Helios64 at the end of 2025

[tmb]

Hi folks, long time lurker here.

 

My helios64 is pretty much brand new, didn’t really needed it at that time, only bought it as I found it really cool. I may power it a couple of times per year for some backups (got 3x 6tb in it, no raid so I can take them out when needed, also back up stuff to external drives), it still starts-up from the initial sd card as I never finished setting it up. I also have a 1 bay separate NAS for downloading movies that if fails, I will just replace; and a drive attached directly to my router for easy file swaps; so don’t need much running 24x7.

 

While I work in IT (on the Windows side, so the Armbian stuff is still a learning path for me), the last years have been so busy that I can’t find myself tinkering anymore at the end of the day.

 

To the ones of you that are running one, does it still make sense, or should I maybe switch to something more mainstream?

 

Thank you!

[BipBip1981]

Hi,

In 2025, Helios64 is now stable for me and for my brother, who also uses it.

The only thing to do is, just after installation or after any upgrade, you must reinstall the special file rk3399-kobol-helios64.dtb-6.12.xx-L2-hs400-opp because I think the specific tuning in this file is not included in the official image.

For me, I suggest keeping it, using it, and saving your money for other things.

Bye.

[tmb]

Hi @BipBip1981, thank you for sharing your thoughts. It is positive to hear from people still running these, much appreciated!

[djurny]

I think it still makes sense. And in the off chance that you DO find you have some time leftover, it's also nice to tinker and hobby about with.

Mine is still running Buster and has not missed a beat since I got the thing - besides some issues with the SATA connector on the top drive and the inability to upgrade RAM.

Groetjes,

[tmb]

Hi @djurny, 

 

Yes it’s nice to tinker just so busy/tired that I’m not even doing that on the Windows side anymore. Still like the helios64 and would love to bring it up and running stable when needed, was just curious if worth the effort so looking for some success stories. I only plan to use it as a handy backup device which does sound strange for something unsupported.

 

I think I’m still on buster as well on the sd card and never had the instability issues discussed around here (I think I mostly let it run 3 or 4 days at once in the first couple of years just to see if anything happens and did not). But I do read around here every couple of weeks.

 

Thank you for your time!
 

Edited November 26, 2025 by tmb

[rafaledevnull]

Hello there.

 

I have more or less the same request as @tmb

I bought Helios64 when it came out and had to stop using it when the core team shut down in 2021.
Since 2021, all storage has been managed by my Proxmox server.

But I'm currently thinking about upgrading the hardware of my PC and my Proxmox server. And my Helios64 is still there, not being used for anything, which is a shame.

 

Do you think that in 2025, we will be able to use the Helios64 as a NAS server for “family” storage and homelab storage needs ?

If so, with which OS / App? Lastest Armbian / Openmediavault ?

 

Thank you.

Edited December 13, 2025 by rafaledevnull

[orb]

Hi @tmb

Helios64 and Armbian are still very relevant in 2025! Thanks to this amazing community!
I used mine with OpenMediaVault until a couple of MOSFETs failed and some drives stopped to spin up. Unfortunately, the original components were quite cheap. Even though I found better replacements, I didn’t want to pay for micro-soldering services, which can be pricey compared to the parts themselves (just a few euros). Instead, I built my own NAS using an Intel N100.

 

It’s now a low-power device running a dozen Docker containers, using Home Assistant image as base. I’m totally in unsupported territory, but it works great! With this setup, OpenMediaVault can go into sleep mode when needed, and so far, it’s been working really well for me.

 

[luneth]

I've been using the Helios64 since launch, still going strong 👍

A couple of years back I had to limit the CPU frequency to avoid crashes until the last clean install of bulleyes. Since then stock clock and no custom dtb.

Looking forward to my next holidays, planning on a clean install of Trixie.

 

I'm planning on keeping using it as long as this thing wants to stay alive. An really nice piece of hardware, and I'm too cheap to move to something else 😄

Edited December 23, 2025 by luneth

[unfnknblvbl]

I've been using my Helios64 nonstop since i got it in 2020 (and the Helios 4 since 2018). It's been great the whole time; does exactly what I want it to do, and now I've made it my sole Plex server to save power. My only problem is that the internal eMMC is now 100% full (thanks to Plex), and I can't work out how to move the install back to the SDCard (Linux noob...), which is my I'm here.

I'm sad these guys had to shut down. This could have been a magnificent project

[tmb]

Thank you to everyone who spent time reading my post, and contributing to it.

 

Having had some free days I decided to give it another try and experimented my helios64 with some of the newer images, none of which worked perfectly (my main requirement is OMV plus its miniDLNA, and couldn't get this installed on noble or trixie, although they were booting and working just fine), eventually running now some bookworm from eMMC and while it seems stable there are some performance issues* (need to re-read that bookworm issues thread again as I did not try all the fixes yet, including the dtb one).

 

*By performance issues I mean some apparently slow reading/writing to eMMC, and network performance on 2.5gb, which I know were thoroughly discusses on that thread, just need to spend more time on trying them out I guess. I'm still a newbie into all this stuff and I was reading a lot again before the new tests.

 

Would anyone be able to recommend some version of an archived bookworm image that I should start from?

 

My device is connected to the router via the 1gb interface, and I have a second cable going directly to my desktop via the 2.5gb interface that lands into a 2.5gb USB-c network card. I don’t have the 2.5gb hardware fix done as when I installed it years ago it was working fine on buster with this layout and my router is 1gb only anyway.

 

In any case, I still have the SD card with the prior setup untouched, so can revert back to it, was just thinking it makes more sense to try something new.
 

Happy new year all of you!