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Update rpi5 article with changes from Ivan
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154 changes: 130 additions & 24 deletions _posts/2025/2025-11-04-raspberrypi5-opensuse.md
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Original file line number Diff line number Diff line change
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
---

author: Lubos Kocman
date: 2025-11-18 07:00:00+02:00
author: Ivan Ivanov and Lubos Kocman
date: 2025-11-04 07:00:00+02:00
layout: post
image: /wp-content/uploads/2025/11/rpi5.png
license: CC-BY-SA-3.0
Expand All @@ -22,29 +22,122 @@ tags:

---

SUSE delivers Raspberry Pi 5 U-Boot support
# SUSE delivers Raspberry Pi 5 support

It is finally happening. Raspberry Pi 5 users can now look forward to proper **U-Boot support**, thanks to the hard work of the SUSE Hardware Enablement team.
It is finally happening. [Raspberry Pi 5](https://en.opensuse.org/HCL:Raspberry_Pi5) users can now look forward to proper
support in openSUSE Tumbleweed.

Many Raspberry Pi 5 users have been [eagerly waiting](https://forums.opensuse.org/t/booting-microos-on-raspberry-pi-5-sd-card/171805) for upstream U-Boot support for their boards.
**And it is not just about U-Boot, it is so much more.** This is thanks to the hard work of many parties like SUSE Hardware Enablement team,
[RaspberryPi](https://www.raspberrypi.com/), [Ideas on Board](https://ideasonboard.com/), [Linaro](https://www.linaro.org/), and many other engineers, along with Linux
and [U-Boot](https://u-boot.org/) subsystem maintainers and many other engineers were patient enough to review our patches.

We are happy to share that the SUSE Hardware Enablement team has made great progress on this front.
Many maybe wondering why it is taking so long to enable Raspberry Pi 5-based
devices to work on anything other than Raspberry Pi OS; they no longer need to wonder.

**Ivan Ivanov**, who did the [initial U-Boot work for the Pi 5](https://lore.kernel.org/all/[email protected]/), teamed up with **Matthias Brugger** and the rest of the team to move things forward.
## About the boot process

We would also like to highlight the ongoing efforts from **Andrea della Porta** and **Stanimir Varbanov**, who are doing amazing work upstreaming various device drivers.
First, let's highlight the simplified OS-level boot architecture differences.

Once PCIe support lands, users will be able to boot via USB too. That means the same convenient self-install images you already know from [MicroOS](https://get.opensuse.org/microos), and other specialised images will just work on the Raspberry Pi 5. This work is currently being led by SUSE’s **Torsten Duwe**.
In Raspberry Pi OS, firmware located in the device's EEPROM directly runs the
vendor-developed Linux kernel.

## About the boot process
In openSUSE, we use GRUB2. However, GRUB2 itself requires the machine to have UEFI
firmware interfaces to be able to locate boot artifacts. Therefore, openSUSE uses
the popular [Das U-Boot](https://u-boot.org/) bootloader to provide these interfaces.

This software combination works fine for (open)SUSE products. But this means we
have had to add the missing RPi 5 features to U-Boot and the Linux kernel.

## New RPi 5 hardware enhancements

Now, on the hardware side, there are some significant differences between the
RPi 5 and all previous generations of devices.

Before the RPi 5, all controllers (like USB, Ethernet, SPI, I2C, GPIO, CSI, and so on)
were part of the main SoC (BCM2835, BCM2836, BCM2835, BCM2710, BCM2711) and
were more or less the same across different generations of these SoCs. Adding
support for them in U-Boot and Linux was more or less straightforward.

On the RPi 5, things changed significantly. There is a new "south bridge" chip,
the RP1, which contains all of the above controllers. The RP1 is connected to
the main SoC (BCM2712) via a PCIe bus.

Fortunately, one thing has remained the same: The MicroSD card controller is
still part of the main SoC. So, besides a few small differences in the SD
controller's internals, adding support for it to U-Boot and the Linux kernel
was relatively easy.

[Initial U-Boot support for bcm2712 SD controller](https://lore.kernel.org/u-boot/[email protected]/)

[Add minimal boot support for Raspberry Pi 5] (https://lore.kernel.org/linux-arm-kernel/[email protected]/)

This led people to [**think**](https://forums.opensuse.org/t/booting-microos-on-raspberry-pi-5-sd-card/171805)
that openSUSE was ready to run on this device.

