Orange Pi i96

[glow]

First, I apologize if this is the wrong section of the forum for this question.  I will keep watch on the response and learn for future posts.  I apologize if I got it wrong.

 

I was looking at Orange Pi devices on aliexpress and noticed the "Orange Pi i96 256MB Cortex-A5 32bit with WIFI and Bluetooth".  Looks like a cool device, but I haven't found mention if it in the forum and it's not in the downloads section ...

 

Will the Orange Pi i96 be included as a target device?  And will the on-board WiFi be a disaster like the Orange Pi Zero on-board WiFI, or is it possible the i96 on-board WiFi will be usable?   I really hope they learned from the zero and chose a better chipset.

 

[martinayotte]

I doubt this OPi i96 will be ever supported ...

 

[guidol]

you could read about the i96 here in some threads about the OPi 2G IOT, because the i96 is the 2G IOT minus the 2G

 

UNSUPPORTED and UNOFFICAL USER-BUILD

armbian IMAGES FOR OPi i96 and 2G-IOT:

You could find them at

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/18r98nniuPmGMx2puxQleT9jtRWK03_VS

 

[glow]

Oh, I hadn't realized it was so closely related to the Orange Pi 2G-IOT.  Out of curiosity I'll take a look at that, but since it may not make it to an armbian supported board my interest may fade quickly.  I like my armbian systems. :-)

 

Thank you for the input … and thanks for showing me where to ask generic questions like this.

[BryanS]

I realize this is a little old, but would the Armbian group like a Orange Pi i96 for development? I have an extra, and since the manufacturer-provided Debian distribution leaves a bit to be desired, it's not doing anything. I'd be more than happy to ship it off to whomever for development. It's new-in-box.

 

The provided distros work well enough, assuming you tell it all network parameters (MAC address, DNS server(s), etc.) and don't want any kind of network file-sharing capability - they didn't build any NFS or CIFS capability into the kernel. That's where I am now, trying to re-compile kernel from provided sources but this is completely new to me.

[vgjdujdtcfhmrtsjy]

.

[TonyMac32]

I have an i96 on my desk, thick cover of dust.  :-/

[surfero75]

 

I have recovered my IoT-2G board because, basically I think it can be fun to program it, I also expect an i96, I love its small size (and its price to learn basic things about kernel programming). Armbian has discarded this board, but we have alternative: buildroot, which is great and can be installed in the 512mb flash memory.
You can do things as interesting as this: DHT22+Qt5+Old SD1301

 

 

[TonyMac32]

15 hours ago, surfero75 said:

Armbian has discarded this board,

 

The lack of mainline support was a killer for me, as said before I have an i96, it has still never booted.  I did see a large group of patches by a single individual get tossed at mainline, haven't seen where they went.  I don't have a 1.8V UART, so it's been a barrier to my interest.  I have, after all, a nanopi Duo.

[guidol]

My i96 is also waiting for something new.

I have some old selfmade images, but with the .csc missing I could compile any newer.

Also the kernel was always the same old one.

I used a normal 3.3v serial USB dongle, but I didnt liked the very high baudrate

The main bad reason was that I never could get a USB-device to work at this USB-port.

Did look like to less power, but also with a official Raspberry PowerSupply  = 5.25v

[surfero75]

On 3/28/2019 at 6:28 AM, guidol said:

My i96 is also waiting for something new.

I have some old selfmade images, but with the .csc missing I could compile any newer.

Also the kernel was always the same old one.

I used a normal 3.3v serial USB dongle, but I didnt liked the very high baudrate

The main bad reason was that I never could get a USB-device to work at this USB-port.

Did look like to less power, but also with a official Raspberry PowerSupply  = 5.25v

In a Opi Iot 2G I have used 64gb usb flash disk mounted from a armbian that i installed at 512mb flash rom. 

