Hi guys,

 

Great work you are doing here, giving a second source for all kinds of fruits :-).

 

My question:
 I like to have a "non desktop, no gui" = headless server with an armbian kernel >= 4.1 for the OrangePiOne to free up my expensive/more universal RPi2 for other tasks.

 

I need a linux kernel >= 4.1, so it recognizes my DVB-C (T230) and DVB-S2 (S960/TT4600) that work with RPi2 as a headless TvHeadEnd SAT>IP server.

TvHeadEnd itself works fine on your armbian kernel 3.4.110, but USB cards need a higher kernel level.

 

I succeeded to compile myself with your tools and good explanation, got output, but the image does not startup, no video, no lights, no SSH, nothing.
  (I got a : Armbian_5.06_Orangepih3_Debian_jessie_4.4.6.zip, choosing OrangePiOne and "next")

 

I like to check with you first, if it is even possible and/or I am doing something wrong ? ...

 

 

Thanks.

When you say nothing, have you tried the serial port? 

The Armbian H3 images don't flash any LEDs and there are issues with the on board serial Ethernet at the moment (at least for the Orange Pi PC, I can't remember about the One). However it works extremely well with a USB ethernet converter, until the on board port is finished.

 

I'm not sure if HDMI works on the H3 boards yet, it's not something that I've had a need to try.

Yes, the onboard Ethernet issue on OPiOne is the same as OPiPC.

You need to use USB WiFi dongle and enable its connection in /etc/network/interface.

Thanks for the fast response guys.

Hmm so I am too early, have to wait a bit then, OK. I had the same with RPi2 that took a while before it had a working 4.X kernel for my DVB.

Buying USB LAN defeats the idea of replacing RPi2 with a cheap OPiOne.

 

But I tried a few that I has lying around from earlier experiments:

I tried 2 gigabit USB adapters (Linksys/TpLink) that I also used to speedup RPi2, and a Thomson USB WiFi, still I dont get a console on HDMI.

 

So what can I expect if I connect an USB WiFi ? Do you think that I then should get a text screen on HDMI ? Or also not, as Candratech talks also about HDMI problems ?

I'm pretty sure that HDMI isn't supported yet in V4.x of the kernel for any H3 device (though someone might correct me) Have you tried connecting your PC to the serial port?

 

Have a read of this: http://linux-sunxi.org/UART and this http://linux-sunxi.org/Xunlong_Orange_Pi_One

I'm pretty sure that HDMI isn't supported yet in V4.x of the kernel for any H3 device (though someone might correct me)

 

 

Jef Moine has made a driver (not tested by me, not included into kernel tree and maybe that will never happen with this driver): http://moinejf.free.fr/opi2/

OK, no HDMI, but that is no problem for what I want.

I basically only need Ethernet/SSH/HTTP and a kernel 4.1 to work as it is headless anyway.

 

So I will have a look at the serial suggestion, see what is going on.

It is getting a bit more complicated than I thought, but I am not giving up yet.

 

One more question, will the standard OPiOne Ethernet interface work in a few weeks/months or do we always need an external USB one ?

One more question, will the standard OPiOne Ethernet interface work in a few weeks/months or do we always need an external USB one ?

Technically it's working now, however there are a few patches that are required (Read this if you are interested http://forum.armbian.com/index.php/topic/850-move-to-dev/) and it isn't (when I last tried anyway) very stable at the moment.

 

As to when it will be ready, that's upto the guy that is writing it, though I would imagine it will be sooner rather than later given that it is 90+% ready.

Good to hear that there is hope for the standard Ethernet.

 

Ok, got the serial working much faster than I imagined, good descriptions.

 

First tested with 3.4 Armbian, so that works and I can login.

 

Then the Armbian_5.06_Orangepih3_Debian_jessie_4.4.6.raw :

 

Any suggestions ?

