Werner

Hi.
 
If those changes are compatible with other hw (for example you are adding a new driver) these changes can be sent to https://github.com/armbian/linux-rockchip
 
If your changes are likely to break other boards, then the better way is to create your own family, hence having independent kernel packages with different name.
Example: https://github.com/armbian/build/blob/main/config/boards/recomputer-rk3588-devkit.conf
Which refers to https://github.com/armbian/build/blob/main/config/sources/families/seeed-rk3588.conf
This will also allow custom kernel config: https://github.com/armbian/build/blob/main/config/kernel/linux-seeed-rk3588-vendor.config
 
It is not ideal to have a individual family for a single board but sometimes the hw is very customized, breaking other implementations, making this necessary.
 

You are not using Armbian. This is a fork that uses our name without permission and trick people into thinking they get some sort of support at our place. We do not support 3rd party forks.

Wiping the SPI allowed me to boot the Armbian SD card. Thank you.   SPI-Flash updated to current armbian:
 
U-Boot 2026.04_armbian-2026.04-S88dc-Pb430-H2ebc-V3dc7-B5da4-R448a (Jul 24 2026 - 14:21:45 +0000)
 
Model: Xunlong Orange Pi 5
SoC:   RK3588S
 

Done

moved

But if you haven't run armbian-install to actually install the new boot loader, it is only sitting there waiting to be installed.  Armbian does not automatically install new versions of the boot loader when apt pulls the new package, that is a manual step
Edit: I should have read all the posts as I see Werner already said this

This may be an issue. I know from the past Armbian and petitboot don't work well together. You need to wipe your spi to get rid of it. Then everything should work just fine.
 
Having this package installed means nothing about the actual used boot loader.
This package only provides the binaries to rewrite the boot loader if actually necessary. It is updated with package install/upgrade because doing so is rarely necessary. armbian-install can update the boot loader and will use the binaries from the package.

moved

I have sent a new pr.
basically you do something like this: code { font-family: Consolas,"courier new"; color: crimson; background-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.2); padding: 2px; font-size: 105%; } ./compile.sh BOARD=orangepioneplus BRANCH=edge kernel-config
This will spawn a kernel menuconfig where you can modify the kernel config. This menu also takes all necessary dependencies into account. Once everything is done the kernel config file in config/kernel is modified. If you use a tool like vscode this will automatically visualize.
If you manually change the kernel config file and want to check if your settings are persistent to rewriting you can use the code { font-family: Consolas,"courier new"; color: crimson; background-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.2); padding: 2px; font-size: 105%; } rewrite-kernel-config command similar to the one above.  

If you plan to add this to the Armbian framework to have it included, I suggest to bring the drive in a dkms compatible state and create an extension (https://github.com/armbian/build/tree/main/extensions) to add this driver to specific boards.
 
I know that other out-of-tree wifi drivers are added here (https://github.com/armbian/build/blob/main/lib/functions/compilation/patch/drivers_network.sh), however this is already a huge mess and I won't allow any more additions, rather than looking forward to some point in the future when this is dissolved in to individual extensions which make things hopefully more maintainable. AI will probably a huge help in this matter.

If you plan to add this to the Armbian framework to have it included, I suggest to bring the drive in a dkms compatible state and create an extension (https://github.com/armbian/build/tree/main/extensions) to add this driver to specific boards.
 
I know that other out-of-tree wifi drivers are added here (https://github.com/armbian/build/blob/main/lib/functions/compilation/patch/drivers_network.sh), however this is already a huge mess and I won't allow any more additions, rather than looking forward to some point in the future when this is dissolved in to individual extensions which make things hopefully more maintainable. AI will probably a huge help in this matter.

I think that the comment by @werner was mostly intended to set your expectations.  Based on what you have said, you have a board that Armbian doesn't support at all.  Second, you have found a similar board (Bpi M2 Ultra) that exists within Armbian.  But that board is a csc board (Community Support).  Which means it also isnt' supported by Armbian.  But some developer in the community has as some point in the past contributed some work on it.  Likely that developer no longer is around and that board doesn't get any meaningful maintenance.
 
So you are doing the proper thing in using these forums to post your observation and question.  But unless either you or some other volunteer in the community wants to work on this, it is unlikely to ever get much if any attention.
 
That is the reality of a SBC world where the manufacturers don't support the software on their boards and the volunteers at Armbian can only work to support a few boards directly while providing the tools and framework for other community volunteers to add in partial support for some other boards.
 

No problem, just to let you guys know
Everything else is working
 
Cheers !

Newer kernel packages may not have hit apt repo yet. 
Use the build framework to generate a set of kernel packages to be installed via dpkg -i by yourself: https://docs.armbian.com/Developer-Guide_Overview/
code { font-family: Consolas,"courier new"; color: crimson; background-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.2); padding: 2px; font-size: 105%; } ./compile.sh BOARD=rpi4b BRANCH=current kernel

https://github.com/armbian/build/pull/9724

Okay so then we have some issues here
This is clearly wrong since these packages come from upstream Debian and cannot/will not work with Armbian kernels. This shall be reported here: https://github.com/armbian/configng/
 
Then you were lucky some working headers were present
 
 
https://docs.armbian.com/Developer-Guide_Build-Preparation/
 
Or in very short:
git clone the repo
./compile.sh BOARD=rockpi-4bplus BRANCH=current kernel
Check output/debs for your packages
Install via dpkg -i on the target board

@tim zeng sure, but that's not - directly - related, since the Orange PI5 and the Orange Pi3 are different SOCs/SBCs. The only common trait is the poor SW support offered by the vendor.

If an pre-made image is not there, just DIY. https://docs.armbian.com/Developer-Guide_Build-Preparation/

There were changes merged fairly recently. Perhaps try this: https://github.com/armbian/build/pull/9600

Feel free to use code { font-family: Consolas,"courier new"; color: crimson; background-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.2); padding: 2px; font-size: 105%; } ./compile.sh BOARD=nanopineoplus2notsurehowitsnameis BRANCH=current kernel-config and then build a kernel packages with the adjustments. Once installed and tested, you can PR to these kernel config here: https://github.com/armbian/build/tree/main/config/kernel

FT232R, CH340 or CP2104 are known to work nicely. Search for any usb uart adapter built around one of these.
Don't get  CP2102 because if you ever get a rockchip board it would be useless.

Well the only thing armbian-config does, is calling "armbian-install" which has been there for ages
 

According to the datasheet (https://de.scribd.com/document/948890791/MT7988A-Datasheet) the supported baudrate seems to be between 300baud and 3Mbaud. However cannot tell anything about support status. Neither do I have this hw, nor did I ever dig into this soc.
Starting with device tree overlays might be a good start or check the whole device tree in general for the uart nodes if present.

None of these images will most likely work. https://docs.armbian.com/User-Guide_FAQ/#why-no-universal-image
 

Stop providing false information, I disproved your theory earlier, please stop.
 
On Armbian, the way to do it via ssh IS TO LOGIN AS ROOT on first run, SSH has logging in as root ENABLED BY DEFAULT on Armbian.
This works, and is the way I have ALWAYS done it on Armbian, for years.
 
Here is a link to documentation: https://docs.armbian.com/User-Guide_Getting-Started/#first-login
I quote: "The first boot will log you in automatically if you have connected a display via HDMI or if you are connected to the serial console. For SSH, you need to login as root and use the password 1234."
 
If OP refuses to listen to recommendation and keep using putty, OP will have to take this up with the devs of putty, there is nobody here that can/will help with that.