I've been using the Armbian R1 image (Armbian_20.02.1_Nanopi-r1_buster_current_5.4.20.7z) on the NanoPi R1S with good success. In particular, the USB host port worked perfectly, with no changes required.

 

I thought it was probably about time to upgrade to a newer kernel, so I downloaded Armbian_21.02.1_Nanopi-r1_focal_current_5.10.12.img, flashed it to an SD card, and booted. However, plugging in an external USB device results in absolutely zero shoing up in `dmesg -w`. I tried a USB-UART (STM32-based ACM), USB3 hub, USB 3 Mass Storage (Kingston 16GB), and a Playstation 3 Eye, without any entries in dmesg.

 

To do some debugging, I also downloaded Armbian_21.02.1_Nanopi-r1_buster_current_5.10.12.img, and did the same testing, with the same result. I have verified that there is power on the Vcc, as the camera's microphone light lights up.

 

I should mention that the built-in Realtek 8153 Ethernet port IS recognised:

root@nanopi-r1:~# lsusb
Bus 006 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 003 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 005 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 002 Device 002: ID 0bda:8153 Realtek Semiconductor Corp. RTL8153 Gigabit Ethernet Adapter
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 004 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
root@nanopi-r1:~# 

 

 

Any suggestions as to what I can do to figure out why this USB port is not working?

I went back to an older version of Armbian for the R1 (Armbian_20.05.2_Nanopi-r1_buster_current_5.4.43.img), and it also failed to detect any USB devices connected to that port.

 

To verify that it was not a hardware fault, I went back to Armbian_20.02.1_Nanopi-r1_buster_current_5.4.20.img and was able to see the device being connected and disconnected. So it would appear that the change was introduced somewhere between those two versions.

6 hours ago, RoganDawes said:

Any suggestions as to what I can do to figure out why this USB port is not working?

https://docs.armbian.com/User-Guide_Armbian-Config/
Enable all USB ports in system -> hardware

Thanks! Is there a reason that exposed ports are not enabled by default?