pine-h64
By Igor Pečovnik / General purpose / 0 Comments

Pine H64

  • PCIe port is not supported: Allwinner H6 has a quirky PCIe controller that doesn’t map the PCIe address space properly to CPU, and accessing the PCIe config space, IO space or memory space will need to be wrapped. As Linux doesn’t wrap PCIe memory space access, it’s not possible to do a proper PCIe controller driver for H6. The BSP kernel modifies the driver to wrap the access, so it’s also not generic, and only devices with modified driver will work. Armbian does not support BSP based kernels. You can find more information here and here.
  • USB3 sometimes doesn’t detect high-speed devices properly
espressobin
By manofthesea manofthesea / NAS • Networking • General purpose / 0 Comments

Espressobin / Ultra

  • Version 7 EspressoBIN (identifiable by sata power connection instead of molex) has ethernet ports in the reverse order.  This can be fixed in armbianEnv.txt with the line “fdtfile=marvell/armada-3720-espressobin-v7.dtb”
  • manual flashing to latest u-boot is mandatory, again (as part of 2022.05 release)! Download the right boot flash for your board: 512,1G,2G, number of RAM chips (identify by visual inspection – one on each side of the PCB opposite to each other. Later 1GB models have only one chip at the bottom) and appropriate memory speeds. You can obtain numbers from the current boot prompt. Also choose right memory: ddr3 are for V3-V5 EspressoBin’s (i.e. V5, 1g-2cs) and ddr4 images are for v7 EspressoBin’s. Insert ‘ddr3’ or ‘ddr4’ into the bubt command string. Copy this flash-image-{ddr3,ddr4}-MEM-RAM_CHIPS-CPU_DDR.bin to your formatted USB key, plug it into USB3.0 port and execute from u-boot prompt: 
    bubt flash-image-ddr3/ddr4-MEM-RAM_CHIPS-CPU_DDR.bin spi usb

    In case you experience instability reflash boot loader with lower CPU speed values!  SoC speed can be found printed on the armada chip, under the heat sink.  No 1200 chips have been reported, 800 is a safe option, 1000 is a likely option.  It can also be found as part of the current u-boot output.

  • Updated u-boot (2022.04) needs new default boot environment and boot script. U-boot now respects ethaddr and eth[0,1,2]addr variables. This is what you need to copy/paste into u-boot prompt: 
    printenv ethaddr
env default -a
saveenv
# Including this line to make sure saveenv is executed.
  • If ethaddr was previously changed, it can be set with “setenv ethaddr f0:ad:4e:08:00:00”, then “saveenv”
  • If you manage to crash your SPI flash, get appropriate files and proceed with one of the rescue options: SATA, UART,
  • if you need USB2 port on your mPCI slot (for Bluetooth or 4G/LTE modems) you need to move both jumpers near to the USB2 port. Position for this function is: away from the port.
nanopct3plus
By Igor Pečovnik / Desktop • General purpose / 0 Comments

Nanopc T3+

  • You need to hold boot key and power/reset the device to force boot from SD card,
  • Shutdown doesn’t work properly. It reboots the board.
  • Devices, which memory number begins with SEC710 K4B4G16, need to do.:
  • https://forum.armbian.com/topic/7274-nanopc-t3-boot-troubles/page/3/?tab=comments#comment-83688