JrRockeTer

I've create an issue on jira regarding the zram thingy. Whoever wants to take a shot at it... https://armbian.atlassian.net/browse/AR-382

Check this out @NicoD @Werner, beautiful and it was usable for most of the time
 
cat /proc/swaps
Filename                                Type            Size    Used    Priority
/dev/zram0                              partition       329960  328920  5
/dev/zram1                              partition       329960  329020  5
/dev/zram2                              partition       329960  329076  5
/dev/zram3                              partition       329960  328840  5
/dev/zram4                              partition       329960  329008  5
/dev/zram5                              partition       329960  329000  5
/swapfile                               file            8388604 516160  -2
 
vmstat 5 100
procs -----------memory---------- ---swap-- -----io---- -system-- ------cpu-----
 r  b   swpd   free   buff  cache   si   so    bi    bo   in   cs us sy id wa st
14  1 2945416  82864   3580 281876   14   20    13     6   44   53  1  0 99  0  0
10  0 2965260  79092   2084 251232 43369 35211 34502 13287 10110 17175 58 34  6  2  0
 9  0 2999792  83996   4204 293888 32905 38888 31712 27475 9000 15632 61 34  4  1  0
 
I think most of my original problems were related to: Power, Memory, HEAT
1- at one time I made a mistake and was not using the factory power supply
2- the problem with zram and swapping that you fixed for me @NicoD
3- When I first installed it I had not installed fan management, this should come standard.
Thanks you, I'll cross post this to my other post
 

Pity about the Zram config and pity this is NOT communicated when you download it so you know to run the config, but worse, that it has not been removed or repaired.
 
Yes, when I have 5 minutes, I will duplicate what I did the other day and see what happens.
 
I was trying to test my modified fancontrol.c program so was launching a few you tube videos and facebook pages ;-)
 
Thanks again for your help as always @NicoD Armbian would not be the same without you !

Hi @JrRockeTer 
Do :
sudo apt install zram-config and reboot. 
That will increase your zram from 1024MB to 2048MB. There's a fault in the armbian zram-config. For 4GB ram it should create 2GB zram. But it by default creates 1GB. 

If you run on an NVMe, then create a big swap file (don't forget sudo, or use "su" before applying the commands :
 
fallocate -l 8G /swapfile chmod 600 /swapfile mkswap /swapfile swapon /swapfile echo "/swapfile swap swap defaults 0 0" >> /etc/fstab
I'll check out Focal mainline now on the M4V2. Cheers.

If you have an NVMe installed anyways you should put the swap there since it is way faster than an eMMC.
Or investigate if there is a memory leak.

Rockchip SoCs always have eMMC as boot priority.
So, to boot from SDCard, you need to stop U-Boot from eMMC by pressing <spacebar> several times during startup.
Then, at U-Boot command line, you can type "setenv devnum 1" followed with "run mmc_boot", it will then boot from SD.
 

This happens after upgrading armbian-firmware package and it is already fixed in master and will be part of v20.08 release.

As am I JR...
Armbian is such a huge project, with not many people working actively on it. So that's why these things happen. If it were Microsoft we should be p*ssed. But this is Armbian. Free software made for free.

As I said, for a reliable desktop with the M4V2, this is still the image to go for. https://dl.armbian.com/nanopim4v2/Bionic_legacy_desktop
There are many other issue's with Focal alone. Then using a mainline kernel with issue's. My bet is it will take about 6 months before that's fully functional. But as said before, I'm no dev. Just a dude trying things out
Good luck.
 

Interesting. This needs to be investigated.
 
 
https://armbian.atlassian.net/browse/AR-340

It's not your fault. It's a bug in the latest Focal release.
 
Yesterday I flashed the latest Focal release available on the website. Everything was working fine until I did a 'sudo apt-get update && sudu apt-get upgrade". After that the kernel updated and my wifi interface was gone.
 
Buster does not have this bug. So if you are going to reinstall, make sure to flash Buster. Otherwise every time you will run and 'upgrade'  it will destroy your wifi interface.
 
 

Hi @NicoD  nice to see you and nice to watch the videos, there are 3 I have not seen yet ..
I don't know what caused the problems.. After talking to werner I recompiled the fancontrol C program and set it up as a service and I used the original power supply. The rebooting issue disappeared.
I think it is stable now but it gave me a lot of problems, I finally changed to SDDM instead of the default and changed to Ubuntu Mate..
Now it works just like I want it to BUT ; In the process I managed to lose my wlan0 device, which I posted about in another post.
Yesterday I donated some money to Armbian hoping to help on the support side.
 
And thanks to  @Werner who tried his best.
Have fun holidaying, I'm not venturing far this year!

Hi @NicoD  nice to see you and nice to watch the videos, there are 3 I have not seen yet ..
I don't know what caused the problems.. After talking to werner I recompiled the fancontrol C program and set it up as a service and I used the original power supply. The rebooting issue disappeared.
I think it is stable now but it gave me a lot of problems, I finally changed to SDDM instead of the default and changed to Ubuntu Mate..
Now it works just like I want it to BUT ; In the process I managed to lose my wlan0 device, which I posted about in another post.
Yesterday I donated some money to Armbian hoping to help on the support side.
 
