Adding support for Orange Pi 3 LTS (affordable, popular & more powerful RPi3 clone) [sunxi/cortexa53 target]

Hello OpenWrt community!

How complex would it be to add support for Orange Pi 3 LTS?
The device is getting more & more popular due to affordable prices (~ $50 for a case-equipped quad-core 1.8GHz CPU, 2GB RAM, 1Gbit RJ45 port, eMMC, USB C plug, USB3.0 ports & 2.4/5GHz WiFi support)... It is superior to Raspberry Pi 3, performance-wise & price-wise.
It is definitely a best buy, especially these days when the general availability of Raspberry Pi 3 & 4 is extremely low and prices are terrible (resellers & scalpers are reselling them on eBay for $100+)...
Anyhow, the device is equipped with "Allwinner H6" SoC (Cortex A53 architecture).
I believe a support for this device wouldn't require too much effort, since it is open-source.
Also, the OpenWrt project already supports Allwinner sunxi family of SoCs - and this exact CPU architecture as well...

Feel free to hop on discussion!

Thanks!

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At a glance, it doesn't seem like it'd be particularly difficult. Seems like most of the required stuff is there already. A couple of days to a week, depending on how familiar one is with OpenWrt's sources, I'd say. I mean, the H6 is already supported, so the work would mostly amount to adjusting a few makefiles and then testing.

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The YT8531C PHY might need a little work, backporting if you're lucky, integrating patches from the OEM firmware at worst. In terms of networking performance, Allwinner/ sunxi traditionally didn't quite score full points though.

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I've managed to run openwrt on this device.
I just had to manually edit some patches from the vendor repo and that's it. It runs kernel 5.10.
Everything works except for leds.. I'll look into it when I have time.
Do you think it's necessary to do a PR? Anyone cares about this device?

3 Likes

Add it, I'm planing on buying it, already got a
Comfast CF-953AX, and will be getting it.
I'm new to this stuff and would be impossible for me to figure it out, if you could share it would be awesome.

Im interested on install openwrt on the pi 3 lts

Can you share how to edit these patches? I tried to edit the target but had no idea on how to get the network works.

Hi. Im haved opi3, nice idea, build and run openwrt 22 oneplus H6 cpu, worked lan and usb2.0, but dtb off usb3 and wifi. I'm not good at this, can someone move this thread forward?

Can you share the how to?
I am really interested on running openwrt on the Opi3 LTS

Really wish it can be available sooner

I hate to be an AOL user, but ...

Me too!1eleven!

This RasPi isn't ideal for the job, and the OPi 3LTS is a better fit for my use case.

@hauke I am tagging you since you were responsible for doing the PR code review for @hauptmedia 's Orange Pi Zero support addition.
Can you provide some guidance on how the support could be added for Orange Pi 3 LTS?
Thanks!

Would you be able to share what have you done and roughly document the process of applying the said patches in order to get it to work?
Thanks!

@wigyori also pinging you, since you authored the commits related to Orange Pi 2 support.
Could you provide some help / guidance on the high-level process of adding support for Orange Pi 3 LTS?
Thank you.