Here the workaround to get a "gdm" login screen:

root@ password: 

    _             _    _           
   /_\  _ _ _ __ | |__(_)__ _ _ _  
  / _ \| '_| '  \| '_ \ / _` | ' \ 
 /_/ \_\_| |_|_|_|_.__/_\__,_|_||_|
                                   
 v25.11.2 for Khadas VIM3 running Armbian Linux 6.12.58-current-meson64

 Performance:  

 Load:         25%                Uptime:       4 minutes     Local users:  3               
 Memory usage: 8% of 3.68G      
 CPU temp:     38°C                Usage of /:   11% of 58G        
 RX today:     920 MiB               

 Tips:

 Armbian config utility https://tinyurl.com/yc39n6m3

 Commands: 

 Configuration : armbian-config
 Monitoring    : htop

root@khadas-vim3:~# systemctl --failed
  UNIT LOAD ACTIVE SUB DESCRIPTION

0 loaded units listed.

Issue #1:

No login screen on HDMI:

root@khadas-vim3:~# systemctl status gdm.service 
● gdm.service - GNOME Display Manager
     Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/gdm.service; static)
     Active: active (running) since Mon 2025-12-15 17:25:25 CET; 4min 28s ago
    Process: 2684 ExecStartPre=/usr/share/gdm/generate-config (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
   Main PID: 2699 (gdm3)
      Tasks: 4 (limit: 4215)
     Memory: 8.9M (peak: 10.4M)
        CPU: 414ms
     CGroup: /system.slice/gdm.service
             └─2699 /usr/sbin/gdm3

Dec 15 17:27:04 khadas-vim3 gdm3[2699]: Gdm: on_display_added: assertion 'GDM_IS_REMOTE_DISPLAY (display)' failed
Dec 15 17:27:04 khadas-vim3 gdm3[2699]: Gdm: on_display_removed: assertion 'GDM_IS_REMOTE_DISPLAY (display)' failed
Dec 15 17:28:40 khadas-vim3 gdm3[2699]: Gdm: GdmDisplay: Session never registered, failing
Dec 15 17:28:40 khadas-vim3 gdm3[2699]: Gdm: on_display_added: assertion 'GDM_IS_REMOTE_DISPLAY (display)' failed
Dec 15 17:28:40 khadas-vim3 gdm3[2699]: Gdm: on_display_removed: assertion 'GDM_IS_REMOTE_DISPLAY (display)' failed
Dec 15 17:28:40 khadas-vim3 gdm-autologin][3881]: PAM unable to dlopen(pam_gnome_keyring.so): /usr/lib/security/pam_gnome_keyring.so: cannot open shared object file: No >
Dec 15 17:28:40 khadas-vim3 gdm-autologin][3881]: PAM adding faulty module: pam_gnome_keyring.so
Dec 15 17:28:40 khadas-vim3 gdm-autologin][3881]: pam_unix(gdm-autologin:session): session opened for user amach(uid=1000) by amach(uid=0)
Dec 15 17:28:41 khadas-vim3 gdm3[2699]: Gdm: on_display_added: assertion 'GDM_IS_REMOTE_DISPLAY (display)' failed
Dec 15 17:28:41 khadas-vim3 gdm3[2699]: Gdm: on_display_removed: assertion 'GDM_IS_REMOTE_DISPLAY (display)' failed

root@khadas-vim3:~# ll /dev/dri/
total 0
drwxr-xr-x  2 root root        140 Dec 15 17:25 by-path
crw-rw----+ 1 root video  226,   0 Dec 15 17:25 card0
crw-rw----+ 1 root video  226,   1 Dec 15 17:25 card1
crw-rw----+ 1 root video  226,   2 Dec 15 17:25 card2
crw-rw----+ 1 root render 226, 128 Dec 15 17:25 renderD128
crw-rw----+ 1 root render 226, 129 Dec 15 17:25 renderD129

