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Yeah, I’ve looked into the patch file. It doesn’t work with latest u-boot at all. It looks for dtb file, whereas latest u-boot includes mostly dtbi files. I think I’ll have to look into slightly newer than 2020.07 u-boot. I’m guessing it would be easier to port that patch.

Thank you very much for your reply, Werner - and indeed for all the tremendous work you do! The drive is listed as an /dev/nvme0n1p1, so I think I did choose the right overlay. Rootfs UUID is correct. I tested SPI/MTD boot with Armbian 26.2.1, rootfs on NVMe. I erased and reflashed the SPI flash manually: ``` shell sudo flash_eraseall /dev/mtd0 sudo dd if=/usr/lib/linux-u-boot-vendor-orangepi5/u-boot-rockchip-spi.bin \ of=/dev/mtdblock0 bs=1M conv=fsync status=progress sync ``` I then verified that the running system was still using /boot from the SD card: ``` shell findmnt /boot ``` which returned: ``` shell /boot /dev/mmcblk1p1[/boot] ``` I mounted the NVMe rootfs and compared /boot on SD vs NVMe: ``` shell sudo mkdir -p /mnt/nvme sudo mount /dev/nvme0n1p1 /mnt/nvme ls -la /boot ls -la /mnt/nvme/boot ``` The NVMe /boot contents were older/stale compared with the SD /boot, so I synchronized them: ``` shell sudo rsync -aHAX --delete /boot/ /mnt/nvme/boot/ sync ``` I then powered the board off completely, removed the SD card, and tested booting from SPI + NVMe again but it still won't boot without the SD card. I watched your video on UART debugging, but unfortunately, my serial cable is too slow, so I'll get one of those you recommend and try again. Thanks again!

You need to apply the patch to newer sources to build a newer uboot. But the patch will need to be modified (ported) to newer sources as code in uboot changes. That is the whole point of the suggestions I'm this thread. Port the patch to newer uboots and build them to see if newer uboots fix the problem.

This one. The patch from “/build-u-boot/“ directory. That contains mentioned readme.txt. Tried to build u-boot with that patch and newer binaries of u-boot. It failed though. I’m going to try with older version maybe later. As long as Armbian boots from SD card, I’m fine. Justwas curious about it, when it failed to flash into emmc.

@tiobily no worries. you can still interrupt u-boot. In u-boot shell you can try calculating crc32 of memory regions to test memory. memtester tool does not seem to be working.

Please be specific, what patch are you referring to?

@tiobily https://radxa.com/community Try these forums.

@qq20739111 thks, official community = github? https://github.com/radxa-docs/docs/ i asked claude to make a summary of my project with npu: We use the vendor's ACUITY toolkit inside a Docker container (ubuntu-npu:v2.0.10.1) to convert ONNX → quantized .nb files. - Pipeline: onnxsim → pegasus_import → pegasus_quantize → pegasus_export, uint8 quantization, deployed to ~/npu_models/ via push.sh. - Runtime: custom npu_server.c (pre-allocated input buffer, no per-call mmap) that the Python app talks to. - Hard lesson #1 — quantization: only pure Conv+BN+ReLU survives uint8. Attention, SE blocks, hard-swish, LayerNorm all collapse to constant outputs. So no MobileNetV3+, no transformers. - Hard lesson #2 — concurrency hang: NPU IRQs get lost when camera ISP DMA runs in parallel (shared memory bus). Fix: suppress GStreamer buffer copies during inference. Never STREAMOFF/ON the sunxi-vin driver — instant kernel crash. - Result: 12 models running (9 NPU + 3 CPU) at ~40ms/inference.

