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About maintainers, supported boards and alternatives


lampra

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I can clearly see the point for the maintainers, but there is an issue with the old boards.

For example, I have a cubietruck which I would definitely like it to keep being supported, and I could probably help to maintain it within Armbian. Though  I do have only one board which works 24/7. To my understanding, I can not be a maintainer, as I can't test new releases on a productive board. So If no one has two pieces, then the board can not be supported.

In this case, I expect that current owners have to freeze kernel updates and keep the board for some more months - years, or try to test and use plain Debian or other distros.

Is there any other alternative?

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7 hours ago, lampra said:

In this case, I expect that current owners have to freeze kernel updates and keep the board for some more months - years, or try to test and use plain Debian or other distros.

Is there any other alternative?


Anyone can use the Armbian Build Tools to produce their own kernel debs or images.  The code will remain.

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2 hours ago, lanefu said:

The code will remain.

Correct. Nothing will become closed source or removed besides the pre-built binary packages like images or debs. These homemade images or packages are  unsupported like they always have been.

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13 hours ago, lanefu said:

their own kernel debs or images

Thank you for the clarifications.

I do build my images or kernels from time to time, but what about newer kernel version patches? How will this work?

Maybe it's not clear to me the meaning of CSC. Regarding LTS kernels, at least, say 5.10 with expected EOL in 2026, who is going to submit patches for newer kernel versions if there is no maintainer? Does this mean that if no one submits patches, the kernel will become stale? 

 

 

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2 hours ago, lampra said:

Maybe it's not clear to me the meaning of CSC.


Kernel will be covered, but not specifically, no testing on the board that is gone from the list. Also u-boot. But we all know upstream upgrades of kernel (& u-boot) could / will break the board sometimes ... and when this would happen, and its CSC (nobody took responsibility, not tested on hardware, ...), we will not even blink with an eye. We can't. In order to not ditch Cubietruck, perhaps step up as its maintainer? tl;dr; It's not a lot for one person, but it's a lot for current maintainers to take care for (too)so many boards. Stick around and take responsibility - maintainer don't need to fix specific problems, but have to know that it broke down. In case that happens, it should provide information, communicate on the forum, find workaround (worst case = "use this and that old image from the archive and freeze kernel update"). Trying to patch the problem is desired, but no an obligation (best effort support!), trying to find people that will patch the problem, ... nothing that would be impossible. Main purpose "we need help" is to share small parts of burden & responsibility. Current maintainers can't accept more and not collapse or significantly drop the support quality.

 

On 11/3/2021 at 7:59 PM, lampra said:

To my understanding, I can not be a maintainer, as I can't test new releases on a productive board.


Perhaps asking on forum if someone have a Cubietruck that he doesn't need? :) Do you own some other (A20) board for playing around? Also I could find something in my stash.

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23 hours ago, Igor said:

Perhaps asking on forum if someone have a Cubietruck that he doesn't need? :) Do you own some other (A20) board for playing around? Also I could find something in my stash.

 

I do not have any other A20 board. I will ask around my colleagues for a spare one.

Though If indeed there is a spare cubietruck to be provided by any forum member I would gladly help maintain this board.

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FWIW, I am still in the old Cubietruck boat as well.  I still have some services running on the old board, including XMPP server which it can easily handle.  I have a bit of a soft spot for the old board, being as it was my first and unless I am badly mistaken also historic as the first Armbian board (source: BalCCon2k17 presentation (YouTube))?

 

Anyway I don't know the answers yet, but I should probably mention that I took another break from work and so I will have a little time to work on things again.  I have not decided what I will do yet, maybe migrating services to newer boards I own would be best, in which case I would be happy to donate old board to someone who will make good use of it.  OTOH, maybe I seek to obtain another Cubietruck and then try my hand at "maintainership."  I think I can handle something along the lines of what Igor outlined above, but I am for sure no kernel hacker.  Anyway, today is only my first day "off" so just taking it easy for now, getting caught up on forum posts, etc.  Later, once I decide how I want to proceed, I will post back in this thread; you can also find me idling in IRC if you want to follow up.

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Hi!

I am the owner of the SBC Zoo, my pets are:

 

Orange Pi PC 2 (H5)
Orange Pi Zero+ (H5)
Orange Pi Zero Plus2 (H5)
Orange Pi Zero 2 (H616)
NanoPi DUO2 (H3)
Radxa zero 4GB/32GB
Raspberry pi B+
Raspberry pi A (256MB)
Raspberry pi 2B
Raspberry pi 3B
Raspberry pi 3A
Raspberry pi zero W
Raspberry pi zero 2 W

Some A20 based boards and TV boxes

 

How can I integrate into the development of the project?

 

I've recently started moving to 64bit boards and I'm currently selling

 

Orange Pi PC (H3)
Orange Pi Zero 512MB (H2+)
Orange Pi Lite 512MB (H3)

 

boards, if you think these boards will be useful for the project, I'll keep them for Armbian.

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3 hours ago, Yakov said:

Orange Pi PC (H3)
Orange Pi Zero 512MB (H2+)
Orange Pi Lite 512MB (H3)

 

boards, if you think these boards will be useful for the project, I'll keep them for Armbian.


IMO 32bit hw won't go away just like that. There lots of them out there, still pretty much useful for the tasks, but they wont find much ways into new projects. From the maintaining perspective - they are (usually) easy to maintain. However, sometimes, actually quite often, some functions break down on major kernel upgrades. But in must cases those are common for a whole chip. Maintaining one complex one is usually enough.

 

3 hours ago, Yakov said:

Radxa zero 4GB/32GB

 

3 hours ago, Yakov said:

Orange Pi Zero 2 (H616)


Doing anything around those two. Radxa zero is based on a known chip and mainly works, while Opi Zero2 is made around not so well supported H616. This should get more love. Check Jira & forum if anything is reported, if not, add to Jira, check what is known problem, what was fixed but not integrated and if you know how - try to integrate it to the build system. If you don't know how, check build framework docs and history.

Small steps, welcome!

What is expected from board maintainer - briefly:

https://forum.armbian.com/staffapplications/application/8-single-board-computer-maintainer/
If you decide to pick one, edit this file and put your name there:

https://docs.armbian.com/Release_Board-Maintainers/

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14 часов назад, Igor сказал:

Radxa zero is based on a known chip and mainly works

I use radxa zero daily. I took the image from balbes150 as a basis. If no one is interested in this vacancy, I will gladly take on the support of radxa zero and orangepizeroplus2-h5.

14 часов назад, Igor сказал:

IMO 32bit hw won't go away just like that.

I agree with you. There are still many 32 bit systems around me. But as far as possible, I try to upgrade my equipment.

I have two options:

1 sell 32bit motherboards and buy one new 64bit one

2 leave 32 bit boards for use in the armbian project.

I want to get new knowledge and no matter how many bits will be in the equipment I support. The question from the point of view of gaining experience is it better to leave 32-bit boards or concentrate on radxa zero, orangepizeroplus2-h5?

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1 час назад, balbes150 сказал:

Which version did you take as a basis ? I have never released anything for this chip.

https://users.armbian.com/balbes150/arm-64/     

Armbian_20.10_Arm-64_focal_current_5.9.0_desktop.img run on Amlogic S905x 

 

I used this image on a TV box, it was my first experience with Amlogic, thank you.

I'm currently using the archived image for radxa zero.

 

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