Orange Pi CM5 in the uConsole
vxi runs an Orange Pi CM5 (RK3588S) on kernel 6.16+ with a Gentoo patchset — a mainboard resistor swap, no WiFi, mono audio, and restarts that mostly fail.
What it takes
- Purchase required
- Disassembly
- Soldering
Difficulty 3 of 3 — advanced.
Details
After six weeks of testing, vxi published a kernel patchset (github si6Och4j/uconsole-opi-cm5, main development on gitflic.ru): the system runs well enough to compile LLVM at around 60 °C on stock cooling, but audio is mono at best, the WiFi pins are unpopulated, there is no RTC (a DS1307 I²C module fixes that), the 3.3 V rail is noisy and stays up when off, HDMI hot-plug misbehaves and a restart fails about 90 % of the time. Required modification: change R106 (0402) from 10 kΩ to 120–130 kΩ so the module does not start itself. Hardware video decode is not working.
The earlier question thread has Rex explaining why: the Orange Pi (and Radxa) CM5 carries a third connector row that the adapter does not touch, and 'the provided kernel leaves a lot to be desired'. The core directory rates OS support 'barely' and calls it an extensive modification.
Links
Open at Forum threadRelated mods
An RK3588S module with up to 32 GB RAM on HackerGadgets' Radxa adapter: display, keyboard, USB and charging work, no onboard WiFi, mainline kernel since 2026.
A CM5 drops into the CM4 adapter for a faster CPU, up to 16 GB of RAM and USB 3.0 — get a Lite with WiFi, update its EEPROM, and mind the heat.
Every CM4 or CM5 sits on an adapter in the CM3 socket: the $19 open-source original, HackerGadgets' $23 board with NVMe and USB 3.0, or lulu's $20 CM5 kit.
trinity's reference table of every compute core that fits the uConsole — ISA, RAM, eMMC, WiFi, OS support, adapter needed or not — plus the adapter boards.
ClockworkPi's own RK3399 module — two Cortex-A72 plus four A53, Mali-T864, 4 GB — needs no adapter; $129, with a smaller but real software base.
A single-core 1 GHz RISC-V module with 1 GB and no GPU — a terminal machine with long battery life, now sold out, with a small but determined software scene.