Armbian Leaflets

News and Announcements
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We are pleased to announce the official support for the Bigtreetech CB1 board on Armbian! The Bigtreetech CB1, developed by the respected Bigtreetech company, one of the most popular 3D printer brands among global creators, is a remarkable addition to our lineup. We are delighted to have them as a Platinum partner, and we believe this collaboration will bring great value to our community.

In other news, we want to address the state of our Allwinner support. Realizing the need for a fresh approach and a dedicated focus on Allwinner-specific problems, we have been actively searching for someone who can take on this responsibility. We are fortunate to have found Julia Longtin, who has graciously agreed to step up. Julia brings a wealth of technical knowledge and experience in team leadership to the table. We are confident that her involvement will help us overcome the decline in support for Allwinner devices and work towards making them perform even better. Julia’s initial goal is to enhance automated testing for major Allwinner chips, including A20, H3, and H6. To achieve this, we will add several SD card emulators to improve our automated testing gears. As time permits, we will expand this level of automated testing capabilities to cover other chips as well. For day-to-day updates and discussions, you can find Julia on IRC #armbian or #armbian-allwinner with the username “juri_.”

We want to congratulate roel, the winner of our previous giveaway, which featured the BananaPi CM4 Carrier Board. Your participation and enthusiasm are greatly appreciated. As one giveaway ends, another begins! We are excited to kick off our latest giveaway featuring the BananaPi M2S. Head over to our forum to participate and stand a chance to win this fantastic device.

Earlier this year, we launched a fundraising campaign with the aim of improving our build infrastructure. We are delighted to share that we have partnered with Ampere Computing, who have generously provided us with a powerful, dual 80-core aarch64 beast equipped with a terabyte of memory. This upgrade will significantly enhance our capabilities. However, please note that the lead time for this new infrastructure is approximately three months. In the meantime, we have received additional build capacity from Oregon State University. We are grateful for their support, which will help us use our current infrastructure until the new setup is ready.

Thank you for being a part of the Armbian community. With your continued support and the contributions of passionate individuals, we are confident in our ability to improve the situation and provide better support for Allwinner devices!

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Thanks for posting the Armbian newsletter

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Dear Ampere Computing community,

Some fresh news for you!

Device additions and development updates

In the past few weeks, we have been actively adding support for new devices. Our team is currently working on bringing up the Khadas VIM1S and the highly anticipated Lenovo X13S, one of the best ARM-based laptops available, and the TI SK-AM64B board, developed by Texas Instruments. Furthermore, Intelligent Agent has submitted their Allwinner-based 3D printer controller.

The developers’ section has been particularly active lately. We are in the final stages of upgrading u-boot and implementing power management support for the entire Allwinner family. Additionally, we are continuously improving our automated testing procedures, which involve testing all possible kernel combinations for around 50 different boards. Once these tests are completed, we will finally release the missing 23.05 release updates and more on the stable branch, fulfilling the requests of many users. However, for those who can’t wait, building from sources remains a viable option. Rest assured, we are diligently maintaining the build system to ensure its reliability. Moreover, our development team is actively working on projects such as Radxa CM5, NanoPC T6, Nanopi R4SE, Mixtile Blade 3 and more.

We have also made significant updates to core boot components, enhancing stability and expanding hardware support for newer revisions.

Wallpaper contest

We are thrilled to announce the wallpaper contest! If you have a passion for design, this is your chance to have your work featured on Armbian. Let your creativity shine, be original, and above all, have fun! In collaboration with SinoVoip, the Bananapi maker, we have prepared three boards as rewards for participants in the contest. We also encourage the community to become a Desktop Maintainer, and help us with Armbian! You can learn more about the role here.

August release

We are already hard at work on our next release, code-name Colobus, scheduled for August. Our primary focus will be on stability improvements, boot-loader upgrades, enhanced auto-testing, advancing the refactoring of armbian-config, and introducing a mainline-based kernel for RK3588 / 3566. We aim to test as much hardware as possible to provide comprehensive support but your involvement is highly appreciated.

Thank you for your continuous support, and stay tuned for more exciting updates!

Best regards,

The Armbian Team

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Dear Ampere computing community,

Here are the latest updates!

