[Armbian newsletter] - Github Highlights

This week's work centers on expanded board support, Rockchip and Realtek platform maturation, and continued refinement of installation and BSP tooling.

New hardware enablement spans several SoC families. Initial build support arrives for the Altera Agilex 5 SoCDK, Banana Pi R3 Mini, Firefly AIBOX-K3, and the Allwinner H5 PBS TV Stick, while a new realtek-rtd129x family brings mainline kernel and U-Boot to the Banana Pi W2. The MangoPi MQ Pro gains Debian GRUB EFI boot and a proper maintainer, and the Radxa CM5-IO transitions to mainline kernel and U-Boot. Supporting firmware updates include Tegra210 USB, GPU and VIC blobs, Amlogic VDEC firmware, Realtek rtl8261c, and Qualcomm EDK2 firmware for Radxa boards.

Rockchip receives sustained attention across kernel branches, with RK3576 Panfrost GPU overlays, vendor-next OPP and GPU-name corrections for RK356x Panfrost, RK356x suspend fixes for USB and NVMe, and patch repairs for the 6.18 and 7.3 trees. The new Realtek RTD129x family lands multiple stabilization patches covering hwnat RX overflow, watchdog timeout handling, and the r8169soc driver. Sunxi edge advances to 7.3, A523 gains HDMI audio DTS, and Meson moves VIM4 to 7.3 with GPU and audio support.

On the user-facing side, armbian-install gains a standalone mode for U-Boot boot disks and board-defined firmware naming, while the BSP layer improves conffile handling, preserves user edits to periodic configuration, and defers armbianEnv.txt rewrites. The imager stops mislabeling every target as an SD card, mainline U-Boot advances to v2026.10, and the documentation site adds DUT inventory, board pinouts, schematics, and installation instructions.

