I have had an Orange Pi 5 max for about six months, still can't get it to boot with a serial console attached which makes it hard to port any alternative operating systems to it.

Wouldn't that be a uboot issue? Perhaps you could piggy-back on this effort.

https://www.reddit.com/r/OrangePI/comments/1buzts4/uboot_v20...

I think that my problem is similar to this [1]. Have tried more than one USB to serial adaptor with the same result, the adaptors work fine on other boards.

The board boots Armbian fine with nothing connected to the serial port.

[1] https://github.com/Joshua-Riek/ubuntu-rockchip/issues/1073

I don't think so, it just doesn't power up with the serial cable connected.

I just googled Orange Pi, tried to click on the first result, which is their website. But they have no https site set up, so I got no host. Http works but only on iOS safari, that's a bit weird. Is this CN net weirdness?

I got something similar last year. That was the reminder I needed that software competency actually matters too, and I went with RPi.

Just wait until you try downloading Orange Pi's OS...

I think the RPi 4 is still competitive. At ~40$, Orange Pi's boards are Allwinner H618 and Rockchip RK3566 based boards. I do have an Orange Pi 3B in use because it has an nvme port, but the RPi 4 is generally faster.

The Raspberry Pi 5 and Orange Pi 5 are just too expensive. I do have some of the Pi 5s from both these companies, but have replaced them with Intel N100 mini-PCs instead. But I'll still use RPi 4's for my 3d printers and other lower-end uses.

And RPi's software support is just better: I've got an Orange Pi 4. Orange Pi hasn't updated their OS for it in years. Last time I tried to get it working in Armbian, HDMI output was (is?) broken: https://forum.armbian.com/topic/26818-opi-4-lts-no-hdmi-outp...

Orange Pi also has Rockchip RK3588 based boards.

RK35XX only worked well because volunteer maintainers like Joshua Riek were doing hard work, the support of those boards falls when people like him burn out.

For me personally, much of the value of the RPI products is knowing they will have long term support.

RockChip really only appears to care about embedded auto apps etc...thus their support horizon is more about sustainment and not enhancement, and they do little to support the community.

Where can I download the documentation for the BCM2712 in the RPi 5?

I can get this for the RK3588 though there are problems with my Orange Pi board that uses it.