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How to install armbian in h618?

alienxz77b

By alienxz77b
in Allwinner CPU Boxes

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emor acid

emor acid

Posted
Posted
On 10/20/2025 at 5:10 PM, emor acid said:

hi, Compilation error, I also decompiled the dts available for Android for reference 

update armbian dts  ，Give to those in need

use sudo  armbian-add-overlay ***.dts

this dts can avaible  rtl8211f on h618 

 

 

 

 

/dts-v1/;
/plugin/;

/ {
    compatible = "allwinner,sun50i-h618";


    fragment@0 {
        target = <&mmc1>;
        __overlay__ {
            status = "disabled";
        };
    };

    fragment@1 {
        target = <&emac1>;
        __overlay__ {
            status = "disabled";
        };
    };


    fragment@2 {
        target = <&pio>;
        __overlay__ {
            x98h_rgmii_pins: x98h-rgmii-pins {
                pins = "PI0", "PI1", "PI2", "PI3", "PI4", "PI5", "PI6", "PI7", "PI8", "PI9", "PI10", "PI11", "PI12", "PI13", "PI14", "PI15";
                function = "emac0";
                drive-strength = <40>;
            };
        };
    };

    /* 3. 配置千兆网卡 */
    fragment@3 {
        target = <&emac0>;
        __overlay__ {
            pinctrl-names = "default";
            pinctrl-0 = <&x98h_rgmii_pins>;
            phy-mode = "rgmii"; 
            phy-handle = <&rgmii_phy>;
            phy-io-supply = <&reg_aldo1>;
            
           
            allwinner,tx-delay-ps = <700>;
            allwinner,rx-delay-ps = <3100>;
            
            status = "okay";

            mdio {
 

                rgmii_phy: ethernet-phy@1 {
                    compatible = "ethernet-phy-ieee802.3-c22";
                    reg = <1>;

                    reset-gpios = <&pio 8 16 1>; 
                    reset-assert-us = <30000>;
                    reset-deassert-us = <150000>;
                };
            };
        };
    };
};

0
kvvvp

kvvvp

Posted
Posted

 Build from branch v20250306. 

error! [ Failed to fetch SHA1 of 'https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/stable/linux.git' 'tag' 'v6.12.11' - make sure it's correct  ]

How to remove the error?

0
Nguyễn Lân

Nguyễn Lân

Posted
Posted

Dear @Nick A

I used your rom "Armbian-unofficial_25.05.0-trunk_Vontar-h618_bookworm_edge_6.12.11_xfce_desktop.img.xz" date April.2025 to flash my box Vontar H618 which i checked inside the box that the chip marked "HK6334Q"
 

So far so good the Armbian running, however the wifi still doesnt work 

 

I read all around and aware that the HK6334Q chip will need the builded rom "Support AIC8800" to get wifi working 

 

Appreciate if you or someone else helping me to find way out for this wifi? And any recently builded rom support for both Alwinner H618 and HK6334Q (or AIC8800) drivers

 

Many thank in advance

 

0
Nguyễn Lân

Nguyễn Lân

Posted
Posted

@Nick A 

I flashed your latest build in Dec.2025 which is named to use for Transpeed, and in addition, manually added brcmfmac4334 firmware. Wifi is working now but bluetooth. Other malfunction in previous rom version April.2025 also disappear.

 

Thank for your time to advise me 

 

 

0
BoringName

BoringName

Posted
Posted

This is a great thread.

 

I've had a magcubic android 12 box I've been using for a while just to watch things off a USB when we stay at hotels. It looks like the one in this video but the chip ID's are different.  Mine seems to be running with Samsung memory, the clock chip? is FD650 instead of FD6551 and the wifi chip is labelled as HK5236F.

Most hotel TV's don't support modern video codecs so this has worked ok. But I want to look at accessing my NAS remotely and this box is a bit of a dud if you want to install your own apps. Play store doesn't work, aurora store doesn't work. Tried sideloading Tailscale and it just crashes.

 

While doing some research I noticed it also seems to be sold under the Vontar brand so I flashed @Nick A "Armbian-unofficial_25.05.0-trunk_Vontar-h618_bookworm_edge_6.12.11_xfce_desktop.img" to an SD card and it booted up. Happy days. It appears to have ethernet but I have not plugged it in yet. No wifi though.

 

I just have 2 questions.