moved

Hello Armbian Community, I am currently running the following image on my Orange Pi 5 Max: Armbian_community_26.2.0-trunk.668_Orangepi5-max_noble_edge_7.0.0-rc6_kde-neon_desktop Unfortunately, I'm struggling with WiFi and Bluetooth issues: WiFi: No wireless interfaces are detected (no option in network settings). Bluetooth: The service is active, but it cannot scan or find any devices. What I’ve tried so far: Installed armbian-firmware and full-mirror-armbian-firmware. Verified that common wireless tools and relative packages are up to date. Checked rfkill list, but the adapters don't seem to be initialized correctly. I noticed a similar discussion on the DietPi forums regarding the OPi 5 Max Bluetooth (link:DietPi), but I'm unsure if those specific workarounds apply to the current Armbian Edge kernel (7.0-rc6). I understand that maintaining support for newer boards and edge kernels is a huge task. Could anyone point me in the right direction? Are there specific firmware blobs or device tree overlays I need to manually enable for this board? Thank you for your time and for all the hard work on the Armbian project!

BitNet-style ternary brings LLM inference to ExecuTorch via its Vulkan backend, enabling much smaller, bandwidth-efficient models with portable GPU execution on edge devices. Presented at PyTorch Conference Europe 2026. View the full article

@tiobily You can post your issue on the official community as long as you haven't done any hardware modifications yourself. By the way, How did you get the NPU running on this board?

But wifi does not work, although armbian-config sees my wifi network and saves password for it. rk322x-config shows Wifi device: unknown - Device ID: 024c:b723. dmesg: r8723bs: module is from the staging directory, the quality is unknown... r8723bs: unknown parameter 'rtw_enusbss' ignored lsmod shows module as unused: r8723bs 405504 0 Could changing led-confs help?

Hello, I’ve got the same issue with s905x. After going through this topic, I’ve compiled u-boot with newer sources, and it seems not resolving this at all. There was patch mentioned. Do I use it to compile u-boot (instead of the one provided in the u-boot repo) ?

@MMGen First, thanks for a great tutorial! I have a question about gpt. I maintain shrink-backup and I use dd to copy "boot sector" and rsync the rest (VERY easily described) But I do not distinguish any difference between if it's mbr or gpt when using dd, I just copy everything before root partition with dd (and a few MiB extra) then format root, rsync, yadayadayada... (not important) So I got curious why you skip the first 64 512b blocks in the dd for gpt? (for others reading, the 512 is because fdisk ALWAYS returns 512b blocks, even though gpt is actually 4k blocks) dd if=$(echo *.img) of=/dev/sda bs=512 skip=64 seek=64 count=32704 Can you explain why? I tried to find something online referencing the first 64 512b blocks of a gpt partition table, but could not find anything. I would really appreciate you educating me, or some links where I can read up on the reason. Thank you!

@chris178 im using this image ( r5 512 ) with the mem=4g param i tried the nick A image too, same problem. ( i tried the r4, r1, 512 and 4096 ) i didnt tried a different microsd, im going to buy a new one and make a new test maybe i got a faulty board. (im using npu and a lot of cpu, everything running fine) Srry about my poor english, is not my native language 😅

@tiobily Ram detect and training looks just fine above.... you could interrupt the boot and test memory. what OS image did you use above? I could try it on my device (also 8GB but modded). Did you try different microSD cards? Just tried @Nick A image and u-boot section is very similar. However boot continues with linux kernel at the point your debug stalled.... I can't see much clue as to why you're having that issue from the log above unfortunately... Just tried https://github.com/radxa-build/radxa-a733/releases/download/rsdk-r5/radxa-a733_bullseye_cli_r5.output_512.img.xz on a 8GB moded A7Z and it boot fine and free mem as expected...

