NanoPC-T6 / LTE current status

Hi everyone,

I wanted to ask about the current status of NanoPC-T6 / LTE support, which is based on the Rockchip RK3588 SoC. FriendlyARM/FriendlyElec has released two variants: the T6 non-LTE and the T6 LTE (without an LTE modem).

I noticed that a pull request adding support for this board was merged on August 24:
PR #16158

However, I'm not sure which version of the T6 is supported. I assume it should work on both variants, but confirmation would be appreciated.

Additionally, I found snapshot builds available for download:
OpenWrt Snapshots for Rockchip Armv8

However, I couldn't find this board listed in the released versions. For instance, version 23.05.5 was released on September 24, but there’s no mention of the T6. It’s also absent from the Table of Hardware (ToH):
OpenWrt Table of Hardware

Interestingly, someone introduced this board on the OpenWrt forums about a year ago:
Forum Post: NanoPC-T6 - An Ultimate Device

Since then, many of the RK3588 SoC features have been merged into the mainline kernel:
Mainline Kernel Status for RK3588

There’s also a PR merged into kernel 6.14 that includes basic 1080p HDMI support, but I assume HDMI support is not critical for OpenWrt.

Lastly, I believe FriendlyElec has forked OpenWrt into their project (FriendlyWrt) and applied their patches. Are they actively contributing to the mainline OpenWrt project?

Is anyone here currently using this SoC with OpenWrt? Any insights or updates would be greatly appreciated.

From what I can tell, there are two versions: the Nano PC T6 and the NanoPC T6 LTS. Neither comes with an LTE modem by default, but the LTS version does not have support for adding LTE modems at all (while the T6 has).

I'm almost certain that only the T6 is supported, the T6-LTS isn't. This is based on the fact that the upstream Linux kernel has two different DTS for the T6 and the T6-LTS and OpenWrt only makes use of the T6 DTS file:

and

I can answer at least this part: Devices are usually added to snapshot, but not backported to already released versions (that is: the 23.05 version). Sometimes, there are backports and new devices are added, but this depends a lot on the kernel. 23.05 uses the 5.15 kernel and, AFAIK, the RK3588 isn't properly supported there. There is an upcoming 24.10 version with Linux 6.6, expect support there.

It will be in the ToH once someone adds it to the ToH. This is not an automatic process and mostly driven by users. Feel free to add it!

Thanks for clarification. I didn't exppect it will work on 5.15. It was just missing in ToH.

Perfect! I may try to add it.

I have T6 non-LTS at home now and actually it does work :))) I was able to boot non-LTS version using existing DTS-es. I guess that they don't differ much.
In the past I compiled my own kernels for x64 but at that time mechanism (DTS) was on early stage.
But if somone can give me some hints I may try to add the support for T6-LTS version by comparizon to T6-LTS PR.
It would be great to see it before releasing 24.10 as you use yearly release cycle.

root@OpenWrt:~# ubus call system board
{
	"kernel": "6.6.61",
	"hostname": "OpenWrt",
	"system": "ARMv8 Processor rev 0",
	"model": "FriendlyElec NanoPC-T6",
	"board_name": "friendlyarm,nanopc-t6",
	"rootfs_type": "squashfs",
	"release": {
		"distribution": "OpenWrt",
		"version": "SNAPSHOT",
		"revision": "r28129-e6d483cd52",
		"target": "rockchip/armv8",
		"description": "OpenWrt SNAPSHOT r28129-e6d483cd52",
		"builddate": "1731967282"
	}
}
root@OpenWrt:~# cat /proc/cpuinfo 
processor	: 0
BogoMIPS	: 48.00
Features	: fp asimd evtstrm aes pmull sha1 sha2 crc32 atomics fphp asimdhp cpuid asimdrdm lrcpc dcpop asimddp
CPU implementer	: 0x41
CPU architecture: 8
CPU variant	: 0x2
CPU part	: 0xd05
CPU revision	: 0

processor	: 1
BogoMIPS	: 48.00
Features	: fp asimd evtstrm aes pmull sha1 sha2 crc32 atomics fphp asimdhp cpuid asimdrdm lrcpc dcpop asimddp
CPU implementer	: 0x41
CPU architecture: 8
CPU variant	: 0x2
CPU part	: 0xd05
CPU revision	: 0

processor	: 2
BogoMIPS	: 48.00
Features	: fp asimd evtstrm aes pmull sha1 sha2 crc32 atomics fphp asimdhp cpuid asimdrdm lrcpc dcpop asimddp
CPU implementer	: 0x41
CPU architecture: 8
CPU variant	: 0x2
CPU part	: 0xd05
CPU revision	: 0

processor	: 3
BogoMIPS	: 48.00
Features	: fp asimd evtstrm aes pmull sha1 sha2 crc32 atomics fphp asimdhp cpuid asimdrdm lrcpc dcpop asimddp
CPU implementer	: 0x41
CPU architecture: 8
CPU variant	: 0x2
CPU part	: 0xd05
CPU revision	: 0

processor	: 4
BogoMIPS	: 48.00
Features	: fp asimd evtstrm aes pmull sha1 sha2 crc32 atomics fphp asimdhp cpuid asimdrdm lrcpc dcpop asimddp
CPU implementer	: 0x41
CPU architecture: 8
CPU variant	: 0x4
CPU part	: 0xd0b
CPU revision	: 0

processor	: 5
BogoMIPS	: 48.00
Features	: fp asimd evtstrm aes pmull sha1 sha2 crc32 atomics fphp asimdhp cpuid asimdrdm lrcpc dcpop asimddp
CPU implementer	: 0x41
CPU architecture: 8
CPU variant	: 0x4
CPU part	: 0xd0b
CPU revision	: 0

processor	: 6
BogoMIPS	: 48.00
Features	: fp asimd evtstrm aes pmull sha1 sha2 crc32 atomics fphp asimdhp cpuid asimdrdm lrcpc dcpop asimddp
CPU implementer	: 0x41
CPU architecture: 8
CPU variant	: 0x4
CPU part	: 0xd0b
CPU revision	: 0

processor	: 7
BogoMIPS	: 48.00
Features	: fp asimd evtstrm aes pmull sha1 sha2 crc32 atomics fphp asimdhp cpuid asimdrdm lrcpc dcpop asimddp
CPU implementer	: 0x41
CPU architecture: 8
CPU variant	: 0x4
CPU part	: 0xd0b
CPU revision	: 0

Should be fairly straight forward: This was the commit for the NanoPC T6. You will have to do about the same for the LTS version, referencing the LTS DTS.

Yes, I understand. If I only find some time, I will have a look if I may do that change.
I added a new entry to TOH:
https://nanopc-t6_non-LTS
I don't know how to rename a link (LTE -> LTS).

AFAIK, there is no way to rename a page unless the plugin is installed. You can delete the page and create a new one since the history isn't important as of now.

Please read the instructions properly, you did not reference the git commit but the pull request. The git commit starts with git.openwrt.org. Also, the CPU is something like RK3588 - please check similar hwdata pages to get this right.

I couldn't find a way to remove a hardware entry. If you have powers to remove it and create a new entry feel free to do it.

Thank you. I updated the content. Feel free to review.
I'll also add LTS version to ToH with proper comments, pointing to non-LTS image as a temporary solution.

@andyboeh please review PR:

And thank you for your help.

@andyboeh If you or anyone else know how to resolve it then a help is welcome: