I’ve also discovered with the newly received BPi W2, that the 2nd ethernet port is not enabled, which is quite a deception. I run my trials with the image :
019-08-02-debian-10-buster-lite-preview-aarch64-bpi-w2-m4-sd-emmc.img
Besides, the network connection LEDs on the 1st ethernet port are always shut off. If you connect the network cable to the 2nd ethernet port, the yellow led will blink, but the port will not activate.
It doesn’t make sens running the W2 without the 2 x eth.
What should be done to enable both eth0 and eth1 ?
Could somebody explain or correct the kernel sources repository to build a kernel with both eth0 and eth1 enabled?
How could a Distro “019-08-02-debian-10-buster-lite-preview-aarch64-bpi-w2-m4-sd-emmc.img” be updated with the custom’s built kernel?
Really, not kidding? Have you seen the 3rd Ethernet port on the board?
I tried the 4.4.x kernel as well. The board doesn’t even boot with it.
Good luck to all with this SBC! I make a request to return it to Sinovoip.
Once Realtek integrates its drivers into mainline kernel, I shall review my position by that time. W2 SBC is not worth it before it.
It has some kind of 3rd Ethernet port - there is a MAC controller (no PHY). You can connect PHY controller with Ethernet port.
tl;dr: you need to solder pins on BananaPi W2 and connect PHY module.
I do not recommend BananaPi, because SinoVoIP support is extremely poor. If you (or anybody) want to ask some questions, feel free to write me a PM. I have set up minimal Ubuntu system with self compiled kernel.
Thank you Michael, your experience looks valuable. Although the 3rd Ethernet port could be quite useful for the advanced production application, but I can live without it on an initial stage. On the contrary, the lack of the 2nd ethX is a playoff condition.
Has the MAC address been fixed with your custom’s kernel build?
Could you show the output from # ip addr show ?
Although I’ve tried compiling the 4.4.x kernel, could you share your image, so that I can try testing it with the W2 and probably figure out, why my kernel build doesn’t work?
I tried propagating the successfully built binaries with the Sinovoip regular, although obscure, bpi-update / bpi-bootsel to the working Debian image. The W2 didn’t boot after applying the kernel updates.
When you look at the board, you see that one GbE port is directly connected to the RTL1296 chip (it might be the WAN port) and the other port is connected to a Realtek 8211 chip.
1/ How is this described in the device tree ?
2/ How is this integrated in the kernel config ?
the port that is working is one directly connected to the RTD1296
another interface is directly connected to the RTD1296 but is not soldered to any port
the last port is connected to the RTD1296 thru the 8211 chip : how this port is described in the device tree and which driver is included in the kernel ?
I manage to port the OpenWRT kernel 4.4 hwnat driver into the 4.9 kernel. There still some work to be done on the HW address of those ports, trimming unnecessary code and removing non-existing ethernet ports. But it works. I managed to use both gmacs without much of a issue.
The code is in this repository:
Must up-to-date branch is rtk1296_ow
@otavioborges I have built the BPI-W2-bsp and copied the kernel, rootfs, and dtb across on to the BPI ubuntu image and that worked fine.
I then tried your rtk1296_ow build and the mouse does not work, so unable to try the ethernet as there does not seem to be any desktop keyboard orientation support for getting around either that or the keyboard does not work as well.
On my port, I mostly worked without graphical services, always on SSH or the UART terminal. I didn’t browse throught the HID menus. It could be simply disabled. I believe the USB ports are working. Try enabling mouse and keyboard on menuconfig: https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/Evdev
@otavioborges Sorry that should be W2 kernel. I have M3’s as well so mistakenly said M3. I will check the menu config it might just be the USB was not enabled ?
