How to install OpenWRT on NanoPi R2S?

Installing and Using OpenWrt
1

Hello everyone.

Please tell me how to install OpenWRT on NanoPi R2S? Before writing a question here, of course, I looked at the wiki https://openwrt.org/toh/friendlyarm/nanopi_r2s#installation: , but I did not find an answer to my question.

What are my questions and what did I do?

  1. The manufacturer's website https://www.friendlyelec.com/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=282 does not say how many watts the charger for NanoPi R2S should be, it says 5V / 2A, but if it is 3A or 30 watts, will such voltage ruin the router?

power
power1270×657 47.9 KB

  1. After connecting NanoPi R2S to the network and computer LAN (Nanopi R2S) -> PC (Ethernet) I see that my interface is "UP" but I did not receive a DHCP address so that I could log into the router.
    I tried restarting DHCP but it did not help.

  2. I downloaded the OpenWRT image (ext4-sysupgrade.img.gz) https://downloads.openwrt.org/releases/23.05.5/targets/rockchip/armv8/openwrt-23.05.5-rockchip-armv8-friendlyarm_nanopi-r2s-ext4-sysupgrade.img.gz

Unpacked it:

$ gzip -d openwrt-23.05.5-rockchip-armv8-friendlyarm_nanopi-r2s-ext4-sysupgrade.img.gz

Wrote it to the SD card, the manufacturer's website recommends using high-quality class 10 SD cards.

Inserted the SD card, unmounted, identified the dsic (not the partition) and wrote it.

$ lsblk

$ sudo dd if=openwrt-23.05.5-rockchip-armv8-friendlyarm_nanopi-r2s-ext4-sysupgrade.img of=/dev/sde bs=1M status=progress

I inserted the SD card with the recorded image, it also did not help.

I would be grateful for your help.

2

R2S doesn't have a battery, you don't need a charger, you need a power adapter/supply.

power adapter/supply delivering more A than what's required isn't a problem.

I assume you tried both ports on the R2S ?

there's a serial header, if everything else fails, use it to debug.

3

Hello. Thank you for your answer. I would like to disappoint you, but you are wrong when you claimed that FriendlyARM <> OpenWRT.

This is absolutely NOT TRUE!

Let's figure out why.

As I wrote above, I downloaded the stable version of OpenWRT 23.05.5 file (ext4-sysupgrade.img.gz)

stable
stable1415×734 86.8 KB

Then I wrote it to the SD card, everything went well. Here is the output of the $ lsblk command

OpenWRT
OpenWRT549×111 47.5 KB

After installing OpenWRT 23.05.5, the system DID NOT BOOT! And the problem is not the port! I made the LAN (Nanopi R2S) -> PC (Ethernet) connection correctly

I downloaded the official FriendlyARM version from github https://github.com/friendlyarm/Actions-FriendlyWrt/releases for R2S (R2S-R2C-Series-FriendlyWrt-23.05.img.gz)

I wrote it down on the same SD card that I used for OpenWRT, connected LAN (Nanopi R2S) -> PC (Ethernet) and lo and behold, I get a DHCP address and go to the FriendlyWrt GUI interface!

frendlyWRT
frendlyWRT599×219 67.8 KB

Naturally, the FriendlyWrt interface is completely different and differs from OpenWRT and not only the interface..

4

not sure how it proves anything, but hey, whatever floats your boat.

but yet you claim they're the same ? fascinating ...

you do know what <> means, right ?

5

You gave the wrong answer last time and now you give wrong answers. If you do not know the answer, please do not write anything, because other users will read this post, look for an answer to the same question and your INCORRECT answers will distract!

6

you not understanding the answers doesn't make them wrong...

7

@waynea Hi, I'll try your recommendation, thanks.

8

@waynea Your recommendation worked! :+1:

But the choice of SD cards remains a mystery to me)

I had an old SD card of class 4, SanDisk, HCI and it worked right away...Everything loaded!

Thank you very much!

9

You're welcome! Could you edit the original question with SOLVED in it please?

10

Hi. Yes, I did it but in this topic and the other one where you answered me, do you see?

11

I would like to share some information, maybe it will be useful for other users.

You can also write which SD cards worked for you and which did not, this will help other users!

This SD card did NOT load OpenWRT but loaded FriendlyWRT

sd2
sd2294×247 155 KB

This SD card loaded OpenWRT

sd
sd308×332 216 KB

This SD card loaded OpenWRT

sd3
sd3288×253 149 KB

12

as for the power supply, the manufacturer indicated 5V / 2A, which corresponds to 10W

P (W) = V (V) × I (A)

And what will happen to the router if the power is 20W or 3A (15W). Will it heat up more?

13

As you were told earlier, a beefier power supply won't change anything.

The 20A is the max rating, it's not going to push 20A over the cable, to a 10A device.

14

Thank you for your answer.

Please write how you installed OpenWRT (version squashfs-sysupgrade.img.gz)? Please write a full list of commands, this applies to this post. I have already shown how to install version ext4-sysupgrade.img.gz. Please do not refer to the wiki, please write here yourself.

15

Important addition that will help to install OpenWRT. Unfortunately, this information is missing from the OpenWRT wiki and documentation! https://openwrt.org/toh/friendlyarm/nanopi_r2s#installation

Below you can see a screenshot of the NanoPi R2S (left) and NanoPi R2S Plus (right) in which you can see that the NanoPi R2S Plus has built-in eMMC memory, which means that installing and running OpenWRT on the NanoPi R2S is only possible from a microSD card. It is very important to choose a good and high-quality microSD card, I looked at the TomsHardware article (Best microSD Cards for Raspberry Pi 2025) https://www.tomshardware.com/best-picks/raspberry-pi-microsd-cardsand it seemed to me that SanDisk Extreme Pro would be the best choice for the NanoPi R2S.

spec
spec1058×779 271 KB

16

The only thing I didn't understand is what the difference is in terms of images and their launch, if anyone knows, write:

I wrote to microSD and launched both options (ext4-sysupgrade and squashfs-sysupgrade) and didn't notice any difference.

https://downloads.openwrt.org/releases/23.05.5/targets/rockchip/armv8/openwrt-23.05.5-rockchip-armv8-friendlyarm_nanopi-r2s-ext4-sysupgrade.img.gz

and
https://downloads.openwrt.org/releases/23.05.5/targets/rockchip/armv8/openwrt-23.05.5-rockchip-armv8-friendlyarm_nanopi-r2s-squashfs-sysupgrade.img.gz

17

Info about Ext4 vs. SquashFS

In the end it's personal preference.

18

thanks for the link, I already attached it above)

Do I understand you correctly that you recommend using the squashfs-sysupgrade image on the SD card?

19

https://openwrt.org/docs/guide-user/installation/openwrt_x86
you were given this link last week ...

20

Ah, I didn't read all before I replied with same link you already knew.

I don't recommend either. Both have their pros and cons, in the end it comes down to personal preference. I use Ext4, just because. I think most users go for SquashFS because of easier updating.