jshc1

This is certainly not deliberately and will probably be fixed soon.
 
Open a bug and / or report here. 

Quoting @ryecoaaron
 

It's hard to say, at the moment it works for me. Try deleting this script "armbian-check-first-login.sh" and reboot, check cron ...

hey,
after updating my nanopct4 and rockpi-4b to from 20.05 to 20.08 RDP stopped working for me, only black screen.
After reading all the messy logs, fresh install etc, I found a simple working solution online:
 
In /etc/xrdp/startwm.sh change 
#!/bin/sh  to 
#!/bin/bash  
Sources:
https://github.com/neutrinolabs/xrdp/issues/1630
https://askubuntu.com/questions/1166568/remote-desktop-blue-screen-after-login
 
Maybe others are affected too, don't know about Ubuntu.

I can confirm 5.4.19 works on HC1.

More or less. The blue LED can say a lot, especially if the person cannot connect the console.
This was useful not so long ago in the 5.x kernel where after upgrading from 4.14 simply Odroid HC does not boot and the diode just lights up all the time indicating that the sbc is hanging. For example, if the sd card were damaged and the boot partition is missing, the LED would not light up at all, the same effect as without an sd card.
For novice users it is always best to stick to the standards because later unnecessary problems are created especially with headless sbc and no uart.

I would recommend changes to settings only for advanced users. Changes for fun can only make future diagnostics more difficult when someone changes the heartbeat and then it can only result in unnecessary confusion.

Odroid does not behave like PI.

Odroid has one blue diode which signals heartbeat signal. After connecting the power it will light up. If it finds a boot and starts booting, it will start flashing. The blinking speed depends on the load.
The red LED is on all the time when the current reaches the sbc.
The green LED lights up when HDD is connected, blinks when HDD has activity.

The first start of Armbian needs about 30 seconds before it is ready for the first login.

Are you sure you're doing everything right? Not long ago I tested buster and 4.14 on HC1 and it was ok.

Until recently there was a problem with 5.y on HC. And as @Igor said, wait or make yourself.
Or just start with buster and 4.14 and for some time when 5.x will be stable for HC then you will change.

As for OMV and clouds, I don't know what exactly doesn't work for you. For omv use armbian-config. But remember that omv 5.x is still beta. I still use 4.x because of 5.x there are a lot of problems all the time so I prefer to wait until the end of the year. You can run the clouds in the docker ... If you prefer video help, watch "Techno Dad Life" has a lot of material about OMV and docker but on x86 basis so you will have to show some independence in adoption.

As for HC1, try this one https://dl.armbian.com/odroidxu4/Buster_legacy don't worry, let etcher take care of the partitions. It should work ... If it still doesn't work and somehow this is a problem with 20.y then maybe https://dl.armbian.com/odroidxu4/archive/Armbian_19.11.6_Odroidxu4_buster_legacy_4.14.161.7z
 
Or go into old age and just install stretch 19.x / 4.14.x for me on HC1 works 100%. If that doesn't work, then you either do something wrong or you have hardware problems.
https://dl.armbian.com/odroidxu4/archive/Armbian_19.11.6_Odroidxu4_stretch_legacy_4.14.161.7z
 
 

Buy!
 
I personally have HC1 for almost two years and no problems. Alternatively, you might think about HC2 if 3.5 inches will interest you in the future, especially if you need something above 5TB at normal prices it will be a better solution than 2.5.

As for OS, install Armbian based on buster but with 4.14.y kernel because currently 5.x has big problems with HC, it doesn't boot at all. But 4.14 is not a problem because some time will be supported.
As for samba, stretch has 4.5.16, buster has 4.9.5 If you need 4.11.3, you will need to install samba from bullseye / sid sources.

Buy a decent PSU, don't save !!!
I also recommend buying a branded A1 / A2 SD card.
If you are thinking about using a USB port, it would be good to have a HUB with power. In general, imho Odroid has something of poor quality USB ports, quite loose and likes to have problems with pin contact, sometimes you need to bend the metal plates for better contact but these are random cases. My HC1 works well with the rf receiver and the USB sound card.

After buying it is worth checking if the Firmware is new, if not update ... https://wiki.odroid.com/odroid-xu4/software/jms578_fw_update

My armbian HC1 handles omv, pihole, kodi, xrdp and chromium. If you have fast hdd / ssd then getting 80-100MB/s should not be such a problem with SMB.

You can also think of a uart-usb cable especially dedicated to odroid just in case.

Generally it's ok and stable, I do uptime 20/30/50 days.

Buy!
 
I personally have HC1 for almost two years and no problems. Alternatively, you might think about HC2 if 3.5 inches will interest you in the future, especially if you need something above 5TB at normal prices it will be a better solution than 2.5.

As for OS, install Armbian based on buster but with 4.14.y kernel because currently 5.x has big problems with HC, it doesn't boot at all. But 4.14 is not a problem because some time will be supported.
As for samba, stretch has 4.5.16, buster has 4.9.5 If you need 4.11.3, you will need to install samba from bullseye / sid sources.

Buy a decent PSU, don't save !!!
I also recommend buying a branded A1 / A2 SD card.
If you are thinking about using a USB port, it would be good to have a HUB with power. In general, imho Odroid has something of poor quality USB ports, quite loose and likes to have problems with pin contact, sometimes you need to bend the metal plates for better contact but these are random cases. My HC1 works well with the rf receiver and the USB sound card.

After buying it is worth checking if the Firmware is new, if not update ... https://wiki.odroid.com/odroid-xu4/software/jms578_fw_update

My armbian HC1 handles omv, pihole, kodi, xrdp and chromium. If you have fast hdd / ssd then getting 80-100MB/s should not be such a problem with SMB.

You can also think of a uart-usb cable especially dedicated to odroid just in case.

Generally it's ok and stable, I do uptime 20/30/50 days.

In theory, yes, in practice there may be little power. Although I've heard that some use, the same gutters as XU4, HC1, HC2 so look for information about XU4/HC and plex.
First you would have to take care of hardware support ... 
 

https://forum.armbian.com/topic/9277-proccpuinfo-show-only-litlle-cores-on-odroid-hc1-hints-appreciated