root@khadas-vim3:~# udevadm info /dev/dri/card0
P: /devices/platform/soc/ff900000.vpu/drm/card0
M: card0
R: 0
U: drm
T: drm_minor
😧 c 226:0
N: dri/card0
L: 0
S: dri/by-path/platform-ff900000.vpu-card
E: DEVPATH=/devices/platform/soc/ff900000.vpu/drm/card0
E: DEVNAME=/dev/dri/card0
E: DEVTYPE=drm_minor
E: MAJOR=226
E: MINOR=0
E: SUBSYSTEM=drm
E: USEC_INITIALIZED=2805131
E: ID_PATH=platform-ff900000.vpu
E: ID_PATH_TAG=platform-ff900000_vpu
E: ID_FOR_SEAT=drm-platform-ff900000_vpu
E: DEVLINKS=/dev/dri/by-path/platform-ff900000.vpu-card
E: TAGS=:master-of-seat:uaccess:seat:
E: CURRENT_TAGS=:master-of-seat:uaccess:seat:

root@khadas-vim3:~# udevadm info /dev/dri/card1
P: /devices/platform/soc/ffe40000.gpu/drm/card1
M: card1
R: 1
U: drm
T: drm_minor
😧 c 226:1
N: dri/card1
L: 0
S: dri/by-path/platform-ffe40000.gpu-card
E: DEVPATH=/devices/platform/soc/ffe40000.gpu/drm/card1
E: DEVNAME=/dev/dri/card1
E: DEVTYPE=drm_minor
E: MAJOR=226
E: MINOR=1
E: SUBSYSTEM=drm
E: USEC_INITIALIZED=7219633
E: ID_PATH=platform-ffe40000.gpu
E: ID_PATH_TAG=platform-ffe40000_gpu
E: GDM_NUMBER_OF_GRAPHICS_CARDS=3
E: ID_FOR_SEAT=drm-platform-ffe40000_gpu
E: DEVLINKS=/dev/dri/by-path/platform-ffe40000.gpu-card
E: TAGS=:seat:master-of-seat:uaccess:
E: CURRENT_TAGS=:seat:master-of-seat:uaccess:

root@khadas-vim3:~# udevadm info /dev/dri/card2
P: /devices/platform/etnaviv/drm/card2
M: card2
R: 2
U: drm
T: drm_minor
😧 c 226:2
N: dri/card2
L: 0
S: dri/by-path/platform-etnaviv-card
E: DEVPATH=/devices/platform/etnaviv/drm/card2
E: DEVNAME=/dev/dri/card2
E: DEVTYPE=drm_minor
E: MAJOR=226
E: MINOR=2
E: SUBSYSTEM=drm
E: USEC_INITIALIZED=7215211
E: ID_PATH=platform-etnaviv
E: ID_PATH_TAG=platform-etnaviv
E: GDM_NUMBER_OF_GRAPHICS_CARDS=3
E: ID_FOR_SEAT=drm-platform-etnaviv
E: DEVLINKS=/dev/dri/by-path/platform-etnaviv-card
E: TAGS=:master-of-seat:uaccess:seat:
E: CURRENT_TAGS=:master-of-seat:uaccess:seat:

WORKAROUND - Issue #1:

root@khadas-vim3:/dev/dri# mv card2 card2out

root@khadas-vim3:/dev/dri# ll
total 0
drwxr-xr-x  2 root root        140 Dec 15 17:33 by-path
crw-rw----+ 1 root video  226,   0 Dec 15 17:35 card0
crw-rw----+ 1 root video  226,   1 Dec 15 17:25 card1
crw-rw----+ 1 root video  226,   2 Dec 15 17:25 card2out
crw-rw----+ 1 root render 226, 128 Dec 15 17:25 renderD128
crw-rw----+ 1 root render 226, 129 Dec 15 17:25 renderD129

root@khadas-vim3:/dev/dri# systemctl restart gdm.service 

root@khadas-vim3:/dev/dri# systemctl status gdm.service 
● gdm.service - GNOME Display Manager
     Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/gdm.service; static)
     Active: active (running) since Mon 2025-12-15 17:38:56 CET; 7s ago
    Process: 8999 ExecStartPre=/usr/share/gdm/generate-config (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
   Main PID: 9006 (gdm3)
      Tasks: 5 (limit: 4215)
     Memory: 6.2M (peak: 7.2M)
        CPU: 172ms
     CGroup: /system.slice/gdm.service
             └─9006 /usr/sbin/gdm3

