5 ms·

What % of HN users use an ARM SBC with Debian?

by kfwhp 8y ago

blihp 8y ago
I'm sure it's small, but at least a few of us are here. Also worth noting is that (most) Raspberry Pi (an ARM SBC) users are indirectly Debian users too. (and I'm a Pi user as well)
- amacbride 8y ago
  My BeagleBone Black runs a Debian-based distro (Angstrom), and there are spins based on Debian proper, Ubuntu, etc. So it’s definitely good to know.
  - cozzyd 8y ago
    The BBB doesn't use an upstream kernel though as far as I can tell.
  - pabs3 8y ago
    Ångström appears to be based on OpenEmbedded rather than Debian: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%85ngstr%C3%B6m_distribution https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%85ngstr%C3%B6m_distributio...
- walrus01 8y ago
  There's just about zero chance that this bug would make it into raspbian stable, though, since they are always at least several months behind debian-stable on AMD64.
  - kingosticks 8y ago
    And you'd really hope they'd actually test it on real hardware. Although I don't know if they have anything automated, that'd be interesting to know.
coconut_crab 8y ago
Not Debian directly but one of their derivative: Armbian, they have great support for Allwinner SoC and it's easy to build your own image.
markvdb 8y ago
We do at https://fosdem.org https://fosdem.org on our custom made video gear. That's 56 boxes in a crucial spot in our operation. We went out of our way to make sure we had plain vanilla mainline Debian stable packaged linux running on the Allwinner A20 based boards that power them, instead of some binary arm kernel with all kinds of issues.
- AceJohnny2 8y ago
  Was your fleet impacted by this? Edit: oh, FOSDEM was 2 weeks ago, not in the near future, so impact is less
- BiggusDijkus 8y ago
  OffTopic: At FOSDEM, I was quite curious about those media boxes. Is there any docs to read about them?
  - markvdb 8y ago
    Here's some info at least: * a rough diagram: https://github.com/FOSDEM/video/tree/master/hardware https://github.com/FOSDEM/video/tree/master/hardware * the software running on them: https://github.com/FOSDEM/infrastructure/tree/master/ansible/playbooks/roles/video-box https://github.com/FOSDEM/infrastructure/tree/master/ansible... Your message also served as a reminder that I should really publish the laser cut box cutting and assembly info. I'll get to that eventually.
- Insanity 8y ago
  Off-topic, but Fosdem is great! Started going about 6ish years ago and always enjoy it! Thanks for the hard work and for providing such a great event for free. And for the cool t-shirts :D
  - markvdb 8y ago
    Thank you for the kind words. Much appreciated!
cmcginty 8y ago
I have a Rock64 NAS box running an RK3328 chip.
tlavoie 8y ago
I do, at least for some personal projects. They're more than capable enough for many tasks, and cheap enough to be willing to just grab another if you have a quick task.
rarecoil 8y ago
I don't run Debian, but I have multiple ARM SBCs that I work with as well.
FerretFred 8y ago
I have 10 Raspberry Pi's with Debian Stretch and Jessie - the Raspbian variant. I updated a "sacrificial" Pi and rebooted without error.. this time! Package: linux-libc-dev Version: 4.9.82-1+deb9u3+rpi1 Priority: optional Section: devel Source: linux-4.9 Maintainer: Debian Kernel Team <debian-kernel@lists.debian.org> Installed-Size: 4,466 kB Provides: linux-kernel-headers Homepage: https://www.kernel.org/ Download-Size: 1,300 kB APT-Manual-Installed: no APT-Sources: http://raspbian.raspberrypi.org/raspbian stretch/main armhf Packages Description: Linux support headers for userspace development This package provides userspaces headers from the Linux kernel. These headers are used by the installed headers for GNU libc and other system libraries. edit: formatting
- deleted 8y ago
  [deleted]
- kingosticks 8y ago
  As others have mentioned, Raspbian kernel updates are delayed behind the Debian ones. The linked bug report states it was introduced between 4.9.135-1 and 4.9.144-1 (of linux-image-4.9.0).
wvh 8y ago
I do, but I'm OK with being a statistical fluke. I imagine there could be a number of IOT, media or other devices unknowingly running Debian on ARM though; more than we realise.
holri 8y ago
I use 2 Olimex A20 Micro with Debian stable as personal servers (Web, Email, Backup). One of them had already installed the toxic update via unattended-upgrades. Fortunately I did not configure automatic reboot. So I had the chance to read about the issue here on Hacker News and reinstall the old version: $ wget https://snapshot.debian.org/archive/debian/20181028T150508Z/pool/main/l/linux/linux-image-4.9.0-8-armmp-lpae_4.9.130-2_armhf.deb https://snapshot.debian.org/archive/debian/20181028T150508Z/... $ dpkg -i linux-image-4.9.0-8-armmp-lpae_4.9.130-2_armhf.deb and set the version on hold: $ apt-mark hold linux-image-4.9.0-8-armmp-lpae
geppetto 8y ago
I'm glad I can. It's a known, trusted distribution I've been using since 2001 on my main PC. It runs my personal web server since 2013 on a Cuibeboard and it works well. I've got a stable system which I'm familiar with, plus automatic updates, no binary blobs, vanilla kernel and all. I can't think of a better solution if the SBC is supported. What would you recommend as an alternative?

