Banana Pi BPI-R2 new image : Official OpenWRT 18.06.0

That’s true. Due to lack of support from Sinovoip I bet none of OpenWRT / Armbian will ever be supported. I have banana pi pro (Leemaker) and it’s fully supported. What a pity …

I load oficial image via tftpboot in uboot:

setenv ipaddr 192.168.2.150 
setenv netmask 255.255.255.0
setenv serverip 192.168.2.2
tftpboot openwrt-18.06.1-mediatek-mt7623-7623n-bananapi-bpi-r2-initramfs-kernel.bin
bootm

But image have a limitation:

root@OpenWrt:/# opkg install nano
Installing nano (2.9.8-1) to root...
Collected errors:
 * verify_pkg_installable: Only have 0kb available on filesystem /overlay, pkg nano needs 63
 * opkg_install_cmd: Cannot install package nano.
root@OpenWrt:/# mount
rootfs on / type rootfs (rw)
proc on /proc type proc (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,noatime)
sysfs on /sys type sysfs (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,noatime)
tmpfs on /tmp type tmpfs (rw,nosuid,nodev,noatime)
tmpfs on /dev type tmpfs (rw,nosuid,relatime,size=512k,mode=755)
devpts on /dev/pts type devpts (rw,nosuid,noexec,relatime,mode=600,ptmxmode=000)
debugfs on /sys/kernel/debug type debugfs (rw,noatime)
root@OpenWrt:/# df -h
Filesystem                Size      Used Available Use% Mounted on
tmpfs                   504.2M    648.0K    503.6M   0% /tmp
tmpfs                   512.0K         0    512.0K   0% /dev

fdisk, block-mount and kmod-fs-ext4 are missing

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Awesome! I built the source and am trying to get it to boot currently

Seems that rootfs is readonly…only some other directories like var/sys are mounted over it as tmpfs (ramdrive) to get write-access. I don’t know how to write to type rootfs…i guess it is a buildtin initramfs which needs to be unpacked,packed and recompiled into kernel

Hi, I’ve Tried Command : sudo dd if=7623n-bananapi-bpi-r2-initramfs-kernel.bin of=/dev/sdx

But doesn’t work. Any solutions? Thanks

I don’t know why this device say that have compatibility with OpenWRT. Everything are problems.

I have my own build, without problems, but I don’t have instructions of how to put the images in the device. Try and error, but without results.

Please, somebody know how to put the images of build of OpenWRT 18.06.1 in the device?

Thanks in advance.

You can use U-boot, here are some simple instructions.

  1. install a tftp server on a ubuntu machine or VM and move your initramfs-kernel.bin to the tftp folder
  2. flash the latest version of ubuntu fo the R2 onto an sd card
  3. during boot select the uboot console option
  4. enter the following commands:
     setenv ipaddr 192.168.2.150 // replace with a local ip address on your network 
     setenv netmask 255.255.255.0
     setenv serverip 192.168.2.2 // replace with the ip adress of your machine with the tftp server
     tftpboot openwrt-18.06.1-mediatek-mt7623-7623n-bananapi-bpi-r2-initramfs-kernel.bin // replace with the name of your image
     bootm 
    
    

Openwrt will now boot, I am working on a script for u-boot to handle all this stuff automatically

2 Likes

That’s is ok. I know the method. But, how can I put the system in the EMMc or SD and install luci and other tools… how can I do the sysupgrade?

do I need to boot always from tftp?

Thanks

You can instalar some things if you create a /overlay over tmpfs

mount -t tmpfs -o size=512m tmpfs /overlay

opkg update

opkg install blkid lsblk e2fsprogs kmod_fs_ext4 openssh-sftp-server …

But…, how can I manage the emmc or sd?

Obviously, if you reboot, you lose all.

I can create a partially bootable image by writing the initramfs-kernel.bin to the bpi-root of the latest Ubuntu image but it hits a kernel panic

I don’t understand this device. They say that support OpenWRT, Linux, Android,… but that is impossible without problems. No WIFI or no Bluetooth, or no MiniPCIe,… continuous hangs…

I have now a Espressobin up and running as my home rooter. This router is more cheaper, support last version of OpenWRT (18.06.1), can boot from HD, I have dns, dhcp, squid proxy, e2guardian, network supervision, … with good performance.

Please, don’t sell a router that not is a router neither is another thing…

Espresspbom 40$, Banana PI R2 140$.

Thanks.

4 Likes

Use the Getting Started Guide to Learn how to properly flash

http://wiki.banana-pi.org/Getting_Started_with_R2
The initially provided Ubuntu Mate image from the Getting Started Wiki is bootable from SD including HDMI support but you will need TTL->USB adapter for UART interface to set emmc partition info for OpenWRT.

You flip the onboard switch from EMMC -> SD and insert your MicroSD card that you flashed with either dd or bpi-copy tools and you will boot into Ubuntu Mate.

From here what I did was take the latest shared OpenWRT EMMC images and put them on a usb thumb drive and plugged into the board while booted into Ubuntu Mate.

After that, follow the instructions from the top post here.

Hello,

I have ordered recently a Banana PI R2 board that a want to use it as a router/firewall. I want to know if anyone had used it for OpenWRT and what are the current limitations or which Linux OS has the best support for this board.

I have read that the onboard wifi chip MT6625L has a very bad transfer rate and I thought that using an external MTK MT7612 2x2 2.4G&5G 802.11ac/b/g/n 867Mbps mPCIe card will be better.

Also I want to buy an extra 5dbi antenna because the box comes with only 1 piece.

Is this model compatible with the Banana PI R2 board ?

Thanks,

hi, Can we do the same but with the os on SD card. dont want to use emmc… ? Thanks for answer.

Is anyone using this image? Is this image running stable? If it is stable, I also plan to use it, mainly to install the official source software is more convenient.

OpenWRT don’t work and is very expensive. If you want a board as router don’t buy this board. I am waiting and trying for several months and nothing…

Make sure you have this Patch if using dual-gmac-patches: OpenWrt 18.06 malformed ip packets at bridged interface

Do you have any solution?

Yes. I compile my own image. It works. Update.My image have a problem. Many system packages (kmod-*.ipk) is empty.

That’s normal as the modules you’re talking about are built-in into the kernel. OpenWRT build system generates an “empty” kmod packages for such modules - this way you can have them “installed” thus satisfying deps other packages might have on these.