Hi everyone, I’m currently working on the BPI-R3 Mini (MT7986, eMMC DDR4 variant) and trying to run a full Debian or Ubuntu system on it instead of OpenWrt/ImmortalWrt. The main issue I’m facing is PCIe initialization — specifically missing clock definitions in the device tree (pcie, pcie_pipe, pcie_aux, top_axi). Because of this, the PCIe controller probes incorrectly and NVMe SSDs cannot bind. Before I start rebuilding the kernel and DTS from scratch, I’d like to ask: Has anyone already built a working Debian or Ubuntu kernel specifically for the R3 Mini? Is there a maintained device tree for MT7986 BPI-R3 Mini that fully enables PCIe (including NVMe)? Does any prebuilt image exist with fully working PCIe/NVMe support? I’m currently using: ImmortalWrt preloader + FIP Debian root filesystem MT7986 5.15/6.x kernel attempts Any pointers to a working kernel config, DTS patch, or full image would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance!
You could use my buildscript (which does not yet support r3mini) with r3mini boot file (im.gz) for emmc
And build for R3 to download the right kernel file from my linux repo.
I have it here:
https://ftp.woudstra.mywire.org/images/
Instructions here:
You may want to check that whole page about the buildscript. It is now more menu-driven, so it is quit easy to use it. No need to use commandline options anymore for basic setup.
The script has had a major overhaul, and I’m still ironing out the bugs out of the script/images, caused by this overhaul. Should basically be ok, maybe some small issues, so you may need a uart cable.
Also Ubuntu is quite new, and I do not test that very much. It started out as an ArchlinuxARM installer, but it can do more now. Debian I’ve just added.