Dec 15 17:38:56 khadas-vim3 systemd[1]: Starting gdm.service - GNOME Display Manager...
Dec 15 17:38:56 khadas-vim3 systemd[1]: Started gdm.service - GNOME Display Manager.
Dec 15 17:38:56 khadas-vim3 gdm-autologin][9011]: PAM unable to dlopen(pam_gnome_keyring.so): /usr/lib/security/pam_gnome_keyring.so: cannot open shared object file: No >
Dec 15 17:38:56 khadas-vim3 gdm-autologin][9011]: PAM adding faulty module: pam_gnome_keyring.so
Dec 15 17:38:56 khadas-vim3 gdm-autologin][9011]: pam_unix(gdm-autologin:session): session opened for user amach(uid=1000) by amach(uid=0)
Dec 15 17:38:56 khadas-vim3 gdm3[9006]: Gdm: on_display_added: assertion 'GDM_IS_REMOTE_DISPLAY (display)' failed
Dec 15 17:38:56 khadas-vim3 gdm3[9006]: Gdm: on_display_removed: assertion 'GDM_IS_REMOTE_DISPLAY (display)' failed

---

Issue #2:

Missing Display resolution 3440x1440 for Display Dell U3415W connected to HDMI:

root@khadas-vim3:/home/amach# cat xrandr.txt 

Screen 0: minimum 16 x 16, current 2560 x 1440, maximum 32767 x 32767
HDMI-1 connected primary 2560x1440+0+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 800mm x 330mm
   2560x1440     59.91*+
   1920x1440     59.90  
   1600x1200     59.87  
   1440x1080     59.87  
   1400x1050     59.86  
   1280x1024     59.76  
   1280x960      59.94  
   1152x864      59.78  
   1024x768      59.68  
   800x600       59.86  
   640x480       59.38  
   320x240       59.52  
   1920x1200     59.88  
   1680x1050     59.85  
   1440x900      59.89  
   1280x800      59.81  
   1152x720      59.75  
   960x600       59.63  
   928x580       59.88  
   800x500       59.50  
   768x480       59.38  
   720x480       59.71  
   640x400       59.20  
   320x200       58.96  
   2048x1152     59.90  
   1920x1080     59.88  
   1600x900      59.82  
   1368x768      59.88  
   1280x720      59.86  
   1024x576      59.90  
   864x486       59.45  
   720x400       59.55  
   640x350       59.77  

root@khadas-vim3:/dev/dri# inxi -Gxx
Graphics:
  Device-1: meson-g12a-vpu driver: meson_drm v: N/A bus-ID: N/A chip-ID: amlogic:ff900000
  Device-2: meson-g12a-mali driver: panfrost v: kernel bus-ID: N/A chip-ID: amlogic:ffe40000
  Device-3: meson-g12a-dw-hdmi driver: meson_dw_hdmi v: N/A bus-ID: N/A
    chip-ID: amlogic:ff600000
  Display: server: X.org v: 1.21.1.11 with: Xwayland v: 23.2.6 compositor: gnome-shell v: 46.0
    driver: X: loaded: modesetting gpu: meson_drm,panfrost,meson_dw_hdmi tty: 170x62
  Monitor-1: HDMI-A-1 model: Dell U3415W res: 3440x1440 dpi: 109 diag: 865mm (34.1")
  API: EGL v: 1.5 platforms: gbm: drv: etnaviv surfaceless: drv: panfrost inactive: wayland,x11
  API: OpenGL v: 3.1 compat-v: 2.1 vendor: mesa v: 25.0.7-0ubuntu0.24.04.2
    note: console (EGL sourced) renderer: Vivante GC8000 rev 7120, Mali-G52 (Panfrost)

Please let me know or test to set the display resolution to 3440x1440 - Thank you

Latest armbian firmwares fail to boot on vim3 and graphical desktop do not start.

As a workaround I installed old armbian image from August 2024 which booted and worked fine but sudo apt upgrade installed new firmware and it fails to boot to desktop again. Fails on all images Xfce and gnome available on website.

Hello!

I have installed on Armbian 24.8.1 noble (ubuntu 24.04) .

Also I have enabled "UARTa" , "UARTc" in armbian-config utility.

In /boot/armbianEnv.txt file:

overlays=uartA uartC

for enable UART port.

There are many files /dev/ttyS[0-7] exists.

After this I try connected to this ports, but no success (minicom -D /dev/ttySx).

Python sripts with pyserial module

output: "i/o error".

The same problem I have noticed with previous versions of Armbian.

I have checked on other distributive (Khadas version of ubuntu server) the uart port is worked fine.

Does Armbian supports Khadas VIM3 UART?

I have Armbian bookworm 24.5.1, kernel 6.6.32-current-meson.

Thank you!

It won't boot from sdcard. 

I erased the emmc with krescue, no change except now it doesn't boot anything, except the krescue sdcard.

I put the armbian image on a USB stick and tried to flash it to emmc

With krescue but krescue says it's an invalid vim 3 image. 

I verified the Sha and I also tried using the extracted dot img file. Which isn't recognized by krescue. 

How do I boot an sdcard or flash the emmc

When none of these things work?

The only thing that boots now is the krescue sdcard. 

What am I doing incorrectly?  What else can I try? 

Is there another way to install armbian to a vim 3?   Does the vim 4 have the same problem? 

Could you clarify whether armbian has support for this and I'm missing something (kernel flags? userspace driver? some kinda nonfree blob?), or there's no support and I should move onto another distro? Thanks

I just wanted to report how I got Armbian 23.8.1 working on my Khadas VIM3 Pro board.

It was not an out-of-the-box success story, but after a few nights of debugging, I found the cause and fix of the issue.

Hopefully this post will save debugging time of somebody else and maybe this can be fixed in future Armbian releases.

The issue is as follows: After flashing the Armbian 23.8.1 image to the VIM3's internal EMMC storage, the SBC boots fine initially.

I walk through the setup-process of users/passwords/network/locale, etc...

After the set-up completes, I reboot the SBC. It starts booting as usual, but when X.org starts, my monitor stops receiving any signal and goes to sleep.

I tried these images:

1. Armbian_23.8.1_Khadas-vim3_bookworm_current_6.1.50_cinnamon_desktop.oowow.img.xz

2. Armbian_23.8.1_Khadas-vim3_bookworm_current_6.1.50.oowow.img.xz (installed X.org and XFCE manually afterwards)

3. Pretty sure I had the same problem with Jammy based images, however I saw @NicoD using them without issues on Youtube.

Eventually, I found out from the X.org logs that it was displaying to another output device:

[    37.633] (II) xfree86: Adding drm device (/dev/dri/card1)
[    37.633] (II) Platform probe for /sys/devices/platform/f4e5b000.framebuffer/drm/card1
[    37.634] (II) xfree86: Adding drm device (/dev/dri/card0)
[    37.634] (II) Platform probe for /sys/devices/platform/soc/ff900000.vpu/drm/card0
[    37.643] (II) xfree86: Adding drm device (/dev/dri/card2)
[    37.643] (II) Platform probe for /sys/devices/platform/soc/ffe40000.gpu/drm/card2
[    37.647] (II) no primary bus or device found
[    37.647]    falling back to /sys/devices/platform/f4e5b000.framebuffer/drm/card1
...
[    37.665] (II) modeset(0): using drv /dev/dri/card1
[    37.676] (II) modeset(G0): using drv /dev/dri/card0
[    37.676] (==) modeset(0): Depth 24, (==) framebuffer bpp 32
[    37.676] (**) modeset(0): Option "AccelMethod" "glamor"

It defaulted to /dev/dri/card1 which is the simpledrm framebuffer output introduced in recent kernel versions.

By updating the X.org config file, I was able to force it selecting /dev/dri/card0 instead, however, according to the modeset man page this should be the default.