Device Support, Enhancements, and Progress

We’re excited to announce the addition of support for several new devices, including Khadas VIM1S, VIM4, TI AM26, and Licheepi 4a. To enhance user experience, all Khadas images are now available in their “oowow” format, streamlining the installation process.

Bananapi M5 and M2PRO users can look forward to numerous fixes that enhance stability and performance. Updates for the Thinkpad X13s have transformed it into a highly usable device. Additionally, thermal support for Opi4 has been fixed, eliminating issues with high-load operation.

Our latest release introduces overlays for the Amlogic family of devices, enhancing their functionality. We’re pleased to share that the cryptoroot build functionality has been successfully resolved, contributing to a smoother overall experience.

The development of mainline-based images for Rockchip RK3588 boards, including Rock5 and Nanopi T6, is making excellent progress. Our build runners are already up and running on these machines, ensuring the quality of the upcoming release.

We’re in the final stages of preparing a stable packages update that will significantly enhance your Armbian experience. Stay tuned for its release within the upcoming major update by the end of the month.

Wallpaper Contest

We’ve initiated a wallpaper contest, and the submissions are already pouring in. It’s exciting to see the creative contributions from the community!

How to Participate

Join us in testing nightly builds and providing valuable feedback. If you encounter any issues or have suggestions, please open tickets on our Participation Page.

Thank you for your continuous support, and stay tuned for more exciting updates!

Best regards,

The Armbian Team

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The Armbian Wallpaper competition end date is coming closer and closer each day! Just 9 more days until the competition is finished, so what are you waiting for? Go ahead and submit your wallpaper, and maybe win one of our amazing prizes! You can find more information here: Armbian Desktop Wallpaper Contest - Announcements - Armbian Community Forums

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Dear Ampere community,

We’re excited to bring you the latest Armbian updates.

Infrastructure Improvements

In the previous month, we dedicated our efforts to enhancing our Content Delivery Network (CDN). This involved upgrading redirector and the main rsync server to ensure faster and more reliable access to Armbian resources.

This month, we’re shifting our focus towards improving development and maintenance management, both internally and externally. We are also in the process of refining our support policies to better serve the Armbian community.

Wallpaper Competition

We’re thrilled to announce the successful conclusion of our recent wallpaper competition. We received a great response from talented artists in the community who shared their creations with us. Thanks to all the contributors for their time and effort. We would like to express our sincere gratitude to Bananapi for their collaboration and generous award contributions. The winning submissions will soon be added to our wallpaper pack.

New Supported Devices

We continue to expand our support for various hardware platforms. This month, we’ve released new images tailored for the Lenovo X13s, Khadas VIM1S, and Khadas VIM4. These additions ensure that more users can benefit from Armbian’s capabilities on their preferred devices.

Upcoming Point Release

We are approaching an exciting milestone with the next point release. Our goal is to transition to Kernel version 6.6, which is a strong candidate for the next Long-Term Support (LTS) kernel. We’re also extending our build framework to include support for Ubuntu Mantic, providing more choices for users. Additionally, we’ve unlocked desktop environments from using LightDM, and we’ve introduced GDM3 for the Gnome desktop.

It’s worth noting that the older Odroid XU4 has received an upgrade to the latest LTS kernel (v6.1) provided by the vendor, although it’s not yet mainline.

These developments are made possible by the collective effort and dedication of the Armbian community. We’re grateful for your continued support and enthusiasm for open-source software.

Stay tuned for more exciting updates and enhancements in the world of Armbian.

Thank you for being a part of our journey!

The Armbian team

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Dear Ampere Computing community,

It’s been an eventful two weeks since our last point release of 2023. Despite facing some challenges, we’ve been hard at work ensuring the continued excellence of Armbian.

Point Release Recap

Unfortunately, we encountered unexpected issues since our release. A batch of images was accidentally deleted, requiring a complete restart of the generation process. Additionally, our main rsync server experienced IPv6 connectivity issues, resulting in delays in mirror synchronization for several days. However, we’ve successfully generated our first set of images, now available by checking out the builds script to v23.11.

