# OpenWrt for OrangePi Zero2 **URL:** \ **Category:** For Developers\ **Created:** [January 8, 2022, 11:20pm UTC](https://forum.openwrt.org/t/openwrt-for-orangepi-zero2/116801 "2022-01-08T23:20:57Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![aryeduino](https://forum.openwrt.org/user_avatar/forum.openwrt.org/aryeduino/32/54343_2.png) [@aryeduino](https://forum.openwrt.org/u/aryeduino)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2022, 11:20pm UTC](https://forum.openwrt.org/t/openwrt-for-orangepi-zero2/116801/1 "2022-01-08T23:20:58Z")
Hi All, I have been trying to understand the correct way to have OpenWrt installed on my OrangePi Zero 2 board, of which i am thinking to use in my network as an AP. I am not sure I understand the correct process needed to be able to achieve that. I have found an old image at the OrangePi web that is for **Zero** and not **Zero2**. Can I use it? I would be happy if someone can help me with that - I do have the OrangePI at hand and I want to make sue to it and have it running openWrt and learn it as well on this board. I know that there is already a well updated version of OpenWrt for the Raspberry Pi - But I want to make a use of my OrangePi board and I am, sure that it wioll out performed the Raspberry PI on that task -1GB versions. I wopuld be happy if you could assist me with that and how I should be able have my OrangePi Zero2 Board working with OpenWrt. I am willing to do everything that is needed to be able to do that. Thanks Aryeduino ---
**Author:** ![diego123](https://forum.openwrt.org/letter_avatar/diego123/32/5_5575768a8748004e209b776fc1b2916d.png) [@diego123](https://forum.openwrt.org/u/diego123)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2022, 11:49pm UTC](https://forum.openwrt.org/t/openwrt-for-orangepi-zero2/116801/2 "2022-01-08T23:49:02Z")
I doubt you will be successful as your board is based on H616 CPU, this seems to only be supported by the allwinner kernel even armbian is relying on this kernel. So best bet is going with the images you get here: [http://www.orangepi.org/downloadresources/](http://www.orangepi.org/downloadresources/) No openwrt sorry ---
**Author:** ![slh](https://forum.openwrt.org/user_avatar/forum.openwrt.org/slh/32/113591_2.png) [@slh](https://forum.openwrt.org/u/slh)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2022, 2:51am UTC](https://forum.openwrt.org/t/openwrt-for-orangepi-zero2/116801/3 "2022-01-09T02:51:36Z")
> [@aryeduino](#): > > I have found an old image at the OrangePi web that is for **Zero** and not **Zero2**. Can I use it? If you don't see an image under [https://downloads.openwrt.org/snapshots/targets/sunxi/](https://downloads.openwrt.org/snapshots/targets/sunxi/), then your device isn't supported at this point. There is nothing generic about embedded devices (not quite true about sunxi, but still valid for OpenWrt on sunxi), so you really need a dedicated image for each device. However, sunxi usually has rather good mainline support, which makes it rather easy to port these devices to OpenWrt - provided they are supported in a current mainline (not vendor/ lichee) kernel. Afaik the authoritative collection of device support is curated at [https://linux-sunxi.org/Table\_of\_Allwinner\_based\_boards](https://linux-sunxi.org/Table_of_Allwinner_based_boards) - so if your board is (were) listed there, it would be relatively straight forward to port it to OpenWrt (may involve kernel backports, but at least everything would be available in mainline). If your device isn't listed there either, you need to check the support state of the used SOC via [https://linux-sunxi.org/Linux\_mainlining\_effort](https://linux-sunxi.org/Linux_mainlining_effort) - assuming you can find the used SOC there, it might still be relatively straight forward to get it working, but it would involve digging deeper into writing ("developing") a matching DTS file and potentially do some related low-level OS- and driver development first. If your device doesn't match anything of the above and is only supported by a vendor kernel ("lichee") or one of the special purpose ARM distributions, but not the mainline kernel (at least in current development kernels or pending patch series), you'd need to get it supported (mainline) first - the linux-sunxi developer community would be your first stop there (and OpenWrt comes way later, once the necessary device support is on its way towards upstream/ mainline). ---
