NicoD

Armbian is an established Linux for single board computers that is used in enterprise, IOT micro services and various hobby deployments. Recent desktop improvements bring the platform on-par with key players in the Linux desktop arena while keeping the key advantage – you can easily build your own Linux distribution.
 
 
 
 
Armbian provides stable releases every three months. They are driven by CURRENT LTS kernel. Adventurers which likes rolling releases, can check EDGE releases which are using latest daily kernel builds with fresh packages from sid, hirsute or impish userland.
 
Armbian has powerful build system which can build a whole Linux distribution, an OS image or a kernel. Key advantages are simplicity, speed and excellent hardware support. Provides native or cross compilation.
 
This release is hard work of exceptional individuals who have contributed their time and expertise into this release. Many thanks to – in alphabetic order:

@balbes150 @AristoChen @belegdol @Werner@Heisath @iav @Igor @Icenowy @lanefu @jock @piter75@Rich Neese@rpardini@going @tkaiser @tparys @TonyMac32 @Azq2 @henkiejan1 @juanesf @psztoch, @redchenjs @Uglymotha

Special thanks to users and vendors @orangepi, @friendlyelec, @khadas and @olimex that understand the importance of our work and supports the project with donations of cash, hardware & expertise.

Enjoy!
 
Highlights
 
minimal, server or XFCE, Cinnamon and Budgie desktop fast and effective automated language selection on first run regular stable and daily beta & EDGE updates CLI is powered with ZSH or BASH added automated kernel upgrade on EDGE 5.13.y kernels added mainline based SPI boot support for Odroid HC4 added Qemu virtual Armbian builds added CSC images for Tinkerboard 2, Rockpi N10, added ZFS upgrade to v2.1 improved Github Actions CI and CDN network added Cinnamon and Budgie desktop enabled 3D support wherever its possible and works reasonble well added Khadas VIM1-3 & Edge boards, Avnet Microzed enabled VPU support for Rockchip added legacy kernel support for OrangepiZero2, Nvidia Jetson declare Ubuntu Hirsute and Debian Bullseye packages as stable added Ubuntu Impish and Debian Sid as beta build targets added KDE plasma DE as a beta build target
Details:
 
What’s Left
 
long term armbian-config refactoring upgrading Rockchip u-boot from 2010.y to latest resolving Allwinner boot troubles on last u-boot enable 3D on Meson G12 / SM1 infrastructure improvements: mirros, runners, publishing.  
Details:
 
Tough Decisions
 
Odroid C4/HC4 boot problem has to remain unresolved in CURRENT 5.10.y kernel since fixing it would break Khadas boards. Problem was properly solved in EDGE kernel. We had to disable 3D on latest Amlogic boards due to instability Leaving behind published Deepin, Enlightenment, Gnome, i3, KDE plasma, Mate, Xmonad desktop due to space constrains and lack of maintenance. These options are still available within the build tool.  
Known problems
 
XFCE desktop is missing package gvfs-backends and xarchiver bullseye doesn’t properly detect locales Helios64 eMMC IO errors with CURRENT kernel OrangepiZero2 EDGE kernel based image doesn’t boot. Will be fixed in bug fix release.  

Armbian desktop running on Orange Pi Zero2 with kernel 5.13

I received samples of P2 and M2. the first impressions are very positive. I checked the launch of the official versions of Ubuntu 18.04 from Fyrefly. Everything starts and works from the SD card. The startup process is very simple, I downloaded the image, unpacked it, wrote it to the SD card, connected it to P2\M2, turned on the power and the system automatically updated the bootloader in eMMC, rebooted and the Ubuntu system automatically started from the SD card (the regular Station system in eMMC is saved and works if there is no SD card).
 
I really liked the mechanism for connecting SATA devices (SSD\HDD) to P2, it is very simple. I immediately connected a 240GB SSD drive. It was automatically detected and appeared in the system. WiFi antennas on P2 are full-fledged and large, they obviously did not save money here and will ensure proper operation. 

