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Open-Source in Action: OrangePi RV2 (RISC-V) Now Supported in the Yocto Project

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By Alper Ak
2 min read

Over the last weeks, I dedicated myself to adding support for the RISC-V based OrangePi RV2 SBC (Single Board Computer) to the meta-riscv layer in the Yocto Project.

What made this journey truly rewarding wasn’t just getting the board up and running, but diving into the world of RISC-V for the first time. Through Yocto porting, I learned how OpenSBI (Open Supervisor Binary Interface) works, its purpose, and its role in the system boot process.

Alongside gaining insight into OpenSBI, here are some highlights from my hands-on experience.

Vendor U-Boot & OpenSBI

Noticed that OpenSBI was integrated in-tree with U-Boot, which goes against Yocto’s modular approach and complicates independent updates and maintenance. To overcome this, created a patch for Yocto that drops the in-tree OpenSBI structure and adapted the Yocto build to handle OpenSBI and U-Boot as separate recipes, which are combined only as needed for the final image.

Kernel Deadlock Debugging

Initially suspected an ABBA deadlock because the kernel appeared to hang after a certain log message. I used lockdep to trace possible lock dependencies, but it turned out there was no real deadlock. The real deadlock was just my own mistake :). In the end, while there wasn’t an actual locking issue, this process allowed me to get hands-on experience with lockdep and kernel debugging tools.

Vendor Drivers

Analyzed and debugged vendor specific kernel drivers to understand their behavior and address several compatibility problems.

License

While working with firmware integration, I researched closed-source licensing scenarios. For open-source firmware, as long as it is released under a recognized open-source license (such as MIT, GPL or Apache), redistribution and integration are generally permitted by default. However, for closed-source firmware (like proprietary blobs), it is crucial to ensure that there is at least an explicit license that clearly allows redistribution. Without such a license, including or sharing closed-source firmware in an open-source project isn’t legally possible. This process helped me better understand the legal and compliance requirements for safely integrating firmware components.

Curious about the implementation? Check out the pull request: riscv/meta-riscv#535

If you are working on embedded Linux or passionate about open-source, feel free to reach out. I’m always open to new ideas and collaborations.

Embedded Linux, RISC-V, Yocto, Open-Source, Contribution
embedded-linux riscv yocto open-source contribution
This post is licensed under CC BY 4.0 by the author.