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We have a long wish to implement OTA solution into the build framework. The problem is - like always - time / not enough man power to run another (sub)project. Instead of reinventing the wheel - better is to follow / use (learning from) experts made frameworks: https://rauc.io/ as a base perhaps also this https://github.com/silitics/rugix/issues/82 and https://qbee.io/docs/index.html - all as extensions. If we can join resources, to do it right, its easier. But its still timely and complex due to the nature of what Armbian is dealing with.

I will soon be in the situation of having an offsite Helios4 installation at my non-techie father's place on another continent. I want to prepare for being able to do remote updates and if possible even some Armbian image testing. For that, I need a robust, bullet-proof and fully remote mechanism. The most I should assume to be able to ask my father is to unplug and replug the machine to powercycle. I hope you guys don't mind me joining your conversation to discuss my options. In the past, I had a setup on X86 with grub that I would like to hopefully replicate now in function with the Helios 4. There was a very minimal (read-only?) OS in a partition (network with DHCP, sshd) that would be the default boot target. The machine would always boot into this after a power cycle. From there, I issued a grub-reboot command to reboot into my desired OS. If I screwed the main system up somehow, I was always able to go back into the minimal system. How would I go about doing that in the Armbian world? From your discussion, it seems to be about tweaking armbianEnv.txt. But how can I do that in a way that has a bullet-proof option the system falls back to after a power cycle but also allows me to tweak it in a way that survives a warm reboot? I do like btrfs a lot and believe it should play a role here. I read @eselarm mentioning btrfs support in u-boot. How can I verify which u-boot is installed on my machine and whether it supports btrfs or not?

There are various recent reports of windows corrupting the partition table.

If I remember correctly, recently there was a similar thread on the forum re GPT corruption under windows. Not sure, but there might be some useful info. Alternatively, flashing under Linux might be an option.

Hi, I am returning to Armbian after quite a few years. I was trying to follow guidance from nexbox-a95x-armbian and after a search found the debian & Ubunt images (https://www.armbian.com/uefi-arm64/) which I downloaded and wrote to a USB using Rufus (also balenaEtcher). I then tries to look at the FAT32 partition contents but the GPT was corrupt - tried many windows tools and Linux.I "repaired" the GPT using Linux tools but then the FAT32 filesystem was corrupt. What am I doing wrong? any help much appreciated

Thanks for the reply @laibsch . I looked for alternative solutions and it seems to be possible to only disable certain parts of PAM instead of the whole thing. Specifically it seems like the armbian dynamic MOTD is the biggest part of the problem. I opened /etc/pam.d/sshd , and commented out these lines to disable the motd: session optional pam_motd.so motd=/run/motd.dynamic session optional pam_motd.so noupdate And rebooted. This drastically improved the speed, from 5 seconds to around 2-3 seconds on first login and 1 second on subsequent logins. Still pretty bad though, what is there that needs to take one whole second or more to do to open a simple shell connection?

hi, I am unable to boot Armbian on Gamebox G11 Pro. I am able to boot CoreElec and Emuelec easily via sd card. I have tried every tip and trick to boot it, lot of Armbian versions and forks. Can you suggest a suitable armbian dtb file for the same. The most reliable method to boot it.

G11 Pro has S905x2 SoC, 2GB RAM ,100Mbps LAN, 16GB eMMC storage with Android 9 preinstalled

@Nick A also there are some problem with root, when i try ‘su’ on terminal emulator, it showed /system/xbin/su : permission denied is there any problem with root?

@Cancer if NetworkManager is masked I'd unmask that for use with netplan e.g. systemctl unmask NetworkManager systemctl enable NetworkManager systemctl start NetworkManager In the 'minimal IOT' images for OrangePi Zero 3, NetworkManager is not shipped with my images. I'd need to install that myself. Perhaps for other boards or images, NetworkManager could have been included by default. (but like you mentioned masked) in my /etc/netplan/configfile.yaml , I configured it as like that 3 lines, removed other liines so that I used NetworkManager utilities to configure the interfaces. I think that is 'simplier' than fumbling with netplan yaml configs which I'm unfamiliar as well. I'm actually running a Wifi AP, but that the AP itself is not managed by NetworkManager, it is managed by hostapd, as given prior https://gist.github.com/ag88/de02933ba65500376d1ff48e504b1bf3 I prefer hostapd as like discussed with @bushw, I think NetworkManager WiFi AP uses dnsmasq by default and setup a NAT (i.e. configures firewall rules for NAT masquerade) https://thekelleys.org.uk/dnsmasq/doc.html and a dhcp server to distribute ip address to the Wifi clients. While this works, it may not be the configuration I prefer. The other thing is hostapd logs every wifi connection in journalctl logs, that is something I specifically want, so that I can check the connections if need be. NetworkManager it seemed do not log the connection attempts at the AP. As to the rational that NetworkManager WiFi AP uses dnsmasq and setup NAT, 'mess with firewall rules', I think that is because it is a 'canonical' configuration that 'just works'. Because otherwise you need to consider routing , bridging , whether to run dhcp server etc which don't have any standard setup for a 'WiFI AP' based network. I.e. the config is specific and unique to your network configuration (the whole physical network, not just the board) and you need to configure that manually, e.g. with using hostapd. you can build 'very complex' networks if you bother to go the distance, e.g. to do routing, ipv6, special NAT, special firewalling etc, to the extend if you have the skill, I think you can even configure clients to 'roam' across WiFI APs in your network, that is not 'mesh' but rather a full 'autoroam' setup of network configs. but everything is manual, custom and specific / unique to your physical network. on a different off-topic note, my WiFI AP (hotspot) that I configured as described in the gist has been running (very) well on my OrangePi Zero 3 'for months' practically as a desktop WiFI AP. Throughput is good (I get slightly above 100 Mbps due to OrangePi Zero 3 having a good wifi chip), Armbian runs well on it, and I even run various apps on it. e.g. I managed to run rpi-monitor on it there is a thread about OrangePi Zero 3 but that it seemed for the edge kernels and images, there may be 'some troubles', I've not tried it though. I'm not sure if it affects the 'stable' images, hopefully that the 'stable' images which is a bit older in terms of kernel releases are still ok.

I already ordered a usb to usb cable, bout 0.5 meters ( about 20 inches ) Already have adb too

@ag123 I was writing about configuration from minimal armbian image for bananapi pro, you're writing something about gnome interface... your default it's in minimal armbian image default in the file /etc/netplan/armbian-default.yaml (different name for some reason known to Igor) and this file should be set to 600 as required by netplan while it isn't in the image. As I wrote before Network manager is masked where have you taken this idea from? It's running so why do you want to install nmtui is best of all. Hmm maybe also old and bad from someone's perspective Anyway , question is if network manager should be unmasked (what then?), or default netplan config changed to some dhcp settings for netplan to directly get info about network. How can i be sure that config will work after reboot?

The mmcblkXbootX partitions are hardware defined partitions on eMMC storage device and can be used by storing boot firmware.

@Ducdanh Nguyen it should work. https://developer.android.com/tools/adb

@Cancer Netplan is from Canonical, so I'd guess ubuntu would likely use a similar setup https://netplan.io/ https://netplan.readthedocs.io/en/stable/netplan-tutorial/#running-netplan-for-the-first-time https://docs.armbian.com/User-Guide_Networking/ and the renderers can be NetworkManager or Systemd-Networkd as described in their pages as well. The setup is less than intuitive, but that I'm more familiar with NetworkManager. What I did instead is that, for my netplan config /etc/netplan/10-dhcp-all-interfaces.yaml: network: version: 2 renderer: NetworkManager # Different than 'networkd' I only used a 'minimal' config as like above. That would make it use NetworkManager as the renderer. I think it is also necessary to install NetworkManager for some e.g. 'minimal IOT' images apt install NetworkManager Then that if you are running it with a keyboard, monitor with gnome graphical interface you can use a gui editor like nm-connection-editor network-manager-applet https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/NetworkManager to setup the network configs, the Gui is kind of 'guided' and tends to be 'easier' for beginners. if you don't have that I think there is nmtui - text based with (ncurses) menus nmcli - command line cli configs if you are using nmcli say operating from a text console, there are some tutorials you may find through a web (e.g. google) search https://www.cyberciti.biz/faq/redhat-network-interface-configuration/ https://www.tecmint.com/nmcli-configure-network-connection/ https://www.cyberciti.biz/faq/how-to-add-network-bridge-with-nmcli-networkmanager-on-linux/ https://dev.to/faaiq_amarullah/managing-networking-based-on-rhel-8-202e in general, while editing network interfaces, I take 'ample precautions' and operate over the serial debug console (using a usb-uart dongle), as you may get 'locked out' if you are in one of the network connections that you are editing. If you are using a full desktop say with a monitor and keyboard, that's ok as well. I think the 'iot minimal' images some of those use Systemd-Networkd as default, so some of the setup may still be in Systemd e.g. Systemd-resolved. That could affect your DNS resolver configs, what I did is I googled for configs about Systemd-resolved and maintained my primary and secondary (DNS) nameservers in /etc/systemd/resolved.conf I'm not too sure if that is after all necessary. NetworkManager is 'higher level' than configuration commands as like ip or ifconfig, in a sense that it 'manages' the interfaces. while ip and ipconfig are normally per-invocation command, NetworkManager stores its setup in /etc/NetworkManager. One should normally use the gui or nmcli / nmtui commands to configure them instead of editing the files directly. And remember to save the configs as permanent instead of temporary while using the gui, nmcli or nmtui. With that normally the configs will persist across reboots. This is probably more organised perhaps 'simplier' than say editing scripts say using the 'old' way say in /etc/interfaces. After you configured interfaces e.g. with nmcli, nmtui or the gui editors, normally to check status of the interfaces you could run commands like nmcli c show (show connections) nmdli d status (show devices) etc to show the state of interfaces configured by NetworkManager. the 'lower level' commands like ip (or ifconfig (apt install net-tools to get that) ip link (show link status) ip a (show addresses) can also be used to check on the status of the intefaces. listing wifi APs I think is nmcli d wifi list connecting to an AP I think is nmcli d connect SSID password "wifipassword" name a_name_for_this_connection ifname wlan0 note that there are options for reconnect, normally it does that, if that is not desired you may need to edit that say via nmcli c edit connection etc

I don't like brainless matrix. Not using ifconfig however newer doesn't always mean better especially when it's not fool proof configured. Nevermind. When in new basic images we have 3 programs/processes instead of one for network and system after reboot doesn't come to back without checking configuration something is wrong. if one is new to new config must find what manages the network. Question is who are images for? Not for newbies for sure. Correct me if I'm wrong in any point: I can see in docs on main pages that netplan.io controls configuration. Really? Network manager does it however is masked and netplan is redirected to network manager config from what I've seen. When somebody doesn't know newer stuff must investigate/ask/look for solution or having at least admin knowledge in this matter. docs say that at first boot I should see: ``` Internet connection was not detected. Connect via wireless? [Y/n] y Multiple wireless adaptors detected. (...) ``` Never have seen such thing at all in armbian Docs should show defaults properly and if one needs more the rest in deeper details. However it doesn't look

Great to see continued development for RK3318/RK3328 boards, Armbian support really helps unlock their full potential for lightweight Linux projects.

@usual user The USB and Ethernet ports are exposed, but how would that work exactly? I don't know how to make the software boot from USB or Ethernet and even if I did I don't know what to boot into that can write an image file to the emmc chip. I can find no info on this on radxa or armbian sources.