Our documentation got a new page answering the most common questions people have. Feel free to check it out:
 
https://docs.armbian.com/User-Guide_FAQ/
 
 
If you have ideas for other things that could/should be explained there let us know or send a pull request here: http://github.com/armbian/documentation
 

Hi all.
I'm working on a script that can install different Linux gaming tools like Box86, Box64, PPSSPP, ...
For now it can only install box86 and box64. There is also an issue installing wine, so this doesn't work either.
 
https://github.com/NicoD-SBC/armbian-gaming
 
Download and unzip and run script : sudo /bin/bash ./armbian-gaming.sh When ready I'll make a video about it and give more info.
 
I've tested it on the PineBookPro with Hirsute.
With the Odroid N2+ you need to activate panfrost, install dependecies for N2+, and then install box86. Tho it didn't work as it should.
If "install box86" gives a build error, try the dependencies for N2+ and try "install box86" again.
 
Please let me know your experiences on other systems.
 

Version 20210703 for P1 and M1.
Kernel 5.10.47 5.12.14. For the Legacy version, the work with the installation of the media package has been fixed. Due to the peculiarities of installing the media package, for proper operation during subsequent system updates, I recommend freezing the current kernel, it differs from those that arrive in network repositories (the list of supported modules and devices has been significantly expanded).

I just build Gnome image for N2 - except mouse cursor is changing to strange forms, otherwise ... works. Hirsute with 5.12.y kernel.

Hi al.
I've finished my review of the PineBook Pro. I just love this thing. Runs great with Armbian.
Here my video.
Here all my gathered information:
 

Glad you have fun with it
 

Hi al.
I've finished my review of the PineBook Pro. I just love this thing. Runs great with Armbian.
Here my video.
Here all my gathered information:
 

That gave my videos a sudden boost. Thank you

Hi,
 
I did some more tests and it turned out, that there is little difference between LE and armbian legacy for x264 or avc movies - but I found no movieplayer, that worked half as good as armbian legacy with vc-1 movies.
Don't have that many movies with vc-1 but some much-loved like inception ...
 
I already wrote, that I use rockpi as movieplayer together with a beamer, so session selection of armbian legacy is suboptimal for me, as about 10-15% on top and bottom of the screen are invisible (outside of screen). Lightdm/xfce is so dumb, that icons in topbar will not be scaled to bar height, which works fine for second bar ...
Sadly I didn't find any other greeter, that runs on armbian and is more attractive like lightdm-gtk-greeter.
So I started to build my own, which took lot more of time than expected ...
 
any way - I finally have a working sample:

 
is uses gtk too, so it works with armbian.
 
I check the available sessions and if there's no session definition for kody-gbm, the kodi-button will be disabled (as in the screenshot taken from my desktop computer).
Font- and button-size have been increased for a screen distance of 3m approximately.
 
Last login will be cached, so user will be prefilled and hitting ENTER in the password field will login to the last session. Left most button starts kody and right most button the desktop.
 

This post helped me a lot, I am a beginner and I think other beginners like me need to come and read this post first.

Feel free to try to add it to armbian-config.
https://github.com/armbian/config
The script is indeed dated. And no devs have time to work on it.
I've always manually set it up in /etc/rc.local.

new version of Armbian  20210614 with core 5.10.43.
Added support for analog audio and a standard remote control.

Hi Werner, 
 
I'm more of an enthusiast than IT guy, so my technical skills are limited. However, I can put together some good graphics, should you have a requirement for that. I can also put together picture mock-ups of t-shirts and mugs for your store.
 
cheers,
 
Jim

Another afternoon and all kernels for 5.12.y are done at build stage.
 
- cleaning
- do we need to archive 5.11.y. I would say no since its not LTS
- testing

I just released Armbian Focal Desktop MAINLINE images for Khadas VIM3 Pro. These are individually, pure arm64 and hybrid arm64/armhf variations.
Thanks go to @lanefu for key pointers in understanding how to "re-arm" the firstboot and firstboot-config mechanism in current-state Armbian.
 
