OPI 4A - Allwinner T527

[JamesCL]

I just created a new image and am reporting the following:

- On the first boot, I don't have Ethernet (I don't use wireless) and
- The eMMC is not detected.

Thanks

 

Quote

root@orangepi-4a:~# cat /etc/armbian-release
# PLEASE DO NOT EDIT THIS FILE
BOARD=orangepi-4a
BOARD_NAME="Orange Pi 4A"
BOARDFAMILY=sun55iw3
BUILD_REPOSITORY_URL=https://github.com/armbian/build
BUILD_REPOSITORY_COMMIT=28862c7
LINUXFAMILY=sunxi64
ARCH=arm64
BOOT_SOC=
IMAGE_TYPE=user-built
BOARD_TYPE=csc
INITRD_ARCH=arm64
KERNEL_IMAGE_TYPE=Image
KERNEL_TARGET=edge
KERNEL_TEST_TARGET=
FORCE_BOOTSCRIPT_UPDATE=
FORCE_UBOOT_UPDATE=
OVERLAY_DIR="/boot/dtb/allwinner/overlay"
VENDOR="Armbian-unofficial"
VENDORCOLOR="247;16;0"
VENDORDOCS="https://docs.armbian.com/"
VENDORURL="https://duckduckgo.com/"
VENDORSUPPORT="https://community.armbian.com/"
VENDORBUGS="https://armbian.atlassian.net/"
BOOTSCRIPT_FORCE_UPDATE="no"
BOOTSCRIPT_DST="boot.cmd"
VERSION=26.05.0-trunk
REVISION=26.05.0-trunk
BRANCH=edge
root@orangepi-4a:~#
root@orangepi-4a:~#
root@orangepi-4a:~# dmesg | grep -i mmc
[    4.418379] sunxi-mmc 4020000.mmc: Got CD GPIO
[    4.418857] sunxi-mmc 4021000.mmc: allocated mmc-pwrseq
[    4.444666] sunxi-mmc 4022000.mmc: initialized, max. request size: 2048 KB, uses new timings mode
[    4.444692] sunxi-mmc 4021000.mmc: initialized, max. request size: 2048 KB, uses new timings mode
[    4.445215] sunxi-mmc 4020000.mmc: initialized, max. request size: 2048 KB, uses new timings mode
[    4.487006] mmc0: host does not support reading read-only switch, assuming write-enable
[    4.490389] mmc0: new high speed SDXC card at address aaaa
[    4.497740] mmcblk0: mmc0:aaaa SC64G 59.5 GiB
[    4.522286]  mmcblk0: p1 p2
[    4.585097] mmc2: error -110 whilst initialising MMC card
[    4.592377] mmc1: new high speed SDIO card at address 0001
[    4.596828] mmc2: Failed to initialize a non-removable card
[    7.193467] EXT4-fs (mmcblk0p2): mounted filesystem 757e37e7-0e5e-4683-8110-4a8276f032d5 ro with writeback data mode. Quota mode: none.
[   10.627502] EXT4-fs (mmcblk0p2): re-mounted 757e37e7-0e5e-4683-8110-4a8276f032d5 r/w.
[   12.277240] brcmfmac mmc1:0001:1: Direct firmware load for brcm/brcmfmac43456-sdio.xunlong,orangepi-4a.bin failed with error -2
root@orangepi-4a:~#
root@orangepi-4a:~#
root@orangepi-4a:~# uname -a
Linux orangepi-4a 7.0.0-rc6-edge-sunxi64 #2 SMP PREEMPT Sun Mar 29 22:40:00 UTC 2026 aarch64 GNU/Linux
root@orangepi-4a:~#

 

Edited April 6 by JamesCL

[sergiyd]

@Werner I imagine there are plenty of people here who could help solve similar problems. In theory, I could provide a pair of an old RPI (master) and a 4A (slave), with the slave serial connected to the master and power controlled via the GPIO, and they are also on the same VLAN. However, if something goes wrong it needs control to the slave's SD card, all I've found is an SD card extender, and it needs something like an emulator that connects to the master via the same USB/SPI.

[ioncube]

Anyone has a working image with GPU / VPU support? In the official Jammy I am using VPU is supported via gstreamer / CEDRA https://github.com/defencedog/orangepi4A/tree/main/GPU_VPU

[Edmilson Santos]

@ioncube  Were you able to use VPU with Jellyfin?

