OpenWrt Support for Banana Pi BPI-R3

Hi everyone, I’ve just received my Banana Pi r3 and just getting started with it, serial console is ready and connected, sd card burnt is ready with latest Snapshot from official openwrt Just to confirm, i should boot from sd card and install to nand in bootloader menu? After it’s done, power off device, switch boot switch to boot from nand? That’s it?

Few questions

  1. Latest Snapshot is good to go?
  2. Will it update my bootloader as well?
  3. Nand vs nor , anyone using it on nor , what’s performance difference? What’s preferred
  4. Please mention any additional steps needed for process above?

Thanks everyone

I apologize if this post is misplaced or not relevant, but I saw this proposed patch by Ben Greear on the linux-wireless mailing list (which I have only recently begun to browse):

https://patchwork.kernel.org/project/linux-wireless/patch/20240327001131.4028431-1-greearb@candelatech.com/

Then the following comment by James Dutton on the patch:

Hi.
I have used this patch, and it fixes wifi for the mediatek board i
have. the BPI-R3.
Please add it to wireless-next, 6.9-rc

Feel free to add:
Tested-by: James Courtier-Dutton james.dutton@gmail.com

Kind Regards

James

So perhaps this patch is useful to improve/fix wifi on BPI-R3.

3 Likes

Hello -
(hope this is OK posting this here)
We are looking for a consultant/contractor that can build a semi-custom installation of OpenWRT for this board.
Anyone interested? Please do contact us -

Many thanks
WEL

Is it possible to assign unique MAC addresses for each of the wired ports? (all 7 rj45 and sfp)
I know I can assign different IP using VLAN (but with same mac) on the same br-lan, but what I want is basically "break the bridge device into individual L2 ports".
The R3's datasheet says there are only 2 HSGMII interfaces (each 2.5G), so not sure if it is impossible due to hardware design.

If that is not possible that means I need to enable STP when connecting 2 R3s together (via the LAN sfp port) right? Since each individual port is inside a "switch"?

Sorry if the question doesn't make sense.

Yes, this is possible. You can just delete the bridge and use each of the LAN interfaces individually. All together they will still share the 2.5GBit/s total bandwidth between the switch IC and the MT7986 SoC, but in terms of MAC and IP addresses they can be fully separated.

STP is only necessary to avoid loops. So as long as you are only connecting the two R3 with one cable between the switch ports, that's totally fine and you don't need STP.
In the moment that there is more than one potential link (eg. Wireless bridge or mesh in addition to Ethernet) STP becomes necessary.

1 Like

hello, i just noticed there is no data in the wiki page : https://openwrt.org/toh/sinovoip/bananapi_bpi-r3

A post was split to a new topic: BPi-R3 Entries in the TOH

Has anyone managed to get this device work properly with a WiFi 6e card installed? If so, any performance stats available? (not from BPi the..)

Can you provide a link to a store that sells those antennas?
I've been searching online for several months for something similar. I mean, antennas to which I could connect two cables at the same time. But I finally gave up.

Thank you.

Is it possible to use the 2.4Ghz and the 5Ghz bands simultaneously with the latest versions of openwrt? I just wanna know before purcashing it.

hello guys! is there a right way to boot from sd card? all i can get is this

NOTICE:  BL2: v2.9(release):OpenWrt v2023-07-24-00ac6db3-2 (mt7986-sdmmc-ddr4)
NOTICE:  BL2: Built : 22:14:18, Jul 15 2024
NOTICE:  WDT: Cold boot
NOTICE:  WDT: disabled
OTICE:  CPU: MT7986 (2000MHz)
NOTICE:  EMI: Using DDR4 settings
plex R/W mem test passed
ERROR:   MSDC: Command has timed out with cmd=8, arg=0x1aa
ERROR:   MSDC: Command has timed out with cmd=17, arg=0x0
ERROR:   Partition 'fip' not found
ERROR:   FIP boot source initialization failed with -2
PANIC at PC : 0x000000000020533c

or i get a u-boot menu https://forum.banana-pi.org/uploads/default/original/2X/3/31087a9ab99a012c6ec0093525e491604ebd693b.png

I'm using both bands simultaneously with OpenWrt 25.05.3 with no issue.

I haven't read the previous messages, but I assume that you have read any guide to install OpenWrt on that device like this one:

That's the guide I followed to install OpenWrt on my BPI-R3.

1 Like

hello man thanx for the reply! yeah i did read alot of them, whatever tools i use to write card it still doesn't get me that boot menu with red lines, i have used dd or bpi-tools(copy) balena-etcher it doesn't matter i cannot boot from sd card BUT it comes from the factory with already preinstalled openwrt in both NOR and NAND i can boot it from there but it has limited u-boot menu like this one
Screenshot_20240911_202755
but it has to be like this one here

so how can i write a firmware to emmc if i cant boot from sd card?!

Looks a bit like the sdcard is f%#@&d. Try with another card.

1 Like

thanx for the reply man! im going to try this out