Thanks, I ran from sdcard and these options work on Dolamee D5: overlays=cpu-hs emmc emmc-ddr-ph45 led-conf-default

hi @chris178! 1 - factory 8gb, not modded, lpddr4 2 - boot log: ▒...... [151]HELLO! BOOT0 is starting! [154]BOOT0 commit : {9f6fab4f-dirty} [168]dram_para_total:0xf [171]vaild para:6 select dram para10 [175][mmc]: mmc driver ver 2024-03-20 10:36 [184][mmc]: Wrong media type 0x0 [188][mmc]: ***Try SD card 0*** [197][mmc]: HSSDR52/SDR25 4 bit [200][mmc]: 50000000 Hz [202][mmc]: 59638 MB [205][mmc]: ***SD/MMC 0 init OK!!!*** [210]DRAM BOOT DRIVE INFO: V0.601 [215]DRAM_VCC set to 1100 mv [217]DRAM CLK =1800 MHZ [220]DRAM Type =8 (8:LPDDR4,9:LPDDR5) [320]Training result is = 7 [323]DRAM Pstate 1 training, frequency is 1200 Mhz [433]Training result is = 7 [436]DRAM Pstate 2 training, frequency is 800 Mhz [642]Training result is = 7 [645]DRAM Pstate 3 training, frequency is 400 Mhz [3829]Training result is = 7 [3832]DRAM Pstate 0 training, frequency is 1800 Mhz [3840]Actual DRAM SIZE =8192 M [3843]DRAM SIZE =8192 MBytes, para1 = 311a, para2 = 20001001, dram_tpr13 = 6067 [3858]DRAM simple test OK. [3864]error:bad magic. [3928]error: dtb not found for scp [3931]mmc not para [3933]Jump to ATF: monitor_base = 0x48000000, uboot_base = 0x4a000000, optee_base = 0x0 NOTICE: BL31: OP-TEE 32bit detected NOTICE: BL31: U-BOOT 32bit detected NOTICE: BL31: v2.5(debug):5fc237a6a NOTICE: BL31: Built : 09:05:28, Feb 26 2025 NOTICE: BL31: No DTB found. ERROR: Error initializing runtime service opteed_fast U-Boot 2018.07-12-boot-aw2501-gb2d229198b2-dirty (Jan 06 2026 - 03:45:33 +0000) Allwinner Technology [03.985]CPU: Allwinner Family [03.988]Model: Radxa Cubie A7A I2C: ready [04.052]DRAM: 8 GiB [04.061]Relocation Offset is: 75d89000 [04.114]secure enable bit: 0 [04.117]PMU: AXP8191 [04.119]PMU: AXP8191 VER_A FDT ERROR:fdt_get_regulator_name:get property handle twi-supply error:FDT_ERR_INTERNAL [04.131]bmu_axp515_probe pmic_bus_read fail [04.135][AXP8191] onoff status: 0x50 = 0x1, 0x51 = 0x0 [04.140][AXP8191] charge status: 0x4 = 0x0 [04.144]CPU=1014 MHz,PLL6=1200 Mhz,AHB=200 Mhz, APB1=24Mhz MBus=600Mhz [04.150]gic: sec monitor mode SPI ALL: ready [04.194]flash init start [04.196]workmode = 0,storage type = 1 [04.200][mmc]: mmc driver ver uboot2018:2024-10-18 9:01:00 -- uboot2018:2025-03-28 10:03:00 [04.208][mmc]: get sdc_type fail and use default host:tm1. [04.216][mmc]: can't find node "mmc0",will add new node [04.221][mmc]: fdt err returned <no error> [04.224][mmc]: Using default timing para [04.228][mmc]: SUNXI SDMMC Controller Version:0x50530 [04.246][mmc]: card_caps:0x3000000a [04.249][mmc]: host_caps:0x3000003f [04.252]sunxi flash init ok get value error [04.262]Loading Environment from SUNXI_FLASH... OK No ethernet found. [04.299]NOT support bridge yet [04.302]Warn: no find panel or bridge [04.403]drm hdmi get mode: 1920x1080@60Hz hdmi0@5520000: use force output detailed mode