Joshua Riek’s ubuntu-rockchip project helped many run working OS images for their Rockchip SBCs, but due to burnout and lack of support, he decided to step away in late 2024, and the project is now archived.However, that doesn’t mean his efforts have gone to waste. GitHub user defcom5-rockchip forked the project and released two Ubuntu 24.04-based distributions working on the Orange Pi 5B, notably integrating two fixes for the Ampak AP6275P WiFi and Bluetooth module, including one that Cypress apparently already fixed in 2018, but took a while to be integrated into Rockchip OS images.Short description of the two OS images
Pi Desktop v1.0-beta – A curated daily-driver desktop: 4K@120 via custom VOP2/dclk kernel work, hardware video decode, zero snaps/telemetry, and “self-healing Bluetooth”: a background service that revives the AP6275P radio wedge in ~10 seconds automatically.
Pi Studio v1.3 — the audio-production sibling: low-latency kernel (PREEMPT/1000Hz), Sonic Pi with an on-NPU AI copilot running locally on the RK3588’s NPU, JACK-transparent PipeWire.
The two repositories above only link to binary images and some documentation. The actual code can be found in a fork of ubuntu-rockchip, and the parts specific to the two WiFi and Bluetooth issues are detailed in the issue tracker.
