Is ARMBian kernel customisation backported to the main line ?

[destroyedlolo]

Hello,

 

If I compile the mainline kernel after a

make -j2 Bananapi_defconfig

Will I get a suitable kernel or am I obliged to use ARMbian build script ?

 

The question behind is, I'm testing Arch on several (unsupported) SBCs at customers requests, and 

• on the BananaPI-M1, the HDMI is not working, 
• on the OrangePI PC2, both the network and eMMC don't work. Obviously, everything is perfectly working on my ARMbian boxes 😄

 

Thanks

[Werner]

Here and there things are sent upstream, but I am not aware of any defconfig changes that have been sent. So the answer is probably no.

Also keep in mind that kernel configuration is one part only. Also other factors come into play like additional patches to the kernel regarding drivers or device tree.

[Igor]

13 hours ago, destroyedlolo said:

mainline kernel

Is a raw material from which we are developing / keeping support. It takes thousands of hours annually on top of that - for Allwinner hw to keep in a good shape. Use Armbian kernel and tell your customer to make a donation and your job is done - unless you are here to improve Allwinner support withing Armbian, Armbian itself? If you need Arch - it is probably easier to implement Arch to the build framework (not sure if it makes sense), then what you are aiming at. We are generating a loss by keeping those cheap boards usable - and we expect from you to at least not make the loss bigger - asking questions for 3rd party benefits is a path to this direction. Allwinner, Orangepi, ... are already making us enough of damages by doing nothing else but selling their cheap stuff - and not supporting any of our work. Similar to your customer, just at significantly bigger scale. Perhaps this is one of the reasons why things are as they are?

[destroyedlolo]

Thank you for your answers.

This is a POC for a work-study student whose hardware is already available to test the ARM potential... "for free" (even if the time spent is obviously costly). For production, I advocate for more serious and supported hardware products and operating systems, but I'm not the decision-makers.

I'm also personally interested in Arch/unsupported SBCs: understanding these flaws (a challenge for some, as you mentioned, due to Allwinner's support in general).

On that note, I read an article some time ago stating that OrangePI is working with you to improve support. It was a fake or something already gone ?

[Igor]

3 hours ago, destroyedlolo said:

For production, I advocate for more serious and supported hardware products and operating systems

 

What is wrong with Armbian in production? Where you anyway have to work with kernel / firmware under your control. We have several cases. But yeah, hardware support wise, one needs to be careful what to choose. Here OS is irrelevant anyway.

 

3 hours ago, destroyedlolo said:

I'm also personally interested in Arch/unsupported SBCs: understanding these flaws

 

You are welcome (to join). If you go that route, remember that it is usually a lonely one and sharing here gives some companionship. Forum can provide some tech but mainly moral support, share some tips and ideas, but expect that nobody have much time to do the homework instead of you - answering "why this doesn't work", "how to fix this and that feature", ... Most of those questions require research - some are already answered but not integrated, so forum search is probably best 1st step. AI is also getting better every day and can help in some cases ... If you convert some popular unsupported board into supported (within Armbian), we can help more.

 

3 hours ago, destroyedlolo said:

OrangePI is working with you to improve support. It was a fake or something already gone ?

 

Working with them made us bigger financial loss and worse software support. Most of what they provide SW wise is what they get from Allwinner (SDK) + board level adjustment or they steal (our framework) or push their buyers to milk open source projects. We suffered biggest loss and some had to close their projects down to this negative impact. They also re-brand-port our work into "Orangepi OS Debian / Ubuntu" and "Orangepi Arch OS" with help of Manjaro, which is yet another dirty FOSS player. They also produce fake Kali, fake Armbian and other fake images by themselves. To make sales and leverage support costs to others, mainly to us.

 

We will keep supporting some old boards for end users, but we won't be touching any new HW from them. Association between brands and articles from years ago exists and still makes us damages. They will keep sucking from Armbian without contributing a single cent. They are directly stealing from our work and this is their business model and there is little we can do about except informing you. They always could make a donation, like everyone else, but they never found that button. tl;dr; Fake.

[destroyedlolo]

1 hour ago, Igor said:

What is wrong with Armbian in production?

I didn't express myself clearly: I meant that I am "the advocate of more serious and supported solutions", I meant precisely ARMbian, as opposed to Arch where BananaPI and OrangePI are not officially supported. Sorry for the confusion.

 

For OrangePI, I can see that nothing changed since their beginning, where they were starting their business by simply cloning LeMaker website and all the efforts the community did for the original BananaPI board 🤐