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Dear Armbians,
It’s been a month since our last newsletter. We hope you are enjoying our new release! Here are the topics we are working on:Infra
We are aware that our primary repository management and rsync servers need serious upgrades, as it takes hours and hours to deliver a release. Past week we have enabled two additional servers and several others are waiting for the upgrade. This will further improve time to deliver updates and new images.Documentation
We are working on improving the documentation, focusing on the build framework. The current build framework documentation is largely outdated, which poses a challenge for those unfamiliar with the tool.Builds
We are very close to making immutable and reproducible builds. A few ideas for improving UX have been proposed, such as being able to choose the network management at build or first run. Advanced users may not require Network Manager during server deployment.
How to Participate
If you encounter any issues with the current release or notice any old unresolved bugs, please jump in and help us make Armbian better! You can join us at https://www.armbian.com/participate/
Thank you for your support, and keep watching for more exciting news!Best regards,The Armbian Team -
Armbian 23.8 Colobus
We are very pleased to announce the public availability of Armbian OS 23.08, the Linux distribution, and 23.08 package set, under the codename »Colobus«. After the complete rework of our build framework, we proceeded with refreshing repository management and automation processes. We have significantly stabilized both our framework and many hardware platforms we are taking care of.
Continue reading to learn more about our latest news and updates!
Our Focus
Armbian delivers four point releases each year, representing our team’s dedicated efforts to stabilize this complex and ever-changing system.
We release updates every 4 months, with weekly meetings for both our developers and community. Our team consists of individuals with varying levels of experience/interaction, including full-time contributors, part-time contributors, and helpful volunteers. Armbian serves as a foundational project that brings immense value to the entire Linux community. Even if you opt for a different Linux distribution on your single board computer, there’s a high possibility that you’re still benefiting from Armbian.
Our primary focus is to provide optimized images tailored to specific hardware. Additionally, we offer a generic aarch64 image that works seamlessly on compatible UEFI hardware like Ampere Altra. However, only a few single board computers support this standard, and it is currently in the early alpha phase, lacking certain important features for these devices. Hence, we adhere to existing boot scenarios and provide specific images for each hardware. Our entire ecosystem is designed to handle the generation of numerous images efficiently when the need arises.
Another significant aspect driving our efforts is addressing the diversity in single board computers. We strive to simplify the process to a point where anyone can create OS images from sources.
Improvements and enhancements
Users have not been left behind! Check out what’s new.
Remarkable Contributors and Supporters
We would like to express our heartfelt appreciation to the exceptional individuals who have poured their time and expertise into constantly making Armbian great. Warm “Thank You” goes to Armbian developers & contributors @rpardini @igorpecovnik @viraniac @pyavitz @paolosabatino @efectn @amazingfate @Tonymac32 @lanefu @glneo @hzyitc @belegdol @adeepn … to Armbian infrastructure support staff @EvilOlaf @Rafal-Hacus @TheLinuxBug and many more!
Everyone, please enjoy new Armbian 23.08!
Join Us
Excited about being a part of the project? Join us at https://www.armbian.com/participate/
Best regards,
The Armbian TeamFurther information
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Dear Armbians,
Here are the latest updates!
Device Support, Enhancements, and Progress
We’re excited to announce the addition of support for several new devices, including Khadas VIM1S, VIM4, TI AM26, and Licheepi 4a. To enhance user experience, all Khadas images are now available in their “oowow” format, streamlining the installation process.
Bananapi M5 and M2PRO users can look forward to numerous fixes that enhance stability and performance. Updates for the Thinkpad X13s have transformed it into a highly usable device. Additionally, thermal support for Opi4 has been fixed, eliminating issues with high-load operation.
Our latest release introduces overlays for the Amlogic family of devices, enhancing their functionality. We’re pleased to share that the cryptoroot build functionality has been successfully resolved, contributing to a smoother overall experience.
The development of mainline-based images for Rockchip RK3588 boards, including Rock5 and Nanopi T6, is making excellent progress. Our build runners are already up and running on these machines, ensuring the quality of the upcoming release.
We’re in the final stages of preparing a stable packages update that will significantly enhance your Armbian experience. Stay tuned for its release within the upcoming major update by the end of the month.
Wallpaper Contest
We’ve initiated a wallpaper contest, and the submissions are already pouring in. It’s exciting to see the creative contributions from the community!
