Bluetooth support missing for rev 2

[ScoreABSM]

Context: new Banana Pi M4 zero (rev 2) is using Wifi/BT over SDIO, which requires an sdio overlay. Thanks to Armbian team for providing it. Editing armbianEnv.txt to add "overlays=bananapi-m4-sdio-wifi-bt" did the trick for Wifi but BT is still not available (neither in standard or rolling builds)...

 

@c0rnelius I know you tried to figure out why, I'm missing technical knowledge to help... Digging the Internet I saw similar bluetooth issue for radxa zero 3w with aic8800, resolved using hciattach / hci up, but needing an available /dev/ttyS1 (UART1) we are missing here... Do you know why? Could it be the problem for banana pi m4 zero and if yes could an overlay activate it? 

 

Denis

[c0rnelius]

Here is a more vanilla build of the kernel.

 

patrick@bananapim4zero:~$ ls /dev/ttyS*
/dev/ttyS0  /dev/ttyS3  /dev/ttyS5  /dev/ttyS7
/dev/ttyS2  /dev/ttyS4  /dev/ttyS6
patrick@bananapim4zero:~$ sudo rfkill
ID TYPE      DEVICE      SOFT      HARD
 0 bluetooth hci0   unblocked unblocked
 1 wlan      phy0   unblocked unblocked
patrick@bananapim4zero:~$ bluetoothctl
hci0 new_settings: powered bondable ssp br/edr le secure-conn 
Agent registered
[CHG] Controller AC:6A:A3:3B:D9:D6 Pairable: yes
[bluetoothctl]> exit
patrick@bananapim4zero:~$ uname -a
Linux bananapim4zero 6.12.32 #1 SMP Sat Jun  7 17:23:51 EDT 2025 aarch64 GNU/Linux
patrick@bananapim4zero:~$ dmesg | grep brcm
[    9.007064] brcmfmac: brcmf_fw_alloc_request: using brcm/brcmfmac43455-sdio for chip BCM4345/6
[    9.007614] usbcore: registered new interface driver brcmfmac
[    9.303238] brcmfmac: brcmf_c_process_txcap_blob: no txcap_blob available (err=-2)
[    9.303576] brcmfmac: brcmf_c_preinit_dcmds: Firmware: BCM4345/6 wl0: Aug 29 2023 01:47:08 version 7.45.265 (28bca26 CY) FWID 01-b677b91b
[    9.430799] Bluetooth: hci0: BCM4345C0 'brcm/BCM4345C0.sinovoip,bpi-m4-zero.hcd' Patch

 

As you can see the Bluetooth works fine.

 

If I add these two patches it breaks bluetooth on this kernel build.

drv-rtc-sun6i-support-RTCs-without-external-LOSCs.patch

drv-rtc-sun6i-Add-Allwinner-H616-support.patch

 

I'm still investigating in my spare time, but I'm not 100% on anything. Could be I need to take another approach to the bluetooth node in Armbian? So this is where am at. If anyone has any thoughts I'm all ears.

[c0rnelius]

@ScoreABSM

 

https://github.com/armbian/build/pull/8339

 

[ScoreABSM]

Many thanks @c0rnelius!
Is there a build available to test these patches for bluetooth? Upgrading from 25.2.2 Debian standard image or only in rolling (Trixie or Plunkie)? 
Denis 
 

[c0rnelius]

@ScoreABSM

 

Sorry I had to revert that PR. It seemed to initially work, but in the end it started hitting fails more than it functioned.

https://github.com/armbian/build/pull/8344

 

I'm still on the case.

 

[c0rnelius]

The issue appears to be two things.

 

These two patches and the current defconfig(s) being used.

drv-rtc-sun6i-support-RTCs-without-external-LOSCs.patch

drv-rtc-sun6i-Add-Allwinner-H616-support.patch

 

When I disable those patches and use my own defconfig everything works as it should.

https://paste.armbian.com/tixixocubu

 

The hard part here would be figuring out exactly what in the defconfig(s) are either breaking things or missing. Also if I disable those patches, what does it break on other units? I'm under the impression these patches were rejects from the original h616 bring up in mainline. But I could be wrong?

 

[ScoreABSM]

Many thanks for your great work @c0rnelius. If you have a build I can test tell me.

Denis 

[c0rnelius]

@ScoreABSM

 

https://github.com/armbian/build/pull/8368

[ScoreABSM]

Hi @c0rnelius,

Sorry I was not clear enough, could you share with me an image to test including BT (the 2 patches removed and using your own defconfig)?

 

Denis 

[c0rnelius]

@ScoreABSM

https://github.com/pyavitz/binary/releases/download/images/Armbian-unofficial_25.08.0-trunk_Bananapim4zero_trixie_current_6.12.35.img.xz

[ScoreABSM]

Hi @c0rnelius, I did some tests with your image, connecting bluetooth audio earbuds, installing XFCE, chromium,...   it works (and also wifi, hdmi/audio, ...)!!