1. Is there any way this can be made to boot from internal storage or do I need to keep the SD card in if I want to run Armbian on it?

2. Is there a driver available for this wifi chip and do I need to mess around updating the boot image or can I just run a command for it?

 

I'm not a regular linux user but I've got a bit of experience messing around. I don't currently have an environment setup to build my own image but I've played around with WSL before so I could probably set something up.

 

Thanks for everyone that has contributed to this. It's good to make use of these boxes considering how cheap they are.

0
John Taylor

John Taylor

Posted
Posted (edited)
25 minutes ago, Nick A said:

 I wonder if this wifi chip is a aic8800. Try booting the x98h image.

If you can get termux app to run in android, you may be able to dump the dtb, which may give you clues as to the compatability of the chip. I have issues with some tv boxes with termux versions, but there are older versions available if the current one in playstore won't load or just doesn't work.

 

su -c 'dd if=/sys/firmware/fdt of=<USB_PATH>/device.dtb'

or simply

su -c 'cp /sys/firmware/fdt <USB_PATH>/device.dtb'

 

 

[Change USB_PATH as required, of course]

The path /sys/firmware/fdt is correct for accessing the in-memory DTB on most running Linux/Android systems.

 

The link http://nskhuman.ru/allwinner/krugh618.php?np=3 refers to what looks like your box or similar:

 

"The board contains a microcircuit with the designation HK5236F - this is a hybrid microcircuit, its possible analogue is AW869A manufactured by Allwinner.

AW869A is a dual-band WiFi6, BT5.2 highly integrated module, supporting WLAN 1*1 IEEE 802.11a/b/g/n/ac/ax and BT 5.2 standard, can realize WLAN/BT, has low power consumption"

The links after that text give more info....

Edited by John Taylor
0
BoringName

BoringName

Posted
Posted
45 minutes ago, Nick A said:

I wonder if this wifi chip is a aic8800. Try booting the x98h image.

 

I tried apt-get update and apt-get upgrade thinking it might grab what it needs but that was a bad idea as it will not boot at all now. So I may as well start from scratch and try the x98h image.

 

28 minutes ago, John Taylor said:

The link http://nskhuman.ru/allwinner/krugh618.php?np=3 refers to what looks like your box or similar:

 

The wifi chip is the same but item 3 on mine is samsung and item 7 is an FD650 which is referenced on that page as a possible alternative. It might be worth noting the units digital clock display was blank using the vontar image, I expect that was due to the chip mismatch. I'll see how the x98h image goes, if that fails I'll look into termux.

 

No wifi isn't the end of the world as I can find a use for it just using ethernet but wifi (and bluetooth) would be nice.
 

Thanks.

0
BoringName

BoringName

Posted
Posted

I didn't mention earlier but after I ran the update/upgrade commands I also manually updated the locale file. During the original setup I accidentally selected the wrong locale, I went into armbian config, deselected the wrong one and selected the correct one but the incorrect locale was still being referenced constantly. So I manually removed it from etc/default/locale. I thought this may have been a reason for it no longer booting and not the update/upgrade commands.

 

I'm just explaining that so you understand why I also tried update/upgrade with the x98h image. Turns out it wasn't me messing with the locale that stopped it booting as this image also will not boot now after apt-get update, apt-get upgrade.

 

This image originally booted ok and it seems the ethernet works better. Downloading from the commands listed above took about 20 seconds vs 30 minutes on the vontar image. But wifi/bluetooth still will not work. One other difference is when I select the bluetooth manager app it actually loaded whereas the vontar image would state something about a service not running. The app loaded but had no devices listed.

 

I'll see how I go with termux. The play store doesn't work on it but I was able to sideload a couple of apps. 

0
BoringName

BoringName

Posted
Posted (edited)

Well that was fun. Termux wouldn't load so I found an older version from 2022 thinking that version is older than the box so has a higher chance of working. That also wouldn't open until I went a bit silly and attempted to open it multiple times. Just like Mustafa in Austin Powers, once I attempted to load it 3 times in a row it would show up. Bizarre but I now have a dump of Device.DTB

 

How do I view it properly?

 

I opened it in notepad++ and most of it is gibberish but I can make out a few details that are a bit surprising. Namely - allwinner,h616 arm,sun50iw9p1

The label on this thing says H618 but it appears to be a H616.

 

Where do I go to from here?

