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I recently went down the rabbit hole with these tiny ARM devices. For anyone else looking at them, I found the best place to start is to pick a chip with full L

I recently went down the rabbit hole with these tiny ARM devices. For anyone else looking at them, I found the best place to start is to pick a chip with full Linux mainline support. https://linux-sunxi.org/Linux_mainlining_effort https://linux-sunxi.org/Linux_mainlining_effort Right now, the latest devices have new chips that aren't supported yet. So if you get one of those, you're stuck using the manufacturer's Linux distro. If you get an older chip with mainline support, you can run a 3rd party distro like Armbian. https://www.armbian.com/ https://www.armbian.com/

oneplane 4y ago
Ah yes, mainline support was the more condensed description I was after! That is indeed where it's at; if you are stuck with out-of-tree or vendor binary-only distribution, you're screwed. It can be a bit of a hassle if all you have is something like "926EJS" as supported core instead of the SoC name "F1C100s", but either way, browse the linux kernel for support for your SoC to at least get a feel for its support status. If a (compiled) device tree for the SBC is available and the bootrom is either super small or open/free/libre, you can expect good integration and long life out of the device. Even in the worst case you'll be able to follow generic buildroot or yocto instructions to get it running with up-to-date software.
c0npr 4y ago
I am in the middle of reading this book on Yocto[1], learning embedded Linux. If your device has been mainlined it will save you lots of troubles. Armbian often comes with the patches you want, their ready-to-use images is great. But porting their patch to your own project will take some effort. [1] https://www.yoctoproject.org/learn-items/mastering-embedded-linux-programming-create-fast-and-reliable-embedded-solutions-with-linux-5-4-and-the-yocto-project-3-1-dunfell-3rd-edition/ https://www.yoctoproject.org/learn-items/mastering-embedded-...

oneplane 4y ago

Ah yes, mainline support was the more condensed description I was after! That is indeed where it's at; if you are stuck with out-of-tree or vendor binary-only distribution, you're screwed. It can be a bit of a hassle if all you have is something like "926EJS" as supported core instead of the SoC name "F1C100s", but either way, browse the linux kernel for support for your SoC to at least get a feel for its support status. If a (compiled) device tree for the SBC is available and the bootrom is either super small or open/free/libre, you can expect good integration and long life out of the device. Even in the worst case you'll be able to follow generic buildroot or yocto instructions to get it running with up-to-date software.

c0npr 4y ago

I am in the middle of reading this book on Yocto[1], learning embedded Linux. If your device has been mainlined it will save you lots of troubles. Armbian often comes with the patches you want, their ready-to-use images is great. But porting their patch to your own project will take some effort. [1] https://www.yoctoproject.org/learn-items/mastering-embedded-linux-programming-create-fast-and-reliable-embedded-solutions-with-linux-5-4-and-the-yocto-project-3-1-dunfell-3rd-edition/ https://www.yoctoproject.org/learn-items/mastering-embedded-...