Please offer feedback and experiences if you test these. The images are currently hand-built, but if enough interest is generated, and time permitting, I will commit to a git fork for an unsupported standard building process.
 

 
I have more detail on the distribution site at archive.org, and in the corresponding posts to the Khadas forums:
 
armhf Hybrid
LightDM will NOT work as display manager in this configuration, and I've chromed-up lxdm as a replacement. Autologin may be a work still in progress.
Archive.org: Armbian 21.02.3 MAINLINE Image For Khadas VIM3 Pro - 32-bit Userspace - Ubuntu Focal Xfce Desktop Forums.khadas.com: Community Armbian 21.02.3 MAINLINE Image For Khadas VIM3 Pro With 32-bit Userspace  
arm64 Native
UPDATED INFO
HDMI audio out is non-functional with the 64-bit userspace, which is true for all Debian and Ubuntu systems, including Khadas Fenix builds.
This capability may be a user's deciding factor in chosing between builds.
With further testing, HDMI AUDIO NOW WORKS in arm64 image build!
Archive.org: Armbian 21.02.3 MAINLINE Image For Khadas VIM3 Pro - arm64 - Ubuntu Focal Xfce Desktop Forums.khadas.com: Community Armbian 21.02.3 MAINLINE Image For Khadas VIM3 Pro arm64 Native  

No, it is the opposite. In legacy you can overclock to 2.0/1.5Ghz (like mainline), or to 2.2/1.7Ghz (extreme, needs active cooling). You only need to activate the corresponding overlay in armbian-config

I just want 32 N1 cores. No need for any other I/O than a Gbit ethernet port. 
More would be nice. My M4V2/N2+ do everything I need. Just for rendering and building I can use more performance. Being able to do these jobs on a dedicated device would be nice.
Tho a workstation with 32 N1 cores is more awesome. 

For that you build with expert=yes
 
 
I made videos showing how to do this. 
It is now also possible to build Armbian with an ARM64 SBC. Tho best to use Balbes images for that.
https://users.armbian.com/balbes150/
I think the main build script now can do that. In this video I had to use another branch. So that info is outdated. All others should still be valid. 

Hello forum,
I am new to Armbian. Selected it for my Odroid N2+ because I need high CPU performance for a virtual piano software and current Armbian Buster comes with 2.4 GHz.
I'd like to share my alsa settings for the analog stereo output of the N2+.
Could not find much info on the net, but at least I have analog sound now at the 3.5mm TRS-jack -- don't know really, why it works, but it does
Created a /etc/asound.conf with

pcm.!default {         type plug         slave {         pcm "hw:0,1"         } }
(sets analog stereo device as default).
The alsamixer settings I made manually. The following is the output of the command amixer:

Simple mixer control 'ACODEC',0   Capabilities: pvolume pswitch pswitch-joined   Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right   Limits: Playback 0 - 255   Mono:   Front Left: Playback 222 [87%] [-12.33dB] [on]   Front Right: Playback 222 [87%] [-12.33dB] [on] Simple mixer control 'ACODEC Left DAC Sel',0   Capabilities: enum   Items: 'Left' 'Right'   Item0: 'Left' Simple mixer control 'ACODEC Mute Ramp',0   Capabilities: pswitch pswitch-joined   Playback channels: Mono   Mono: Playback [off] Simple mixer control 'ACODEC Playback Channel Mode',0   Capabilities: enum   Items: 'Stereo' 'Mono'   Item0: 'Stereo' Simple mixer control 'ACODEC Ramp Rate',0   Capabilities: enum   Items: 'Fast' 'Slow'   Item0: 'Fast' Simple mixer control 'ACODEC Right DAC Sel',0   Capabilities: enum   Items: 'Right' 'Left'   Item0: 'Right' Simple mixer control 'ACODEC Unmute Ramp',0   Capabilities: pswitch pswitch-joined   Playback channels: Mono   Mono: Playback [off] Simple mixer control 'FRDDR_A SINK 1 SEL',0   Capabilities: enum   Items: 'OUT 0' 'OUT 1' 'OUT 2' 'OUT 3' 'OUT 4' 'OUT 5' 'OUT 6' 'OUT 7'   Item0: 'OUT 1' Simple mixer control 'FRDDR_A SINK 2 SEL',0   Capabilities: enum   Items: 'OUT 0' 'OUT 1' 'OUT 2' 'OUT 3' 'OUT 4' 'OUT 5' 'OUT 6' 'OUT 7'   Item0: 'OUT 0' Simple mixer control 'FRDDR_A SINK 3 SEL',0   Capabilities: enum   Items: 'OUT 0' 'OUT 1' 'OUT 2' 'OUT 3' 'OUT 4' 'OUT 5' 'OUT 6' 'OUT 7'   Item0: 'OUT 0' Simple mixer control 'FRDDR_A SRC 1 EN',0   Capabilities: pswitch pswitch-joined   Playback channels: Mono   Mono: Playback [on] Simple mixer control 'FRDDR_A SRC 2 EN',0   Capabilities: pswitch pswitch-joined   Playback channels: Mono   Mono: Playback [off] Simple mixer control 'FRDDR_A SRC 3 EN',0   Capabilities: pswitch pswitch-joined   Playback channels: Mono   Mono: Playback [off] Simple mixer control 'FRDDR_B SINK 1 SEL',0   Capabilities: enum   Items: 'OUT 0' 'OUT 1' 'OUT 2' 'OUT 3' 'OUT 4' 'OUT 5' 'OUT 6' 'OUT 7'   Item0: 'OUT 2' Simple mixer control 'FRDDR_B SINK 2 SEL',0   Capabilities: enum   Items: 'OUT 0' 'OUT 1' 'OUT 2' 'OUT 3' 'OUT 4' 'OUT 5' 'OUT 6' 'OUT 7'   Item0: 'OUT 0' Simple mixer control 'FRDDR_B SINK 3 SEL',0   Capabilities: enum   Items: 'OUT 0' 'OUT 1' 'OUT 2' 'OUT 3' 'OUT 4' 'OUT 5' 'OUT 6' 'OUT 7'   Item0: 'OUT 0' Simple mixer control 'FRDDR_B SRC 1 EN',0   Capabilities: pswitch pswitch-joined   Playback channels: Mono   Mono: Playback [on] Simple mixer control 'FRDDR_B SRC 2 EN',0   Capabilities: pswitch pswitch-joined   Playback channels: Mono   Mono: Playback [off] Simple mixer control 'FRDDR_B SRC 3 EN',0   Capabilities: pswitch pswitch-joined   Playback channels: Mono   Mono: Playback [off] Simple mixer control 'FRDDR_C SINK 1 SEL',0   Capabilities: enum   Items: 'OUT 0' 'OUT 1' 'OUT 2' 'OUT 3' 'OUT 4' 'OUT 5' 'OUT 6' 'OUT 7'   Item0: 'OUT 3' Simple mixer control 'FRDDR_C SINK 2 SEL',0   Capabilities: enum   Items: 'OUT 0' 'OUT 1' 'OUT 2' 'OUT 3' 'OUT 4' 'OUT 5' 'OUT 6' 'OUT 7'   Item0: 'OUT 0' Simple mixer control 'FRDDR_C SINK 3 SEL',0   Capabilities: enum   Items: 'OUT 0' 'OUT 1' 'OUT 2' 'OUT 3' 'OUT 4' 'OUT 5' 'OUT 6' 'OUT 7'   Item0: 'OUT 0' Simple mixer control 'FRDDR_C SRC 1 EN',0   Capabilities: pswitch pswitch-joined   Playback channels: Mono   Mono: Playback [on] Simple mixer control 'FRDDR_C SRC 2 EN',0   Capabilities: pswitch pswitch-joined   Playback channels: Mono   Mono: Playback [off] Simple mixer control 'FRDDR_C SRC 3 EN',0   Capabilities: pswitch pswitch-joined   Playback channels: Mono   Mono: Playback [off] Simple mixer control 'TDMIN_A SRC SEL',0   Capabilities: enum   Items: 'IN 0' 'IN 1' 'IN 2' 'IN 3' 'IN 4' 'IN 5' 'IN 6' 'IN 7' 'IN 8' 'IN 9' 'IN 10' 'IN 11' 'IN 12' 'IN 13' 'IN 14' 'IN 15'   Item0: 'IN 0' Simple mixer control 'TDMIN_B SRC SEL',0   Capabilities: enum   Items: 'IN 0' 'IN 1' 'IN 2' 'IN 3' 'IN 4' 'IN 5' 'IN 6' 'IN 7' 'IN 8' 'IN 9' 'IN 10' 'IN 11' 'IN 12' 'IN 13' 'IN 14' 'IN 15'   Item0: 'IN 0' Simple mixer control 'TDMIN_C SRC