@bushw ok this is what i saw in my setup running as an ap (I used netplan and NetworkManager - but I do not use its AP (wifi hotspot) features ) > sudo iptables -L Chain INPUT (policy ACCEPT) target prot opt source destination Chain FORWARD (policy ACCEPT) target prot opt source destination Chain OUTPUT (policy ACCEPT) target prot opt source destination ^ empty sudo nft list ruleset ^ empty my setup is documented here: https://gist.github.com/ag88/de02933ba65500376d1ff48e504b1bf3 I'm running and using hostapd for AP, for one thing hostapd produce logs for every client that connects to the wifi AP, that is far better than the 'built-in' 'easy' AP say with NetworkManager. Now I'd try to explain why you observe what you observe: --------- Network Manager could be using DNSmasq https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dnsmasq https://thekelleys.org.uk/dnsmasq/doc.html when it setup the AP, it creates an NAT so that the wifi-subnet can access the upstream network https://tldp.org/HOWTO/html_single/Masquerading-Simple-HOWTO/ in addition,, DNSmasq also provides a dhcp server (to distribute ip addresses to the connecting wifi clients) and ipv6 router advertisement. that is what makes it 'simple'. don't like that? install and setup hostapd https://w1.fi/hostapd/ install and setup a dhcp server if you need it https://www.isc.org/dhcp/ install and setup radvd if you need ipv6 https://github.com/radvd-project/radvd those 3 above can normally be installed via apt next configure and setup the network interfaces and hostapd like what I did: key is (*unmanage* the WiFi interface and use hostapd to manage it, manual configure it) https://gist.github.com/ag88/de02933ba65500376d1ff48e504b1bf3 then you can choose to setup a network bridge or routing as you deemed fit. or even NAT - via ip tables or nftables https://wiki.nftables.org/wiki-nftables/index.php/Main_Page ^ if you do this, then that is what dnsmasq (probably called by NetworkManager) tries to do for you to make it 'easy' but if you configure everything yourself, using hostapd and the respective individual tools (dhcp server, radvd etc), no interference from Netplan, NetworkManager , dnsmasq, doesn't touch your iptables or nftables --- this mode: AP for wifi interface is a *feature* that you used in NetworkManager (dnsmasq) this is different from saying that Netplan and/or NetworkManager * *maliciously* change firewall configs for all possible combinations of network interfaces and configurations* don't like that AP feature / implementation in NetworkManager? you could probably take it up with RedHat https://docs.redhat.com/en/documentation/red_hat_enterprise_linux/7/html/networking_guide/getting_started_with_networkmanager I'm not sure what other ways are there to configure the AP in NetworkManager so that it doesn't do NAT you would need to experiment if you are using the mode: AP feature in NetworkManager, there are likely various config options https://docs.redhat.com/en/documentation/red_hat_enterprise_linux/8/html/configuring_and_managing_networking/proc_configuring-rhel-as-a-wpa2-or-wpa3-personal-access-point_configuring-and-managing-networking https://www.baeldung.com/linux/nmcli-wap-sharing-internet doing everything manually for WiFi AP using hostapd land individual tools, lets you control every single aspects of the network configs, I prefer this myself over the 'simple' approach e.g. that offered by NetworkManager, this include your firewall rules iptables, nftables etc, it is in part because the 'simple' AP offered by NetworkManager does so using NAT which is basically firewall rulesets i.e. iptables, nftables, if you don't want it to 'touch' that, then you would need to setup things manually and not use NetworkManager's AP mode.

Forum moderatores are there to provide guidance in discussion and take action if things get out of control. Having a wide varity of knowledge in various areas is desireable but not mandatory. As for myself I did not know about that either.

i didn't found any axp chip in my device, but only a controller, it's very small and that's all i found. Is it ok to dump boot img with adb

To be honest, I'm shocked that I need to provide evidence. I assumed this was common knowledge — at the very least among the forum moderators — and that we'd be discussing how it's even possible for the recommended package to behave this way. How to reproduce it? Just implement "mode: ap" in netplan config and check your iptables chains.

We appreciate idea, but we have to look at the health of the whole ecosystem. Our build framework deals with many boards and non-standard low-level components (e.g., U-Boot), and right now it builds reliably only on Ubuntu Jammy. Even Noble isn’t fully compatible yet; adding Debian (unofficially, to some degree, it already works for many years) at this stage would likely cause regressions. As Ubuntu is more present in embedded world, making Debian recommended would costs a lot more from budget we don't have while bringing nothing in return. Exactly. There are many issues in FOSS and there is little we can do. We didn't develop any of those tools - we provide them. Networking stack is an important part, it has its own diversity and this should be in users domain. I think our logic for providing images is a good compromise - we provide Debian and Ubuntu images, we provide them once with systemd-networkd (minimal) and the rest with NetworkManager. Now to keep some consistency and make it simple for non experts, using NetPlan as a central config point also makes sense - for most of use cases and most of users. Those who needs special handling of net stack, its easy to replace them with something else.

moved to userspace

When you do first login, you need to choose correct locales combination and language in desktop should follow - you still need to install desktop packages ... If you don't have locales support in the system, you won't be able to use it in desktop. I think this is the problem. In my case, when I select my own locales (sl_SI.UTF-8) and install those desktop related packages, I have Gnome with Slovene support.