Bigtreetech CB2 and Pi 2 support

[JohnTheCoolingFan]

Bigtreetech CB2 and Pi 2 released somewhat recently (April 20th). They use RK3566 and have a lot of nice features. The board and module are intended for 3d printer use but can be used just like any other pi. There is an official linux image on bigtreetech github, and it seems it's a slightly customized armbian. I propose copying that configuration and adding it as a supported board.

 

This is a bit of a personal tangent, but I was also thinking of how I can submit the device tree files to the mainline linux kernel, would that be a good idea? I'm planning to use or at least try Alpine on the board and it would be nice to have the needed files in the linux package already.

[Igor]

1 hour ago, JohnTheCoolingFan said:

I propose copying that configuration and adding it as a supported board.

Armbian team has very limited resources, we can't pick this up, and I doubt there will be a pileup of people from community doing this. If you (or anyone reading this) is interested to maintain CB1 and/or CB2, sent me PM, and I will ask Bigtreetech for help.

[JohnTheCoolingFan]

Current status on the support: mostly working, but having some issues. I am pushing my work on github: https://github.com/JohnTheCoolingFan/armbian-build/tree/btt-cb2-rebase

 

It is based off of BigTreeTech's fork of armbian build framework here: https://github.com/bigtreetech/build/tree/CB2

 

Current important issues:

• WiFi hardware isn't being recognized, interface wlan0 doesn't show up in builds made from my branch
• Some builds are setting the board name to "BigTreeTech CB1" instead of "BigTreeTech CB2"

I'm trying to find out what causes these issues, the first being of higher priority, of course. Any help is welcome.

After these issues resolved, I would like to address the rest of BTT's changes, which include kernel module patches and a patch for a systemd service.

Edited May 13 by JohnTheCoolingFan

[JohnTheCoolingFan]

Both of these problems got resolved today... And I'm a bit ashamed to tell how they were resolved, but I should document this:

• WiFi starts working after a reboot, confirmed on the btt-cb2-rebase branch.
• The board name is correct (the one in /etc/armbian-release and in motd) if debs and packages-hashed dirs in the output dir are cleaned (rm -r).

[Avi Israel]

Hi @JohnTheCoolingFan,

Thank you for this contribution!

I tried your btt-cb2 branch and while I am able to get a bootable image for the CB1 board selection, I could not get a bootable image from the CB2 (csc) board selection although no errors from docker compiler. Any ideas what I am doing wrong?  I'm not much of a linux expert, just trying to use a BTT board for robotics..

[JohnTheCoolingFan]

The btt-cb2 branch is currently not working, hangs 170 seconds after boot, and I am working on fixing the device tree for that. BTT CB1 is a different hardware, and it's in the main branch. I handle them separately because of the different SoC families.

[Avi Israel]

Hi @JohnTheCoolingFan, thanks for this info.

I hope you find the time to fix this issue. I have both boards and was hoping to use the emmc and the larger RAM of the CB2.

I guess I'll work on stripping the Klipper UI off the BTT  image release.

cheers,

Avi

[JohnTheCoolingFan]

I've had a person contact me on discord saying that using a orangepi 3b image with a slightly modified device tree works well, I've also mentioned that in the PR discussion. You can try that. My current goal is to translate the modifications they made onto a normal (non-flattened) device tree source and maybe include something from orangepi 3b to hopefully fix that issue, but it's a long process and I've been having some health problems recently. I want to use BTT Pi2 as a new home server, especially since the sd card in my old one died and now I am in a hiatus of trying to recover and get up and running.

[Avi Israel]

Hey John,

I'm sorry to hear about your health situation I wish you a fast recovery. Thanks for the tip, not sure I understand what I should be modifying but I'll do some investigating. I need to find out what is easier; fixing the usb camera issues in my modified BBT image or configure an Arabian image to run on the CB2.

Thanks again and good health, Avi