I have a question about maintained boards and user-built images. (A possible candidate for an FAQ list.)

[Myron]

For this question the assumption is that a board actually has a maintainer and I think the answer given will be useful for anyone else with the same or similar question.  May end up being a candidate for some FAQ list.

 

Question is....

If a board has a maintainer and the user builds the image themselves using the recommended default kernel/compilation option, why is there no support for the built image?

 

Rationale behind the question is if the user decides to change the kernel build options then there would bo no doubt that the user will be on their own with no support, but if the kernel is built with the default hard built options then there has been no tinkering. Therefore the trunk built image/kernel could/should be offered support by the maintainer?   Especially if the board within the Armbian framework has not been moved to CSC/EOS/WIP and is still the the Matured list of boards.

[Werner]

2 hours ago, Myron said:

why is there no support for the built image?

Because it often enough has happened that user did unknown modifications and blame us for their mistakes. Therefor only official images are supported.

[Myron]

6 minutes ago, Werner said:

Because it often enough has happened that user did unknown modifications and blame us for their mistakes. Therefor only official images are supported.

Ah..  That explains just about everything.  Been there myself and suffered the headaches myself too.

What are the consequences, if there are any, if the user simply uses the Armbian Framework to generate an image with the pre-programmed settings and without making any of these unknown modifications? ... or, upgrade the kernel also without making any modifications?

I'm guessing what I'm asking is, if a mature untampered with user-built image and kernel in the same class as a maintainer's built image and kernel?
 

[Werner]

Yes theoretically they are the same then. However since we cannot distinguish if tampered or not all user-built images are generally unsupported

[Myron]

In that case I promise to be a good user and not to tamper with the scripts and/or the build process.  😉   (... as should everyone else promise to do the same!)

[NicoD]

3 hours ago, Myron said:

(... as should everyone else promise to do the same!)

For some people it is wanted/needed to change things. And for the devs it is a must.
It's just expected of people who do change things, that they know what they are doing.