Hi,

I am posting this here to notify you about the serious networking performance issue on my Rockpi 4B board. Ever since I installed the Trixie release, the networking on the board has been poor/not working at all. I cannot even run an apt update

 

If I try to connect via SSH, I get:
 

root@rockpi:~# apt update
0% [Connected to github.armbian.com (185.199.110.153)] [Waiting for headers] [Waiting for headers]client_loop: send disconnect: Connection reset

>ssh root@192.168.0.200
ssh_dispatch_run_fatal: Connection to 192.168.0.206 port 22: Connection timed out

 

I don't know where to start / what to check here. When I turn on the board, it works barely at starting, very slowly before becoming unresponsive.

 

Technical Details:

Board: Rockpi 4B
Armbian version: Armbian_community_26.2.0-trunk.44_Rockpi-4b_trixie_current_6.12.60_minimal
Boot media: 250GB M.2 PCIE SSD

Old Working: Armbian_community_25.2.0-trunk.195_Rockpi-4b_bookworm_current_6.6.66_minimal

This issue started only after installing the Trixie images. The bookworm image works butter smooth and flawless.

 

I am sorry if I am cross-posting this, but I couldn't find any known related issue on this board. Thanks in advance!

Made some progress today. For debugging, I built my own image with the Edge kernel (6.18). However, this time, the board did not even boot up and there was also no signal on HDMI. The last idea I had was to downgrade the kernel using armbian-config. But since the Ethernet is not working, I was trying to setup WiFi because armbian-config was trying to load apt cache but without internet, I cannot load anything. After multiple reboots, I slowly cached the apt. Then the armbian-config loaded. I downgraded the kernel from 6.12.60 to 6.6.63 and then the Ethernet started working fine! ☺️ 

 

Current version:

$ uname -a
Linux rockpi.dev.com 6.6.63-current-rockchip64 #2 SMP PREEMPT Fri Nov 22 14:38:37 UTC 2024 aarch64 GNU/Linux

$ lsb_release -a
Distributor ID: Debian
Description:    Armbian_community 26.2.0-trunk.44 trixie
Release:        13
Codename:       trixie

 

I am now confident that somewhere after Kernel 6.6, the Ethernet is broken in Rockpi 4B.

Edited December 10, 2025Dec 10 by helios

I believe I'm having a similar issue. I'm running the Renegade Rockchip Libre Computer ROC-RK3328-CC-V1.3-8 and I've tried 6.12.32-current-rockchip64 as Debian IOT Minimal and as the Ubuntu Server versions from https://www.armbian.com/renegade/. Unfortunately the onboard ethernet phy is not working but I can use a USB ethernet just fine.

 

I'm not super sure where to start troubleshooting other than a binary search for the version that broke things. If more info is needed from my setup I'm happy to post, let me know.

Ok update.. I used a USB Ethernet to update and now the local phy is showing as end0 and it works. I'm kind of doubting my story now. I know the initial login could not connect to the Ethernet. After I installed on the local emmc and upgraded via apt upgrade things work now. I think this is a non-issue.