Release Announcement: TWO New, Community Unofficial Armbian MAINLINE Desktop Images for Khadas VIM3 Pro

[Jeremiah Cornelius 11]

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

 

[tparys 40]

I'm not familiar with these boards at all, but I suspect there'd be some interest in getting support in the build system.

 

Have you considered seeing trying your hand at putting a PR to make automated builds? It's not too much work.

[Jeremiah Cornelius 11]

3 minutes ago, tparys said:

I'm not familiar with these boards at all, but I suspect there'd be some interest in getting support in the build system.

 

Have you considered seeing trying your hand at putting a PR to make automated builds? It's not too much work.

Thanks, that's my next step here, I think.
There was a fair amount of dispute in the Khadas forums a while back, about uBoot on the Khadas boards. I need to do more testing with an Armbian mainline uBoot, if nothing else. Right now, I cheat with the Khadas uboot which I built as a .deb with their Fenix tool. I get a second VIM3 in a couple more weeks, and this will be practical then.

 

The VIM3 is a smoking hot SBC. A little pricey, and some storage I/O tradeoffs vs other considerations, but it's a rocket. Not everyone has use for the onboard NPU, which must be a part of the price differential and the Odroid N2+. Because it is so Android-friendly, especially with Khadas uBoot and Amlogic USB imaging, it looks a bit like a TV box on steroids. It's a lot more than that. Until a Rock Quartz shows up, this is many ways the board to beat for desktop use.

I know you probably have seen NicoD's review from a couple years back:

 

[hexdump 66]

@Jeremiah Cornelius - for your lightdm issue, maybe give the slick greeter for lightdm a try - it fixed my problems with non working lightdm on 32bit arm - might be worth a try

 

best wishes and good luck - hexdump

[Jeremiah Cornelius 11]

8 hours ago, hexdump said:

@Jeremiah Cornelius - for your lightdm issue, maybe give the slick greeter for lightdm a try - it fixed my problems with non working lightdm on 32bit arm - might be worth a try

 

best wishes and good luck - hexdump

Thanks for the great suggestion. If it means a diff in a config file, versus a fork in the Armbian script library, it's a very good trade-off!

[Jeremiah Cornelius 11]

22 hours ago, Jeremiah Cornelius said:

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!

 

 

Heads up! jtremblant of the TwisterOS project, and a great systems guy, just informed me that HDMI audio output now works out-of-the-box for pure arm64 builds!
This was not true of earlier test builds. I suspect that I did not track a change, copying /var/lib/alsa/asound.state from my armhf build. These correct settings for ALSA mixer seem to be a likely solution.

Users of Fenix Ubuntu on VIM3 may want to verify if this solves audio issues, along with my other configuration details found here:
https://forum.khadas.com/t/twister-os-armbian-2-01-on-vim3-gl-acceleration-fan-and-audio-full-howto-and-working-image-dl/11775
 

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— Jeremiah

[rpardini 4]

Hey @Jeremiah Cornelius great stuff.

I've been working on removing the ODROID-specific cruft from the G12B family in armbian/build.

That is almost done now (some damned patches are still in the way) so I could start work on adding VIM3 officially.

Are you on Armbian's Discord? Catch me there in #amlogic as 'rpardini'

We could surely benefit from each other's work (and I from the fact you have a VIM3 to test on ;-) 

Let me know

 

[Jeremiah Cornelius 11]

2 minutes ago, rpardini said:

Hey @Jeremiah Cornelius great stuff.

I've been working on removing the ODROID-specific cruft from the G12B family in armbian/build.

That is almost done now (some damned patches are still in the way) so I could start work on adding VIM3 officially.

Are you on Armbian's Discord? Catch me there in #amlogic as 'rpardini'

We could surely benefit from each other's work (and I from the fact you have a VIM3 to test on ;-) 

Let me know

 

I'm very glad to help here! It makes me glad to hear of your progress.

I do have TWO VIM3 Pros for testing, LOL.

My current limitation is I will be in UK til Aug 3, and while vacationing, haven't brought any of my boards!

[rpardini 4]

Yeah, don't bring boards on vacation is a decent policy, though often violated I hear.

 

I realized after posting that we're on a tight schedule (Armbian 21.08 release) so I jumped the gun and sent a very basic PR, but is 100% untested.

It's Armbian's default meson64 kernel, mainline u-boot 2021.04 with vim3 default config, and the a311d DTB from mainline kernel, and that's it.

It could benefit from your work (asound file, any gpu/X11 settings, etc) but should otherwise be very similar to the N2 image I understand you based off.

If it boots, it's a win already.

 

Enjoy your vacations!