But some problems (side effects of disabling the 2 patches?) :

- hdmi audio (working fine despite the following errors)

"hdmi-audio-codec hdmi-audio-codec.5.auto: Only one simultaneous stream supported!
"hdmi-audio-codec hdmi-audio-codec.5.auto: ASoC: error at snd_soc_dai_startup on i2s-hifi: -22

- i2s  (despite I don't use it, following error in log) 

"ahub_plat-i2s-hifi: ASoC: error at __soc_pcm_open on ahub_plat-i2s-hifi: -22"

- WiFi (working fine despite the following errors)

"brcmfmac: brcmf_set_channel: set chanspec 0x100e fail, reason -52"
"brcmf_p2p_send_action_frame: Unknown Frame: category 0xa, action 0x8"

- display lags / windows repaint problems, seems to appear only after using GPU to decode videos, following errors in log)

panfrost 1800000.gpu: gpu sched timeout, js=0, config=0x7300, status=0x8, head=0x10061d80, tail=0x10061d80, sch$
panfrost 1800000.gpu: Panfrost Dump: BO has no sgt, cannot dump
panfrost 1800000.gpu: gpu soft reset timed out, attempting hard reset
panfrost 1800000.gpu: gpu hard reset timed out
panfrost 1800000.gpu: error powering up gpu L2
panfrost 1800000.gpu: error powering up gpu shader
panfrost 1800000.gpu: error powering up gpu tiler
panfrost 1800000.gpu: gpu sched timeout, js=0, config=0x7300, status=0x8, head=0xd0bd0c0, tail=0xd0bd0c0, sched$
panfrost 1800000.gpu: gpu sched timeout, js=0, config=0x7b00, status=0x8, head=0x11195d80, tail=0x11195d80, sch$

 

This last one is the main problem. Also strange GPU is activated without adding gpu to overlays...

 

Hope this helps.

Denis

 

- 

dmesg.txt armbianEnv.txt

[c0rnelius]

@ScoreABSM

 

I have no clue what the HDMI audio errors are in the dmesg. I noticed them before as well. I know mainline doesn't actually have HDMI audio support yet. I'm not sure where these HDMI audio patches originated, but I assume the OrangePI repo. Of course, I could just be doing something wrong here on a DTS level?

 

Strange your getting chanspec errors. This was resolved on my end by updating the wireless-regdb.

You can try resolving it with this: "Put in your COUNTRYCODE"

extraargs=cfg80211.ieee80211_regdom=US

or this

echo "options cfg80211 ieee80211_regdom=US" > /etc/modprobe.d/cfg80211.conf

 

I'll disable the gpu by default.

 

No. I don't see how removing those RTC patches would be creating these errors. The chanspec one is well known. Also happens on RPI's. I have a HACK patch that disables the error, but thats not really a fix. When I ran tests with the GPU before I never saw those errors and that GPU patch was pulled from mainline. I believe? Pretty sure it is the same patch I use in my personal builds.

 

II'll say this. This is becoming endless. I'm getting ready to toss this SBC in the garbage

 

[ScoreABSM]

Endless …

Garbage 😉

 

[c0rnelius]

@ScoreABSM

 

https://github.com/armbian/build/pull/8394

 

I enabled gpu via overlay. Looking fine on my end. Tested using Chromium and Youtube. Still not sure about that audio dmesg error. Audio does work though.

Image I ran test with: https://github.com/pyavitz/binary/releases/download/images/Armbian-unofficial_25.08.0-trunk_Bananapim4zero_bookworm_current_6.12.35_xfce_desktop.img.xz

dmesgandmisc.txt

[ScoreABSM]

Thank you very much @c0rnelius, using your image and (for France)

Quote

echo "options cfg80211 ieee80211_regdom=FR" > /etc/modprobe.d/cfg80211.conf

I'm almost good.

The only errors in the dmesg are the HDMI audio errors but it works...

 

However loading GPU overlay or not, I have a problem decoding videos.

To reproduce:

- download this mp4 video test file (https://www.sample-videos.com/video321/mp4/720/big_buck_bunny_720p_30mb.mp4)

) open in chromium, make it full-screen. 

 

Denis

 

 

 

  

 

Edited 13 hours ago by ScoreABSM

[c0rnelius]

The DRM / GPU patches are from mainline. I'm sure there are or will be some updates, hacks and tweaks that eventually come down the road. But that's beyond the scope of bringing up the board.

 

[ScoreABSM]

I don’t understand why playing videos with this board is a problem under  Debian and not under Android for example.  
Thanks however.
Denis   

[c0rnelius]

Chromium is not the best for playing videos. Try mplayer or mpv or something alike. I doubt you'll get great performance beyond 720p though. Might not even get it in some cases with 720p?

 

If I wanna use an SBC as a media player, I either use LibreELEC or CoreELEC and don't use Alllwinner, but Amlogic.

 

Good luck.