Have tested the Orange Pi 5 Ultra and the Armbian Linux v6.1 vendor IOT image for the 5 "Max" model, using the same Max' `rk3588-orangepi-5-max.dtb` FDT file works better than with the rk3588-orangepi-5-ultra.dtb (extracted from the old official Orange Pi image), as surprisingly, dmesg shows less errors with the Max DTB.

 

Tested:

• ✅ eMMC works.
• HDMI ports:
  • ✅ Port 1 out works fine. 
  • ❓ Haven't tested the port 2 input. Would guess it doesn't work as the Max has bot ports as output.
• For the AP6611s (SYN43711):
  • ✅ WiFi: works.
  •  ✅ Bluetooth: works with some extras, rfkill and bluez:
    • sudo apt install rfkill bluez

    • sudo bluetoothctl

      • status

      • scan on

• ✅ The NPU works great.
  • Using rkllama: https://github.com/NotPunchnox/rkllama

 

cat /sys/kernel/debug/rknpu/version

RKNPU driver: v0.9.8

 

Based on this, it seems to that anyone looking for an Arbian image for the Orange Pi 5 Ultra can use the Max's Linux 6.1 vendor version, which is the most useful image.  For mainline open source versions, it appears like Linux kernel >6.15 or >6.18 will be required.

Edited April 20, 20251 yr by Sirmalinton

19 minutes ago, Sirmalinton said:

For mainline open source versions

We provide mainline based kernels via repository. They are up2date with what exists, but support is not complete and also not tested on this particular hardware.

Quote

We provide mainline based kernels via repository. They are up2date with what exists, but support is not complete and also not tested on this particular hardware.

 

I have tested them and they don't work that much 😞

 

The kernel is too old, Linux kernel 6.12 lacks many existing mainline patches in 6.14, but even with 6.15 (current development) the board lacks support for the wireless chip or the NPU.  For sure one day the board will work with mainline kernel, but it's not now, currently Vendor 6.1 kernel works the best for the board.

Quote

Haven't tested the port 2 input. Would guess it doesn't work as the Max has bot ports as output

I wonder if for the device tree (DTB) we can combine the Orange Pi 5 Max DTB with the HDMI Input from Orange Pi 5 Plus will make the HDMI input work.

Thanks for this info, just wanted to share that the image for the "Linux v6.1 vendor IOT image for the 5 "Max" model" you linked to also worked for me on my Orange Pi 5 Ultra with no modifications needed.

 

I haven't tested wifi or any use cases besides some simmple stuff over ssh so far, I did get a warning on first boot that it's a developer version of Armbian and shouldn't be used for production, but I suppose that's the case for all "community" builds?

 

I also found this gist with steps to build Armbian from scratch for the 5 Ultra, but I haven't tried this yet. In case anyone else is looking for related info this PR also is also relevant: https://github.com/armbian/build/pull/8252

 

I still regret not buying a better supported board like the 5 Max board instead but hopefully better support will come for the 5 Ultra with time.

Edited September 21, 20251 yr by TechBuurt