November 26, 2025

Orange Pi R1 Plus LTS (RK3328) -- get Debian "forky" (14)

I check to see if more recent images than Debian 10 are available. There are Debian 13 and 14 images available!

I decide to go with "forky" (Debian 14) and download these: 

-rw-r--r-- 1 tom tom  217918535 Nov 26 08:30 debian-forky-arm64-er3nae.bin.gz
-rw-r--r-- 1 tom tom     540864 Nov 26 08:30 boot-orangepi_r1_plus_lts.bin.gz
-rw-r--r-- 1 tom tom 3798990848 Nov 26 08:33 forky.img
The download is quick, even though the site is in Sweden.
The last file (forky.img) is generated (as per their instructions) and copied onto the SD card as follows: 
zcat boot-orangepi_r1_plus_lts.bin.gz debian-forky-arm64-er3nae.bin.gz >forky.img
su
dd if=forky.img of=/dev/sdc bs=32M
NOTE: be sure to get the device correct for your SD card reader. If you make a mistake here you can destroy one of your system drives!

The copy is slow going (it is almost 4G) using my old USB-2.0 card reader. My nice fast USB-3.0 card reader is misplaced somewhere. Patience is a virtue.

Try running "forky" (Debian 14)

It boots up, but I cannot login as "orangepi". It turns out that I should try "root" with password "er3nae" (the last 6 characters of the distribution filename).
This works.

All syslog messages are coming out on the serial console, making it almost useless. So the thing to do is "ssh root@192.168.0.239" which works and as a side benefit allows vim to work in a sane fashion. There is no vim -- I will have to install packages!

I can reboot, type characters, and get to the U-boot prompt: 

U-Boot TPL 2025.10johang-dirty (Nov 01 2025 - 02:07:18)
LPDDR3, 333MHz
BW=32 Col=10 Bk=8 CS0 Row=14 CS1 Row=14 CS=2 Die BW=16 Size=1024MB
Trying to boot from BOOTROM
Returning to boot ROM...

U-Boot SPL 2025.10johang-dirty (Nov 01 2025 - 02:07:18 +0000)
Trying to boot from MMC2
## Checking hash(es) for config config-1 ... OK
## Checking hash(es) for Image atf-1 ... sha256+ OK
## Checking hash(es) for Image u-boot ... sha256+ OK
## Checking hash(es) for Image fdt-1 ... sha256+ OK
## Checking hash(es) for Image atf-2 ... sha256+ OK
NOTICE:  BL31: v2.9(debug):v2.9.0
NOTICE:  BL31: Built : 02:07:11, Nov  1 2025
NOTICE:  BL31:Rockchip release version: v1.2
INFO:    ARM GICv2 driver initialized
INFO:    plat_rockchip_pmu_init: pd status 0xe
INFO:    BL31: Initializing runtime services
INFO:    BL31: cortex_a53: CPU workaround for 855873 was applied
WARNING: BL31: cortex_a53: CPU workaround for 1530924 was missing!
INFO:    BL31: Preparing for EL3 exit to normal world
INFO:    Entry point address = 0x200000
INFO:    SPSR = 0x3c9


U-Boot 2025.10johang-dirty (Nov 01 2025 - 02:07:18 +0000)

Model: Xunlong Orange Pi R1 Plus LTS
DRAM:  1 GiB (total 1022 MiB)
PMIC:  RK805 (on=0x40, off=0x00)
Core:  241 devices, 31 uclasses, devicetree: separate
MMC:   mmc@ff500000: 1
Loading Environment from MMC... Reading from MMC(1)... *** Warning - bad CRC, using default environment

In:    serial@ff130000
Out:   serial@ff130000
Err:   serial@ff130000
Model: Xunlong Orange Pi R1 Plus LTS
Net:   eth0: ethernet@ff540000
Hit any key to stop autoboot: 0
=>
The U-boot setup is quite different from what I had on the Buster image. However, the U-boot version and build looks very up to date.

Get packages

We need vim!! 
apt-get update
apt install vim
And now I can run "vi" -- pretty easy.
Have any comments? Questions? Drop me a line!

Tom's electronics pages / tom@mmto.org