BPI-R4 Pro design with MT7988, update version for BPI-R4, any good idea?


Hello Janpieter Sollie,

could you please share which Wi-Fi cards you have tested, and let us know which ones worked and which didn’t?

Thank YOU!


I tried a lot, actually, but I’ll tell how I came to the conclusion it was a power supply issue:

  1. I populated my R4 with a mini-pcie mt7916 and mini-pcie mt7915 card, to have “one band on 6ghz and one on 5ghz”
  2. I added a m.2 mt7916 card on the SSD slot “to get the same dual-band effect on 5ghz because of 80+80 doesn’t work properly”
  3. I tried to add a number of cards into the key B slot (to split the non-wpa3 devices into a legacy ssid):
  • ath10k 9884 (no luck)
  • ath11k QCNA755 (nothing either)
  • ath10k 9882 (sometimes it worked, sometimes it crashed due to an IRQ interrupt and unplugging+ rebooting was the only way to get it working, though not always)
  • intel 8265 (no luck)

Somewhere, I suspected it was a power issue, but never sure…

I then saw a advertisement of mediatek launching a m.2 key B adapter. I asked the people of Mediatek whether they thought the R4 could handle a 4th card on the 3.3V line, but the answer was “no, wait for our 12V adapter and put your mini-pcie cards on the 12V line” So it’s not a big thing, it’s simply a pity I didn’t see earlier

I have TP-Link’s DECO BE95, aka BE33000. Would be very interested in the claimed PHY max BE36000. Keeping my eyes on this thread for future development…

Hey @simon
according to Banana Pi BPI-R4 Pro Wifi7 Router board design with Mediatek MT7988A | BananaPi Docs the combo ports are 10GE but you’re saying they are 2,5GE? Which one is the case?
Please tell me they are 10GE, even if it is more expensive… that would be one of the few router board to offer this option and this is what I would be looking for.

Please see diagram here

Mt7988 has 2 10G macs. One is either 2g5 phy (similar to R4 phy variant) or 10G SFP+ and the other one is connected to 2g5 switch with 10G SFP±cage (normally used as Uplink).

So basicly you can use the switch-ports (4x2.5g) and 10G-sfp without routing traffic through r4pro (to the mac) or if you want routing it goes out over the other mac (2g5 phy or 10GSFP).

…I’m confused.
In the board image there are 7 ethernet ports.

  • 4 are the 2.5g switch - OK
  • 1 is a 1g “FPC” port - OK

The remaining two (JWD chips?) are the combo’ed ports to the SFPs? Are they 10g or 2,5g?

Diagram says 5 x 2g5 on switch +1x SFP+

On the other mac 1x SFP+ and 2g5 with mt7988 internal phy and 1 1g port

Not sure yet about the 2x internal conn on internal switch

But i do not have such board yet and also have not completely understood the schematics here,also with combo-selection

Ok, pending an official answer from @sinovoip, after about 1h on the phone with a friend :sweat_smile:, we came to the following conclusions:

  • the hardware specs mentions 2 AS21010P chips (10g PHY) that are visible on the board so 2 ethernet ports should be 10g
  • in the prototype board picture, between the port and the below chip, there’s a tiny print that seems to read “10g”
    • not sure about why one port is tagged “10g/1g” and the other “10g/2,5g”

If the above is correct, and the 10g ports are combo’ed with the SFP then:

  • the mediatek SoC has 2 10g lines:
    • one is connected directly to the wan sfp/eth combo
    • the other one is connected to a 10g line of a maxlinear switch chip MxL86252C (typo in the hardware specs but good in the hardware diagram) and then:
      • the lan sfp/eth combo is connected to the other maxlinear switch chip 10g line
      • the maxlinear chip should have 5x2,5g but only 4 port are wired (?)

That adds up to:

  • 2 SFP/eth combo port (10g phy) lan/wan
  • 1 1g eth (see as well tiny print on the board)
  • 4 2.5g eth
  • 1 extra 1g FPC LAN connector (no RJ45) on the side of the board (?)

