[Bug]: orangepi5-plus vendor u-boot: No valid device tree binary found

[yaocz]

What happened?

The stable-version images obtained from the download page(https://armbian.com/boards/orangepi5-plus) cannot boot successfully. U-Boot reports errors:

No valid device tree binary found - please append one to U-Boot binary, use u-boot-dtb.bin or define CONFIG_OF_EMBED. For sandbox, use -d <file.dtb>
initcall sequence 00000000002d2de0 failed at call 00000000002c52d0 (err=-1)
### ERROR ### Please RESET the board ###

How to reproduce?

dd if=Armbian_26.5.1_Orangepi5-plus_trixie_vendor_6.1.115_minimal.img of=check.itb bs=512 skip=16384 count=32768
dumpimage -l check.itb

important out:

Image 4 (fdt)
 Description:  U-Boot dtb
 Created:      Sun May 24 15:59:20 2026
 Type:         Flat Device Tree
 Compression:  uncompressed
 Data Size:    0 Bytes = 0.00 KiB = 0.00 MiB
 Architecture: AArch64
 Hash algo:    sha256
 Hash value:   e3b0c44298fc1c149afbf4c8996fb92427ae41e4649b934ca495991b7852b855
Default Configuration: 'conf'
Configuration 0 (conf)
 Description:  rk3588-orangepi-5-plus
 Kernel:       unavailable
 Firmware:     atf-1
 FDT:          fdt
 Loadables:    uboot
               atf-2
               atf-3
 Sign algo:    sha256,rsa2048:dev
 Sign value:   unavailable
 Timestamp:    unavailable

FDT data size is 0.

After pulling the latest source code, I rebuilt the image using the command below. However, the same issue still occurs.

./compile.sh PREFER_DOCKER=no BOARD=orangepi5-plus RELEASE=trixie BUILD_DESKTOP=no BUILD_MINIMAL=yes KERNEL_CONFIGURE=no KERNEL_GIT=shallow ARTIFACT_IGNORE_CACHE=yes

The image boots successfully after writing the source-built u-boot.itb in the image.

dd if=u-boot.itb of=Armbian-unofficial_26.05.0-trunk_Orangepi5-plus_trixie_vendor_6.1.115_minimal.img bs=512 seek=16384 conv=fsync,notrunc

Branch

main (main development branch)

On which host OS are you running the build script and observing this problem?

Ubuntu 24.04 Noble

Are you building on Windows WSL2?

• Yes, my Ubuntu/Debian/OtherOS is running on WSL2

Relevant log URL

https://paste.armbian.com/simufeleco.bash

Code of Conduct

• I agree to follow this project's Code of Conduct

[github-actions]

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[igorpecovnik]

Did you try mainline vesion perhaps?

[yaocz]

Did you try mainline vesion perhaps?

I tested the mainline version from the download page, it works fine.

[EvilOlaf]

This issue tracker is for issues with the framework only. Building Armbian to say. Issues running Armbian shall be reported in forums.

[rpardini]

Re-opened this as

1. official download https://dl.armbian.com/orangepi5-plus/Trixie_vendor_minimal still points to this same borked image
2. this might be the key to understanding the crazy between Jammy-built vendor u-boot vs non-Jammy

The key here is the 0-byte DTB in u-boot.itb, present in that image:

 Image 4 (fdt)
  Description:  U-Boot dtb
  Created:      Sun May 24 07:59:20 2026
  Type:         Flat Device Tree
  Compression:  uncompressed
  Data Size:    0 Bytes = 0.00 KiB = 0.00 MiB
  Architecture: AArch64
  Hash algo:    sha256
  Hash value:   e3b0c44298fc1c149afbf4c8996fb92427ae41e4649b934ca495991b7852b855

If right now I rebuilt that u-boot, both with Jammy and Noble, I get:

[🐳|🔨]    Image 4 (fdt)
[🐳|🔨]     Description:  U-Boot dtb
[🐳|🔨]     Created:      Sun Jun 28 14:29:36 2026
[🐳|🔨]     Type:         Flat Device Tree
[🐳|🔨]     Compression:  uncompressed
[🐳|🔨]     Data Size:    19651 Bytes = 19.19 KiB = 0.02 MiB
[🐳|🔨]     Architecture: AArch64
[🐳|🔨]     Hash algo:    sha256
[🐳|🔨]     Hash value:   d291331ba97d4a8a8e5a119c80084ea9f5752230ad7cafdaa9faf30f98736c50

@yaocz could you try and repro this again using a armbian/build main? Do you still get a 0-byte DTB? What's your Host OS? -- Thanks!

[rpardini]

Download & mounted the image above, found the u-boot package present, which might give more info

Package: linux-u-boot-orangepi5-plus-vendor
Status: install ok installed
Priority: optional
Section: kernel
Installed-Size: 18429
Maintainer: Armbian Linux <info@armbian.com>
Architecture: arm64
Version: 26.5.1
Replaces: armbian-u-boot
Provides: armbian-u-boot
Conflicts: armbian-u-boot, u-boot-sunxi
Description: Das U-Boot for orangepi5-plus
 version "2017.09" git revision "6c807ac5008722e240f5282229c15a40aba4918f" patches hash "b178d01de958c2fe" Extension hooks hash "1f453bd57c7af6e099b5a72518a91bce9c71d79562dee7d778952bdce998db11" uboot functions hash "847d4adb7064ea71ba2d21f714705daed3fd878f37f83c06ba2e134b5b699db0" variables hash "20876da70d5e54ba93bb01cb33aa0c72b977b58c763a1933806987b2f7403680" framework bash hash "2eb22a16315b5e62"
Description-md5:
Armbian-Original-Hash: 2017.09-S39cd-Pcd11-H40c4-V3b75-Bd0d2-R448a

[rpardini]

I've rebuilt from the 6c807ac5008722e240f5282229c15a40aba4918f revision -- still get a non-zero DTB in u-boot.itb.

also checked, and it is not about the image: /usr/lib/linux-u-boot-vendor-orangepi5-plus/u-boot.itb also has a 0-byte DTB section.

so either

1. I am not able to successfully repro due to my own limitations
   or
2. "something" got fixed in the meantime, and building vendor u-boot under non-Jammy now somehow magically works again?