About Igor's images

[dp_alvarez]

I'm considering buying a Banana Pro, and I assumed I could just install a standard version of Debian Jessie directly from the official installer according to this and this, albeit without graphics or audio support.

But then I came across this page and I'm not quite sure I understand the differences between Igor's images and regular a Debian installation. Is it the just the option to choose sunxi/4.0.5 kernel, some (or rather, a lot of) tweaks and scripts and drivers for misc components (IR, LVDS, etc)?

I plan to use it as a headless server, what would be the advantages of running Igor's images vs a regular install?

 

Also, on a separate question, is there any other board you people would recommend if I want to run a as pure as possible Debian installation?

[tkaiser]

First have a look at https://github.com/igorpecovnik/lib/tree/next/patch/

 

Igor adapts changes/fixes really fast and the same applies to feedback from users regarding functionality. So you can expect Armbian always to be some time ahead (for example Lamobo R1 and Orange Pi aren't added to mainline kernel or Debian yet but work out of the box with his build system). Simply try it out, get 2 quality SD cards and switch.

 

The good news: Since Igor's build system creates kernel and even u-boot as .deb packages you might be able to use patched/fixed versions of this stuff from Armbian with a normal Debian installation (given the partition layout matches otherwise your board might not boot afterwards).

 

If your focus is on _using_ the board then I would choose Armbian, if you're trying to _learn_ a lot then use standard Debian Jessie (still not recommended -- better stay with wheezy IMO). And dont't forget to donate if you're using Armbian. 

 

Regarding the board: If you don't need Wi-Fi why not giving the original Banana Pi a try? Based on my testings it's the fastest board around regarding GMAC: http://linux-sunxi.org/Ethernet#GMAC

 

Other A20 based boards that use GMAC (and therefore both SATA and GBit Ethernet) are: A20-OLinuXino-Lime2, Banana Pi M1+, Cubietruck, Hummingbird A20, Lamobo R1, Orange Pi, Orange Pi Mini or pcDuino3 Nano.

[dp_alvarez]

Thanks for that link, I will read his scripts in detail when I have more time and see if I can understand any of it.

I want to understand how it works and maybe even see if I can contribute anything of use, but I'm not really sure I will have the time do it. There is a high possibility I will just end up installing his images and it to run a couple servers.

About the original Banana Pi, how much faster is ethernet on it? I assumed it was the same since apparently both the Banana Pi and the Banana Pro use the same GMAC and PHY (is that right?). I was going to get the Pro since it isn't much more expensive than the Pi on aliexpress and I may repurpose it as a media player later on if I get a more capable server.

 

Also, I was reading this and this and it mentions Banana Pro support was added in linux 4.0 and U-boot 2015.04, but Jessie comes with U-boot 2014.10 and linux 3.16, and apparently a pure Debian installation works on that board. What exactly changed regarding this board on linux 4.0/U-boot 2015.04 then?