clock 139190 kHz, flags[5] H: 1920 2008 2052 2080 V: 1080 1082 1087 1115 bus_format: 0 clk_set_rate: <NULL> has NULL parent [04.505]suxni tcon hdmi set rate: 139190000Hz and get diff: -139190000Hz [04.577]the secure storage item0 copy0 magic is bad [04.589]the secure storage item0 copy1 magic is bad [04.593]usb burn from boot delay time 0 [04.599]usb prepare ok [04.902]overtime [04.906]do_burn_from_boot usb : no usb exist skip update boot_param cann't get the boot_base from the env [04.917]update part info [04.922]battery temp is -1 [04.926]update bootcmd [04.934](not enough data: expected >= 8 cells, got 4 cells) Link up timeout Speed change timeout PCIe speed of Gen1 Override default fdtfile to allwinner/sun60i-a733-cubie-a7z.dtb [07.376]libfdt fdt_check_header(): FDT_ERR_BADMAGIC [07.382]libfdt fdt_path_offset() returned FDT_ERR_BADMAGIC [07.388][mmc]: get sunxi-mmc0 string failed [07.392]The storage not support sample function [07.398]## error: update_fdt_dram_para_from_bootpara : FDT_ERR_NOTFOUND ret 0 [07.408]chip id : 0x00005100 0x00004900 0x00004810 0x00001d62 [07.414]mac addr => 08:51:49:58:7f:71 [07.417]chip id : 0x00005100 0x00004900 0x00004810 0x00001d62 [07.423]mac addr => 08:51:49:58:7f:70 [07.427]/chosen/rng-seed node not exit [07.430]no battery, disabled battery functons [07.434]Could not find nodeoffset for bat_supply [07.439]update dts curr_device:0 Device: SUNXI SD/MMC Manufacturer ID: ff OEM: 0 Name: SDU1 Bus Speed: 50000000 Mode : SD High Speed (50MHz) Rd Block Len: 512 SD version 3.0 High Capacity: Yes Capacity: 58.2 GiB Bus Width: 4-bit Erase Group Size: 512 Bytes [ufs]info:Driver version 0.0.24 2024.12.30 16:00 [ufs]info:Cal words 0x60:val 0xb0880000, 0x64:val 0x4f21a959 [ufs]err:uic c 16,uic a 0,1,0 [ufs]err:e 80000010,0,0,0,0 [ufs]err:int s 0,400 [ufs]err:Device not present [ufs]err:wait device link startup failed [ufs]info:peer link startup timeout [ufs]info:Cal words 0x60:val 0xb0880000, 0x64:val 0x4f21a959 [ufs]err:uic c 16,uic a 0,1,0 [ufs]err:e 80000010,0,0,0,0 [ufs]err:int s 0,400 [ufs]err:Device not present [ufs]err:wait device link startup failed [ufs]info:peer link startup timeout [ufs]info:Cal words 0x60:val 0xb0880000, 0x64:val 0x4f21a959 [ufs]err:uic c 16,uic a 0,1,0 [ufs]err:e 80000010,0,0,0,0 [ufs]err:int s 0,400 [ufs]err:Device not present [ufs]err:wait device link startup failed [ufs]info:peer link startup timeout [ufs]info:Cal words 0x60:val 0xb0880000, 0x64:val 0x4f21a959 [ufs]err:uic c 16,uic a 0,1,0 [ufs]err:e 80000010,0,0,0,0 [ufs]err:int s 0,400 [ufs]err:Device not present [ufs]err:wait device link startup failed [ufs]info:peer link startup timeout [ufs]err:link startup failed -6 [ufs]err:ufshcd_probe() failed -6 fail to init ufs sunxi_flash - sunxi_flash sub-system Usage: sunxi_flash sunxi_flash init storage_type sunxi_flash read mem_addr part_name [size] sunxi_flash read_mtd mem_addr part_name [size] sunxi_flash write <mem_addr> <part_name> [size] sunxi_flash write <mem_addr> <part_name> [offset] [size] sunxi_flash write_mtd <mem_addr> <part_name> sunxi_flash boot0 force_dram_update_size <new_val> sunxi_flash boot0 force_dram_update_flag <new_val> Hit any key to stop autoboot: 0 starting USB... USB0: start sunxi USB-DRD... config usb clk ok sunxi USB-DRD init ok... USB EHCI 1.00 scanning bus 0 for devices... 