 

Edit: I have attached the dtb file and two dumps of the file. One using fdtdump and the other using dtc. It seems the btlpm section has the same values of a device Nick referenced on page 4 of this thread. I don't know if that means anything....

 

Edit2: I tried "Armbian-unofficial_25.05.0-trunk_Transpeed-8k618-t_bookworm_edge_6.12.11_xfce_desktop.img" this boots ok, ethernet works but again, no wifi/bluetooth. I'm a little surprised every image I've tried so far has mostly worked. I guess these vendors just throw together whatever parts they can get cheap but the core of the units is the same.

 

Thanks.

dtsdump.txt fdtdump.txt device.dtb

Edited by BoringName
0
Nick A

Nick A

Posted
Posted (edited)

If this is AW869A chip then it uses the AIC 8800 Linux Driver.  My X98H TV box has a AIC8800 chip in it.


https://linux-sunxi.org/Wifi#AW869A

AW869A

The AW869A is a highly integrated module with Dual band WiFi6 combination solution to support 1 × 1 IEEE 802.11b/g/n/ac/ax WLAN standards It uses the aic8800 firmware. A driver can be found at AIC 8800 Linux Driver.

 

You'll need to compare the GPIO settings. Your Android dts uses HEX the mainline kernel is using DEC. 

https://www.rapidtables.com/convert/number/hex-to-decimal.html?x=12 

		rfkill {
			compatible = "allwinner,sunxi-rfkill";
			status = "okay";
			chip_en;
			power_en;
			pinctrl-0 = <0x63>;
			pinctrl-names = "default";
			phandle = <0xcc>;

			wlan {
				compatible = "allwinner,sunxi-wlan";
				clocks = <0x0e 0x04>;
				clock-names = "osc32k-out";
				wlan_busnum = <0x01>;
				wlan_power;
				wlan_regon = <0x23 0x06 0x12 0x00>;
				wlan_hostwake = <0x23 0x06 0x0f 0x00>;
				wakeup-source;
				phandle = <0xcd>;
			};

			bt {
				compatible = "allwinner,sunxi-bt";
				clocks = <0x0e 0x04>;
				clock-names = "osc32k-out";
				bt_power;
				bt_rst_n = <0x23 0x06 0x13 0x01>;
				phandle = <0xce>;
			};
		};
		btlpm {
			compatible = "allwinner,sunxi-btlpm";
			status = "okay";
			uart_index = <0x01>;
			bt_wake = <0x23 0x06 0x11 0x00>;
			bt_hostwake = <0x23 0x06 0x10 0x01>;
			wakeup-source;
			phandle = <0xd0>;
		};

 

 

Mainline dts:

https://github.com/NickAlilovic/build/blob/666dc0fabd8a284ccf50d784f6bd0bf948dd073d/patch/kernel/archive/warpme-6.12/2001-arm64-dts-allwinner-h618-add-x98h.patch#L87-L95
https://github.com/NickAlilovic/build/blob/666dc0fabd8a284ccf50d784f6bd0bf948dd073d/patch/kernel/archive/warpme-6.12/2001-arm64-dts-allwinner-h618-add-x98h.patch#L182-L200
https://github.com/NickAlilovic/build/blob/666dc0fabd8a284ccf50d784f6bd0bf948dd073d/patch/kernel/archive/warpme-6.12/2001-arm64-dts-allwinner-h618-add-x98h.patch#L278-L297

 

The specific values <0x23 0x06 0x12 0x00> generally map to:

 

0x23: The controller or bank ID:

        pinctrl@300b000 {
            phandle = <0x23>;

 

0x06: The specific GPIO pin number:

In Allwinner's pinctrl driver, banks are 32 pins wide. The formula is:
(Bank_Letter_Index * 32) + Pin_Number

1. The Bank Index Map

Bank      Index

PA            0

PB            1

PC            2

PD           3

PE            4

PF            5

PG           6

PH           7

PI             8

 

0x12: The active-high/low flags or drive strength.

In the 3-cell GPIO format used by Allwinner (sunxi), the third cell (e.g., 0x12) is a bitmask that defines the electrical properties of the pin.

To decode 0x12 (which is binary 0001 0010), you break it down into bits:

1. Bitmask Breakdown for 0x12

 

Bit 0 (0x01): Active Polarity.

0 = Active High.

1 = Active Low (Our bit 0 is 0, so this is Active High).