**Author:** ![diego123](https://forum.openwrt.org/letter_avatar/diego123/32/5_5575768a8748004e209b776fc1b2916d.png) [@diego123](https://forum.openwrt.org/u/diego123)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2022, 5:14pm UTC](https://forum.openwrt.org/t/openwrt-for-orangepi-zero2/116801/4 "2022-01-09T17:14:27Z")
H616 is a pretty much neglected SOC amongst the sunxi family. So no luck. ---
**Author:** ![aryeduino](https://forum.openwrt.org/user_avatar/forum.openwrt.org/aryeduino/32/54343_2.png) [@aryeduino](https://forum.openwrt.org/u/aryeduino)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2022, 12:09pm UTC](https://forum.openwrt.org/t/openwrt-for-orangepi-zero2/116801/5 "2022-01-10T12:09:34Z")
Thanks all, I understand that I need to find **another OrangePi board** to work with - I do not want to use RaspberryPI on this project. I have seen Orange Pi Pc Arm Development Board H3 is it good? It has USB as well. Can that be used with OpenWrt and Wifi Stick USB to be an AP? I know there are lots of OP boards that I can use. I need it to be at least 1GB RAM 🙂 Can you recommend the CORRECT OrangePI to order that I will be able to use as an AP with External Wifi USB stick (also would be happy to know the exact Wifi To buy) Thanks ---
**Author:** ![frollic](https://forum.openwrt.org/user_avatar/forum.openwrt.org/frollic/32/30113_2.png) [@frollic](https://forum.openwrt.org/u/frollic)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2022, 1:46pm UTC](https://forum.openwrt.org/t/openwrt-for-orangepi-zero2/116801/6 "2022-01-10T13:46:39Z")
> [@aryeduino](#): > > Can you recommend the CORRECT OrangePI to order [supported oranges.](https://openwrt.org/toh/start?dataflt%5BBrand*%7E%5D=Xunlong) > [@aryeduino](#): > > to use as an AP with External Wifi USB stick (also would be happy to know the exact Wifi To buy) note this is for Linux in general, not OWRT specific - [https://github.com/morrownr/USB-WiFi](https://github.com/morrownr/USB-WiFi) ---
**Author:** ![slh](https://forum.openwrt.org/user_avatar/forum.openwrt.org/slh/32/113591_2.png) [@slh](https://forum.openwrt.org/u/slh)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2022, 2:38pm UTC](https://forum.openwrt.org/t/openwrt-for-orangepi-zero2/116801/7 "2022-01-10T14:38:52Z")
In terms of networking throughput the RPi **4** is far ahead of Allwinner's sunxi SOCs, if you still don't want an RPi4, rockchip also beats these sunxi SOCs when it comes to headless I/O and networking potential. Media de- and encoding might sway towards sunxi, thanks to Cedrus support. ---
**Author:** ![aryeduino](https://forum.openwrt.org/user_avatar/forum.openwrt.org/aryeduino/32/54343_2.png) [@aryeduino](https://forum.openwrt.org/u/aryeduino)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2022, 12:42am UTC](https://forum.openwrt.org/t/openwrt-for-orangepi-zero2/116801/8 "2022-01-11T00:42:54Z")
Thanks @frollic - That is great info and I will look into it. Since I don't really know exactly what to chose - I am looking for 1GB with good networking - Wifi or Ethernet - that I can add a USB stick to it - would like to have a good recommendation on which one to chose? Thanks ---
**Author:** ![aryeduino](https://forum.openwrt.org/user_avatar/forum.openwrt.org/aryeduino/32/54343_2.png) [@aryeduino](https://forum.openwrt.org/u/aryeduino)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2022, 12:44am UTC](https://forum.openwrt.org/t/openwrt-for-orangepi-zero2/116801/9 "2022-01-11T00:44:24Z")
> [@slh](#): > > rockchip Thanks @slh - I am not familiar with rockchip - can you recommend a budget price one that I can use? is it available on AliExpress? Would be happy to know. thanks ---
**Author:** ![slh](https://forum.openwrt.org/user_avatar/forum.openwrt.org/slh/32/113591_2.png) [@slh](https://forum.openwrt.org/u/slh)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2022, 12:53am UTC](https://forum.openwrt.org/t/openwrt-for-orangepi-zero2/116801/10 "2022-01-11T00:53:22Z")
Not really, the well-known devices are NanoPi r2s/ r2c (apparently with a tendency to overheat) and r4s (seems to be quite interesting) ---