1 USB Device(s) found USB1: start sunxi USB1-Host... config usb clk ok sunxi USB1-Host init ok... USB EHCI 1.00 scanning bus 1 for devices... 1 USB Device(s) found scanning usb for storage devices... 0 Storage Device(s) found Device 0: device type unknown ... is now current device ** Bad device usb 0 ** ** Bad device usb 0 ** mmc0 is current device Scanning mmc 0:2... Scanning mmc 0:3... Found /boot/extlinux/extlinux.conf Retrieving file: /boot/extlinux/extlinux.conf 1307 bytes read in 19 ms (66.4 KiB/s) U-Boot menu 1: Debian GNU/Linux 11 (bullseye) 5.15.147-14-a733 2: Debian GNU/Linux 11 (bullseye) 5.15.147-14-a733 (rescue target) Enter choice: 1: Debian GNU/Linux 11 (bullseye) 5.15.147-14-a733 Retrieving file: /boot/initrd.img-5.15.147-14-a733 31153067 bytes read in 1310 ms (22.7 MiB/s) Retrieving file: /boot/vmlinuz-5.15.147-14-a733 19030528 bytes read in 808 ms (22.5 MiB/s) append: root=UUID=6f750720-329a-45f0-a4b5-abc5797b040a console=ttyAS0,115200n8 rootwait clk_ignore_unused mac_addr=08:51:49:58:7f:71 mac1_addr=08:51:49:58:7f:70 quiet splash loglevel=4 rw earlycon consoleblank=0 console=tty1 coherent_pool=2M irqchip.gicv3_pseudo_nmi=0 cgroup_enable=cpuset cgroup_memory=1 cgroup_enable=memory swapaccount=1 kasan=off Retrieving file: /usr/lib/linux-image-5.15.147-14-a733/allwinner/sun60i-a733-cubie-a7z.dtb 193692 bytes read in 145 ms (1.3 MiB/s) [16.025]libfdt fdt_path_offset() returned FDT_ERR_BADMAGIC [16.034]The storage not support sample function ret 0 [16.136]mac addr => 08:51:49:58:7f:71 [16.140]mac addr => 08:51:49:58:7f:70 [16.145]no battery, disabled battery functons [16.152]update dts stop sunxi USB-DRD ok... stop sunxi USB1-Host ok... Loading Ramdisk to 4824a000, end 49fffbab ... OK ERROR: reserving fdt memory region failed (addr=48000000 size=1000000) [16.232]Starting kernel ... [16.235]total: 16235 ms [16.237][mmc]: MMC Device 2 not found [16.240][mmc]: mmc 2 not find, so not exit NOTICE: [SCP] :wait arisc ready.... NOTICE: [SCP] :arisc version: [d463b9da43dc50320f21ba51c6c51afe2db20d83] NOTICE: [SCP] :arisc startup ready NOTICE: [SCP] :arisc startup notify message feedback NOTICE: [SCP] :sunxi-arisc driver is starting NOTICE: BL3-1: Next image address = 0x40200000 NOTICE: BL3-1: Next image spsr = 0x3c5 nothing happen after that my workaround ( with claude help ) edit extlinux.conf and add mem=4G append root=UUID=0e1a597a-1884-4b41-a07c-733efecf176c console=ttyAS0,115200n8 earlyprintk=sunxi-uart,0x2500000 rootwait mem=4G clk_ignore_unused any higher value dosent work.