If this is the case (i.e.: 2x10g eth phys)… then I would be very good with this board… :yum:

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I guess bpi follows this board from mtk-sdk in most parts

https://git01.mediatek.com/plugins/gitiles/openwrt/feeds/mtk-openwrt-feeds/+/HEAD/autobuild/unified/filogic/24.10/files/target/linux/mediatek/files-6.6/arch/arm64/boot/dts/mediatek/mt7988a-rfb-mxl86252.dts

There is also devicetree overlay and dsa driver for the MxL86252C ethernet switch.

https://git01.mediatek.com/plugins/gitiles/openwrt/feeds/mtk-openwrt-feeds/+/HEAD/autobuild/unified/filogic/24.10/files/target/linux/mediatek/files-6.6/drivers/net/dsa/mxl862xx/mxl862xx.c

But it looks like mtk used a AQR113C phy instead of the AS21010P.

Btw. Also wondered about the 2 phy ports with same chip,but one 2g5/10 and the other 1G/10G…i guess one is wrong described. Btw. Blue lines on blue board are hard to follow.

Phy seems to be this:

https://www.edomtech.com/en/product-detail/as210-series-10gbps-ethernet-phy/

But i have not yet found any linux driver for it :frowning:

For those who interested or having already such board, i collected some parts and upported the mxl switch driver to 6.16

Edit: seems there is a driver in current net-next and i guess this is the phy id

https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/netdev/net-next.git/tree/drivers/net/phy/as21xxx.c#n135

this may be of use - mt7988a-bananapi-bpi-r4-pro.dts

https://git01.mediatek.com/plugins/gitiles/openwrt/feeds/mtk-openwrt-feeds/+/d7ca44ea700d933320ce2b242b919f7a9d03c5b7/autobuild/unified/filogic/24.10/files/target/linux/mediatek/files-6.6/arch/arm64/boot/dts/mediatek/mt7988a-bananapi-bpi-r4-pro.dts

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Thanks,did not see it yet,but seems they link an AN8831X phy

Updated my branch to add this dts and fix some errors

Am I wrong or the comments on the phy section mention airoha while the phy driver is referencing aeonsemi…

That is what i mean

Bpi write this:

But r4pro dts in mtk-sdk seems to use airoha phy. Till i get my board i ignore comment (lets see which phy is found) and use the AS21010 driver.

Seems the comment is outdated…i see this which seem to match the as21010 phy

https://git01.mediatek.com/plugins/gitiles/openwrt/feeds/mtk-openwrt-feeds/+/HEAD/autobuild/unified/filogic/24.10/files/target/linux/mediatek/files-6.6/arch/arm64/boot/dts/mediatek/mt7988a-bananapi-bpi-r4-pro.dts#212

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I just need this thing released! Need to build a router to get rid of this POS ATT rig, and this thing is about as perfect a solution as one can get!

You should wait till software support is done completely. This normally takes at least a year.

to make the confusion about phy used perfect:

https://git01.mediatek.com/plugins/gitiles/openwrt/feeds/mtk-openwrt-feeds/+/0bc8f7698e0b28104b2d2962f3ef1f578fb482e3

[kernel-6.6][mt7988][eth][Add Airoha AN8831X 10G PHY DTSO and driver package]

[Description] Add Airoha AN8831X 10G PHY DTSO and driver package.

but lists autobuild/unified/global/common/files/package/kernel/as21xxx/source/as21xxx.c

defconfig change also only adds this driver and the firmware package

:stuck_out_tongue: i tried to find a driver for the airoha phy…it looks like both are using same driver

mainline linnux clearly states it as “Aeonsemi AS21XXxX PHY Driver” no note about airoha

so maybe airoha builds same (or compatible) phy

Sometimes SFP+ ports are 10G/1G which means you can insert a SFP+ (10G) or SFP (1G). At least with R4 you could replace the other 10G to install a 2.5G port, I vaguely remember this as a copper port if I am not mistaken…

Are you a member of the Discord group that is dedicated to this. I failed trying to replace it on my 1 Gbps AT&T service…

I tried looking for airoha 10g phys on their docs but didn’t find any referencing an8831x… i started thinking airoha and aeonsemi are the same company but chatgpt says no :smiley:

I guess we just ignore the comment line in the DTS as all the rest is about aeonsemi

8311? Yup. Just got my “internet whisperer” last week

I guess that does make sense. I started looking for a board to use, rather than the almost $600 TPlink router, and the Pro popped up as the #1 search result. It looks to be exactly everything I was looking for