**Author:** ![aryeduino](https://forum.openwrt.org/user_avatar/forum.openwrt.org/aryeduino/32/54343_2.png) [@aryeduino](https://forum.openwrt.org/u/aryeduino)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2022, 1:22am UTC](https://forum.openwrt.org/t/openwrt-for-orangepi-zero2/116801/11 "2022-01-11T01:22:24Z")
Thanks - will check them out ---
**Author:** ![aryeduino](https://forum.openwrt.org/user_avatar/forum.openwrt.org/aryeduino/32/54343_2.png) [@aryeduino](https://forum.openwrt.org/u/aryeduino)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2022, 2:03am UTC](https://forum.openwrt.org/t/openwrt-for-orangepi-zero2/116801/12 "2022-01-12T02:03:45Z")
Hi, I am thinking on getting NanoPi R1 - is it good? it is a bit on the high price and I want to be suyre that it will work with OpenWRT without issues at all. I have seen that there is an eMMC onboard and also SD card - in order to make it work do I need to install the openwrt on an sd card or I must install it on the eMMC onboard? As I have mentioned I am new and i want to try several board to make this happened as well with a USB Wifi as well. Please help me understand if the NanoPi R1 is a good choice? I have seen that it has 2 Ethernet and Wifi - That looks promising. But I do NOT know since I have not used it at all. For me it looks a good choice and I want to know if that is a good one to buy as well as to understand if i can run the OS of an SD card and not need to have it running on the eMMC (or I can use it afterwards?) Thanks ---
**Author:** ![slh](https://forum.openwrt.org/user_avatar/forum.openwrt.org/slh/32/113591_2.png) [@slh](https://forum.openwrt.org/u/slh)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2022, 2:22am UTC](https://forum.openwrt.org/t/openwrt-for-orangepi-zero2/116801/13 "2022-01-12T02:22:21Z")
_I_ wouldn't choose it. Back to Allwinner H3, which isn't that great in terms of I/O performance (worse than RPi4, worse than r4s - probably worse than r2s/ r2c), wireless is on an RPi4 level (not good), USB wireless is not recommended at all - and the price isn't really a bargain (for this use case) either. If you want a quick solution, the 2 GB RPi4 (maybe even the 1 GB variant) would beat this device in every regard - for a comparable price (incl. case & PSU). ---
**Author:** ![aryeduino](https://forum.openwrt.org/user_avatar/forum.openwrt.org/aryeduino/32/54343_2.png) [@aryeduino](https://forum.openwrt.org/u/aryeduino)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2022, 5:53pm UTC](https://forum.openwrt.org/t/openwrt-for-orangepi-zero2/116801/14 "2022-01-12T17:53:52Z")
The main idea is NOT using RPI at all - I do NOT want any RPi in my project since I do not want to get into lose all my money for one single board of 2-4GB that costs twice the price of the NanoPi I have mentioned - and that RPI 4 is a Joke! sorry to mentioned that in the way it does not sound good - I hate the RPi so I am looking for alternatives. If I do NOT want to have any RPi in my project what should I use for a good board with OpenWrt? surely there are GOOD boards out there. I do not think that RPI should be the ONLY board that we all use for every project - that is for sure - My go-to board will not be a Raspberry Pi since I do NOT want it to be - I have felt that RPi4 DID NOT give a better board then RPi3 - But it costs a lot! Can you recommend this board for the OpenWrt? the NanoPi R1 I mean. If you think it is NOT good - can you recommend a budget price SOC that I can use - surely Raspberry Pi are way long not in my budget at all! so I will not use a RPi in my project. I would be happy to get a good board that is NOT Raspberry Pi. Thanks p.s. sorry if I sound rude - But every time I see that the ONLY solution is the Raspberry Pi - I feel like we are not giving other boards the same chance we are giving to a RPi that I am not sure it deserves that at all. Thanks for you kind help. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![aryeduino](https://forum.openwrt.org/user_avatar/forum.openwrt.org/aryeduino/32/54343_2.png) [@aryeduino](https://forum.openwrt.org/u/aryeduino)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2022, 6:00pm UTC](https://forum.openwrt.org/t/openwrt-for-orangepi-zero2/116801/15 "2022-01-12T18:00:06Z")
