endecotp

I have removed these packages: iw wireless-regdb rfkill hostapd (no wifi) ntfs-3g btrfs-progs (filesystems I don't use) stress iozone3 (benchmarks) qrencode (huh?!) alsa-utils (no sound) ifenslave (not needed I think) sunxi-tools (different processor) command-not-found (don't want it) And then apt autoremove to remove corresponding libraries etc.

The lists of packages seem to be here: https://github.com/armbian/build/blob/master/lib/configuration.sh I don't know how those compare to what Debian Installer would install by default. Armbian-specific things in /etc, etc., seem to be here: https://github.com/armbian/build/tree/master/packages/bsp/common

I was really just "wondering out loud" about whether you could solve the problem of having Armbian-specific tools that need maintenance by instead re-using the existing, and maintained, functionality in Debian Installer. In the past I've used Martin Michlmayr's installer for the QNAP-TS119, which works more like this. I think one of the installation methods for the NSLU2 was also based on a modified Debian Installer. Anyway just a thought. I've been finding a few more of these differences. For example, find /etc -name '*armbian*'. It would be useful to have a list, maybe a diff of the filesystems trees with an unmodified Debian or something. I'm pretty familiar with how vanilla Debian works and I worry that the superficial similarity is misleading. This is just some honest feedback from an old Debian and ARM user but new Armbian user. I appreciate that resources are limited; I know how that feels. Thanks again for all the hard work.

Those are rather worrying claims. The issues that I had with Time Machine went away after I disabled IPv6, for some reason that I've not really tried to debug yet. Could you please elaborate on the ODROID-HC1's USB-to-SATA implementation being "cheap/broken"? It would have been useful to hear this after my initial post, before I bought one.

This is my first installation of Buster; my other Debian systems are still running Stretch for various reasons. I've noticed a couple of post-installation differences with Armbian Buster; I don't know whether these are Stretch vs. Buster differences or Debian vs. Armbian differences: 1. /var/log seems to be a ramdisk, so it's not persistent. 2. command-not-found seems to be installed by default. Regarding installation itself, I wonder if it would be possible for you to re-use more of the Debian Installer stuff? I'm thinking of things like initial user creation, timezones and language, and (for systems like mine with an SSD) partitioning. Anyway, thanks for all the work - it has worked very well so far.

I've bought one, and it seems to be working mostly OK so far. The Armbian installation was straightforward. It would be nice to have a summary of how the default installation differs from a regular Debian installation, though. Its NFS server seems to be working OK. Setting at Samba for Mac Time Machine has been a bit more problematic. Having copied&pasted some example smb.conf files from random websites I got something that worked... until it stopped working, after about 200 MB of the initial 200 GB backup, with no useful errors logged anywhere. On a hunch I've tried disabling IPv6, and it has (so far!) got 1.6 GB through the same initial backup, hmmm. This probably isn't the best place to ask about this, but if anyone has experience with Time Machine using Samba (rather than netatalk) please let me know! Thanks again for the recommendations.

Thanks for the comments. I think I'm probably going to get one. > install Armbian based on buster but with 4.14.y kernel OK; https://www.armbian.com/odroid-hc1/ is offering Stretch on 4.14 and Buster (minimal) on 5.4. Presumably there is some way to get what I need; I'll worry about the details later. I believe that I need Samba >= 4.8. Regarding TimeMachine, I have got the impression that using newish Samba is preferable to using netatalk in some way, though I don't recall the details.

Hi Everyone, I'm considering getting an ODROID-HC1 to use as a simple NAS. Is this a good idea? (Yes, some of you will have seen my very similar post about the Espressobin!) My requirements are quite basic; a single SATA SSD and a single ethernet port, running NFS and Samba. I do need a newish version of Samba (required to support "Time Machine" backup from my Mac) which I believe is in Debian Buster but not in Stretch. I've been a Debian user for decades; I guess I might be happier if the hardware supplier provided a Debian image, but it's great that Armbian is available. I note that Armbian Buster for this board is described as "Testing"; should I wait for a bit until it is more mature? Good things about this board include the mechanical design. I have some other ODROID boards (C2s) and I'm reasonably happy with them. I am slightly put off by the use of a USB-to-SATA adaptor chip, but maybe that is an unreasonable prejudice. The requirement for a wobbly SD card (rather than e.g. eMMC or booting directly from the SATA device) is another minor worry. The Exynos SoC seems to be quite old, but on the other hand that should mean it is a proven design and the software support is mature. What's the verdict? I'm looking for something that "just works"; I don't want to have to fiddle around with things for days! (I've done enough of that in the past.) Thanks, Phil.

Thanks for the comments and suggestions everyone. The other option that I've been considering is the ODROID-HC1. I guess I'll post a similar question about that in the appropriate forum.

Hi Everyone, I'm considering getting an Espressobin to use as a simple NAS. Is this a good idea? My requirements are quite basic; a single SATA SSD and a single ethernet port, running NFS and Samba. I do need a newish version of Samba (required to support "Time Machine" backup from my Mac) which I believe is in Debian Buster but not in Stretch. I've been a Debian user for decades; I guess I might be happier if the hardware supplier provided a Debian image, but it's great that Armbian is available. This board's hardware looks good; it has a SATA connector. But there are a few posts here mentioning stability issues, related to power supply hardware or possibly u-boot. And the board has recently had an update (v7) which may have made it better in some ways but less reliable??? Anyway, I'm posting this mainly to see if anyone shouts "No, Bad Idea!". What's the verdict? I'm looking for something that "just works"; I don't want to have to fiddle around with things for days! (I've done enough of that in the past.) Also: can anyone recommend an enclosure that would take this board and an SSD? Also2: is it correct that I don't need an SD card or eMMC if I have an external SATA disk for the root filesystem? Thanks, Phil.