And thanks to  @Werner who tried his best.
Have fun holidaying, I'm not venturing far this year!

Yeah I know, saw the YT videos
 
Unfortunately there is not much documentation in that case. It is quite hard to keep track what are current issues, what has been solved, what is new and everything across literaly hundred boards...
Anyway what might be interesting for you is to check JIRA for open threads: https://armbian.atlassian.net/projects/AR/issues/
I could have mentioned that before.
 
Support terms are stated here:https://github.com/armbian/build#support
 
And no, I am no maintainer or developer. I am just a random guy that spends (sometimes too much) time in the forums and help others and collect information that might be useful for actual contributors.
The issue in general is that the team behind Armbian is way too small for the amount of work and can barely catch up with everything. This of course has some downsides and relying on the community to provide p2p support.

You're welcome!
Glad to hear you could make progess.
 
If you come across stuff that can be enhanced or patched and you would like to share with the community please do so. Armbian heavily relying on community contributions.

Since you mention @NicoD may I suggest you look at his other YouTube Videos because he covers installing other desktops , swap files and overclocking on Armbian and MUCH more.
He also has a fantastic video about his famous useful commands, you can download is useful commands and learn those, this would give you a huge boost forward in your learning.
After watching his videos you can post a comment if some things were not clear to you.
 
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCpv7NFr0-9AB5xoklh3Snhg
 
This is what I would do if I were you .
 
@Nico

Hallo,
 
I've been using Armbian on the NanoPi M4 V2 for a while and now I'm thinking about switchen from the legacy kernel to the current kernel. Unfortunately that's not so easy to do when using armbian-config. You could think you can just select the current-kernel in the list but you won't find it there. The reason is simple: the legacy kernel belongs to the rk3399-family and the current kernel is rockchip64. Which is basically the same, but from an organisational point of view it is not (please forgive me if I do not show an adequate technical precision here, the details and the plan to clean that up are explained here).
 
What I would be interested in is now: Is there a proper way to switch the kernel manually? As I said, I have been using the system for a while now, so setting it up from scratch with the right kernel is something I would like to avoid.
 
I had a look into the source of armbian-config so I know that manipulating the LINUXFAMILY in /etc/armbian-release will display the current-kernel in the list. But I don't want to imagine what kind of side-effects will hit me when starting the installation process that way.
 
Cheers,
 
 
Matthias

Finally, my very own :-)

Wouldn't it be better to integrate it in armbian-config? 
Then people can still choose to install it or not. It does break some functionality of some programs. For example Kdenlive doesn't work with the script installed(no video playback).  I'll again try to find a fix for it.  But I've put a lot of time into it in the past and couldn't find a solution.  
Do you know how it is possible to make VPU acc work in mainline? With that we'd have a perfect image with panfrost + VPU. I'm looking into it, but my knowledge is very limited about this. 

Thanks pieter75, that was my problem!
I don't know how I missed this, NicoD had this in his video on the M4V2, which I had watched but I missed it.
Thanks very much !!

You are right, eMMC modules are compatible with both M4 and M4V2.
Do you install eMMC modules the right way? eMMC in M4V2 needs to be rotated 180º vs. the way it was installed in your M4.

It works out of the box. After the first boot just choose to move everything to the connected SSD in armbian-config. I am booting from an SSD and have two more HDDs connected.

Hi all.
I've just finished reviewing the Khadas VIM3.
It's an amazing SBC with unmatched performance. It's got the Amlogic A311D SoC. Comparable with the S922X of the Odroid N2.
But the 4x A73 cores are clocked at 2.2Ghz and the 2 x A53 cores to 1.8Ghz. So it performs a lot better.
It also comes with an NPU, MIPI-DSI and MIPI-CSI. And can be powered with USB type-c from 5V up to 20V.
Here my review video.
 
