first try of latest armbian uefi-x86 on amd ryzen7 8845hs mini system, comments

[7alken]

Armbianmonitor:

https://paste.armbian.com/dukejeyele

hi all, I was looking for some unified os for more "rpi zero" clones and found beautiful armbian; and I am quite new to linux still, longtime/decades windows user;

to "dogfood", I am also considering use of armbian on my "tiny-big" uefi-x86 (now NUC10, but got now new amd ryzen7 8845hs gmktec nucbox k8 plus), so I tried as very first setup on that ryzen7 latest armbian "ubuntu gnome" - monitor output is attached, so far so good, although I dont know if everything around usb3/4 is working well (log contains some red messages, dont understand them) - it was only simple install, and I have this comments:

https://www.gmktec.com/products/amd-ryzen-7-8845hs-mini-pc-nucbox-k8-plus
 

usb-live boot was okay, I then executed armbian-config where in "storage" I proceeded with default installation (I didnt read well the instructions to run armbian-install in fact, this is not in set of icons after usb-live boot also...), which it seems selected nvme1 instead of nvme0 ??? (will try again with other variants as xfce again), so after this way of installation, reboot was into grub rescue, so I did it again forced to nvme0 (deleting all from nvme1 also by gparted) and the reboot was okay ... although, when I am powering-off linux from menu then nucbox pwr button green led switches off, BUT after removing usb and swiching on the nucbox by button nothing happens, black screen (long time, nothing) - I expected some longer boots because of DDR5 behavior (new to me too) but this is not the case. I must force OFF the nucbox by holding power button for 4secs and then re-powering on is okay ... this is not nice behavior 🙂

 

this nucbox K8 plus has very open APTIO BIOS, nothing is simplified and I left everything on auto for now, it seems secure boot is disabled and what surprised me too is that install to nvme storage did only MBR partitions, not GPT. hope its all handled well for offsets and blocksizes - are possible (good?) 4KB sectors for most efficient nvme flash ssd? I dont know if some defaults changes in bios can force armbian to defalt to GPT partitions, even if it is necessary. in windows, I have 2 big disks now and data/user are is only selected logically by virtuall drive letters (visualsubst), I use lots of them to separate areas and need this to mimic somehow in linux; its question if separate "user" partition with fixed size is okay too ... on windows, I do backups by onedrive syncing and by ZIPs to second drive and even to usb attached sata disks too and only for "really" user data, not everything the same way - its question if on linux its simpler to backup entire partitions (??)

 

I was also quite surprised that "ubuntu gnome" variant boots only to some "tablet only?? ui" very simple ui without any menu, windows without minimize icons ... I am new to linux, what is this "style"? this is "unity" or some tablet variant selected by sone defaults? ... very weird for me, too simple, not useable as desktop, so I will try XFCE and KDE Neon too, sure ...

 

When I tried to add language for regional date/time formats support , trying to download CZ (Czech) failed, probably some minor quirk too;

 

I had no chance to test everything, but I was surprised that it during boot found the WIFI and installation was really deadly easy and sexy, despite that first default bad selection of nvme1 as target (I am not sure if I didnt it in fact .... will try again similar way) ... but what is shown in icons/apps set is contrary to some getting started doc pages, where is mentioned "armbian-install" (not necessary as armbian-config - storage did it too??), btw red config and configng icons launch the same script;

 

I understand that this is lightweight setup and I in fact like it a lot, but that simplistic (tablet?) desktop was like something for kids ))

 

so, thanks to all NicoD videos (I saw tens of them) as my primary intention to test faster "rpi zero" clones is to run some Sinclair QL emulator on them, something with SMSQE, ideally, somehow, there are variants of it; on windows, best/fastest is probably QPC2/SMSQE but this is not full emulation, its hybrid where interfacing to fast windows host is often accelerated on it, so this is not linux-aware emulator, and I cant imagine if it would be possible in wine, probably not; other emulators exists, one of them for SMSQE is based on java too - goal was simply to make some low-power portable Sinclair QL (with SMSQE) machine, so I need to select best/fastest "rpi zero" clone with working GPU acceleration for sure.
https://www.kilgus.net/qpc/what/
youtube: yU0ptNyNqcI 

It is not yet clear if I will converty my main big machine to linux, but having one unified system for "everyhting arm" is definitely nice, it seems that armbian can be my primary linux distro even in virtual machines, I like the concept and systematic approach in documentation and development and even contribution, I read lot of docs and its very nice, it seems.

So will be glad also to support you, as much as possible.

 

Thanks, 

Petr

 

 

Edited yesterday at 11:41 AM by 7alken