How to Participate
Join us in testing nightly builds and providing valuable feedback. If you encounter any issues or have suggestions, please open tickets on our Participation Page.
Thank you for your continuous support, and stay tuned for more exciting updates!
Best regards,
The Armbian Team
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Submit your work today!
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Dear Armbians,
Some fresh news for you!
Device additions and development updates
In the past few weeks, we have been actively adding support for new devices. Our team is currently working on bringing up the Khadas VIM1S and the highly anticipated Lenovo X13S, one of the best ARM-based laptops available, and the TI SK-AM64B board, developed by Texas Instruments. Furthermore, Intelligent Agent has submitted their Allwinner-based 3D printer controller.
The developers’ section has been particularly active lately. We are in the final stages of upgrading u-boot and implementing power management support for the entire Allwinner family. Additionally, we are continuously improving our automated testing procedures, which involve testing all possible kernel combinations for around 50 different boards. Once these tests are completed, we will finally release the missing 23.05 release updates and more on the stable branch, fulfilling the requests of many users. However, for those who can’t wait, building from sources remains a viable option. Rest assured, we are diligently maintaining the build system to ensure its reliability. Moreover, our development team is actively working on projects such as Radxa CM5, NanoPC T6, Nanopi R4SE, Mixtile Blade 3 and more.
We have also made significant updates to core boot components, enhancing stability and expanding hardware support for newer revisions.
Wallpaper contest
We are thrilled to announce the wallpaper contest! If you have a passion for design, this is your chance to have your work featured on Armbian. Let your creativity shine, be original, and above all, have fun! In collaboration with SinoVoip, the Bananapi maker, we have prepared three boards as rewards for participants in the contest. We also encourage the community to become a Desktop Maintainer, and help us with Armbian! You can learn more about the role here.
August release
We are already hard at work on our next release, code-name Colobus, scheduled for August. Our primary focus will be on stability improvements, boot-loader upgrades, enhanced auto-testing, advancing the refactoring of armbian-config, and introducing a mainline-based kernel for RK3588 / 3566. We aim to test as much hardware as possible to provide comprehensive support but your involvement is highly appreciated.
Thank you for your continuous support, and stay tuned for more exciting updates!
Best regards,
The Armbian Team
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Dear Armbian Community,
We are pleased to announce the official support for the Bigtreetech CB1 board on Armbian! The Bigtreetech CB1, developed by the respected Bigtreetech company, one of the most popular 3D printer brands among global creators, is a remarkable addition to our lineup. We are delighted to them as a Platinum partner, and we believe this collaboration will bring great value to our community.
In other news, we want to address the state of our Allwinner support. Realizing the need for a fresh approach and a dedicated focus on Allwinner-specific problems, we have been actively searching for someone who can take on this responsibility. We are fortunate to have found Julia Longtin, who has graciously agreed to step up. Julia brings a wealth of technical knowledge and experience in team leadership to the table. We are confident that her involvement will help us overcome the decline in support for Allwinner devices and work towards making them perform even better. Julia’s initial goal is to enhance automated testing for major Allwinner chips, including A20, H3, and H6. To achieve this, we will be adding several SD card emulators to improve our automated testing gears. As time permits, we will expand this level of automated testing capabilities to cover other chips as well. For day-to-day updates and discussions, you can find Julia on IRC with the username “juri_.”
We would like to congratulate roel, the winner of our previous giveaway, which featured the BananaPi CM4 Carrier Board. Your participation and enthusiasm are greatly appreciated. As one giveaway ends, another begins! We are excited to kick off our latest giveaway, featuring the BananaPi M2S. Head over to our forum to participate and stand a chance to win this fantastic device.
Thank you for being a part of the Armbian community. With your continued support and the contributions of passionate individuals, we are confident in our ability to improve the situation and provide better support for Allwinner devices!
Best regards,
The Armbian Team
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Dear Armbian Community,
Welcome to the latest edition of our Newsletter! We have some exciting updates and important information to share with you. Let’s dive right in!
Release Update:
We are constantly pushing the boundaries to deliver the best experience for our users. While we strive to test everything thoroughly, bugs always slips through. However, we want to assure you that each release comes with a lot of fixes. We are currently focused on addressing the troubles with the upcoming release. Although a few images may not boot, we are overall satisfied with the progress. We have fixed images that didn’t boot and we decided to hold back the repository update for now. Rest assured, our dedicated team is working tirelessly to identify and resolve any critical bugs within the next two weeks. Once we have tackled these issues, we will ship out the update to users of older images.
Build Infrastructure Update:
Earlier this year, we launched a fundraising campaign with the aim of improving our build infrastructure. We are delighted to share that we have partnered with Ampere Computing, who have generously provided us with a powerful, dual 80-core aarch64 beast equipped with a terabyte of memory. This upgrade will significantly enhance our capabilities. However, please note that the lead time for this new infrastructure is approximately three months. In the meantime, we have received additional build capacity from Oregon State University. We are grateful for their support, which will help us use our current infrastructure until the new setup is ready. Our infrastructure team will be meeting this Saturday to discuss for a smooth transition.
Call for Community Support:
Armbian is a community-driven project, and we invite everyone to join us in our mission. Open-source software is built by thousands of individuals, and together, we can overcome any challenge. We encourage you to contribute by helping us identify and address issues. If you encounter a bug, kindly report it so that we can close it and open a new task. The release of Armbian 23.08 is approaching, so let’s work together to make it a success!
To get involved and participate in the Armbian project, please visit our website at: https://www.armbian.com/participate/
Stay tuned for more updates and exciting developments as we continue to improve Armbian and provide you with the best experience possible!
Best regards,
The Armbian Team
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The Armbian project is nearing its 10-year anniversary, and we’re excited to announce that our upcoming release Armbian 23.05, codename “Suni”, will be the biggest one yet! It’s a significant milestone as it marks the first release based on our completely refactored build framework! The new framework has been in development for around 3 years, during which we combined our decades long experience with Linux and embedded systems with the latest technologies that have emerged in recent years. We’ve taken all that knowledge and expertise to create something truly exceptional for our users and Linux community at large.
Continue reading to learn more about the project and our latest news and updates!
Our Focus
Armbian delivers four point releases each year, representing our team’s dedicated efforts to stabilize this complex and ever-changing system.
We release updates every 4 months, with weekly meetings for both our developers and community. Our team consists of individuals with varying levels of experience/interaction, including full-time contributors, part-time contributors, and helpful volunteers. Armbian serves as a foundational project that brings immense value to the entire Linux community. Even if you opt for a different Linux distribution on your single board computer, there’s a possibility that you’re still benefiting from Armbian or utilizing some of its components.
Our primary focus is to provide optimized images tailored to specific hardware. Additionally, we offer a generic aarch64 image that works seamlessly on compatible UEFI hardware like Ampere Altra. However, only a few single board computers support this standard, and it is currently in the early alpha phase, lacking certain important features for these devices. Hence, we adhere to existing boot scenarios and provide specific images for each hardware. Our entire ecosystem is designed to handle the generation of numerous images efficiently when the need arises.
Another significant aspect driving our efforts is addressing the diversity in single board computers. We strive to simplify the process to a point where anyone can create OS images from sources. Our technology outshines major players in the field such as LFS, Gentoo, Yocto, and Buildroot. Interestingly, many ARM-focused Linux distributions are essentially Armbian under a different name! We are committed to streamlining complexity and offering an exceptional solution for the community.
For Users
Users have not been left behind! Check out what’s new.
Improvements and enhancements
We are pleased to announce several improvements and enhancements at the user level:
- Armbian Bookworm based images: We are introducing Armbian Bookworm-based images, providing the latest features and updates from Debian community.
- i3 supported: i3 has been added as the fourth officially supported desktop environment, expanding the options available to our users.
- Fixes and Enhancements: We have addressed issues in key tools such as armbian-installer, armbian-config, and armbian-firstrun, ensuring a smoother user experience.
- Streamlined Packages: We have optimized our package base, making it nearly identical across different underlying package bases and desktop choices. This standardization improves predictability and enhances security.
- Consistent Application Packages: Regardless of the chosen package base or desktop environment, the application packages remain the same. This ensures consistent functionality and ease of use.
- Improved Ubuntu-Based Assemblies: We have successfully removed the unnecessary “Ubuntu advantage” services from our Ubuntu-based assemblies, as they do not provide any advantages in this specific hardware segment. Internet browsers are installed without snap technology, and we directly host many 3rd party applications in our repositories.
- Fast and Safe Updates: Our streamlined system allows for fast and safe updates, ensuring that users can easily stay up to date with the latest improvements and security patches.
Gaming
Armbian is also gaming-friendly. Thanks to the community-maintained script, armbian-gaming, you can easily turn your ordinary Linux device into a gaming platform. You’ll have the opportunity to play games specifically developed for x86 architecture using Wine. The emulation feature works seamlessly on both 32-bit and 64-bit hardware. Additionally, Armbian provides support for popular gaming platforms such as Steam, PlayStation, Android emulation, and even PS2 games. Get ready for an immersive gaming experience on your Armbian-powered system! Special thanks to @NicoD-SBC, @ptitSeb, @rpardini, and @monkaBlyat
These enhancements aim to provide a seamless, secure and fun user experience, further establishing Armbian as a reliable choice for single board computer users!
Remarkable Contributors and Supporters
We would like to express our heartfelt appreciation to the exceptional individuals who have poured their time and expertise into making this release possible. A big “Thank You” goes out to the following contributors (listed in alphabetical order): @150balbes @AGM1968 @EvilOlaf @Heisath @PanderMusubi @SteeManMI, @TheLinuxBug @Tonymac32 @adeepn @ahoneybun @amazingfate @belegdol @brentr @clee @efectn @fraz0815 @hzyitc @iav @igorpecovnik @lanefu @littlecxm @matthijskooijman @mhoffrog @monkaBlyat @paolosabatino @pyavitz @radoslavv @rpardini @schwar3kat @teknoid
Special thanks to Armbian users, supporters, greater Linux community and project partners who recognize the importance of our work and generously contribute their time, financial support, hardware, and expertise. Your support plays a crucial role in the progress of the project, and we are deeply grateful for your contributions.
Join Us
Excited about being a part of the project? Join us at https://www.armbian.com/participate/
Best regards,
The Armbian Team -
Greetings Armbian Community,
Here are some fresh updates and announcements for this week.
We are approaching the release of Armbian 23.05, codenamed “Suni”. As we finalize this release, we kindly request your assistance in testing it on devices that we were unable to cover. Your feedback will help us ensure the stability and reliability of the release https://forum.armbian.com/topic/28289-armbian-2305-suni-testings/
In an effort to improve user experience, we have recently redesigned the participation page, https://www.armbian.com/participate on our website. The new page provides basic guidance on how to get involved with the project and showcases open bugs and tasks for the current and upcoming releases. While we are making adjustments for the 23.05 release, we have also started working on 23.08, which is gradually accumulating more tasks. We encourage you to contribute to these tasks and help us address the community’s needs. Our Armbian maintainer group is relatively small, and your support is vital in fulfilling the users’ requests.
We are happy to introduce a new board that has joined the Armbian family, the Radxa E25. However, please note that this board is currently in the testing phase. If you own this hardware, we welcome your participation to test it and report any issues you encounter. More info on the Radxa E25 at https://www.armbian.com/radxa-e25/
We have partnered with SinoVoip, one of Armbian’s Platinum Partners, to bring you an exciting opportunity! They are generously giving away a Banana Pi CM4 with a carrier board. Participate in the raffle for a chance to win this powerful device at https://forum.armbian.com/raffles/raffle/17-bananapi-cm4-carrier-board/
Lastly, we are excited to announce that we are actively working on making i3 an officially supported desktop environment within Armbian. You can follow the progress of this topic on the Armbian GitHub repository at https://github.com/armbian/build/pull/5188
Thank you for your support and dedication to the Armbian project. Together, we are shaping the future of open-source ARM development!
Best regards,
The Armbian Team
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Hello Armbian Community,
We are already in May!
As we approach the code freeze, we begin the bug-hunting phase, with all our efforts focused on one final check. Our primary focus is on the boards that our vendors assist us with, labelled as platinum support. We apply the same level of service to “supported” boards, but we carry the biggest burden of board maintenance. If we still have time, at the end of the process, we will also evaluate the status of boards that are still in development and those that we have officially deemed as unsupported.
We are continuing with the development and testing of our CI! It has been completely rewritten to significantly improve the release process.
During May, we will be focusing on code stabilization and finalizing of board support. We anticipate official support for Khadas Edge 2 and Bananapi CM4/M2S to be available before the end of the month.
We expect to release Armbian 23.05 in the last week of the month. We appreciate your help with testing and encourage you to apply for maintainership of the board. All boards that have a known and active maintainer can receive official status. Together, we can provide a good software experience!
