diff --git a/config/boards/nanopi-r6c.csc b/config/boards/nanopi-r6c.csc
index aca43a5b85ec..3be3d7e36ee7 100644
--- a/config/boards/nanopi-r6c.csc
+++ b/config/boards/nanopi-r6c.csc
@@ -37,17 +37,80 @@ function post_family_config__nanopi_r6c_use_mainline_uboot() {
 
 	declare -g BOOTDELAY=1                                       # Wait for UART interrupt to enter UMS/RockUSB mode etc
 	declare -g BOOTSOURCE="https://github.com/u-boot/u-boot.git" # We ❤️ Mainline U-Boot
-	declare -g BOOTBRANCH="tag:v2024.10"
-	declare -g BOOTPATCHDIR="v2024.10"
-	# Don't set BOOTDIR, allow shared U-Boot source directory for disk space efficiency
-
+	declare -g BOOTBRANCH="tag:v2025.01"
+	declare -g BOOTPATCHDIR="v2025.01"
+	declare -g BOOTDIR="u-boot-${BOARD}" # do not share u-boot directory
 	declare -g UBOOT_TARGET_MAP="BL31=${RKBIN_DIR}/${BL31_BLOB} ROCKCHIP_TPL=${RKBIN_DIR}/${DDR_BLOB};;u-boot-rockchip.bin"
-
-	# Disable stuff from rockchip64_common; we're using binman here which does all the work already
-	unset uboot_custom_postprocess write_uboot_platform write_uboot_platform_mtd
+	unset uboot_custom_postprocess write_uboot_platform write_uboot_platform_mtd # disable stuff from rockchip64_common; we're using binman here which does all the work already
 
 	# Just use the binman-provided u-boot-rockchip.bin, which is ready-to-go
 	function write_uboot_platform() {
 		dd "if=$1/u-boot-rockchip.bin" "of=$2" bs=32k seek=1 conv=notrunc status=none
 	}
 }
+
+function pre_config_uboot_target__r6c_patch_uboot_dtsi_for_ums() {
+	display_alert "u-boot for ${BOARD}" "u-boot: add to u-boot dtsi for UMS" "info" # avoid a patch, just append to the dtsi file
+	cat <<- EOD >> arch/arm/dts/rk3588s-nanopi-r6c-u-boot.dtsi
+		&u2phy0 { status = "okay"; };
+		&u2phy0_otg { status = "okay"; };
+		&usbdp_phy0 { status = "okay"; };
+		&usb_host0_xhci { dr_mode = "peripheral";  maximum-speed = "high-speed";  status = "okay"; };
+	EOD
+}
+
+# The upstream DTs (kernel 6.13 / u-boot 2025.01) are in flux and different
+# let's just patch to normalize the SD and eMMC order as in mainline Linux DT: https://github.com/torvalds/linux/blob/master/arch/arm64/boot/dts/rockchip/rk3588s-nanopi-r6.dtsi#L14-L15
+function pre_config_uboot_target__r6c_patch_uboot_dtsi_for_sd_emmc_order() {
+	display_alert "u-boot for ${BOARD}" "u-boot: add to u-boot dtsi for SD=mmc0 and eMMC=mmc1" "info"
+	cat <<- EOD >> arch/arm/dts/rk3588s-nanopi-r6c-u-boot.dtsi
+		/ { aliases { mmc0 = &sdmmc; mmc1 = &sdhci; }; };
+	EOD
+}
+
+# "rockchip-common: boot SD card first, then NVMe, then mmc"
+# include/configs/rockchip-common.h
+# -#define BOOT_TARGETS "mmc1 mmc0 nvme scsi usb pxe dhcp spi"
+# +#define BOOT_TARGETS "mmc0 nvme mmc1 scsi usb pxe dhcp spi"
+# On R6C, mmc1 is the eMMC, mmc0 is the SD card slot
+function pre_config_uboot_target__r6c_patch_rockchip_common_boot_order() {
+	declare -a rockchip_uboot_targets=("mmc0" "nvme" "mmc1" "scsi" "usb" "pxe" "dhcp" "spi") # for future make-this-generic delight
+	display_alert "u-boot for ${BOARD}/${BRANCH}" "u-boot: adjust boot order to '${rockchip_uboot_targets[*]}'" "info"
+	sed -i -e "s/#define BOOT_TARGETS.*/#define BOOT_TARGETS \"${rockchip_uboot_targets[*]}\"/" include/configs/rockchip-common.h
+	regular_git diff -u include/configs/rockchip-common.h || true
+}
+
+function post_config_uboot_target__extra_configs_for_r6c_mainline() {
+	display_alert "u-boot for ${BOARD}/${BRANCH}" "u-boot: enable board-specific configs" "info"
+	run_host_command_logged scripts/config --enable CONFIG_DM_PMIC_FAN53555
+	run_host_command_logged scripts/config --enable CONFIG_CMD_MISC
+
+	display_alert "u-boot for ${BOARD}/${BRANCH}" "u-boot: enable EFI debugging commands" "info"
+	run_host_command_logged scripts/config --enable CMD_EFIDEBUG
+	run_host_command_logged scripts/config --enable CMD_NVEDIT_EFI
+
+	display_alert "u-boot for ${BOARD}/${BRANCH}" "u-boot: enable more compression support" "info"
+	run_host_command_logged scripts/config --enable CONFIG_LZO
+	run_host_command_logged scripts/config --enable CONFIG_BZIP2
+	run_host_command_logged scripts/config --enable CONFIG_ZSTD
+
+	display_alert "u-boot for ${BOARD}/${BRANCH}" "u-boot: enable gpio LED support" "info"
+	run_host_command_logged scripts/config --enable CONFIG_LED
+	run_host_command_logged scripts/config --enable CONFIG_LED_GPIO
+
+	display_alert "u-boot for ${BOARD}/${BRANCH}" "u-boot: enable networking cmds" "info"
+	run_host_command_logged scripts/config --enable CONFIG_CMD_NFS
+	run_host_command_logged scripts/config --enable CONFIG_CMD_WGET
+	run_host_command_logged scripts/config --enable CONFIG_CMD_DNS
+	run_host_command_logged scripts/config --enable CONFIG_PROT_TCP
+	run_host_command_logged scripts/config --enable CONFIG_PROT_TCP_SACK
+
+	# UMS, RockUSB, gadget stuff
+	display_alert "u-boot for ${BOARD}/${BRANCH}" "u-boot: enable UMS/RockUSB gadget" "info"
+	declare -a enable_configs=("CONFIG_CMD_USB_MASS_STORAGE" "CONFIG_USB_GADGET" "USB_GADGET_DOWNLOAD" "CONFIG_USB_FUNCTION_ROCKUSB" "CONFIG_USB_FUNCTION_ACM" "CONFIG_CMD_ROCKUSB" "CONFIG_CMD_USB_MASS_STORAGE")
+	for config in "${enable_configs[@]}"; do
+		run_host_command_logged scripts/config --enable "${config}"
+	done
+	# Auto-enabled by the above, force off...
+	run_host_command_logged scripts/config --disable USB_FUNCTION_FASTBOOT
+}