Baal

@voapilro @bjorn @Long-Johnny, all
psst some fun stuff
https://github.com/ag88/1.5GB_Fix_for_Armbian_on_OrangePiZero3/
ok that's the 2nd attempt to create a custom u-boot to boot Armbian on 1.5 GB OPi Zero 3 boards, do visit the repository for more info.
 
first you can try that with the 'official' image
https://www.armbian.com/orange-pi-zero-3/
but that this u-boot is build from mainline u-boot at the 2024.04 release
https://gitlab.com/u-boot/u-boot
and that it requires a working /boot/boot.scr or /boot/boot.cmd to boot linux. /boot/boot.scr or /boot/boot.cmd are the boot scripts that actually has u-boot commands which loads the kernel and dependencies and boot linux.
if the boot drops you into a command shell, it could mean either that the /boot/boot.scr or /boot/boot.cmd is invalid or that it is using a *custom* u-boot and the /boot/boot.cmd, /boot/boot.scr uses or is expecting some variables that is not there in 'standard' mainline u-boot.
I managed to boot to the Linux command prompt this time !
 
I'd just like to say that I took the Armbian Bookworm minimal image from the Armbian release web for Orange Pi Zero 3
Armbian_community 24.5.0-trunk.474 6.6.28 
https://www.armbian.com/orange-pi-zero-3/
did my u-boot patch, run it on my 1.5 GB Orange Pi Zero 3 and it booted to the prompt! and just right now
 
Here is a screenshot running from Orange Pi Zero 3 - 1.5 GB board tethered from usb-uart to debug console, I ran the command 'free' which shows that the total memory is 1.5GB
how about that for a proof-of-concept 
without this u-boot 'patch' u'd get 'stuck' at the boot reporting 2GB seen on the usb-uart debug console for the 1.5GB board.
 

 
men I feel like celebrating, now Armbian runs on 'all variants' of Orange Pi Zero 3 - 1 GB / 1.5 GB (with this hack) / 2 GB / 4GB 

BTW I am working on migrating armbian to 6.7 kernel - https://github.com/armbian/build/pull/6079
 
Feel free to test and comeback. currently it fails compilation for xradio and some realtek wifi drivers that I will fix today. It can be compiled when building with EXTRAWIFI=no, but that will skip compiling uwe5622 driver.
 
Edit: Compilation issue is now fixed.

I can add PR to the official Armbian build system for RISC-V (then the kernel will have an automatic update), but I'm not sure it will be accepted.

128MiB cma is probably not sufficient according to here: