Unfortunately I tested both of the images provided and neither worked. After testing the images I ran the commands that were asked to be run on the following images: Armbian-unofficial_26.02.0-trunk_Orangepi3-lts_trixie_edge_6.18.2_minimal.img [ETHERNET CONNECTION WORKING] (I realized that forky isn't for me so I compile it with trixie which is used for the official images and it also works) Armbian_community_26.2.0-trunk.151_Orangepi3-lts_trixie_current_6.12.63_minimal.img [ETHERNET CONNECTION NOT WORKING] dmesg | grep -i "phy.*halt\|mdio.*reset" In both images it didn't show any output. watch -n 1 'ethtool eth0 | grep -E "Speed|Duplex|Link detected"' Every 1.0s: ethtool eth0 | grep -E "Speed|Duplex|Link detected" orangepi3-lts: Mon Dec 29 21:48:01 2025 netlink error: no device matches name (offset 24) netlink error: No such device netlink error: no device matches name (offset 24) netlink error: No such device netlink error: no device matches name (offset 24) netlink error: No such device netlink error: no device matches name (offset 24) netlink error: No such device netlink error: no device matches name (offset 24) netlink error: No such device netlink error: no device matches name (offset 24) netlink error: No such device netlink error: no device matches name (offset 24) netlink error: No such device In both images it showed this because Armbian use end0 instead of eth0 so I ran it with end0 instead and it showed this: [Ethernet Connection NOT working image] Every 1.0s: ethtool end0 | grep -E "Speed|Duplex|Link detected" orangepi3-lts: [DATE] Speed: Unknown! Duplex: Unknown! (255) Link detected: no [Ethernet Connection working image] Every 1.0s: ethtool end0 | grep -E "Speed|Duplex|Link detected" orangepi3-lts: [DATE] Speed: 1000Mb/s Duplex: Full Link detected: yes cat /sys/class/net/eth0/phydev/phy_state 2>/dev/null In both images it didn't show any output. I think is because not only is end0 instead of eth0, which I tested by changing them, but also there isn't any phy_state file in the /sys/class/net/eth0/phydev/ directory.

@Marvin-03 Here are the results of the commands provided, hope this help. Thanks for the link of your image builds, will try them out.

Can you test these commands in u-boot? mmc list mmc info mmc dev 0 mmc part fatls mmc 0:1 ext4ls mmc0:2 mmc read 0x40000000 0 1 It seems like mega doesnt work anymore without login. Here are the images on gdrive: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1jEIWmzZgT5t39jRz7GwZpFOAdjdQBLtG?usp=drive_link

if you are not seeing option to enable in armbian-config you can try: sudo apt install xfce4 xfce4-terminal lightdm -y or sudo apt install xfce4-goodies -y

I experience the same problem: I installed Armbian without desktop (both the Debian and Ubuntu version) to install a minimalistic desktop setup afterwards. However, in the armbian-config tool I do not find the "Desktop" option when entering the "System" menu. The installation instructions mentioned in the documentation (Desktop Environments - Armbian Documentation) are not working either. I'm using Armbian 25.11.1 dzsnlr 6.12.58-current-bcm2711 (Debian trixie) on a Raspberry Pi 4 8Gb. Thanks a lot for any hints how to get a minimal desktop installed without relying on the images with desktop included!