[Orange Pi Zero 3 / sunxi64-current] DVB-USB modules missing since kernel 6.18.x (branch 26.05) — RTL2832P dongle no longer works

[hamlet1601]

Hi all,

 

I'm running DietPi on an Orange Pi Zero 3 (H618, sunxi64), which repackages the
Armbian current-sunxi64 kernel. I use a USB DVB-T2 dongle (HanfTek Astrometa
RTL2832P, VID/PID 15f4:0131) with tvheadend for over-the-air TV. After a routine
update the dongle stopped working entirely, and I tracked the root cause down to
missing kernel modules.

 

## Problem

 

Starting from kernel 6.18.x (package linux-image-current-sunxi64 version
26.05.0-trunk-dietpi1 and all subsequent builds through dietpi5), the following
modules are absent from the kernel package:

 

  - dvb_usb_v2
  - dvb-usb-rtl28xxu
  - dvb_core

 

The USB device is correctly detected at bus level (lsusb, dmesg) but no driver
ever binds to it and /dev/dvb is never created. lsmod | grep dvb returns nothing,
and find /lib/modules/$(uname -r) -iname "*dvb*" only shows RC keymap files
(e.g. rc-dvbsky.ko.xz), not the actual DVB subsystem drivers.

 

lsusb output:

  Bus 004 Device 003: ID 15f4:0131 HanfTek Astrometa DVB-T/T2/C FM & DAB receiver [RTL2832P]

 

dmesg shows the device is enumerated but no driver binds:
  usb 4-1: New USB device found, idVendor=15f4, idProduct=0131, bcdDevice= 1.00
  usb 4-1: Product: dvbt2
  usb 4-1: Manufacturer: astrometadvbt2
  (no further DVB-related messages)

 

## Verified affected range

 

I downloaded and inspected each linux-image-current-sunxi64 .deb from the DietPi
apt repo without installing them, extracted with dpkg-deb -x, and searched for
dvb_usb_v2.ko / dvb-usb-rtl28xxu.ko inside lib/modules/*/kernel/drivers/media/usb/dvb-usb-v2/.

 

Results:

 

  26.05.0-trunk-dietpi1 through dietpi5 (kernel 6.18.x)   → DVB modules ABSENT
  26.02.0-trunk-dietpi8 (kernel 6.12.76)  → DVB modules PRESENT
  26.02.0-trunk-dietpi1 through dietpi7  (kernel 6.12.58–6.12.74) → PRESENT
  25.11.0-trunk-dietpi1 through dietpi3  (kernel 6.12.43–6.12.57) → PRESENT

 

The regression is introduced exactly at the 26.02→26.05 branch transition
(kernel 6.12→6.18).

 

## Kernel config comparison (confirmed)

 

In kernel 6.12.76 (/boot/config-6.12.76-current-sunxi64), the full DVB-USB
subsystem is present and compiled as modules, including:

 

  CONFIG_DVB_CORE=m
  CONFIG_DVB_USB_V2=m
  CONFIG_DVB_USB_RTL28XXU=m
  CONFIG_DVB_USB=m
  (plus ~40 additional DVB USB driver modules)

 

In kernel 6.18.29 (extracted from linux-image-current-sunxi64_26.05.0-trunk-dietpi5_arm64.deb),
grep for DVB_USB and DVB_CORE returns NO output at all — the options are not
present in the config file, not even as "# CONFIG_DVB_USB_V2 is not set".

 

This confirms the entire DVB-USB subsystem was dropped from the sunxi64-current
kernel config when the 6.18.x branch was opened, not selectively disabled.

 

## Hardware

 

  Board:           Orange Pi Zero 3 (Allwinner H618, sun50i-h618)
  Dongle:          HanfTek Astrometa DVB-T/T2/C FM & DAB receiver [RTL2832P]
                          VID/PID 15f4:0131
  Kernel broken:   6.18.29-current-sunxi64
                               GCC 13.3.0 (aarch64-linux-gnu), build date 2026-03-05
  Kernel working:  6.12.76-current-sunxi64

 

USB device descriptor (from lsusb -v):
  idVendor           0x15f4 HanfTek
  idProduct          0x0131 Astrometa DVB-T/T2/C FM & DAB receiver [RTL2832P]
  bcdDevice            1.00
  iManufacturer           1 astrometadvbt2
  iProduct                2 dvbt2
  bNumConfigurations      1
  bNumInterfaces          2
  MaxPower              500mA

 

## Workaround

 

Downgrading to linux-image-current-sunxi64=26.02.0-trunk-dietpi8 restores DVB
support. Package pinned with apt-mark hold to prevent auto-upgrade.

 

Note: the downgrade via apt-get install --allow-downgrades correctly swapped
the kernel image and initrd, but did NOT regenerate the /boot/dtb-<version>/
directory nor update the /boot/dtb symlink — it was left pointing to the now-removed
newer kernel's dtb directory, causing a boot failure. The dtb files had to be
manually copied from /usr/lib/linux-image-6.12.76-current-sunxi64/allwinner/ and
the symlink fixed by hand. This may be worth a separate look at the postinst/postrm
scripts for the kernel downgrade case on sunxi64.

 

## Requested fix

 

Please re-enable CONFIG_DVB_USB_V2=m, CONFIG_DVB_USB_RTL28XXU=m, CONFIG_DVB_CORE=m
and their dependencies in linux-sunxi64-current.config for the 6.18.x branch.
These were present throughout the entire 6.12.x series and there is no apparent
reason to drop them.

 

Thanks for the great work on Armbian!

[Werner]

moved to off-topic

neither a supported device nor about Armbian.