A headless RK3588 Orange Pi that doesn't come up on the network is a black box, unless you watch the debug UART. It shows the bootloader, which overlays get applied, and kernel errors.
Settings
Orange Pi's RK3588 boot script builds the kernel command line from /boot/orangepiEnv.txt:
console= value |
Result |
|---|---|
display |
console on the screen (tty1) |
serial |
console on ttyS2 at 1500000 baud |
both (default) |
both |
Add earlycon=on for early kernel messages when the board hangs before the normal console starts.
1,500,000 baud is unusual: terminal programs default to 115200, which shows only garbage. Set the speed explicitly, and use a USB-UART adapter that supports it.
# on your PC, with the USB-UART adapter on /dev/ttyUSB0
picocom -b 1500000 /dev/ttyUSB0
# or
screen /dev/ttyUSB0 1500000
Where the pins are
| Board | Debug UART |
|---|---|
| Orange Pi 5, 5B, 5 Plus | separate 3-pin debug serial header |
| Orange Pi 5 Max, 5 Pro | on the 40-pin expansion header |
Connect GND, TX→RX and RX→TX; don't connect the adapter's power pin. Use a 3.3 V logic adapter (the RV2's product page, for example, states its debug port uses 3.3 V levels). Check the model's pin definition on its product page for the exact pins.