Armbian 23.02 ARM/RISC-V OS Released With Linux 6.1 LTS Kernel

[phoronix]

Phoronix: Armbian 23.02 ARM/RISC-V OS Released With Linux 6.1 LTS Kernel

Armbian as the Ubuntu and Debian based Linux distribution that is optimized for single board computers primarily in the ARM/AArch64 and RISC-V space is out with its first major update of 2023...

https://www.phoronix.com/news/Armbian-23.02-Released

[uid313]

If I had a ARM or RISC-V computer, I wouldn't want some special variant of some Linux distribution, I would want a normal general purpose distribution such as Debian, Ubuntu or Fedora.

[kpedersen]

If I had a ARM or RISC-V computer, I wouldn't want some special variant of some Linux distribution, I would want a normal general purpose distribution such as Debian, Ubuntu or Fedora.

I kind of get that. In general it is possible though. Just copy across the "dirty" kernel (including modules) and use debootstrap to create a clean Debian userland.

I do this on the Raspberry Pi (the minimal image is random) and Jetson Nano (the provided image is horrific bloat). Obviously with the Jetson Nano I need to copy across the GPU blobs as part of a BSP.

Armbian is still very useful to get that initial kernel and userspace suitable for bootstrapping a clean install.

[uid313]

I kind of get that. In general it is possible though. Just copy across the "dirty" kernel (including modules) and use debootstrap to create a clean Debian userland.

I do this on the Raspberry Pi (the minimal image is random) and Jetson Nano (the provided image is horrific bloat). Obviously with the Jetson Nano I need to copy across the GPU blobs as part of a BSP.

Armbian is still very useful to get that initial kernel and userspace suitable for bootstrapping a clean install.

Ugh, sounds complicated. Makes me not want to get an ARM or RISC-V board.

[zexelon]

Ugh, sounds complicated. Makes me not want to get an ARM or RISC-V board.

Yeeaaahhhh the whole ecosystem around ARM / RISC-V is really tough on users atm. Arm is quite a bit better, but RISC-V is basically "dont touch unless you know what your doing... or want to spend months learning"!

[OneTimeShot]

I think Armbian is pretty much just recompiled Debian, but probably there are blobs everywhere for all of those random chips these boards come with.

Hopefully the work will get rolled into an official Debian release for Arm/RISC-v someday…

[kpedersen]

Ugh, sounds complicated. Makes me not want to get an ARM or RISC-V board.

I suppose the main issue is that they don't have a common BIOS. That tech, though seen as dated now was actually a breakthrough in terms of compatibility and ease of use. Yes, "they" are undermining this with bad UEFI implementations these days so it will allow more exotic architectures to catch up perhaps?

[luisbandalap]

I think Armbian is pretty much just recompiled Debian, but probably there are blobs everywhere for all of those random chips these boards come with.

Hopefully the work will get rolled into an official Debian release for Arm/RISC-v someday…

Well no, Armbian is not a recompiled debian, almost all packages come from debian or ubuntu (even official repos are used). Some additions to vanilla debian (or ubuntu) are armbian utilities (configuration and customization), armbian custom desktop configurations (for boards with enough power to run a light desktop) and it's own compiled linux kernel (tailored for every board).

[Turbine]

Armbian just updated the kernel for the orange pi 5 and it broke the hdmi display for xorg (Klipper Screen) as well as SPI.

[marlock]

you're on an SBC odds are high that ARMBIAN is the best distro you can pick, at least if you're sticking to a debian/ubuntu base...

they aren't easy to support on generic images and this is not a 1-year-old distro by a single dev

it does have its vices, but if you're hoping for out-of-the-box support for any sort of hardware acceleration, working interfaces (i2c, hdmi, wifi, PoE), optimal cpu speed/power/temp tuning and whatnot it's hard to find anything better

if you're willing to move to an Arch Linux base and/or spending time putting features to work, then there is a wider range of options including generic distro images that can handle a wide range of SBCs

it's worth mentioning the earlier hardware acceleration and corner features support offered by a couple specialized distros like LibreELEC... they might be better for supported SBCs than raspbian and generic distros it you're planning on using it as a media center, despite usually distributing distro updates in monoblock distro patches instead of using a package manager to push updated packages individually (i hate that)

ps: 100% agreed on the BIOS vs. UEFI comment