Enhanced Support Policies

To streamline our support framework, we’ve refined our support policies, categorizing hardware into three tiers: Standard Support, Staging Support, and Community Maintained. To align with these changes and minimize confusion, adjustments have been made to our forums. We remain in Best effort, primarily focusing on areas under “Standard Support”

Continuous Integration Rebuilds

Moving forward, both Standard and Staging hardware will undergo full CI rebuilds, ensuring the availability of the latest Debian and Ubuntu derived images with automated testing. Community maintained images will be compiled weekly and exclusively hosted on GitHub at GitHub - armbian/community: Armbian Community rolling release.

Platform Enhancements

Facebook connector

In addition to these developments, we’ve resolved the Facebook connector issue on our forums to facilitate access without requiring additional registration.

OFTC IRC

We’ve officially registered the #armbian channel on the OFTC IRC network. This addition has been seamlessly integrated as a communication bridge, ensuring messages relay to Libera and Discord platforms. Based on the usage and engagement in this channel, we’re considering the addition of more channels, such as those dedicated to SoC discussions or off-topic conversations, to further enrich our community interactions.

Community Engagement

We are dedicated to continually improving our forums and greatly value your feedback. Furthermore, we’re actively seeking additional moderators whose role will involve keeping forum conversations polite and discussions in their categories.

Thank you for being part of the Armbian community!

Best regards,
The Armbian Team

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Armbian 24.2 Kereru

We’re excited to announce the latest Armbian release,24.2, codename: Kereru! This update comes with a plethora of changes, making the Armbian experience even better.

Highlights of Completed Actions

Closed Projects

In recent developments, we’re proud to announce the completion of several projects geared towards refining the Armbian experience. Notably, we’ve resolved DNS resolution issues associated with Debian Bookworm, ensuring smoother connectivity for users. Furthermore, our team has optimized the performance of HDMI consoles on Khadas VIM1S and VIM4 devices, alleviating previous sluggishness. Additionally, we’ve successfully tackled the complexities of Rockchip patch maintenance, streamlining operations for enhanced stability.

Moreover, our hardware compatibility has been expanded with the inclusion of Xiaomi Mi10, Orangepi Zero3 and ASUS Tinker-Edge-R, broadening the range of potentially maintained devices. Lastly, users of Khadas VIM1S & VIM4 can now benefit from the latest kernel advancements with the implementation of the latest Amlogic kernel 5.15.y drop.

Closed Tasks

In our ongoing commitment to improving Armbian’s functionality, we’ve achieved significant milestones in various tasks. Among these accomplishments is the introduction of a new feature enabling the convenient display of download links, enhancing user accessibility. Furthermore, we’ve seamlessly integrated Odroid M1 into the rockchip64 family, ensuring a cohesive user experience across devices. Additionally, the integration of Ubuntu 24.04 Noble into our build framework provides users with expanded options for operating systems. Moreover, we’ve prioritized kernel updates, ensuring that all current kernels have been upgraded to 6.6 LTS, incorporating the latest enhancements.

Furthermore, the addition of Home Assistant extensions further enriches Armbian’s functionality, while security measures such as LVM support, CRYPTROOT, and enhanced system configurations bolster system integrity. Lastly, the introduction of Cloud-init support underscores our commitment to user convenience and choice, while the inclusion of support for Radxa Rock S 0 expands device compatibility options.

Solved Bugs

In our ongoing efforts to provide a seamless user experience, we’ve diligently addressed various bugs and issues. Notable resolutions include rectifying network interface card failures on Orangepi One+, ensuring consistent connectivity for users. Additionally, we’ve successfully resolved issues with Edge Kernel disrupting WiFi and Bluetooth support for RockPI-S devices, restoring functionality.

Furthermore, errors related to package removal and systemd unit enablement have been rectified, minimizing potential disruptions during system maintenance. Moreover, desktop compatibility issues with the Cinnamon desktop on Vim4 have been resolved, ensuring a smooth user experience across devices. Additionally, optimizations have been made to reduce image loading times on Khadas VIM1S/VIM4 Bookworm, enhancing overall system performance and responsiveness.

The complete list of actions have be accessed here.

Your contributions and support are invaluable in shaping the Armbian community and its success.

Thank you for your continous support to the Armbian community!

The Armbian team

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