#Armbian #EmbeddedLinux #Rockchip #Realtek #UBoot

Changes

• Add board and vendor logo images for the Altera Agilex5 SoCDK. by @dinguyen702 in armbian/armbian.github.io#483
• Add board image for Banana Pi BPI-W2. by @igorpecovnik in armbian/armbian.github.io#496
• Add board image for pbstvstick. by @JulioRamos0 in armbian/armbian.github.io#495
• Add board instructions. by @igorpecovnik in armbian/armbian.github.io#508
• Add board pinouts and schematics. by @igorpecovnik in armbian/armbian.github.io#507
• Add DKMS support. by @Vladnwx in armbian/uwe5622#22
• Add DUT inventory workflow (NetBox -> data branch). by @igorpecovnik in armbian/armbian.github.io#501
• Add initial board configuration for Firefly AIBOX-K3. by @leoppark94 in armbian/build#10956
• add Shaghal isologo. by @JulioRamos0 in armbian/armbian.github.io#497
• add vendor-next to ci. by @EvilOlaf in armbian/uwe5622#26
• apt-cacher-ng: fetch Armbian repositories from mirrors directly. by @igorpecovnik in armbian/docker-armbian-build#43
• arm64: dts: rockchip: add NanoPi M6 V2. by @igorpecovnik in armbian/linux-rockchip#584
• arm64: dts: rockchip: add RK3576 Panfrost GPU overlay. by @HeyMeco in armbian/linux-rockchip#592
• arm64: dts: rockchip: mixtile-blade3: raise the USB-C1 sink PDOs to 3A. by @evtest-hash in armbian/linux-rockchip#590
• arm64: dts: rockchip: retune reComputer RK3588 devkit fan curve. by @rpardini in armbian/linux-rockchip#588
• armbian-add-overlay: quote paths, run #include overlays through cpp. by @iav in armbian/build#10981
• armbian-firstlogin: write Wi-Fi password as YAML literal block. by @jfcabral in armbian/build#10996
• armbian-hardware-optimization: only rewrite armbianEnv.txt when it changes. by @pablo-cabrera in armbian/build#11029
• armbian-install: add a standalone mode for disks u-boot boots from. by @SuperKali in armbian/configng#1065
• armbian-install: let boards name the firmware they flash. by @SuperKali in armbian/configng#1064
• armbian-led-state: wait for LEDs registered by modules. by @igorpecovnik in armbian/build#10987
• armbian-upgrades: set APT::Periodic::Enable. by @igorpecovnik in armbian/configng#1059
• armbian-upgrades: show the checkboxes in the unattended-upgrade dialog. by @igorpecovnik in armbian/configng#1063
• bananapiw2: u-boot: use 1 GiB with one DRAM controller, turn on the eth1 LEDs. by @igorpecovnik in armbian/build#11026
• board-images: add MangoPi MQ Pro. by @igorpecovnik in armbian/armbian.github.io#500
• board-images: add Pine64 Quartz64 Zero. by @pablo-cabrera in armbian/armbian.github.io#506
• board: add Agilex 5 SoCDK build support. by @dinguyen702 in armbian/build#10938
• board: add Banana Pi R3 Mini. by @SuperKali in armbian/build#10678
• board: mixtile-edge2: update mainline DTS for rockchip64. by @evtest-hash in armbian/build#11045
• board: sunxi: add Allwinner H5 PBS TV Stick (pbstvstick) support. by @JulioRamos0 in armbian/build#10986
• boards: fix broken module-devkit build, add resolute btattach workaround. by @Lesords in armbian/build#11009
• bsp/armbian-ramlog - allow armbian-ramlog to recognize .lz files. by @tabrisnet in armbian/build#10993
• bsp: keep user edits to 02-armbian-periodic. by @igorpecovnik in armbian/build#10985
• bsp: skip a conffile that an extension removed from the BSP. by @igorpecovnik in armbian/build#11017
• bsp: write the conffiles list after the hooks, and check the files are there. by @igorpecovnik in armbian/build#11008
• ci: enable remaining uwe related kernel modules. by @EvilOlaf in armbian/uwe5622#27
• cix-6.18: rebase SCMI ACPI patch onto 6.18.57. by @SuperKali in armbian/build#11016
• community: build orangepi4pro from the manual list. by @igorpecovnik in armbian/armbian.github.io#499
• download-external: fetch arch-independent debs from GitHub releases. by @SuperKali in armbian/armbian.github.io#503
• drop kernel configs no longer referenced. by @EvilOlaf in armbian/build#11032
• dut-inventory: trigger web directory rebuild after data update. by @igorpecovnik in armbian/armbian.github.io#502
• external: add Radxa EDK2 firmware for Qualcomm boards. by @SuperKali in armbian/os#493
• fix(flash): stop calling every target an SD card. by @SuperKali in armbian/imager#223
• Index board pinouts, schematics and instructions in armbian-images.json. by @igorpecovnik in armbian/armbian.github.io#509
• JetHome: Add board image for JetHub D3 (j310). by @QwaSeeK in armbian/armbian.github.io#493
• kickpi-k2b-v2: fix 1G Ethernet packet loss and enable 1512 MHz OPP. by @Novice-PG in armbian/build#11014
• mangopi-mq: boot through Debian GRUB EFI. by @khaliforce in armbian/build#10925