Hi Igor, Thank you for your reply. I build an Image for Mekotronics R58V2, but I leaned today we dont have the R58S2 (yet) our current device is the R58s, with a build provided by Mekotronics and the HW decoding works with QT-Multimedia as playback back-end, This is this build: v26.02 rolling for Mekotronics R58S running Armbian Linux 6.1.84-vendor-rk35xx. This device is not yet supported, at least I could not find it here. I will discuss with Mekotronics to get also at least Standard support from Armbian in future. I do have also Mekototronics R58X and R58HD devices we want to use also in ffuture the have better support level here as well. I could not find any Forums related to Mekotronics devices and seams can not open one or add threads to the Rockchip rk35xx section, there loads of OragePi stuff but I could not see that officially you support any of them, anyway I gave up with them cause they are ...lets say below expectations ;-). Please give me a hint. As Iam new here please excuse if you get sometimes strange question, but Iam working with arm boards already for a while. Using CLI is not an option, we actually install LX-Qt together with the application. Thanks for helping!

Booting from mtd/nvme should just work. Most common problems: - dirty mtd/emmc. vendor/unmatching boot loader can cause issues. - mixup between m.2 sata and actual nvme. Correct overlay/dt must be used - wrong rootfs uuid in armbianEnv.txt after running armbian-install (after done, do not reboot but mount freshly written nvme to a random folder and check if the uuid is correct)

Hi everyone, I just got an Orange Pi 5 and am experiencing the same issue as the OP. I've since then installed the bootloader on the SD card and the rootfs on the NVME drive. I don't really understand what came out of the discussion here: is it possible to boot from the MTD? Thanks a lot! EV

Gnome (wayland) desktop with kernel 6.18.y Probably this way? apt install mpv mpv --hwdec=auto test.mkv (+) Video --vid=1 (*) (hevc 1920x816 25.000fps) (+) Audio --aid=1 --alang=mul (*) (aac 2ch 48000Hz) AO: [alsa] 48000Hz stereo 2ch float VO: [gpu] 1920x816 yuv420p But something is still missing ... not hw accelerated. Sorry, not an expert here. I am happy when Chromium says it.

