WAN Port not detected for Nanopi R5C

[StanleyLIM]

Hi, 

 

Just received my Nanopi R5C. Flashed the Debian 12 (Bookworm) Minimal/IOT images with Armbian Linux v6.12 from here https://www.armbian.com/nanopi-r5c/. Everything works well except that I could not get the WAN port working. Anyone has any idea?

 

BTW, the Nanopi R5C looks different from the image showed on https://www.armbian.com/nanopi-r5c/. Mine has only 2 x 2.5Gb ports instead of the 3 port. The image on the page looks like a NanoPi R5S... Just a side note. Cheers.

 

[eselarm]

2 hours ago, StanleyLIM said:

Debian 12 (Bookworm) Minimal/IOT images with Armbian Linux v6.12

Those use systemd-network and it is called 'minimal' so it might be that only 1 port is handled by default (the LAN only). Rest you need to figure out yourself.

What do you want to do with the NanoPi-R5C ?

 

I have replaced systemd-network with NetworkManager as is the default in Debian Bookworm once for a newly downloaded image (was for ROCK3A AFAIR). The Ubuntu based images use netplan.io, that is nice for Canonical, not for me. I do not want to waste my time on yet another configuring/scripting/layering. It made me just clone an existing Armbian/Debian/RPi Bookworm rootfs as I use NetworkManager for almost all Linux computers and is easy copying of .nmconnection files between platforms (x86, arm, etc).

Edited yesterday at 08:29 AM by eselarm

[Igor]

13 hours ago, eselarm said:

so it might be that only 1 port

With logs, we could see if this is NIC not recognized or network stack problem. 

 

16 hours ago, StanleyLIM said:

BTW, the Nanopi R5C looks different from the image showed on

Community supported target are often not having anyone behind https://docs.armbian.com/User-Guide_Board-Support-Rules/

[StanleyLIM]

20 hours ago, eselarm said:

What do you want to do with the NanoPi-R5C ?

I'm brought the NanoPi-R5C to setup Internet-in-a-Box on for an Orphan school. I would like both the network port to work so that 1 part can be connected to the internet and the second can be connected to their local router.
 

7 hours ago, Igor said:

With logs, we could see if this is NIC not recognized or network stack problem. 

Base on the documentation, the 2 LAN port uses the same RTL8125BG. I assume driver shouldn't be the issue.. 

[Igor]

41 minutes ago, StanleyLIM said:

I assume driver shouldn't be the issue.. 

 

To be more precise - parameters that are provided to that driver. If driver would be the problem, both NICs would be down. You need to find / create correct settings (device tree), based on schematics. This forum (search) can provide plenty of resources and hints how to do this. Someone from community (with the device so testing can be done) has to sacrifice afternoon or more to get this in operation.

[eselarm]

@StanleyLIM I see it should run a variant of OpenWrt, see https://www.friendlyelec.com/index.php?route=product/product&path=69&product_id=290

My NanoPi-R6C got delivered with that FriendlyWrt pre-installed on eMMC. I bought the R6C as alternative for RPi5, nice metal passive cooling and M.2 M-key as well. FriendlyWrt uses a bunch of partitions to store various objects related to the boot stage and although it would be nice for a router, I wanted generic Linux as base. But R6C is using RK3588S as SoC, yours RK3568B2.

 

Based on experience with my ROCK3A (RK3568), you could first check if both NICs are available on PCI-E, 'sudo lspci' should show.

If available, 'sudo ip link' should also show the 2 NICs as network ports. Then it is a matter of high-level networking, not really specific to Armbian.

 

[Igor]

I just found one weird setting on R6S. Can you provide what is in this file:

 

cat /etc/udev/rules.d/70-persistent-net.rules

 

Reference for what to do: https://github.com/armbian/build/pull/8325

[eselarm]

2 hours ago, Igor said:

Reference for what to do: https://github.com/armbian/build/pull/8325

I am not sure if this line in the yaml file makes sense:

 all-wan-interfaces: # include interfaces that are renamed to 'wanX' by udev, e.g. nanopi-r1

There is usually only 1 WAN interface on routers. The print on my R6C is "WAN" and "LAN1". WAN is clearly the Rockchip GMAC. Actually I use it as 'LAN', as the only RJ45 cable. Only temporary I also use the PCI-E / 2.5GbE port while bridging with the GMAC, so I have a real 2.5GbE port as peer for my ROCK5B (just for speedtests). For the R5C, the Rockchip GMAC is not used.

 

A rename from WAN to WAN1 I would refuse, but I do not use netplan.io, so not affected. I have the R6C now flashed with EDK2-UEFI and running Tumbleweed. 70-persistent-net.rules is empty, but Armbian 6.15.2-edge-rockchip64 kernel. I am not sure why the naming is still OK (wan and lan1, so my .nmconnection files keep working). With other kernel it gets end0 and enP3p49s0, I might use those eventually, ignoring what is printed on the case, depends how often I am going to unplug/plug network cables.

 

For the R5C, the ports in the schematics are named "LAN1" and "LAN2", not sure how they map to what is printed on the case. They are each 1 lane of the PCIE3x2, that might be a problem for some kernel and/or bootloader.

 

 

[Igor]

3 minutes ago, eselarm said:

There is usually only 1 WAN interface on routers.

True. Also on most computers we have eth0  Not just eth

 

4 minutes ago, eselarm said:

A rename from WAN to WAN1 I would refuse, but I do not use netplan.io, so not affected.

 

Devices naming is a cosmetic thing from the outside / user perspection, while it has consistency issue from the inside and currently breaks initial (default netplan) configuration. Our job is not to tell user how to configure his network, but that network devices gets up at first boot. Now they do. Job done.