Section "Device"
    Identifier  "DRM Graphics Acclerated"

    ## Use modesetting and glamor
    Driver      "modesetting"
    Option      "AccelMethod"    "glamor"     ### "glamor" to enable 3D acceleration, "none" to disable.
    Option      "DRI"            "2"
    Option      "Dri2Vsync"      "true"
    Option      "TripleBuffer"   "True"
    ## End glamor configuration

    Option      "kmsdev"  "/dev/dri/card0"

EndSection
...

I still found the performance of the desktop a bit sluggish. Maybe this is because the second Glamor/DRM enabled output still exists.

I was able to completely get rid of the SimpleDRM output using the following commands and reboot:

echo "blacklist simpledrm" | sudo tee /etc/modprobe.d/simpledrm.conf
sudo update-initramfs -u

Now, X.org works as expected.

I also disabled the XFCE Compositor, which made de desktop perform much better.

Firefox (with GPU enabled) shows some graphics artifacts which are gone after disabling hardware acceleration.

Hope that this will help somebody.

I have installed Armbian Bookworm on Khadas VIM3. Also I have enabled "UARTa" , "UARTc" in armbian-config utility.

After reboot in file /boot/armbienEnv.txt I have checked options about uart (uarc).

Also there are many files /dev/ttyS[0-7] exists.

After this I try to connect "minicom -D /dev/ttyS0" (ttyS0, S1, and S3 etc).

But no answer from my device on pins 15,16 OR 18,19 (this is a UARTA,UARTC, UART linux).

Python sripts pyserial output: "i/o error".

Does Armbian (Bookworm or Jammy) supports Khadas VIM3 UART?

Are there successful cases?

One more question:

On Ubuntu Server files /dev/ttyS* are absent. However Khadas supports UART (on https://docs.khadas.com/products/sbc/common/applications/gpio/uart )

Thank you!

I am thinking about getting a VIM3 or VIM4 as a PC for computation purposes. I think Monero mining shows the limit of a combination of memory + cpu. The higher the more performant the combination of memory + cpu is. My choice is currently between a board like VIM3 or VIM4 or a desktop i5 9th gen. I will be thankful if an owner can xmrig monero mining software to do a benchmark.

So to do the benchmark one should:

 - Download xmrig

 - Run a benchmark and submit it: https://xmrig.com/docs/miner/benchmark

The benchmark will be available in the benchmarks page in xmrig website. Note that there should be enough free memory and xmrig must be run as root(or somehow you give xmrig access to use hugepages).

My simple fix is in /etc/default/cpufrequtils
 

MAX_SPEED=15xxxxxxx → MAX_SPEED=2400000

But I have no idea how/where to adjust this so it is correct for all VIM3 images.

Then for VIM2 and VIM3 (maybe VIM3L and VIM1 too) the HDMI audio isn't working as it should.
https://armbian.atlassian.net/browse/AR-1095

I once was able to make it work. But I can't remember how. So the device is enabled at boot, but not directed to be used by pulseaudio.
Thank you.

is it possible to add support for TS050 original LCD touchscreen in Armbian?

How I can check tochscreen, is there any CLI tools?

Thank you in advance.

I was trying Jammy (autobuild) with kerenl 5.15.18 on Khadas Vim3 4GB RAM, but is does not start, no HDMI output, no LED activity. Then I tried Hirsute with kerenl 5.13 and that boots fine, but after update new kernel (5.15) and also u-boot is installed and then it does not start again.

My solution for now is to boot Hirsute with 5.13 and replace all edge packages with current (linux-dtb-current-meson64, linux-image-current-meson64, and linux-u-boot-khadas-vim3-current). This downgrades the kernel to 5.10.81, but the board can be updated and boots fine.

We're swapping the Khadas Fenix 4.9 and uboot v2015-01?? for the Armbian 5.10.y and corresponding mainline u-boot.

In the "legacy"  version we were able to use the u-boot script (then a dedicated boot.ini) for setting a gpio pin low like this

gpio clear GPIOH_4

Unfortunately Armbian's mainline u-boot version does not recognize GPIOH_4 as a valid gpio pin name.

Anyone able to help? Did the naming change?

Gé

Update:

If its need, I can share my Img.