Allwinner H2 Linux & Android SDK, and Allwinner XR819 WiFi Driver Released

Orange Pi Zero is an interesting little ARM Linux board thanks to its low price, but also because it features a new Allwinner H2 / H2+ quad core Cortex A7 processor very similar to Allwinner H3 minus the 4K video decoding part, as well as Allwinner XR819 WiFi module, which I have not seen on any other boards so far.

But hardware without software is pretty much useless, so developers will be happy to find out that Allwinner H2 SDK with Linux (lichee) and Android has been released or leaked, and it also includes the Allwinner XR819 WiFi driver.

You’ll find the SDK on Zoobab server with three main directory / files:

Android folder – Android 4.4.2 SDK
lichee folder – Linux 3.4.39 source code. However you’d probably better use Linux 3.4.113 currently released by sunxi-linux, or Linux mainline. The latter does have some limitations, and may or may not be suitable for your project.
H2-V1.2.tar.bz2 – The tar file with both Android and lichee folder in case you want to download the full SDK on your computer

If another hardware comes with Allwinner XR819 WiFi module and you just need the Linux driver, you’ll find it in linux-3.4/drivers/net/wireless/xradio directory.

tkaiser managed to enable XR819 on armbian after disabling dhd driver:

tk@orangepizero:~$ iwconfig wlan0
wlan0     IEEE 802.11bgn  ESSID:"Snort-Honeynet"  
          Mode:Managed  Frequency:2.412 GHz  Access Point: BC:05:43:BE:C1:E7   
          Bit Rate=39 Mb/s   Tx-Power=20 dBm   
          Retry  long limit:7   RTS thr:off   Fragment thr:off
          Power Management:on
          Link Quality=66/70  Signal level=-44 dBm  
          Rx invalid nwid:0  Rx invalid crypt:0  Rx invalid frag:0
          Tx excessive retries:1  Invalid misc:0   Missed beacon:0

tk@orangepizero:~$ nmcli dev wifi list
*  SSID                     MODE   CHAN  RATE       SIGNAL  BARS  SECURITY  
   Snort-Honeynet           Infra  1     54 Mbit/s  92      ▂▄▆█  WPA2      
   EasyBox-116D28           Infra  9     54 Mbit/s  84      ▂▄▆█  WPA1 WPA2 
   FRITZ!Box Fon WLAN 7360  Infra  1     54 Mbit/s  67      ▂▄▆_  WPA1 WPA2 
   DISTORTEDPEOPLE          Infra  9     54 Mbit/s  55      ▂▄__  WPA1 WPA2 
   CubaLibre                Infra  1     54 Mbit/s  45      ▂▄__  WPA2      

tk@orangepizero:~$ cat /etc/modprobe.d/dhd.conf
blacklist dhd

tk@orangepizero:~$ ls -la /system/etc/firmware/
total 140
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root   4096 Nov  9 13:57 .
drwxr-xr-x 3 root root   4096 Nov  9 13:55 ..
-rw-r--r-- 1 tk   tk     2308 Nov  9 13:57 boot_xr819.bin
-rw-r--r-- 1 tk   tk   126416 Nov  9 13:57 fw_xr819.bin
-rw-r--r-- 1 tk   tk      744 Nov  9 13:57 sdd_xr819.bin

tk@orangepizero:~$ iwconfig wlan0

wlan0 IEEE 802.11bgn ESSID:"Snort-Honeynet"

Mode:Managed Frequency:2.412 GHz Access Point: BC:05:43:BE:C1:E7

Bit Rate=39 Mb/s Tx-Power=20 dBm

Retry long limit:7 RTS thr:off Fragment thr:off

Power Management:on

Link Quality=66/70 Signal level=-44 dBm

Rx invalid nwid:0 Rx invalid crypt:0 Rx invalid frag:0

Tx excessive retries:1 Invalid misc:0 Missed beacon:0

tk@orangepizero:~$ nmcli dev wifi list

* SSID MODE CHAN RATE SIGNAL BARS SECURITY

Snort-Honeynet Infra 1 54 Mbit/s 92 ▂▄▆█ WPA2

EasyBox-116D28 Infra 9 54 Mbit/s 84 ▂▄▆█ WPA1 WPA2

FRITZ!Box Fon WLAN 7360 Infra 1 54 Mbit/s 67 ▂▄▆_ WPA1 WPA2

DISTORTEDPEOPLE Infra 9 54 Mbit/s 55 ▂▄__ WPA1 WPA2

CubaLibre Infra 1 54 Mbit/s 45 ▂▄__ WPA2

tk@orangepizero:~$ cat /etc/modprobe.d/dhd.conf

blacklist dhd

tk@orangepizero:~$ ls -la /system/etc/firmware/

total 140

drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 Nov 9 13:57 .

drwxr-xr-x 3 root root 4096 Nov 9 13:55 ..

-rw-r--r-- 1 tk tk 2308 Nov 9 13:57 boot_xr819.bin

-rw-r--r-- 1 tk tk 126416 Nov 9 13:57 fw_xr819.bin

-rw-r--r-- 1 tk tk 744 Nov 9 13:57 sdd_xr819.bin

Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft)

Jean-Luc started CNX Software in 2010 as a part-time endeavor, before quitting his job as a software engineering manager, and starting to write daily news, and reviews full time later in 2011.