Here all my gathered information.
Khadas VIM3 ----------- Ubuntu server - fan over fins ----------------------------- Blender BMW no fan thermal pad : 59m with copper shim : 58m18s with 5V fan : 45m01s with 5V fan over CPU : 43m28s Ubuntu XFCE - fan over CPU, not over fins ----------------------------------------- Blender no fan : 55m22s Blender 3V fan : 43m03s Blender 5V fan : 42m51s Blender with fan : 48m45s Armbian Bionic Small cores @1.9Ghz Big cores @1.7Ghz Blender with fan : 46m29s Armbian Disco Small cores @1.9Ghz Big cores @1.7Ghz Blender with fan : 46m56s Armbian Buster Small cores @1.9Ghz Big cores @1.7Ghz Kdenlive 16m bench 3V lxde : 1h09m (using 1GB zram + 4GB swap file. Not enough ram with 2GB) Video playback -------------- Ubuntu ------ Up to 4K 30fps with MPV. Very slight screen tearing. Anything lower is perfect Youtube playback with Firefox up to 1440p 30fps perfect KODI doesn't work (yet) No VPU acceleration for now. All done by CPU. LibreElec --------- Up to 4K 30fps with MPV. Very slight screen tearing. Anything lower is perfect Wifi doesn't work. power consumption ----------------- Idle no fan : 0.27A 5V (governor set to interactive) Maxed out with fan : 1.4A 5V (fan is 0.15A) Temperatures (fan over CPU, not over fins) ------------------------------------------ Idle No fan : 44°C Maxed out No fan : 75°C heavy throttling. 1Ghz small cores / 1.8Ghz big cores Idle 3V fan : 34°C Maxed out 3V fan : 73°C very light throttle. Takes 5min to reach 70°c. +10min to start throttling Idle 5V fan : 32°C Maxed 5V : 70°C no throttling Transfer speeds --------------- eMMC 16GB : 60 MB/s write : 165.9 MB/s read SSD over USB3 : 380.3 MB/s write : 286.1 MB/s read SSD over USB2 : 40.2 MB/s Samsung EVO plus with on-board sd-reader : 10.2MB/s write 22.1MB/s read with USB3 sd-reader : 31.7MB/s write 88.6MB/s read Ethernet internet speed : 53.9 Mbps 11.5 Mbps Wifi internet speed : 43.7 Mbps 11.2 Mbps Issue's ------- When using a 2.4Ghz dongle for mouse in the right USB3 port, wifi connection is slow. When using a USB3 device in the USB3 port wifi stops working. Use left USB2 port for those. Ubuntu server boots/shuts down slower than XFCE version. Shut down stop job for ifup for eth0 (not in use) 1m30s Boot hangs a while. Can't find the reason. After -> Scanning for Btrfs filesystems. Done. about 30s Can't install Tensorflow khadas@Khadas:~/tensorflow$ pip3 install tensorflow-1.8.0-cp35-none-linux_aarch64.whl tensorflow-1.8.0-cp35-none-linux_aarch64.whl is not a supported wheel on this platform. Android : Can't connect wifi. I can type wifi password, but can't go further. No connect button. Tips ---- Use interactive governor for better thermals and power consumption with low use/idle. Plus/Minus ---------- + Best single core performance + best multi-core performance for an ARM SBC + Nice case + PSU + USB-c cable included + remote + eMMC + Amazing low power consumption / best performance per watt + Can be powered with 5V up to 20V + NPU - Wifi issue with USB3/No 5Ghz wifi. Could have solved the USB3 interference - Placing of the buttons would be better on the back. They often get pressed when plugging a USB device. You do get used to it. - No VPU and X11 drivers (yet) - Slow On-board SD-card reader
Greetings,
NicoD

Hi all. I've done a lot of tests with different desktop environments on Armbian.
I wanted an as light as possible desktop environment so I'd have enough ram left to do video rendering with the NanoPi M4(2GB)
I had to try a lot of things to get things working fine. So I wanted to save others that hassle.
 
Setting up Display Manager

First we need a Display Manager. NODM is installed by default. I tried lightdm but couldn't get it to work. So I went for LXDM. With NODM installed I had problems, so I also removed NODM.
To be sure lxdm is configured right, I also manually configure it.
sudo apt install lxdm sudo apt remove nodm sudo dpkg-reconfigure lxdm Install LXDE Desktop
 
Next step is to install the desktop environment you want. There is a problem with some Desktop Environments and LXDM what makes you can't login to some DE's out of the box. That we will resolve later. Easiest is to install lxdm first to be able to configure the others well. And reboot.
sudo apt install lxde sudo reboot Once booted you should be greeted by the Login screen. Here you can choose your different Desktop Environment. Choose LXDE and login.
If you'd try xfce4, then you'd see it doesn't work. To fix this we need to change the file /usr/share/xsessions/xfce.desktop. Use your favorite text editor. I use geany.
 
sudo geany /usr/share/xsessions/xfce.desktop Somewhere at the top of the file you'll see "Name=Xfce Session". Replace that space with a hyphen to "Name=Xfce-Session" and save the file.
Now you can also login to the default XFCE4 Desktop.
With other desktops this can be the same. Go the the same directory and open the file with the desktop name that doesn't work. Again replace the space with a hyphen
 
Installing different Desktop Environments.
For the Mate desktop I also needed to install the applets, else I got errors at login because of these missing applets
sudo apt install mate-desktop-environment mate-applets For KDE-Plasma
sudo apt install kde-full For Gnome. Modify the file sudo geany /usr/share/xsessions/gnome...
sudo apt install gnome-session sudo update-alternatives --config gdm3.css
I also tried LXQT. But this one didn't work. You can try others too.

Remove Desktop Environment
To remove a desktop environment you don't want anymore you do the remove instead of install.
sudo apt remove kde-full sudo apt remove mate-desktop-environment . . .
Please let me know if there's mistakes made, or if you've got advice.
Source for changing the name to make them work @IgorS :

Greetings, NicoD

Hi all.
I've made a new noob video on how to install Armbian on an SBC.
I also show how I set up my Armbian desktop. And I show how to install Armbian onto another media.
https://youtu.be/pnxUctyqx4c

 
Greetings, NicoD