 

Bit 1 (0x02): Open Drain / Open Source.

0 = Push-Pull.

1 = Single-ended/Open-Drain (Our bit 1 is 1, so this is Open-Drain).

 

Bit 4 (0x10): Internal Pull-up.

0 = No pull-up.

1 = Pull-up Enabled (Our bit 4 is 1, so this is Pull-up Enabled). 

 

Summary of 0x12: This pin is configured as Active High, with an Open-Drain output and an internal Pull-up resistor enabled.

 

0x00: Reserved or additional configuration.

In Allwinner-based systems (like the H6 or H616), this value is defined in the GPIO controller's device tree binding documentation within the Linux kernel source code.

 

The structure is documented in the kernel under Documentation/devicetree/bindings/pinctrl/allwinner,sun4i-a10-pinctrl.yaml

Edited by Nick A
0
BoringName

BoringName

Posted
Posted (edited)
8 hours ago, Nick A said:

You'll need to compare the GPIO settings. Your Android dts uses HEX the mainline kernel is using DEC. 

 

Ok, just so I'm following you correctly. This line in my DTS dump 

bt_rst_n = <0x23 0x06 0x13 0x01>;

 

In decimal is

<35 6 19 1> 

 

In the patch you linked the line above should be matched to these values at line 293? 

		reset-gpios  = <&pio 6 13 GPIO_ACTIVE_LOW>;     /* PH13 bt_rst_n */

So I should change this to 

reset-gpios  = <&pio 6 19 GPIO_ACTIVE_HIGH>;     /* PH13 bt_rst_n */

 

Repeat for all the other values to match the DTS dump then build the image?

 

Is there a way to set these values at the command line without having to build an image?

 

edit: Actually my high low flag is 0x13 which is 0001 0011. This is read from right to left isn't it? So Bit 0 is actually a 1 which means in the example above I should set it to the following?

  

reset-gpios  = <&pio 6 19 GPIO_ACTIVE_LOW>;     /* PH13 bt_rst_n */

 

Sorry I'm probably getting in a little over my head....

 

 

Edited by BoringName
0
Nick A

Nick A

Posted
Posted (edited)

@BoringName Looks right.

You can decompile the dtb into a dts.. edit the dts and compile it again. You will find it in the /boot directory.
dtc -I dtb -O dts -o mainline_edit.dts your_mainline_file.dtb
dtc -I dts -O dtb -o modified_mainline.dtb mainline_edit.dts

Edited by Nick A
0
BoringName

BoringName

Posted
Posted (edited)
14 minutes ago, Nick A said:

You can decompile the dtb into a dts.. edit the dts and compile it again. You will find it in the /boot directory.

Excellent, thanks.

 

One more thing. I just reloaded the x98h image. When I previously loaded this image, I didn't check dmesg like I did with the other images. They had no mention of Wifi at all but this one does. It seems to start enabling wifi but then fails here  

rwnx_load_firmware :firmware path = /lib/firmware/aic8800_sdio/fw_patch_table_u03.bin
rwnx_load_firmware: fw_patch_table_u03.bin file failed to open
wrong size of firmware file
aicbt_patch_table_alloc fail

 

edit: So lib/firmware/aic8800_sdio/fw_patch_table_u03.bin does not exist which probably explains that error. I'll see if I can get my hands on that file and see if that fixes things before I worry about compiling/decompiling stuff.

Edited by BoringName
0
BoringName

BoringName

Posted
Posted

We have progress, sorry I feel like I'm spamming this thread a bit but at least I have a result.

 

Wifi is now working. Still no bluetooth.

 

For anyone playing at home with this box, to get to this point I installed x98h image from Nick's github. I then downloaded the following files from walnutpi's github

fw_patch_table_u03.bin
fw_adid_u03.bin
fw_patch_u03.bin
fmacfw.bin
aic_userconfig.txt

 

I copied these files to the device and placed them in /lib/firmware/aic8800_sdio/

 

Then shutdown the unit and powered it back up. Doing a restart isn't enough, you need to shut it down.

 

So just bluetooth to go. The only related message seems to be 

sdio_err: <aicwf_sdio_bus_pwrctl,1380>: bus down

 

Which I expect will probably require me to update the dtb settings as previously discussed.

 

Happy to settle with just the wifi working but I'll take a shot at getting bluetooth going because I may as well finish what I started. Thanks for the help thus far.

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