Thank you for your continued support, and we look forward to hearing from you soon!
Best regards,
The Armbian Team -
Hello Armbian Community!
We hope this newsletter finds you well. As we approach the 1st of May, we wanted to remind you that it is code freeze day. This means that we will prioritize resolving bugs over new feature development. More info at https://docs.armbian.com/Process_Release-Model/
We are excited to announce our partnership with Khadas, which will help us improve the support quality of their boards!
We are calling out for help on testing. How can you help? Simply build an image or download daily builds, test them, and report any problems on our forum. We are looking at base functionality only, so any feedback will be greatly appreciated.
As you know, many boards out there are not supported because there is no one monitoring their state. Therefore, we encourage anyone who is interested to step up and act as a board maintainer. More info at https://docs.armbian.com/Board_Maintainers_Procedures_and_Guidelines/.
We also have some good news to share. We have fixed the no-boot troubles with Orange Pi Zero 2 and Olimex Teres.
Lastly, we are happy to announce the preparation of a new giveaway campaign. Expecting to start from the 1st of May, we will be donating two Banana Pi boards. More info about the giveaway will become visible at https://forum.armbian.com/raffles/category/1-official-giveaways/.
Thank you for your continued support, and we look forward to hearing from you soon!
Best regards,
The Armbian Team
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Dear Armbian Community,
We have some exciting updates to share with you!
Firstly, we are thrilled to announce that we have successfully raised 5000 EUR for upgrading our CI servers. We would like to express our sincere gratitude to all of you who participated in this fundraiser and for your continued support. Despite this success, our project still remains underfinanced, and we rely on your support to keep Armbian going.
We also have some technical updates to share. FriendlyElec has sent us a sample of the NanoPi R6C, another RK3588S board that’s worth checking out. It comes with an M.2 slot and one less NIC compared to the R6S variant, and Armbian is available for both. More info at https://www.armbian.com/nanopi-r6s/
We have successfully ported the latest ZFS to Armbian Jammy and Armbian Bullseye. This means that users of these operating systems can now take advantage of the latest features and improvements in ZFS. Additionally, we have released our package dependency autotest framework at repository management. This framework will help ensure the reliability and stability of our packages, making it easier for you to use and enjoy Armbian.
As always, we appreciate your continued support and feedback. If you have any questions or suggestions, feel free to reach out to us.
Best regards,
The Armbian Team
[Armbian newsletter] - Armbian Leaflet #13
in SBC News
Posted
Dear Armbian Community,
We’re excited to bring you the latest Armbian updates.
Infrastructure Improvements
In the previous month, we dedicated our efforts to enhancing our Content Delivery Network (CDN). This involved upgrading redirector and the main rsync server to ensure faster and more reliable access to Armbian resources.
This month, we’re shifting our focus towards improving development and maintenance management, both internally and externally. We are also in the process of refining our support policies to better serve the Armbian community.
Wallpaper Competition
We’re thrilled to announce the successful conclusion of our recent wallpaper competition. We received a great response from talented artists in the community who shared their creations with us. Thanks to all the contributors for their time and effort. We would like to express our sincere gratitude to Bananapi for their collaboration and generous award contributions. The winning submissions will soon be added to our wallpaper pack.
New Supported Devices
We continue to expand our support for various hardware platforms. This month, we’ve released new images tailored for the Lenovo X13s, Khadas VIM1S, and Khadas VIM4. These additions ensure that more users can benefit from Armbian’s capabilities on their preferred devices.
Upcoming Point Release
We are approaching an exciting milestone with the next point release. Our goal is to transition to Kernel version 6.6, which is a strong candidate for the next Long-Term Support (LTS) kernel. We’re also extending our build framework to include support for Ubuntu Mantic, providing more choices for users. Additionally, we’ve unlocked desktop environments from using LightDM, and we’ve introduced GDM3 for the Gnome desktop.
It’s worth noting that the older Odroid XU4 has received an upgrade to the latest LTS kernel (v6.1) provided by the vendor, although it’s not yet mainline.
These developments are made possible by the collective effort and dedication of the Armbian community. We’re grateful for your continued support and enthusiasm for open-source software.
Stay tuned for more exciting updates and enhancements in the world of Armbian.
Thank you for being a part of our journey!
The Armbian team
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