> [@slh](#): > > If you want a quick solution, the 2 GB RPi4 (maybe even the 1 GB variant) would beat this device in every regard - for a comparable price (incl. case & PSU). and when you say that - can you direct me to a place I can get this board within a budget? ---
**Author:** ![jdwl1o1](https://forum.openwrt.org/user_avatar/forum.openwrt.org/jdwl1o1/32/39801_2.png) [@jdwl1o1](https://forum.openwrt.org/u/jdwl1o1)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2022, 7:42pm UTC](https://forum.openwrt.org/t/openwrt-for-orangepi-zero2/116801/16 "2022-01-12T19:42:27Z")
Wouldn’t it be your role to find a supported board that meets your budget requirements and performance needs? Reading the response an rpi was suggested as being a known support, reasonably performant option. If they don’t suit your project look through the table of hardware for something that does - there’s thousands of supported options. ---
**Author:** ![frollic](https://forum.openwrt.org/user_avatar/forum.openwrt.org/frollic/32/30113_2.png) [@frollic](https://forum.openwrt.org/u/frollic)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2022, 7:57pm UTC](https://forum.openwrt.org/t/openwrt-for-orangepi-zero2/116801/17 "2022-01-12T19:57:58Z")
Device recommendations (skipping the RPi) will also depend on your requirements.... I'd probably pick some small used x86\_64 device, myself. ---
**Author:** ![diego123](https://forum.openwrt.org/letter_avatar/diego123/32/5_5575768a8748004e209b776fc1b2916d.png) [@diego123](https://forum.openwrt.org/u/diego123)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2022, 11:10pm UTC](https://forum.openwrt.org/t/openwrt-for-orangepi-zero2/116801/18 "2022-01-12T23:10:14Z")
What about an mt7622 router? AFAIK full mainline, proper wlan etc. While im about to play with pi3 and 4... ---
**Author:** ![aryeduino](https://forum.openwrt.org/user_avatar/forum.openwrt.org/aryeduino/32/54343_2.png) [@aryeduino](https://forum.openwrt.org/u/aryeduino)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2022, 1:17am UTC](https://forum.openwrt.org/t/openwrt-for-orangepi-zero2/116801/19 "2022-01-13T01:17:26Z")
@jdwl1o1 I do understand your answer, and thanks for replying on this. I just ask for suggestions - I am sure that Rpi can do the job - but since it is way too expensive these days - over 150$ and it is hard to come by as well, that leaves me in the same situation that I was in the beginning. Sorry if I am sound not polite - I am really appreciate each and every one you - I came here to ask the pros for an advise and i wanted to be sure that I am clear enough with my request that it will not be RPi since I do want to move on with my project and getting RPi for the project will not be that soon and also not related to what I said - I do think that I should give another board a chance NOT everything should be with Rpi. And also - RPi is not a board that I like so much - I hope that I am now changed the way you see my question and hopefully you feel different about me. Thanks ---
**Author:** ![aryeduino](https://forum.openwrt.org/user_avatar/forum.openwrt.org/aryeduino/32/54343_2.png) [@aryeduino](https://forum.openwrt.org/u/aryeduino)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2022, 1:21am UTC](https://forum.openwrt.org/t/openwrt-for-orangepi-zero2/116801/20 "2022-01-13T01:21:00Z")
> [@frollic](#): > > Device recommendations (skipping the RPi) will also depend on your requirements.... > > I'd probably pick some small used x86\_64 device, myself. I see.. if I am not wanting the RPi I should not try any of the other boards? Woow - I was not aware of that none of the other boards out there should do the job the same as the Rpi or even better. Am I understanding what you said correctly? I would be happy to get a device that I can use for OpenWrt and not the Rpi that is also a SOC and not a complete PC that will not be suitable for my project - price and size. Thanks [Next page](https://forum.openwrt.org/t/openwrt-for-orangepi-zero2/116801.md?page=2)