New to Armbian: How stable and well working is Armbian for the Radxa Rock5B SBC? (RK3588 SoC, Debian stable currently 12 Bookworm; PD etc.)

[Rocky]

Hi all!

I am entirely new to Armbian. I see Radxa's Rock5B RK3588 based SBC is suppored and its Armbian page is https://www.armbian.com/rock-5b/ .

 

Can you give me a small crash course on your experience with Armbian on the Radxa Rock5B?

If you have an idea of any of the points I raise below, please share.

 

 

1. Super stable?

Generally to use and to upgrade Armbian, how stable has it been to you?

 

 

2. Which image should I pick?

I see both Debian and Ubunto are offered. I'll pick Debian.

 

Then there are "Desktop", "Server" and "Minimal/IOT"and "Dedicated applications" images, and some are listed as "Linux v6.1" and some as "Linux v6.12".

 

Which one of v6.1 and v6.12 should I take? 12 means twelve and 1 means one, right, so 6.12 sounds a lot preferable.

 

Under "Server", there is no Debian option at all. Any idea why?

 

What does "Dedicated applications" mean here?

 

If I would just guess my way through, I would probably take the "Desktop" variant with 6.12 kernel and then on the first boot I'd disable the GUI permanently by running "systemctl set-default multi-user.target".

 

It sounds like "Desktop" should include a lot of drivers. Who knows, perhaps one of those drivers would be needed for a PCI or USB peripheral. In respect of drivers, "Minimal/IOT" sounds risky.

 

Did I get it right?

 

 

3. Armbian SPI flash image with particular u-boot??
Radxa distribute a SPI flash image with their latest u-boot. Typically you flash a MicroSD card with their whole Debian distribution on it, then you run "rsetup" and pick the SPI flash option. But, their wiki contains the manual flashing instructions based on "dd" also. Ref https://docs.radxa.com/en/rock5/rock5b/download .

 

I was told that Armbian has its own u-boot for Rock5B, is it true? Where is it, and where are the installation instructions?

 

 

4. Peripherals, drivers, all OK?

Firstly what about the peripherals such as the onboard Realtek 8125 2.5gbe NIC, is it always stable?

 

Does everyone only have good experiences with using the 22x80mm M.2 slot on the bottom which has 4x PCIe v3 lanes?

All good experiences with the 22x30mm A+E key M.2 slot on the top, which has 1x PCIe v2 lane?

 

 

5. PD?

About the USB-C PD power supply protocol negotiation for voltage, the main Armbian page https://www.armbian.com/rock-5b/ says "PD is broken for the 5B model (background) on most revisions that are in the wild and is causing boot loop. Workaround is to use a stupid / fixed 5-24 volts USB-C power supply." and links to https://www.spinics.net/lists/linux-usb/msg239175.html .

I presume here, just using a USB-C power supply that supports up to 5A in the default 5V mode will do, normally. But to not negotiate to 20V sounds quite limited especially as the Rock5B has the hardware to take 20V DC input. Radxa themselves have implemented support for hte USB-C PD protocol negotiation in their Debian distribution.

 

What about just bring in their code as pragmatic solution?

 

 

6. "aptitude update; aptitude upgrade" OK & safe?

Is "aptitude update; aptitude upgrade" always safe on Armbian, so any kernel offered will be properly patched?

Did anyone's system break down permanently after doing "aptitude update; aptitude upgrade"?

 

 

7. Kernel version?

Just for recap, which kernel version is provided right now? I think someone said 6.12.

Via "apt upgrade" will it pick a newer kernel automatically now or when one is released?

 

Via "apt install" are there any optional even newer kernels avaiable?

 

 

8. URL to the Rock5B/RK3588 specific patches?

Just curious, where is Armbian's sourcecode that's specific to Rock5B and RK3588 actually?
 

 

9. Mainlining status?

Does anyone have a notion of what status there is to including Rock5B & RK3588 specific patches to mainline Linux?
 

Ideally over time custom patches should go to zero, right. However also occasionally for some device it seems like the mainlining work just grinds to a halt. How is it here.

 

 

10. Armbian-Debian packages

What is the relation between Debian's packages repository and Armbian's - does Armbian copy essentially everything?

 

 

11. ARM64 CPU optimizations?

Are sensible ARM64 CPU optimizations enabled so generally Armbian operates at a really high speed? I'd guess yes.

 

 

Many thanks.

Edited June 5 by Rocky

[Igor]

2 hours ago, Rocky said:

I am entirely new to Armbian.

Welcome to Armbian forums. Most of general questions are answered in:

https://docs.armbian.com/
https://docs.armbian.com/User-Guide_Board-Support-Rules/
 

Remove those you will get answers there ...