Orange Pi 5 Max - Rockchip RK3588

[Smoerrebroed]

Dear Fellow ALARMers,

I recently acquired an Orange Pi 5 Max SBC which I equipped with a NVMe SSD. I have used this [url]https://github.com/kwankiu/archlinux-installer/releases[/url] installer for my particular model to install Arch Linux on it.

This worked quite well (though there's a lot of instabilities in the actual installation process) and now I've got Arch running on my Orange Pi 5 Max. Hooray! The one thing that I'd like to get working now is bluetooth so I can use my BT keyboard and mouse with it. Unfortunately, the default kernel - linux-aarch64-rockchip-bsp6.1-joshua-git - does not seem to support it (nor WiFi which I couldn't care less about).However, while I tried some of the other pre-built kernels, none of them seem to even boot, let alone support BT.

Any ideas/hints/pointers how I might get this to work? My goal is to actually run on mainline Linux - which I do on all my x86_64 machines. Is that even possible for an Orange Pi 5 Max?

Thanks for your help in advance!

Smoerrebroed

[hyke]

I've been running Arch Linux ARM on the Orange Pi 5 and Orange Pi 5 Max (my other SBCs are in my forum signature).

For the Orange Pi 5 Max, I just used the existing u-boot on the SPI to boot from the NVMe drive. Running the linux-aarch64 at v6.14 should have all latest mainline feature enabled for that board.
make_clickable_callback(MAGIC_URL_FULL, '
', 'https://gitlab.collabora.com/hardware-enablement/rockchip-3588/notes-for-rockchip-3588/-/blob/main/mainline-status.md', '', ' class="postlink"')

v6.15-rc1 adds the ability of HDMI audio and HDMI1 output.
Fortunately, I have been able to get the DTS updates for the Orange Pi 5 boards in the same release cycle as the new driver inclusions.

@graysky2 has been merging all the new rk3588 updates from defconfig that I've been requesting, so the new mainline drivers are getting included in the linux-aarch64 package.

On the Orange Pi 5, I've been running the rockchip 6.1 kernel since that has the rkmpp and rknpu drivers that can be used by frigate.

On the Joshua's 6.1 BSP kernel, the bluetooth should work on the Orange Pi 5 Max. There's a specific commit to get the AP6611s working.
make_clickable_callback(MAGIC_URL_FULL, ' ', 'https://github.com/Joshua-Riek/ubuntu-rockchip/commit/6ec88376b11d4fee7f26e5ff4ecf4f794ce6c598', '', ' class="postlink"')
You should be able to create the ap6611s-bluetooth.service in userspace.

I have not been able to make the bluetooth work on the Orange Pi 5 Max using the mainline kernel yet. I assume the HCI UART driver is the same between the 6.1 BSP kernel and the mainline kernel, but I have not deep-dived into trying to get bluetooth to work.

Out of curiosity, how did you use the archlinux-installer projection for the Orange Pi 5 Max? It looks like they only have releases for the Orange Pi 5 and the Orange Pi 5 Plus. And that project depends on the edk2-rk3588 project, but the edk2-rk3588 rejected the Orange Pi 5 Max board because they don't have backing from Orange Pi.
make_clickable_callback(MAGIC_URL_FULL, ' ', 'https://github.com/edk2-porting/edk2-rk3588/pull/191', '', ' class="postlink"')

[Perquin]

hi,

maybe can you try this version [url]https://github.com/amazingfate/edk2-rk35xx/releases/download/v1.0-ex/orangepi-5-max_UEFI_Release_v1.0-ex.img[/url], work for me with original iso from arm64 ubuntu 25.04 (except wifi, i search how to solve it).
it come from :
[url]https://github.com/amazingfate/edk2-rk35xx/tree/opi5max[/url]
i also search how to merge with original one that wa updated.

regards,

[Smoerrebroed]

[quote="hyke"]
Out of curiosity, how did you use the archlinux-installer projection for the Orange Pi 5 Max? It looks like they only have releases for the Orange Pi 5 and the Orange Pi 5 Plus.[/quote]

This is the image I used:make_clickable_callback(MAGIC_URL_FULL, ' ', 'https://github.com/kwankiu/archlinux-installer/releases', '', ' class="postlink"') (look for the b09-dev releases dated 2025-02-25)

So it looks like we'll need to wait a bit longer for BT (AP6611S) support to arrive in mainline kernel. I have also tried the latest kernel with 7Ji's patches (from the 7ji repo), but somehow that one didn't want to boot properly.

If anybody has any other input, please come forward.

[hyke]

I was able to get the bluetooth working on the mainline kernel.

Device Tree changesmake_clickable_callback(MAGIC_URL_FULL, '
', 'https://github.com/jimmyhon/linux/pull/3/files', '', ' class="postlink"')
It's based on 6.15-rc1, but the commits should apply onto 6.14 too.
I submitted the patch upstream, and hopefully it'll make it into 6.16.make_clickable_callback(MAGIC_URL_FULL, '
', 'https://lore.kernel.org/linux-rockchip/20250427182019.1862-1-honyuenkwun@gmail.com/T/#u', '', ' class="postlink"')

Install the bluetooth firmwaremake_clickable_callback(MAGIC_URL_FULL, '
', 'https://github.com/jimmyhon/alarm/commit/68240d0ed13a3a92e95b6e25e9d84020dc11fea4', '', ' class="postlink"')

[Razathorn]

I just tried the DT changes and firmware above and my sdcard stopped working until I reverted the DTB. 6.14.7

[hyke]

I'm booting off of NVMe, and I just inserted an microSD card into the slot and it seems to be working.

I'm running on top of collabora's rockchip-devel branch when it was still based off of -rc6.make_clickable_callback(MAGIC_URL_FULL, '
', 'https://gitlab.collabora.com/hardware-enablement/rockchip-3588/linux/-/commits/rockchip-devel?ref_type=heads', '', ' class="postlink"')

Do you have errors in the kernel log regarding the "mmc"?

[Razathorn]

Yes, well... I think they were kernel messages, io errors (don't think they came from userland.)

I can try again and get some logs potentially but I was really going after wifi, not bt. I'm struggling to understand when wifi for the max will be getting near on mainline. Seems like the ap6611s has next to no support outside of some BSP kernels.

I also boot off of NVME now, but I still have the sdcard that boots up and mounts my nvme volumes.

[hyke]

Unfortunately, Orange Pi 5 Max/Ultra owners are on their own. A google search shows no other SBC that uses the AP6611s, so it's not going to be as simple as waiting for another board to add support, and all that's needed for the Orange Pi 5 Max/Ultra is to add the nodes into the device-tree. (like support for the popular AP6275P that's used by the Orange Pi 5B)

The BSP kernels are using the bcmdhd driver from android. However, it's not stock, it's been modified to use Rockchip's rfkill-wlan driver in their BSP kernel, so it's not as easy as compiling the bcmdhd as an out-of-tree driver on a newer kernel.

Fortunately, the AP6611s is using SDIO to communicate to the host, so you just need add support to the simpler FullMac driver, instead of a SoftMac driver. The mainline driver brcmfmac recently added support for a similar WiFi6 AP6275s (also a FullMac device using SDIO). So far, my limited hacking has gotten the device to associate with an access point, data is not going through though.make_clickable_callback(MAGIC_URL_FULL, ' ', 'https://github.com/jimmyhon/linux/pull/4', '', ' class="postlink"')
I haven't spent much time on it, I mainly use my Orange Pi 5 Max as a NAS via the 2.5gbe port.