Which Stable OS for a ROCK 5B?

[James Foss]

Hiya,

I am currently trying to setup some ROCK 5B boards as runners and as I install the latest Ubuntu 24.04 (Noble) from here  https://www.armbian.com/rock-5b/ it seems to get to where I configure my user etc, then on the next boot it gets stuck at kernal. 

So I guess before I go through trial and error , is there a recognised most stable build that can be relaibly flashed people would recommend, I found the Rock provided Debian and KDE Plasma to be very buggy and just kept locking up on me so something with Gnome would be cool for now , but will probably move to headless much further down the line. 

Amazing community reading the messages so far so thank you for everyone who contributes!

 

[eselarm]

First tell us how your power supply looks like.

[James Foss]

haha , I have read a lot on PSU, I am currently powering through a USB-C connected to a Anker Block 

www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0D59JNQ9F?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_fed_asin_title

This should be overkill, but I am here to learn  

I was going to start another post as currently this board will run on an Automotive rig which is supplied 13.8V from a fairly good but dumb Bench PSU, which I know i cant feed into it, but I was tempted to ask what the arangement with the USB-C was as could i wire a basic step-down circuit for a stable 5V 5A to connect to the GPIO pins and solve this once and for all. 

I was tempted to get one of these ordered foor today to eliminate issues, but was looking for somewhere with a list of known good supplies. 

https://www.amazon.co.uk/iRasptek-Raspberry-Supply-Adapter-（White）-White/dp/B0D12H1N4L?crid=2DR00330ACZG4&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.yy8NlNRV8fvukOA7JVjC9ng_XPbmDtZarii93lgqL_-ToxBeH4T6raTFYwrTkmXGbv-_trvnbv0rCVrjDbhnz3JY-mW3NRzGmgg9gN_fiEasz3_8Qc6GkhIQJG3FacIhxJIy3WGUyuvKu_5iDOxOj5hveO_RctLLAn33KRTnWT1EwvHQUVfvUzfXO8fi3Y8X0CAK1pjSJNdDU86EaeE1maJK2KtMkd32uxYpUs0TDLE.wLLZXeiEdInd_jsKhSdZfBR7IoK18dfWVdL6iph7Wvs&dib_tag=se&keywords=5v+5a&qid=1763810843&sprefix=5v+5a%2Caps%2C92&sr=8-5

 

[eselarm]

I feed my ROCK5B-16GB with SATA brakeout on E-key and Samsung NVMe on M-key with 12V own soldered USB-C pigtail (from an old car battery in addition if mains power 12V brick is not there). It does not work with USB-C PD (the RPi5 27W nor an HP 45W ), then boot loop. I use the 5V and GND from 40-pin header for feeding the 5V of an 3.5 inch HDD (and it gets its 12V from the mentioned setup).

 

Look at the ROCK5 schematics. It is not a RaspberryPi5 or OrangePi5. It has an own DC/DC stepdown convertor which can take 20V-9V on its USB-C power input connector and so creates an own stable 5V that is used for USB or in my case for some DIY 5V i need. You might dig deep into U-Boot and kernel and see if PD handling does work nowadays with latest, I didn't, I just soldered fixed 12V, much easier for me.

 

Automotive can mean very high spikes and negative dips when engine start, so be aware to protect else your board might die sooner or later.

[James Foss]

Great reply , I'll knock up a connection! much easier than anything else. 

I work in modern/future vehicles so the spikes and dips are not an issue for me as none of them have engines.