SEL',0   Capabilities: enum   Items: 'IN 0' 'IN 1' 'IN 2' 'IN 3' 'IN 4' 'IN 5' 'IN 6' 'IN 7' 'IN 8' 'IN 9' 'IN 10' 'IN 11' 'IN 12' 'IN 13' 'IN 14' 'IN 15'   Item0: 'IN 0' Simple mixer control 'TDMIN_LB SRC SEL',0   Capabilities: enum   Items: 'IN 0' 'IN 1' 'IN 2' 'IN 3' 'IN 4' 'IN 5' 'IN 6' 'IN 7' 'IN 8' 'IN 9' 'IN 10' 'IN 11' 'IN 12' 'IN 13' 'IN 14' 'IN 15'   Item0: 'IN 0' Simple mixer control 'TDMOUT_B Gain Enable',0   Capabilities: pswitch pswitch-joined   Playback channels: Mono   Mono: Playback [off] Simple mixer control 'TDMOUT_B Lane 0',0   Capabilities: volume   Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right   Capture channels: Front Left - Front Right   Limits: 0 - 255   Front Left: 0 [0%]   Front Right: 0 [0%] Simple mixer control 'TDMOUT_B Lane 1',0   Capabilities: volume   Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right   Capture channels: Front Left - Front Right   Limits: 0 - 255   Front Left: 0 [0%]   Front Right: 0 [0%] Simple mixer control 'TDMOUT_B Lane 2',0   Capabilities: volume   Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right   Capture channels: Front Left - Front Right   Limits: 0 - 255   Front Left: 0 [0%]   Front Right: 0 [0%] Simple mixer control 'TDMOUT_B Lane 3',0   Capabilities: volume   Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right   Capture channels: Front Left - Front Right   Limits: 0 - 255   Front Left: 0 [0%]   Front Right: 0 [0%] Simple mixer control 'TDMOUT_B SRC SEL',0   Capabilities: enum   Items: 'IN 0' 'IN 1' 'IN 2'   Item0: 'IN 0' Simple mixer control 'TDMOUT_C Gain Enable',0   Capabilities: pswitch pswitch-joined   Playback channels: Mono   Mono: Playback [off] Simple mixer control 'TDMOUT_C Lane 0',0   Capabilities: volume   Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right   Capture channels: Front Left - Front Right   Limits: 0 - 255   Front Left: 0 [0%]   Front Right: 0 [0%] Simple mixer control 'TDMOUT_C Lane 1',0   Capabilities: volume   Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right   Capture channels: Front Left - Front Right   Limits: 0 - 255   Front Left: 0 [0%]   Front Right: 0 [0%] Simple mixer control 'TDMOUT_C Lane 2',0   Capabilities: volume   Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right   Capture channels: Front Left - Front Right   Limits: 0 - 255   Front Left: 0 [0%]   Front Right: 0 [0%] Simple mixer control 'TDMOUT_C Lane 3',0   Capabilities: volume   Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right   Capture channels: Front Left - Front Right   Limits: 0 - 255   Front Left: 0 [0%]   Front Right: 0 [0%] Simple mixer control 'TDMOUT_C SRC SEL',0   Capabilities: enum   Items: 'IN 0' 'IN 1' 'IN 2'   Item0: 'IN 1' Simple mixer control 'TOACODEC Lane Select',0   Capabilities: volume volume-joined   Playback channels: Mono   Capture channels: Mono   Limits: 0 - 3   Mono: 0 [0%] Simple mixer control 'TOACODEC OUT EN',0   Capabilities: pswitch pswitch-joined   Playback channels: Mono   Mono: Playback [on] Simple mixer control 'TOACODEC SRC',0   Capabilities: enum   Items: 'I2S A' 'I2S B' 'I2S C'   Item0: 'I2S C' Simple mixer control 'TODDR_A SRC SEL',0   Capabilities: enum   Items: 'IN 0' 'IN 1' 'IN 2' 'IN 3' 'IN 4' 'IN 5' 'IN 6' 'IN 7'   Item0: 'IN 0' Simple mixer control 'TODDR_B SRC SEL',0   Capabilities: enum   Items: 'IN 0' 'IN 1' 'IN 2' 'IN 3' 'IN 4' 'IN 5' 'IN 6' 'IN 7'   Item0: 'IN 0' Simple mixer control 'TODDR_C SRC SEL',0   Capabilities: enum   Items: 'IN 0' 'IN 1' 'IN 2' 'IN 3' 'IN 4' 'IN 5' 'IN 6' 'IN 7'   Item0: 'IN 0' Simple mixer control 'TOHDMITX',0   Capabilities: pswitch pswitch-joined   Playback channels: Mono   Mono: Playback [on] Simple mixer control 'TOHDMITX I2S SRC',0   Capabilities: enum   Items: 'I2S A' 'I2S B' 'I2S C'   Item0: 'I2S B' Simple mixer control 'TOHDMITX SPDIF SRC',0   Capabilities: enum   Items: 'SPDIF A' 'SPDIF B'   Item0: 'SPDIF A'
System: Armbian 21.02.4 Buster with Linux 5.10.27-meson64
Great project!
Thank you all!