• mangopi-mq: name the board MQ Pro, add a maintainer and a test target. by @igorpecovnik in armbian/build#11001
• meson-s4t7: replace current (7.1) with edge (7.3), add VIM4 GPU and audio. by @igorpecovnik in armbian/build#10984
• meson64-7.3: aiu: keep the HDMI source bounds check. by @iav in armbian/build#10982
• meson64-7.3: phylink WoL: give the MAC the PHY's SecureOn password. by @iav in armbian/build#10983
• meson: add vdec firmware from linux-firmware. by @igorpecovnik in armbian/firmware#146
• mvebu: edge: Helios4 OLED via the kernel ssd130x driver. by @neheb in armbian/build#11002
• nightly: build Khadas VIM1S/VIM4 on edge, add GNOME mid desktop. by @igorpecovnik in armbian/armbian.github.io#498
• nvidia: add Tegra210 USB, GPU and VIC firmware. by @igorpecovnik in armbian/firmware#148
• odroidhc4: u-boot: power-cycle the SD card after a watchdog reset. by @iav in armbian/build#10992
• ping-unresolved-reviews: wait 48 hours before a ping. by @igorpecovnik in armbian/armbian.github.io#494
• Radxa Dragon Q6A: expose the SPI NOR and update firmware from armbian-install. by @SuperKali in armbian/build#11007
• radxa-cm5-io: u-boot: fix SPI image build. by @igorpecovnik in armbian/build#10999
• realtek-rtd129x: add family and BananaPi W2 with mainline kernel and u-boot. by @igorpecovnik in armbian/build#10988
• realtek-rtd129x: hwnat: fix RX buffer overflow on eth1. by @igorpecovnik in armbian/build#11022
• realtek-rtd129x: r8169soc: drop CSI access, log link changes once. by @igorpecovnik in armbian/build#11027
• realtek-rtd129x: watchdog: allow timeouts above the hardware limit. by @igorpecovnik in armbian/build#11023
• remove orphaned u-boot patches. by @EvilOlaf in armbian/build#11033
• Revert "drivers: net: wireless: add aic8800 sdio support". by @rpardini in armbian/linux-rockchip#587
• rk356x: vendor-next: make Panfrost work (OPP masks, GPU names). by @lukaszsobala in armbian/linux-rockchip#586
• rk35xx-vendor: enable ES8389 codec for NanoPi M6 V2. by @igorpecovnik in armbian/build#10980
• rockchip-6.18: fix pm-domains patch after 6.18.y update. by @igorpecovnik in armbian/build#11012
• rockchip-7.3: fix general-rockchip-various-fixes for 7.3-rc7. by @igorpecovnik in armbian/build#10978
• rockchip64-6.18: fix broken iommu driver patch. by @EvilOlaf in armbian/build#11010
• rockchip64-7.3: helios64: drop DTS properties that nothing reads. by @iav in armbian/build#11030
• rockchip64-7.3: helios64: split add-board-helios64.patch into numbered patches. by @iav in armbian/build#11004
• rockchip64-7.3: RK356x: suspend with USB and NVMe. by @iav in armbian/build#11005
• rockchip64: drop the rk_crypto2 (montjoie) crypto engine series. by @xfournet in armbian/build#10969
• rtd129x: add CODA980 (VE1) firmware. by @igorpecovnik in armbian/firmware#147
• rtl_nic: add rtl8261c.bin from linux-firmware. by @iav in armbian/firmware#145
• runner-cleanup: remove corrupt apt-cacher-ng by-hash entries. by @igorpecovnik in armbian/configng#1062
• Simplify the odroidxu4 rtl8821cu fix. by @belegdol in armbian/build#11021
• sophgo-sg200x: add camera support for the Milk-V Duo S J1 and J2 connectors. by @leafpmpmp in armbian/build#10936
• sun60iw2: install the patched Xorg only for the X11 desktops. by @igorpecovnik in armbian/build#11000
• sunxi-6.18: sun55i-iommu: pass old domain to attach_dev. by @EvilOlaf in armbian/build#11011
• sunxi-7.2: a523 HDMI audio DTS (I2S2 -> DW-HDMI, playback-only). by @juanesf in armbian/build#10913
• sunxi: bump edge to 7.3. by @EvilOlaf in armbian/build#11031
• u-boot: mainline: v2026.10 - open the floodgates. by @rpardini in armbian/build#10976
• u-boot: ship BOOTLOADER_BOOTS_FROM in platform_install.sh. by @SuperKali in armbian/build#11025
• uboot: enable EEPROM MAC sourcing for reComputer RK3576 Module Dev Kit. by @Lesords in armbian/build#10990
• unisocwifi: size the remaining reply buffers with sizeof (-Wvla). by @lukaszsobala in armbian/uwe5622#24
• Update odroidxu4-current to 6.6.159. by @belegdol in armbian/build#11013
• Update the ELTAY RM66 photo. by @RiPetitor in armbian/armbian.github.io#504
• uwe5622: bump pinned commit hash. by @EvilOlaf in armbian/build#10989
• uwe5622: open files from the init root on kernel 7.3. by @lukaszsobala in armbian/uwe5622#23
• vendor-next: Fix AIC8800 bug. by @HeyMeco in armbian/build#10977
• wireless: apply the RTL8821CU 6.6.157 fix only where the driver exists. by @igorpecovnik in armbian/build#11019
• Automatic refresh repository README. by @igorpecovnik in armbian/docker-armbian-build#41
• radxa-cm5-io: mainline kernel & u-boot. by @JohnTheCoolingFan in armbian/build#10979

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