---

without USB LAN/WiFi :   scanning bus 0 for devices... 1 USB Device(s) found
with USB LAN/WiFi :        scanning bus 0 for devices... 2 USB Device(s) found

I did not see other differences

 

---

U-Boot SPL 2016.03-armbian (Mar 26 2016 - 22:13:46)

DRAM: 512 MiB
Failed to set core voltage! Can't set CPU frequency
Trying to boot from MMC

U-Boot 2016.03-armbian (Mar 26 2016 - 22:13:46 +0100) Allwinner Technology

CPU:   Allwinner H3 (SUN8I)
I2C:   ready
DRAM:  512 MiB
MMC:   SUNXI SD/MMC: 0
*** Warning - bad CRC, using default environment

 

In:    serial
Out:   serial
Err:   serial
Net:   No ethernet found.
starting USB...
USB0:   USB EHCI 1.00
USB1:   USB OHCI 1.0
USB2:   USB EHCI 1.00
USB3:   USB OHCI 1.0
USB4:   USB EHCI 1.00
USB5:   USB OHCI 1.0
scanning bus 0 for devices... 1 USB Device(s) found
scanning bus 2 for devices... 1 USB Device(s) found
scanning bus 4 for devices... 1 USB Device(s) found
Hit any key to stop autoboot:  2 1 0
switch to partitions #0, OK
mmc0 is current device
Scanning mmc 0:1...
Found U-Boot script /boot/boot.scr
2157 bytes read in 281 ms (6.8 KiB/s)
## Executing script at 43100000
0 bytes read in 230 ms (0 Bytes/s)
0 bytes read in 145 ms (0 Bytes/s)
** File not found /boot/dtb/sun8i-h3-orangepi-pc.dtb **
** Unrecognized filesystem type **
** File not found /dtb/sun8i-h3-orangepi-pc.dtb **
5248144 bytes read in 12837 ms (398.4 KiB/s)
Kernel image @ 0x46000000 [ 0x000000 - 0x501490 ]
ERROR: Did not find a cmdline Flattened Device Tree
Could not find a valid device tree
SCRIPT FAILED: continuing...

USB device 0: unknown device
No ethernet found.
missing environment variable: pxeuuid
missing environment variable: bootfile
Retrieving file: pxelinux.cfg/00000000
No ethernet found.
missing environment variable: bootfile
Retrieving file: pxelinux.cfg/0000000
No ethernet found.
missing environment variable: bootfile
Retrieving file: pxelinux.cfg/000000
No ethernet found.
missing environment variable: bootfile
Retrieving file: pxelinux.cfg/00000
No ethernet found.
missing environment variable: bootfile
Retrieving file: pxelinux.cfg/0000
No ethernet found.
missing environment variable: bootfile
Retrieving file: pxelinux.cfg/000
No ethernet found.
missing environment variable: bootfile
Retrieving file: pxelinux.cfg/00
No ethernet found.
missing environment variable: bootfile
Retrieving file: pxelinux.cfg/0
No ethernet found.
missing environment variable: bootfile
Retrieving file: pxelinux.cfg/default-arm-sunxi
No ethernet found.
missing environment variable: bootfile
Retrieving file: pxelinux.cfg/default-arm
No ethernet found.
missing environment variable: bootfile
Retrieving file: pxelinux.cfg/default
No ethernet found.
Config file not found
No ethernet found.

** File not found /boot/dtb/sun8i-h3-orangepi-pc.dtb **

** Unrecognized filesystem type **

** File not found /dtb/sun8i-h3-orangepi-pc.dtb **

5248144 bytes read in 12837 ms (398.4 KiB/s)

Kernel image @ 0x46000000 [ 0x000000 - 0x501490 ]

ERROR: Did not find a cmdline Flattened Device Tree

Could not find a valid device tree

SCRIPT FAILED: continuing...

 

That's the problem, the .dtb file is missing. Have a look at the Orange Pi One thread in the developer section for a possible workaround (seems when moving the H3 mainline stuff from next to dev branch the creation of sun8i-h3-orangepi-pc.dtb got lost somehow).

 

BTW: All you've seen above is just u-boot. For H3 devices we now have in u-boot 2016.03 the ability to use USB devices but still no network support. But if u-boot fails using the configured boot script it tries PXE boot anyway (which obviously won't work when Ethernet support ist missing )

OK, I am not a developer, so did not really check that area.

 

So I more and more realize, that what I want is still under development, so let me do my homework before I ask again...

Thanks guys.