talraash

in my test, some light web page take a more that 500mb ram usage on arm64 broowser And chromium by default in armbian use psd and cache in tmpfs(but not sure server images have config for chromium or not), so easy can use more that 800mb for "only one tab". And yo don't have 800... xfce4 - 150+reserv from gpu 200?+tmpfs...

If you use browser, under x11... No matter install it from repo in server image or use desktop version image... It's hard for 1gb ram(in real use even less - some for gpu reserv, some for tmpfs). Partial solution use armhf browser instead arm64, it's utilize less ram in some case arm64 use more than x2. Also disable and don't load pulse, install light wm instead xfce etc.

It's bad idea use swap on microsd, bad for sd card) youtube now work with standart armbian image, it use psd and store cache and profile in tmpfs... If you disable in chromium settings all kind hw acceleration it can smoooth play 720p in youtube with software decoding...

http://linux-meson.com/doku.php Audio subsystem in wip(in stable 4.18 didn't work with default cvbs output, so problem on kernel level). But usb sound work.

If you don't create ddbr backup early best option for unbrick - use original firmware and instruments... Depending on the level of bricking (u-boot is healthy, completely overwritten or damaged) the recovery methods will be different. And you can use search in this forum. Most questions already have answers. In you case(if you can't load from sd or usb, looks like you damaged u-boot) so standard method load armbian from sd and use ddbr you can't use.

Nexbox a95x(soc amlogic s905 ram 1 storage 8) All image with kernel 3.14 work with generic gxbb_p200.dtb(old u-boot). Don't have now this box, so don't have opportunity check mainline. It have some exotic wi-fi module without open sources drivers, so no wi-fi. Sunvell T95X(soc amlogic s905x ram 2 storage 8). All image with kernel 3.14 and mainline. With stock firmware don't need manipulate with .dtb files(3.14 kernel), for mainline need generic p212 dtb. Wi-fi sci9082c, didn't test. .

looks like now it can't work via drm so no hw decoding under x11(i could not make it work)... translate frames to kms looks work fine, but it not that thing what people want from "hw decoding".

github commits history for armbin and basbes150 fork... if you need "complete changelog"

balbes150 freeze support legacy kernel, so you don't need check changelog. for mainline use github and commits history.

That post from 2017, now 2018... Use mainline kernel +cedrus+kodi now.

Looks like any player don't see vaapi backend... If it use custom decoder lib? first need set path to libva and set LIBVA_DRIVER_NAME as environment variable. Still trying find solution. And in any case we need change --vo from default opengl to x11, wayland or other... no mater software decoding or v4l2_m2m,

@balbes150 upd

Yep. but it have other "magic" setting if video don't have same resolution as screen or play it in window, we can use fast scaler --sws-scaler=fast-bilinear With software decoding we haven't hw scaler and by default scaler in mpv very demanding of resources..

On mainline - compile kernel, v4l2 m2m etc. with custom patches or wait when it merge to stable. For 3.14 use kodi. For 3.14(and software decoding in mainline) and x11 - partial solution --vo=x11 and --sws-scaler=fast-bilinear or equal if you don't use mpv. It cause high cpu usage but give you playable 720p and some 1080p video. Most problem with mpv - it use by default vo=opengl, it cause huge framedrop(yep, soft mesa) so if you want soft decoding use special flags or vo=x11 upd @Baloven