What % of HN users use an ARM SBC with Debian?

by kfwhp 8y ago

What % of HN users use an ARM SBC with Debian?

I'm sure it's small, but at least a few of us are here. Also worth noting is that (most) Raspberry Pi (an ARM SBC) users are indirectly Debian users too. (and I'm a Pi user as well)

amacbride 8y ago
My BeagleBone Black runs a Debian-based distro (Angstrom), and there are spins based on Debian proper, Ubuntu, etc. So it’s definitely good to know.
- cozzyd 8y ago
  The BBB doesn't use an upstream kernel though as far as I can tell.
- pabs3 8y ago
  Ångström appears to be based on OpenEmbedded rather than Debian: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%85ngstr%C3%B6m_distribution https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%85ngstr%C3%B6m_distributio...
walrus01 8y ago
There's just about zero chance that this bug would make it into raspbian stable, though, since they are always at least several months behind debian-stable on AMD64.
- kingosticks 8y ago
  And you'd really hope they'd actually test it on real hardware. Although I don't know if they have anything automated, that'd be interesting to know.

coconut_crab 8y ago

Not Debian directly but one of their derivative: Armbian, they have great support for Allwinner SoC and it's easy to build your own image.

markvdb 8y ago

We do at https://fosdem.org https://fosdem.org on our custom made video gear. That's 56 boxes in a crucial spot in our operation. We went out of our way to make sure we had plain vanilla mainline Debian stable packaged linux running on the Allwinner A20 based boards that power them, instead of some binary arm kernel with all kinds of issues.

AceJohnny2 8y ago
Was your fleet impacted by this? Edit: oh, FOSDEM was 2 weeks ago, not in the near future, so impact is less
BiggusDijkus 8y ago
OffTopic: At FOSDEM, I was quite curious about those media boxes. Is there any docs to read about them?
- markvdb 8y ago
  Here's some info at least: * a rough diagram: https://github.com/FOSDEM/video/tree/master/hardware https://github.com/FOSDEM/video/tree/master/hardware * the software running on them: https://github.com/FOSDEM/infrastructure/tree/master/ansible/playbooks/roles/video-box https://github.com/FOSDEM/infrastructure/tree/master/ansible... Your message also served as a reminder that I should really publish the laser cut box cutting and assembly info. I'll get to that eventually.
Insanity 8y ago
Off-topic, but Fosdem is great! Started going about 6ish years ago and always enjoy it! Thanks for the hard work and for providing such a great event for free. And for the cool t-shirts :D
- markvdb 8y ago
  Thank you for the kind words. Much appreciated!

cmcginty 8y ago

I have a Rock64 NAS box running an RK3328 chip.

tlavoie 8y ago

I do, at least for some personal projects. They're more than capable enough for many tasks, and cheap enough to be willing to just grab another if you have a quick task.

rarecoil 8y ago

I don't run Debian, but I have multiple ARM SBCs that I work with as well.

FerretFred 8y ago

I have 10 Raspberry Pi's with Debian Stretch and Jessie - the Raspbian variant. I updated a "sacrificial" Pi and rebooted without error.. this time! Package: linux-libc-dev Version: 4.9.82-1+deb9u3+rpi1 Priority: optional Section: devel Source: linux-4.9 Maintainer: Debian Kernel Team <debian-kernel@lists.debian.org> Installed-Size: 4,466 kB Provides: linux-kernel-headers Homepage: https://www.kernel.org/ Download-Size: 1,300 kB APT-Manual-Installed: no APT-Sources: http://raspbian.raspberrypi.org/raspbian stretch/main armhf Packages Description: Linux support headers for userspace development This package provides userspaces headers from the Linux kernel. These headers are used by the installed headers for GNU libc and other system libraries. edit: formatting

deleted 8y ago
[deleted]
kingosticks 8y ago
As others have mentioned, Raspbian kernel updates are delayed behind the Debian ones. The linked bug report states it was introduced between 4.9.135-1 and 4.9.144-1 (of linux-image-4.9.0).

wvh 8y ago

I do, but I'm OK with being a statistical fluke. I imagine there could be a number of IOT, media or other devices unknowingly running Debian on ARM though; more than we realise.

holri 8y ago

I use 2 Olimex A20 Micro with Debian stable as personal servers (Web, Email, Backup). One of them had already installed the toxic update via unattended-upgrades. Fortunately I did not configure automatic reboot. So I had the chance to read about the issue here on Hacker News and reinstall the old version: $ wget https://snapshot.debian.org/archive/debian/20181028T150508Z/pool/main/l/linux/linux-image-4.9.0-8-armmp-lpae_4.9.130-2_armhf.deb https://snapshot.debian.org/archive/debian/20181028T150508Z/... $ dpkg -i linux-image-4.9.0-8-armmp-lpae_4.9.130-2_armhf.deb and set the version on hold: $ apt-mark hold linux-image-4.9.0-8-armmp-lpae

geppetto 8y ago

I'm glad I can. It's a known, trusted distribution I've been using since 2001 on my main PC. It runs my personal web server since 2013 on a Cuibeboard and it works well. I've got a stable system which I'm familiar with, plus automatic updates, no binary blobs, vanilla kernel and all. I can't think of a better solution if the SBC is supported. What would you recommend as an alternative?