A friendlier, faster, snap-free desktop install in armbian-configIf you've installed a desktop environment with armbian-config over the last few months, you may have noticed things feel different: there's a tier you can pick, the browser actually works on every arch, uninstall doesn't take half your system with it, and there's no snap pop-up surprising you on Ubuntu builds. That's not by accident — the desktop submodule has been quietly rebuilt from the ground up. Here's what landed, why we did it, and what it means for you. Pick the desktop you want — at install, and afterThree tiers, instead of one all-or-nothing install: minimal — DE + display manager + a terminal. About 500 MB. Perfect for headless boards with an occasional HDMI session, or anyone who'd rather curate apps themselves.mid — adds a WWW browser, file manager, image viewer, media player, calculator, archive tool, torrent client, and the SD-card flasher. About 1 GB. The "everyday desktop" sweet spot.full — adds LibreOffice, GIMP, Inkscape, Audacity, Thunderbird, and VS Code. About 2.5 GB. Workstation-shaped.And — because changing your mind is allowed — you can move between tiers any time without a reinstall. armbian-config --api module_desktops upgrade de=xfce tier=full computes the delta and only adds what's missing. The reverse path, downgrade, only removes packages from the original install manifest, never anything you added on your own. Snap-free Chromium, Firefox, and ThunderbirdOn Ubuntu, the apt names chromium, firefox, and thunderbird are snap-transitional packages — installing them silently pulls in snapd, runs the apps in a snap sandbox, and gives you a slow start, broken hardware acceleration, and a confusing menu of "two Chromiums" if you ever want the real thing. Armbian images don't ship snapd, so we now route those names to real, native .debs hosted on apt.armbian.com. The desktop install path writes an apt pin priority file at /etc/apt/preferences.d/armbian-desktops that forces our packages to win over the snap-shims — even on systems where the snap version is technically newer. The result: apt install chromium gives you a real, native Chromium. No snapd. No surprise pop-ups. On amd64 systems, the browser slot maps to Google Chrome (also from apt.armbian.com); on RISC-V Ubuntu builds you get real Firefox. Debian releases keep using upstream chromium / firefox-esr — those have always been real .debs and need no help. One desktop, every supported distro and archEach DE — XFCE, GNOME, KDE Plasma, KDE Neon, MATE, Cinnamon, i3-wm, xmonad, Enlightenment, Budgie, Deepin — is now a single declarative YAML file in the configng repo. The engine works out which packages exist on which release on which arch, substitutes per-platform replacements where needed, and silently drops broken ones. Same XFCE definition runs on Debian bookworm/trixie/forky and Ubuntu noble/resolute across arm64 / amd64 / armhf / riscv64. Adding a new desktop environment is a YAML edit and a smoke test — no per-distro shell scripts, no codepaths to chase. Clean uninstall, every timeEvery desktop install records a manifest of exactly which packages it added — under /etc/armbian/desktop/<de>.packages. Removal undoes only those. Packages that were already on your system before you installed the desktop stay put. No more "I uninstalled XFCE and lost half my system." The little stuff that's easy to missAuto-login that doesn't trash your config. Enable / disable autologin for gdm3, sddm, or lightdm via in-place sed edits — your WaylandEnable=false and other tweaks survive.Container-aware. Same code path works inside Docker without trying to start a display manager. CI builds and scripted installs work without special-casing.U2F security keys. Plug in your Yubikey and WebAuthn just works — the udev rules ship via libfido2-1 on resolute, libu2f-udev on older releases.Printer panel works. GNOME Settings → Printers no longer says "some settings cannot be unlocked" — cups-pk-helper ships with every desktop install now.VS Code from us, not Microsoft's repo. Installing code no longer prompts you to add Microsoft's apt source — we host the real package, the prompt is suppressed, the pin keeps Microsoft from sneaking in over the top.A weekly self-audit catches driftA scheduled Claude AI supported GitHub Actions workflow scans the YAML matrix against armbian/build's supported releases and the live Debian/Ubuntu archives — flags releases not yet covered, flags packages that no longer exist upstream — then opens a PR with proposed YAML fixes. Dead packages and missing releases stop accumulating silently. Try itOn any modern Armbian install: sudo armbian-config # or scripted: sudo armbian-config --api module_desktops install de=xfce tier=full sudo armbian-config --api module_desktops upgrade de=xfce tier=full sudo armbian-config --api module_desktops downgrade de=xfce tier=mid sudo armbian-config --api module_desktops remove de=xfce Supported desktops today: XFCE, GNOME, KDE Plasma, KDE Neon (Ubuntu noble only), MATE, Cinnamon, i3-wm and xmonad, Enlightenment, Budgie and Deepin experimental. Supported targets: Debian bookworm / trixie / forky and Ubuntu noble / resolute on every Armbian arch. View the full article

