Orange Pi 5...

So I picked up an Orange Pi 5. I am writing this blog with it. "Orange Pi 5 uses Rockchip RK3588S new generation 8-core 64-bit processor, quad-core A76+quad-core A55, with 8nm process design, up to 2.4GHz main frequency, integrated ARM Mali-G610 GPU, embedded high-performance 3D/2D image acceleration module, built-in NPU with 6Tops computing power." I snagged the 8G version as that is reasonable for game emulation. 

I was mildly disappointed in a couple things. 

1. No emmmc memory But it does have an SSD slot. I snagged a fast 1T sdram so I am not concerned. 
2. 5V/4A. That's right. 4A. Most of the USB C power supplies I have are 3A. I suspect 4A is a requirement when you have all the components attached (i.e. an SSD). So I am using a 3A, but will get a juicier power supply. 

I am a fan of Ubuntu, so I snagged the server image via the orangepi.org and https://github.com/Joshua-Riek/ubuntu-rockchip/releases/tag/v1.14.
I always snag the server image so I have less junk installed/to remove.

I then encounted the same pain-point with regard to wireless adapter support. My AE6000 wasn't supported but an older 2.4 RTL8188CUS was kicking around so I got connected after the usual battle with manually setting up netplan.
Then I installed xorg, xfce4, and chromium. X11 started without issue. 

But as soon as I installed mesa-utils and ran glmark2... What the hell do you mean software rendering? Where is my Mali-G610 driver?!
This resulted in much anger and finding little interesting on the web. But I did find some pointers...

sudo apt install mali-g610-firmware 
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:liujianfeng1994/panfork-mesa 
sudo apt update 
sudo apt upgrade 

 Thank you LiuJian you are a hero!

So now its off to run some benchmarks!