I was thinking exactly the same question. Why do you bother and waste your time here if you don't like Armbian?
Lately I've red few complaints of people who have "many years of experience". But they don't want to bother reading and learning new skills. 
Experience is not the same as knowledge
As knowledge is not the same as experience

With experience you can have gained knowledge about much but not being specialized at one thing, or know a lot about a small section of the industry and be blind to all other.

Thousands of people happily use Armbian on their devices and for 99% of the usecases everything is fine. The other 1% we try to help here. 

I've made tons of informative videos about SBCs. I show how to do all the basic stuff, and some more advanced things. 
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCpv7NFr0-9AB5xoklh3Snhg/search?query=armbian
The forum also has the Reviews, Tutorials and Hacks section where almost everything you could want to learn about Armbian is explained.
https://forum.armbian.com/forum/40-reviews-tutorials-hardware-hacks/
Then there is Armbian Docs also full of information.
https://docs.armbian.com/

All these things have cost us time, and so also money. We are here to serve. And then you say our work is "garbage".
Sorry, but I do not take that lightly.

You can't teach someone who is convinced to know it all. Greetings.

NicoD, your YouTube videos are why I chose Armbian.  I think the Armbian tools are awesome, and I'm grateful to those who created and maintain it.

You've been brave, but surrender, never
A bit a pity there's not more interest in this board. And I've not seen any other H616 SBCs coming. 
Their Orange(Armbian) images do seem ok. I wonder if we could not learn anything from their script/builds.
https://github.com/orangepi-xunlong/OrangePi_Build
They've copied Armbian, maybe Armbian should copy them now  
I don't know. Maybe this one should be a pass. Is the effort supporting it worth it? Tho the board is good for some use cases.