A friendlier, faster, snap-free desktop install in armbian-configIf you've installed a desktop environment with armbian-config over the last few months, you may have noticed things feel different: there's a tier you can pick, the browser actually works on every arch, uninstall doesn't take half your system with it, and there's no snap pop-up surprising you on Ubuntu builds. That's not by accident — the desktop submodule has been quietly rebuilt from the ground up. Here's what landed, why we did it, and what it means for you. Pick the desktop you want — at install, and afterThree tiers, instead of one all-or-nothing install: minimal — DE + display manager + a terminal. About 500 MB. Perfect for headless boards with an occasional HDMI session, or anyone who'd rather curate apps themselves.mid — adds a WWW browser, file manager, image viewer, media player, calculator, archive tool, torrent client, and the SD-card flasher. About 1 GB. The "everyday desktop" sweet spot.full — adds LibreOffice, GIMP, Inkscape, Audacity, Thunderbird, and VS Code. About 2.5 GB. Workstation-shaped.And — because changing your mind is allowed — you can move between tiers any time without a reinstall. armbian-config --api module_desktops upgrade de=xfce tier=full computes the delta and only adds what's missing. The reverse path, downgrade, only removes packages from the original install manifest, never anything you added on your own. Snap-free Chromium, Firefox, and ThunderbirdOn Ubuntu, the apt names chromium, firefox, and thunderbird are snap-transitional packages — installing them silently pulls in snapd, runs the apps in a snap sandbox, and gives you a slow start, broken hardware acceleration, and a confusing menu of "two Chromiums" if you ever want the real thing. Armbian images don't ship snapd, so we now route those names to real, native .debs hosted on apt.armbian.com. The desktop install path writes an apt pin priority file at /etc/apt/preferences.d/armbian-desktops that forces our packages to win over the snap-shims — even on systems where the snap version is technically newer. The result: apt install chromium gives you a real, native Chromium. No snapd. No surprise pop-ups. On amd64 systems, the browser slot maps to Google Chrome (also from apt.armbian.com); on RISC-V Ubuntu builds you get real Firefox. Debian releases keep using upstream chromium / firefox-esr — those have always been real .debs and need no help. One desktop, every supported distro and archEach DE — XFCE, GNOME, KDE Plasma, KDE Neon, MATE, Cinnamon, i3-wm, xmonad, Enlightenment, Budgie, Deepin — is now a single declarative YAML file in the configng repo. The engine works out which packages exist on which release on which arch, substitutes per-platform replacements where needed, and silently drops broken ones. Same XFCE definition runs on Debian bookworm/trixie/forky and Ubuntu noble/resolute across arm64 / amd64 / armhf / riscv64. Adding a new desktop environment is a YAML edit and a smoke test — no per-distro shell scripts, no codepaths to chase. Clean uninstall, every timeEvery desktop install records a manifest of exactly which packages it added — under /etc/armbian/desktop/<de>.packages. Removal undoes only those. Packages that were already on your system before you installed the desktop stay put. No more "I uninstalled XFCE and lost half my system." The little stuff that's easy to missAuto-login that doesn't trash your config. Enable / disable autologin for gdm3, sddm, or lightdm via in-place sed edits — your WaylandEnable=false and other tweaks survive.Container-aware. Same code path works inside Docker without trying to start a display manager. CI builds and scripted installs work without special-casing.U2F security keys. Plug in your Yubikey and WebAuthn just works — the udev rules ship via libfido2-1 on resolute, libu2f-udev on older releases.Printer panel works. GNOME Settings → Printers no longer says "some settings cannot be unlocked" — cups-pk-helper ships with every desktop install now.VS Code from us, not Microsoft's repo. Installing code no longer prompts you to add Microsoft's apt source — we host the real package, the prompt is suppressed, the pin keeps Microsoft from sneaking in over the top.A weekly self-audit catches driftA scheduled Claude AI supported GitHub Actions workflow scans the YAML matrix against armbian/build's supported releases and the live Debian/Ubuntu archives — flags releases not yet covered, flags packages that no longer exist upstream — then opens a PR with proposed YAML fixes. Dead packages and missing releases stop accumulating silently. Try itOn any modern Armbian install: sudo armbian-config # or scripted: sudo armbian-config --api module_desktops install de=xfce tier=full sudo armbian-config --api module_desktops upgrade de=xfce tier=full sudo armbian-config --api module_desktops downgrade de=xfce tier=mid sudo armbian-config --api module_desktops remove de=xfce Supported desktops today: XFCE, GNOME, KDE Plasma, KDE Neon (Ubuntu noble only), MATE, Cinnamon, i3-wm and xmonad, Enlightenment, Budgie and Deepin experimental. Supported targets: Debian bookworm / trixie / forky and Ubuntu noble / resolute on every Armbian arch. View the full article