I recently bought a Banana Pi M5 and I regret it. No matter how good is a hardware piece, if there is not a reliable software to use it then that hardware is useless.
In the case of Raspberry Pi its main advantage is not the hardware but the software and support available for it.
My recommendation to everyone DO NOT BUY ANY RASPBERRY PI CLONE IF IT IS NOT 100% COMPATIBLE WITH THE ORIGINAL; OTHERWISE YOU WILL LOOSE YOUR MONEY.
For a start, the only operating system more or less working is Ubuntu. But after installing the browser programs they do not work, not even Firefox which is the default, I also instalked Chromium, neither work. When I try to run them do not start.
I have an M5 mothballed somewhere waiting to be used in a media centre project I have planned. I remember when I received it that I tested it with Armbian and was rather satisfied with the outcome (the web browser worked and was able to play YouTube videos in 1080p), although I didn’t dig into whether or not hardware acceleration was working.
I have a BPI M5 and installed Raspbian OS. IT works very well and I am using as my desktop for severl months without any issues. I keep it up-to-date and use Vivaldi Browser. I hear web radio stations with a great sound (Anker Speaker). I also installed VPN and have my protection up.
It is not as fast as my iMacPro but it does a decent job. I connected to my bedroom TV and read daily the news on it. I will recommend this SBC as powerful and stable. I leave it on and reboot only if is required.
Now, this Ubuntu does not start and in the UART interface I see this log message:
boot times 0SM1:BL:511f6b:81ca2f;FEAT:A0F83180:20282000;POC:F;RCY:0;EMMC:0;READ:0;0.0;CHK:0;
bl2_stage_init 0x01
bl2_stage_init 0x81
hw id: 0x0000 - pwm id 0x01
bl2_stage_init 0xc1
bl2_stage_init 0x02
L0:00000000
L1:00000703
L2:00008067
L3:15000020
S1:00000000
B2:20282000
B1:a0f83180
TE: 66741
BL2 Built : 15:21:42, Mar 26 2020. g12a g486bc38 - gongwei.chen@droid11-sz
Board ID = 1
Set cpu clk to 24M
Set clk81 to 24M
Use GP1_pll as DSU clk.
DSU clk: 1200 Mhz
CPU clk: 1200 MHz
Set clk81 to 166.6M
eMMC boot @ 0
sw8 s
board id: 1
Load FIP HDR DDR from eMMC, src: 0x00010200, des: 0xfffd0000, size: 0x00004000, part: 0
fw parse done
PIEI prepare done
00000000
emmc switch 1 ok
ddr saved addr:00016000
Load ddr parameter from eMMC, src: 0x02c00000, des: 0xfffd0000, size: 0x00001000, part: 0
00000000
emmc switch 0 ok
fastboot data verify
result: 255
Cfg max: 12, cur: 1. Board id: 255. Force loop cfg
LPDDR4 probe
LPDDR4_PHY_V_0_1_21-Built : 15:37:51, Mar 26 2020. g12a gf098346 - gongwei.chen@droid11-sz
ddr clk to 1392MHz
dmc_version 0001
Check phy result
INFO : End of CA training
INFO : End of initialization
INFO : Training has run successfully!
Check phy result
INFO : End of initialization
INFO : End of read enable training
INFO : End of fine write leveling
INFO : End of Write leveling coarse delay
INFO : Training has run successfully!
Check phy result
INFO : End of initialization
INFO : End of read dq deskew training
INFO : ERROR : Training has failed!
1D training failed
Cfg max: 12, cur: 2. Board id: 0. not match..skip..
Cfg max: 12, cur: 3. Board id: 0. not match..skip..
Cfg max: 12, cur: 4. Board id: 0. not match..skip..
Cfg max: 12, cur: 5. Board id: 0. not match..skip..
Cfg max: 12, cur: 6. Board id: 0. not match..skip..
Cfg max: 12, cur: 7. Board id: 0. not match..skip..
Cfg max: 12, cur: 8. Board id: 0. not match..skip..
Cfg max: 12, cur: 9. Board id: 0. not match..skip..
Cfg max: 12, cur: 10. Board id: 0. not match..skip..
Cfg max: 12, cur: 11. Board id: 0. not match..skip..
Cfg max: 12, cur: 12. Board id: 0. not match..skip..
All ddr config failed...
Reset...