But this was just the beginning of a long journey.

Let's go back to PCIe. Older RPi's also have a PCIe root complex, but the
RPi 5's is a little bit different. So, for U-Boot or Linux to be able to access
all of the interesting controllers devices, we had to add support for it in U-Boot and
the Linux kernel. This was done by this patch set:

[Add PCIe support for bcm2712](https://lore.kernel.org/linux-arm-kernel/[email protected]/)

There are a few other important pieces that landed in the Linux kernel:

* [Add support for new MSI-X Interrupt Peripheral](https://lore.kernel.org/linux-arm-kernel/[email protected]/)

* [Add support for pin control driver for BCM2712 SoC](https://lore.kernel.org/linux-arm-kernel/[email protected]/)

* [Add support for clocks provided by RP1](https://lore.kernel.org/linux-arm-kernel/[email protected]/)

* [Implement RaspberryPi RP1 gpio support](https://lore.kernel.org/linux-arm-kernel/[email protected]/)

After the PCI Express driver was working and Linux could see devices attached
to the PCIe root complex, we had to port the driver that handles the new RP1
chip, behind which are the USB, Ethernet, and so on... This became a difficult
task because many people had different views on how this should be implemented.
But in the end, we got it merged:

[Add support for RaspberryPi RP1 PCI device](https://lore.kernel.org/linux-arm-kernel/[email protected]/)

While server class machines usually rely on UEFI (edk2), smaller devices like the Raspberry Pi use U-Boot. Interestingly, the official Raspberry Pi OS does not use any bootloader at all, so it does not participate in U-Boot development.
Now Linux was able to see devices that were attached behind the RP1 chip.
Of course, these controllers (Ethernet, for example) were a little bit different
than those on the BCM2711, so a new set of patches was required:

[Add support for Raspberry Pi RP1 ethernet controller](https://lore.kernel.org/linux-arm-kernel/[email protected]/)

Of course, there were many more patches required to make this device usable.
A really, really short list of them can be found below.

Currently openSUSE Tumbleweed is booting fine from SD card up to the graphical
Desktop Environment using HDMI output.

What you should expect to be working once booted into Tumbleweed:

* Ethernet
* WiFi
* Bluetooth
* USB
* HDMI
* ...

## What is coming

Hopefully U-Boot will soon gain support for BCM2712 PCIe root complex
controller. This will bring in ability device to boot from disk. Fixes
for Ethernet controller are also on it is way.

[Improve Raspberry Pi 5 support](https://lore.kernel.org/u-boot/[email protected]/)

## Before you start

Before diving into your openSUSE on Raspberry Pi 5 adventure, make sure your device has the latest EEPROM update.
Before diving into your openSUSE on Raspberry Pi 5 adventure, make sure your
device has the latest EEPROM update.