The kernel is 3.10.62, I have modified it so that it does not rotate the MAC, I do not see a larger version of the kernel necessary although it seems that it has been incorporated into version 5 in development:
https://github.com/torvalds/linux/tree/master/arch/arm/mach-rda
 
Actually I have created several images with buildroot, it is simple, I have shared the code ready to make the image in my github:
https://github.com/txurtxil/broot2g
The merit is from a 4pda user (Yoshee) has done an in-depth job to program tft screens from the kernel. I have never seen it work so well at the same time oled screen + sensor dht22 and switches and with the image that has left yoshee all the good and very fine, I leave it here (root / 1)
https://mega.nz/#!oB0mmSBD!XhslDKikwAyvt-6frhpsnX5Tj5SIrKKK7KrHqVE7hms
In /etc/iot.conf we can configure bot telegram, mqtt, etc ... it's a great job.

[guidol]

4 hours ago, surfero75 said:

Actually I have created several images with buildroot, it is simple, I have shared the code ready to make the image in my github:
https://github.com/txurtxil/buildroot

I cloned this git - but when I start with "make meneuconfig" then it seems that a RPI Zero W is the dafault config - or is this also a config for the i96?

I didnt see a defconfig-file the the i96 2g-iot

 

Could you please give me a hint?

[EDIT] maybe did you mean : https://github.com/txurtxil/broot2g

and loading config-OpiIoT2G as config?

 

I did read about the RDA-CPU is in kernel 5.0 - but if there will be an image in the future? we will se...

[guidol]

I did try the compile under Ubuntu 18.04 64bit (in another directory of my armbian build system), but after many warnings the compile did stop with:

Makefile:422: recipe for target 'create_inode.o' failed
make[3]: *** [create_inode.o] Error 1
make[3]: *** Waiting for unfinished jobs....
make[3]: Leaving directory '/home/guido/i96/broot2g/output/build/host-e2fsprogs-1.43.4/debugfs'
Makefile:404: recipe for target 'all-progs-recursive' failed
make[2]: *** [all-progs-recursive] Error 1
make[2]: Leaving directory '/home/guido/i96/broot2g/output/build/host-e2fsprogs-1.43.4'
Makefile:339: recipe for target 'all' failed
make[1]: *** [all] Error 2
make[1]: Leaving directory '/home/guido/i96/broot2g/output/build/host-e2fsprogs-1.43.4'
package/pkg-generic.mk:227: recipe for target '/home/guido/i96/broot2g/output/build/host-e2fsprogs-1.43.4/.stamp_built' failed
make: *** [/home/guido/i96/broot2g/output/build/host-e2fsprogs-1.43.4/.stamp_built] Error 2

 

[surfero75]

17 hours ago, guidol said:

I cloned this git - but when I start with "make meneuconfig" then it seems that a RPI Zero W is the dafault config - or is this also a config for the i96?

I didnt see a defconfig-file the the i96 2g-iot

 

Could you please give me a hint?

[EDIT] maybe did you mean : https://github.com/txurtxil/broot2g

and loading config-OpiIoT2G as config?

 

I did read about the RDA-CPU is in kernel 5.0 - but if there will be an image in the future? we will se...

I 

 

Sorry! you're right! the buildroot for opi 2G is that:
https://github.com/txurtxil/broot2g

I Leave the config-OpiIoT2G file preconfigured for our card, the procedure is this:

  git clone https://github.com/txurtxil/broot2g
  cd broot2g /
  mv config-OpiIoT2G .config
  make menuconfig -> if you want to see or modify buildroot parameters
   make ---> to build buildroot
Note1: you can modify or view kernel parameters by running make linux-menuconfig

Note2: I  use to develop and compile a cheap tv box (x96) with armbian, I am very comfortable and I do not use the PC, I access it by SSH, tmux, etc ...:

 

Processor       : AArch64 Processor rev 4 (aarch64)
processor       : 0
processor       : 1
processor       : 2
processor       : 3
Features        : fp asimd evtstrm aes pmull sha1 sha2 crc32
CPU implementer : 0x41
CPU architecture: AArch64
CPU variant     : 0x0
CPU part        : 0xd03
CPU revision    : 4

Hardware        : Amlogic

 

[surfero75]

16 hours ago, guidol said:

I did try the compile under Ubuntu 18.04 64bit (in another directory of my armbian build system), but after many warnings the compile did stop with:

