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Banana Pi BPi-R64 Support

Posted Updated
By Joachim Wiberg
2 min read

Infix now supports the Banana Pi BPi-R64, an affordable WiFi-capable router board built around the MediaTek MT7622 SoC. Although it predates the BPi-R3 and uses an older chipset, it remains a capable and cost-effective platform — especially for anyone already running one or looking for a compact router board with a familiar Banana Pi form factor.

Figure 1: Banana Pi BPi-R64 on the desk, ready to go. That’s a PiDP-11 in the background.

Hardware

The BPi-R64 is built around the MediaTek MT7622, a dual-core Cortex-A53 running at 1.35 GHz with 1 GB DDR3L RAM. Networking is handled by a MediaTek MT7531 5-port Gigabit switch (4× LAN + 1× WAN), with full Linux switchdev support for hardware-offloaded bridging and VLANs.

Storage is covered by 8 GB of onboard eMMC and a microSD card slot, with a hardware boot switch (SW1) to select between them — handy for development. A USB 3.0 port rounds out the connectivity.

WiFi is where it gets interesting. The board ships with a MediaTek MT7603E built-in radio (2.4 GHz 802.11n), but it also has two Mini PCIe slots. Install a MediaTek MT7615 card in one of them and Infix will automatically prefer it, giving you dual-band 802.11ac coverage. The board shown here is equipped with one.

Figure 2: Closeup of the BPi-R64 with a MediaTek MT7615 dual-band WiFi card installed in the Mini PCIe slot.

Support Status

The BPi-R64 is classified as Tier 2 support in Infix. Linux images are built and included in official releases, but the board is not yet part of the automated regression test system.

All key hardware features work out of the box:

  • routing between interfaces
  • built-in 4-port LAN switch + WAN with switchdev offload
  • USB 3.0 port
  • microSD and eMMC storage with hardware boot switch
  • factory reset button (hold at power-on)
  • 2.4 GHz 802.11n WiFi (MT7603E, built-in)
  • dual-band 802.11ac WiFi (MT7615, when PCIe card is fitted)

Figure 3: Official BPi-R64 overview with interfaces and chipsets.

Getting Started

Download an SD card image from the latest bootloader builds and flash it to a microSD card. Set the boot switch SW1 to ON (SD card), insert the card, and power on. The system will be accessible via serial console (dedicated Debug UART header, 115200 8N1, pins labeled on the board) or SSH to the hostname advertised over mDNS.

For instructions on installing Infix to the onboard eMMC for permanent deployment, see the board README.

Once running, the system can be upgraded using Linux images from official Infix releases.

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