If you just received your Pi 5 without any system on it, you can prepare a MicroSD card with the EEPROM updater using Raspberry Pi Imager, or simply run the following commands from an existing image on your Pi 5:
If you just received your Pi 5 without any system on it, you can prepare
a MicroSD card with the EEPROM updater using Raspberry Pi Imager, or simply
run the following commands from an existing image on your Pi 5:

```
sudo rpi-eeprom-update -a
Expand All @@ -53,18 +146,35 @@ sudo reboot

## Do not skip the Debug Probe

If your Pi 5 seems to hang at the U-Boot stage when testing images, you are not alone. This is a known issue being tracked under [boo#1250991](https://bugzilla.opensuse.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1250991).
If your RPi 5 seems to hang at the U-Boot stage when testing images, you are
not alone. This is a known issue being tracked under:

[boo#1250992](https://bugzilla.opensuse.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1251192).

This is a **temporary workaround**, and the issue is expected to be resolved soon.

For now, users should use a **[Raspberry Pi Debug Probe](https://www.amazon.com/Raspberry-Pi-Debug-Probe/dp/B0C36HXMCB)** (around **10 EUR**) to access the serial console and get past the U-Boot stage. This is a **temporary workaround**, and the issue is expected to be resolved soon as PCIe and related fixes are completed upstream.
Using the Debug Probe will save you a lot of time and frustration while
experimenting with openSUSE on your RPi 5. It is also a handy tool to keep
around for future embedded projects.

Using the Debug Probe will save you a lot of time and frustration while experimenting with openSUSE on your Pi 5. It is also a handy tool to keep around for future embedded projects.
## Really short list of RPi 5 related patches.

* [Add DRM HDMI Codec framework](https://lore.kernel.org/linux-arm-kernel/[email protected]/)

* [Add support for BCM2712 HVS](https://lore.kernel.org/linux-arm-kernel/[email protected]/)

* [Add support for BCM2712 / Pi5 display hardware](https://lore.kernel.org/linux-arm-kernel/[email protected]/)

* [Add watchdog support for BCM2712](https://lore.kernel.org/linux-arm-kernel/[email protected]/)

* [Add Raspberry Pi's RP1 ADC](https://lore.kernel.org/linux-arm-kernel/[email protected]/)

## What images should I try

You can now run most Raspberry Pi 4 compatible [Tumbleweed appliance images](https://download.opensuse.org/ports/aarch64/tumbleweed/appliances/) or **MicroOS** if you prefer the immutable variant on your Raspberry Pi 5. Leap and Leap Micro are currently out of scope for the effort, but are expected to gain full support in their next releases (16.1 and 6.3 released in late 2026).
You can now run most Raspberry Pi 4 compatible [Tumbleweed appliance images](https://download.opensuse.org/ports/aarch64/tumbleweed/appliances/) or **MicroOS** if you prefer the immutable variant on your Raspberry Pi 5.
openSUSE Leap and Leap Micro are currently out of scope for the effort, but are expected to gain full support in their next releases (16.1 and 6.3 released in late 2026).

Before you begin, make sure that you have the **Debug Probe** connected.

Then write one of the Raspberry Pi images from
[openSUSE Tumbleweed appliances](https://download.opensuse.org/ports/aarch64/tumbleweed/appliances/) to your microSD card, and you should be ready to go.

Expand All @@ -74,11 +184,7 @@ If you can’t decide which image to start with, the [Tumblweed Arm GNOME image
xzcat image.aarch64.raw.xz | dd of=/dev/sda bs=1M status=progress conv=fsync; sync
```

You can also explore additional community and experimental images in
[devel:ARM:Factory:Contrib:RPi5 project](https://build.opensuse.org/project/show/devel:ARM:Factory:Contrib:RPi5).

If you run into any issues, we highly recommend reaching out on the [openSUSE Arm matrix channel](https://matrix.to/#/#arm:opensuse.org) or [subscribing](https://lists.opensuse.org/manage/lists/arm.lists.opensuse.org/) to the [openSUSE Arm mailing list](https://lists.opensuse.org/archives/list/[email protected]). Alternatively, you’re welcome to use [forums.opensuse.org](https://forums.opensuse.org/) for general openSUSE-related questions.

If you run into any issues, we highly recommend reaching out on the [openSUSE Arm matrix channel](https://matrix.to/#/#arm:opensuse.org) or [subscribing](https://lists.opensuse.org/manage/lists/arm.lists.opensuse.org/) to the [openSUSE Arm mailing list](https://lists.opensuse.org/archives/list/[email protected]). Alternatively, you’re welcome to use [forums.opensuse.org](https://forums.opensuse.org/) for general openSUSE questions.
For general ARM information, visit the [openSUSE ARM Portal](https://en.opensuse.org/Portal:Arm).

## Why run openSUSE on your RPi 5
Expand All @@ -97,9 +203,9 @@ We also brought a smile to the face of **Tomáš**, one of last weekend’s [ope
The quiz application, widely used by the openSUSE Booth crew around the world, now features an “openSUSE Arm” section that helps participants learn more about openSUSE’s [Arm efforts](https://en.opensuse.org/Portal:Arm).

Stay tuned and keep watching our [Raspberry Pi 5 Hardware Compatibility page](https://en.opensuse.org/HCL:Raspberry_Pi5).

We will share more updates once USB boot and PCIe are fully functional on the Raspberry Pi 5.


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