[sergiyd]

Things are still very sad with Ethernet. Is this could be related to some low-level timings in device configuration?

Edited May 2 by sergiyd

[Evgeniy evotronik]

extraargs=nvme_core.default_ps_max_latency_us=0 pcie_aspm=off pcie_port_pm=off

to /boot/armbianEnv.txt
fixes nvme detection

the temperature is
echo "$(( $(cat /sys/class/hwmon/hwmon0/temp1_input) / 1000 )) °C" 

if you copy the system to nvme and wanna boot with microsd (spi doesn't work for now):

1) it will actually boot but without boot mountpoint
2) mount /boot and /media/mmcboot manually

3) fix fstab 

 

Edited Monday at 12:16 AM by Evgeniy evotronik

[Evgeniy evotronik]

to start ethernet

#!/bin/bash
echo -n "4510000.ethernet" > /sys/bus/platform/drivers/dwmac-sun55i/unbind 2>/dev/null
echo 271 > /sys/class/gpio/export 2>/dev/null
echo out > /sys/class/gpio/gpio271/direction 2>/dev/null
echo 0 > /sys/class/gpio/gpio271/value 2>/dev/null
sleep 0.1
echo 1 > /sys/class/gpio/gpio271/value 2>/dev/null
sleep 0.3
echo 271 > /sys/class/gpio/unexport 2>/dev/null
echo -n "4510000.ethernet" > /sys/bus/platform/drivers/dwmac-sun55i/bind 2>/dev/null

just systemd it

[Unit]
Description=Fix ethernet PHY on cold boot
After=multi-user.target

[Service]
Type=oneshot
ExecStart=/usr/local/bin/fix-eth.sh
RemainAfterExit=yes

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

Edited 16 hours ago by Evgeniy evotronik

[JamesCL]

Hi ... 
 

Thanks @Evgeniy evotronik. Yesterday I downloaded the image "Armbian_community_26.2.0-trunk.886_Orangepi-4a_trixie_edge_7.0.5_minimal.img.xz", but the Ethernet and eMMC issues are still present. I will apply the Ethernet patch.

 

Thanks again.

 

[Evgeniy evotronik]

@JamesCl

 

Sorry, It's ok with 100m, but 1000m also doesn't receive an ip with dhcp.

Guess it is a dtb problem or maybe uboot

 

Edited 16 hours ago by Evgeniy evotronik

[JamesCL]

The eMMC is still not detected.

Kernel log:

[    4.621568] mmc2: error -110 whilst initialising MMC card
[    4.627066] mmc2: Failed to initialize a non-removable card

Working devices:

[    4.502846] mmc0: new high speed SDXC card at address aaaa
[    4.508907] mmcblk0: mmc0:aaaa SC64G 59.5 GiB
[    4.551951] mmc1: new high speed SDIO card at address 0001

The system boots correctly from the SD card, but the onboard eMMC (mmc2) is not initialized.

There are also still Ethernet issues. After connecting through PuTTY, the system sometimes hangs when running dmesg, and the network connection becomes unstable or unresponsive.

 

System information:

Quote

 

root@orangepi-4a:~# uname -a
Linux orangepi-4a 7.0.7-edge-sunxi64 #1 SMP PREEMPT Thu May 14 13:31:20 UTC 2026 aarch64 GNU/Linux

root@orangepi-4a:~# cat /etc/os-release
PRETTY_NAME="Armbian_community 26.2.0-trunk.904 trixie"
NAME="Debian GNU/Linux"
VERSION_ID="13"
VERSION="13 (trixie)"
VERSION_CODENAME=trixie
DEBIAN_VERSION_FULL=13.4
ID=debian
HOME_URL="https://www.armbian.com"
SUPPORT_URL="https://forum.armbian.com"
BUG_REPORT_URL="https://www.armbian.com/bugs"
ARMBIAN_PRETTY_NAME="Armbian_community 26.2.0-trunk.904 trixie"
root@orangepi-4a:~#

 

Thanks

[Evgeniy evotronik]

guess it kernel/driver issue

The driver does not request the stmmaceth (emac1-25M) clock during probe. Without this clock the MDIO bus does not function on cold boot - PHY ID reads as 0x00000000 and kernel falls back to Generic PHY instead of YT8531. Ethernet does not work until warm reboot.