[unknown]

USB is USB. Here are some benchmark with a > 500 MB/s capable SSD.

##### SATA #####

## READ ##

[CODE][root@espressobin ~]# dd if=/dev/sda of=/dev/null bs=1024K count=10000 iflag=direct
10000+0 records in
10000+0 records out
10485760000 bytes (10 GB, 9.8 GiB) copied, 33.5648 s, 312 MB/s

## WRITE ##

[root@espressobin mnt]# dd if=/dev/zero of=test bs=1024K count=5000 oflag=direct
5000+0 records in
5000+0 records out
5242880000 bytes (5.2 GB, 4.9 GiB) copied, 18.6003 s, 282 MB/s

##### USB #####

## READ ##

[root@espressobin ~]# dd if=/dev/sdb of=/dev/null bs=1024K count=10000 iflag=direct
10000+0 records in
10000+0 records out
10485760000 bytes (10 GB, 9.8 GiB) copied, 36.5435 s, 287 MB/s

## WRITE  ##

[root@espressobin mnt]# dd if=/dev/zero of=test bs=1024K count=5000 oflag=direct
5000+0 records in
5000+0 records out
5242880000 bytes (5.2 GB, 4.9 GiB) copied, 21.2763 s, 246 MB/s

I am sorry but this board isn’t as great as it sounds.

* 5V USB powering doesn’t work even though announced differently.
* The CPU isn’t capable of the announced 1.2 GHz – not even with the correct u-boot version.
* USB 3.0 is broken and not thoroughly implemented. UAS doesn’t work and the controller tops out at max 4 devices (root + USB hub = 2 real devices). Also booting won’t work with certain USB hubs due to XHCI brokenness.
* The CPU is VERY slow compared to the XU4 (and where is 32-bit support?!)
* F*ing bright and very annoying LEDs
* Rebooting sometimes freezes the board (after OS exit). Especially amazing when you do not have physical access to the board.
* mPCIE does not work unless the kernel gets patched with a spurious patch. => http://espressobin.net/forums/topic/mini-pcie-slot-not-working/

I was actually planing to replace my XU4 with this board… but no. All I am doing with this board at the moment is using it as a network switch.

[unknown]

“All other affordable boards use USB-to-SATA bridges, which means you won’t get much more than 50/sec-60MB/sec. transfer speed. The EspressoBIN has a REAL 6G SATA, which means you’d be able to get more than 500MB/sec – and you could also add a extra SATA interfaces if you decide that later.”

Not true at all. ODROID XU4 delivers 380 MB/s through USB 3.0. The ESPRESSObin’s CPU is way too slow for 500 MB/s

[unknown]

I got the mPCIe slot working now. I had to apply this patch to the kernel:

--- drivers/pci/host/pci-aardvark.c     2018-03-02 21:59:56.553041000 +0100
+++ drivers/pci/host/pci-aardvark.c     2018-03-02 22:00:12.083041000 +0100
@@ -307,10 +307,10 @@
                PCIE_CORE_CTRL2_TD_ENABLE;
        advk_writel(pcie, reg, PCIE_CORE_CTRL2_REG);
 
-       /* Set GEN2 */
+       /* Set GEN1 */
        reg = advk_readl(pcie, PCIE_CORE_CTRL0_REG);
        reg &= ~PCIE_GEN_SEL_MSK;
-       reg |= SPEED_GEN_2;
+       reg |= SPEED_GEN_1;
        advk_writel(pcie, reg, PCIE_CORE_CTRL0_REG);
 
        /* Set lane X1 */

Why on earth is this not done by Marvell? I had to do the same for OpenWRT.

[unknown]

Here you go: https://drive.google.com/drive/u/3/folders/1h82sFTn8hgSP7cHXj-ia-HkKDBXbfvrE

V1 needs >= 16 GB, V2 >= 1 GB.

Flash the image contained in “espressobin-<ver>.zip” onto your SD card.

Boot settings for U-Boot:

setenv fdt_name 'boot/armada-3720-community.dtb'
setenv image_name 'boot/openwrt-armada-ESPRESSObin-Image'
setenv bootcmd 'mmc dev 0; ext4load mmc 0:1 $kernel_addr $image_name;ext4load mmc 0:1 $fdt_addr $fdt_name;setenv bootargs $console root=/dev/mmcblk0p1 rw rootwait; booti $kernel_addr - $fdt_addr'
saveenv
reset

The image is vanilla but with added support for Sierra Wireless EM7565.

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