Makefile:422: recipe for target 'create_inode.o' failed
make[3]: *** [create_inode.o] Error 1
make[3]: *** Waiting for unfinished jobs....
make[3]: Leaving directory '/home/guido/i96/broot2g/output/build/host-e2fsprogs-1.43.4/debugfs'
Makefile:404: recipe for target 'all-progs-recursive' failed
make[2]: *** [all-progs-recursive] Error 1
make[2]: Leaving directory '/home/guido/i96/broot2g/output/build/host-e2fsprogs-1.43.4'
Makefile:339: recipe for target 'all' failed
make[1]: *** [all] Error 2
make[1]: Leaving directory '/home/guido/i96/broot2g/output/build/host-e2fsprogs-1.43.4'
package/pkg-generic.mk:227: recipe for target '/home/guido/i96/broot2g/output/build/host-e2fsprogs-1.43.4/.stamp_built' failed
make: *** [/home/guido/i96/broot2g/output/build/host-e2fsprogs-1.43.4/.stamp_built] Error 2

 

Use Ubuntu 16.04 x64, or armbian compatible with ubuntu 16.04.

[alterfritz]

On 3/28/2019 at 10:36 AM, surfero75 said:

In a Opi Iot 2G I have used 64gb usb flash disk mounted from a armbian that i installed at 512mb flash rom. 

The kernel is 3.10.62, I have modified it so that it does not rotate the MAC, I do not see a larger version of the kernel necessary although it seems that it has been incorporated into version 5 in development:
https://github.com/torvalds/linux/tree/master/arch/arm/mach-rda
 
Actually I have created several images with buildroot, it is simple, I have shared the code ready to make the image in my github:
https://github.com/txurtxil/broot2g
The merit is from a 4pda user (Yoshee) has done an in-depth job to program tft screens from the kernel. I have never seen it work so well at the same time oled screen + sensor dht22 and switches and with the image that has left yoshee all the good and very fine, I leave it here (root / 1)
https://mega.nz/#!oB0mmSBD!XhslDKikwAyvt-6frhpsnX5Tj5SIrKKK7KrHqVE7hms
In /etc/iot.conf we can configure bot telegram, mqtt, etc ... it's a great job.

Hmmm... trying that image.

 

How do you get wlan0 up and wifi working?

[elsa]

Hi,

 

I have an orangepi i96 (without the 2G). In theory, it would be a great board that performs some task (GPIO), connects with wifi, uses commodity accessories (USB power, serial) and is very cost effective at that (is it?).

 

However, wifi seems to be the problem (not only for me). It acts really unusual.

 

So I got some image, long ago, /etc/issue says it's not armbian but raspbian. Kernel is a ... you guessed it ... 3.10.62.

 

First problem is serial, one has to know that the rate is 921600. I think I had one type of dongle that wouldn't work, and another one that works (both 3.3v). A command like "screen /dev/ttyUSB0 921600" will connect. However, after longer sessions the connection will be garbled sometimes. Once it still remained garbled after reboot, power cycling etc. - maybe it must cool down? Anyway, that would be only temporary.

 

Real problem is wifi. At times I got it to work by holding it by its antenna. Letting the antenna go made it stop working. Really. But at other times that is not sufficient, and in one situation it was not required. The wifi behaviour depended on:

• Power supply. USB 5V 1A plug was worst, 5V 2.1A plug was better, USB Quickcharge maybe even better, but my laptop's dock seemed to be best. But it would only be usable with its own plug.
• Connecting a DHT11 sensor to GPIO made Wifi almost completely unusable in all situations.
• Connecting a non-working little USB Wifi dongle (there are no drivers for it on the image) made the built-in USB work with both laptop dock power supply and 2.1A plug. (but only without DHT11 sensor)
• Disconnecting the USB/serial dongle is untested.

So the wifi _software_ seems to work fine, but there seem to be electrical problems with it.

How is your experience with wifi on this one? Are there devices where wifi "always" works, or some where it does not work at all? Did you get similar crazy behaviour like me? Could there be some driver update that magically solves all the problems?

 

Does wifi work if the USB/serial is removed? (For me it is hard to tell, due to the lack of a fixed mac address and extreme boot times ...) I guess it does not.

 

Ethernet adapters also don't work, due to lack of drivers.

 

thanks