ohci2 {
+	status = "okay";
+};
+
+&ohci3 {
+	status = "okay";
+};

 

https://github.com/NickAlilovic/build/blob/v20250329/patch/u-boot/u-boot-h616/160-add-vontar-h618-defconfig.patch

https://github.com/NickAlilovic/build/blob/v20250329/patch/kernel/archive/warpme-6.12/0649-arm64-dts-allwinner-h618-add-vontar-h618-TVbox.patch

Edited 8 hours ago by Nick A

[firepower]

created  tanix-tx6s-axp313.cscvontar-h618.csc

Vontar build ok.  but wont boot, trying build again.

Tanix Builds ok. Boots ok. IR remote works, led clock works, wifi work.

Edited 7 hours ago by firepower

[Nick A]

@firepower

Vontar has a different kernel dts name. 

U-boot:

sun50i-h616-vontar-h618.dts

Kernel:

sun50i-h618-vontar-h618.dts

 

So in your board config add this at the bottom.

function post_family_config_branch_edge__different_dtb_for_edge() {
    declare -g BOOT_FDT_FILE="allwinner/sun50i-h618-vontar-h618.dtb"
    display_alert "$BOARD" "Using ${BOOT_FDT_FILE} for ${BRANCH}" "info"
}

 

Edited 8 hours ago by Nick A

[firepower]

I updated above vontar-h618.csc with the changes.

 

I am happy with Tanix-tx6. my sdcard is configured how i want it.

to install SDCARD to EMMC run

armbian-install 

 

Edited 3 hours ago by firepower

[Nick A]

Can you check your kernel config. I think warpme sets the governor to performance.  ./compile then select show kernel configuration menu... When it's done downloading the kernel the kernel configuration menu will popup. .

Cpu Power Management ->Cpu Frequency scaling->Default CPUFreq governor (????).. what's ???? set too..

 

It should be ondemand. Don't change it in the menu or save any changes. For some reason it doesn't save all the settings. Better to change it in the build system file. /build/config/kernel/linux-sunxi64-edge.config

 

 

Edited 6 hours ago by Nick A

[firepower]

Yes performance is selected

 

 

this is whats in

 

/build/config/kernel/linux-sunxi64-edge.config

#
# DEVFREQ Governors
#
CONFIG_DEVFREQ_GOV_SIMPLE_ONDEMAND=y
CONFIG_DEVFREQ_GOV_PERFORMANCE=y
CONFIG_DEVFREQ_GOV_POWERSAVE=y
CONFIG_DEVFREQ_GOV_USERSPACE=y
CONFIG_DEVFREQ_GOV_PASSIVE=y


#
# CPU Frequency scaling
#
CONFIG_CPU_FREQ=y
CONFIG_CPU_FREQ_GOV_ATTR_SET=y
CONFIG_CPU_FREQ_GOV_COMMON=y
CONFIG_CPU_FREQ_STAT=y
CONFIG_CPU_FREQ_DEFAULT_GOV_PERFORMANCE=y
# CONFIG_CPU_FREQ_DEFAULT_GOV_POWERSAVE is not set
# CONFIG_CPU_FREQ_DEFAULT_GOV_USERSPACE is not set
# CONFIG_CPU_FREQ_DEFAULT_GOV_ONDEMAND is not set
# CONFIG_CPU_FREQ_DEFAULT_GOV_CONSERVATIVE is not set
# CONFIG_CPU_FREQ_DEFAULT_GOV_SCHEDUTIL is not set
CONFIG_CPU_FREQ_GOV_PERFORMANCE=y
CONFIG_CPU_FREQ_GOV_POWERSAVE=m
CONFIG_CPU_FREQ_GOV_USERSPACE=m
CONFIG_CPU_FREQ_GOV_ONDEMAND=m
CONFIG_CPU_FREQ_GOV_CONSERVATIVE=m
CONFIG_CPU_FREQ_GOV_SCHEDUTIL=y

#
# CPU frequency scaling drivers
#
CONFIG_CPUFREQ_DT=y
CONFIG_CPUFREQ_DT_PLATDEV=y
CONFIG_ARM_ALLWINNER_SUN50I_CPUFREQ_NVMEM=y
CONFIG_ARM_SCPI_CPUFREQ=y
CONFIG_ARM_BRCMSTB_AVS_CPUFREQ=m
CONFIG_ARM_RASPBERRYPI_CPUFREQ=m
CONFIG_ARM_SCMI_CPUFREQ=m
CONFIG_ACPI_CPPC_CPUFREQ=y
# CONFIG_ACPI_CPPC_CPUFREQ_FIE is not set
# end of CPU Frequency scaling
# end of CPU Power Management

 

Edited 6 hours ago by firepower

[Nick A]

We should change this line in the config

CONFIG_CPU_FREQ_DEFAULT_GOV_ONDEMAND=y
# CONFIG_CPU_FREQ_DEFAULT_GOV_PERFORMANCE is not set

 

I noticed my box runs pretty hot. 

Edited 6 hours ago by Nick A