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> The Linux images are built with a set of Rockchip patches that are based on older Linux releases. That’s a hard no from me. Otherwise I’d be all over it, as

> The Linux images are built with a set of Rockchip patches that are based on older Linux releases. That’s a hard no from me. Otherwise I’d be all over it, as the specs look great!

TeddyDD 4y ago
This. If it's not ARM System Ready, you will be stuck with some outdated kernels provided by the vendor. Unfortunately, it seems that most SBC are no certified.
Legogris 4y ago
I find it curious that Jeff doesn't even mention Armbian here and it'd be interesting to see if results differ. Apart from necessary board-specific patches, dev trees, and some defaults that make sense for typical SBC workloads, it's close to vanilla Debian and can run better than vendor dists. Arch Linux on ARM has also come a long way in the past few years.
mindslight 4y ago
This is my only requirement for a Raspberry Pi killer - to work out of the box with stock kernels and distributions rather than needing some hacky device-tailored distribution that will eventually go unsupported, or worse some hacked up kernel that will stagnate from the day it's released. I'm not running a server farm with 1000's of nodes and full time staff to make Linux work on them. Rather I've got a bunch of homogeneous devices for personal use and the more similar I can make them all the better. It's why I moved away from the embedded ARM dumpster fire to low power amd64 motherboards for my Kodi/WifiAP machines. They generally just work, and if they do break there is still no bespoke tinkering. The Raspberry Pi only mitigates this by being popular enough that there is interest to keep it going and develop around its warts and keep the software going. But it's not without its pain when you step away from Raspian.
- rcarmo 4y ago
  What kind of AMD motherboards are you using? I need to have ARM hardware (porting software, etc.) but am interested in getting something x64-based I can stack (3-5 units) and that doesn’t break the bank (also, something that doesn’t require individual PSUs would be great).
  - mindslight 4y ago
    I'm sorry that I don't have a good answer for your question. I've got two such machines, both regular ITX motherboards. The main is an Asrock N3700-ITX (only driving 1080p), the secondary is an ECS KBN-I/2100. The main AP is the "router", which is a Ryzen 5700G on a full ATX board. If I needed another AP, I would get another decently powerful but lower idle current machine to replace the main entertainment center one, and then trickle the N3700 elsewhere. Or if I didn't want to do that, I believe I have seen one or two amd64 boards targeted at being RPi replacements. The biggest thing is I want expansion PCIe so I've got flexibility later. For power supplies, I'm using PicoPSUs on both. But I've also seen motherboards that take 18VDC. Or if you are willing to do some wiring you could power multiple motherboards from one supply.
    - rcarmo 4y ago
      Yeah, the power angle is a pain, having a bunch of wall warts is not ideal. But thanks - it seems I have some researching to do.
      - mindslight 4y ago
        If a bunch of wall warts is your only problem, you can solve that by using one larger power supply (same voltage, higher current) and wiring all the units in parallel. Although even though it would be in my wheelhouse, I've never really done this for production - it makes it harder to change the setup and more prone to error (reverse polarity and the like).

> The Linux images are built with a set of Rockchip patches that are based on older Linux releases. That’s a hard no from me. Otherwise I’d be all over it, as the specs look great!

TeddyDD 4y ago

This. If it's not ARM System Ready, you will be stuck with some outdated kernels provided by the vendor. Unfortunately, it seems that most SBC are no certified.

Legogris 4y ago

I find it curious that Jeff doesn't even mention Armbian here and it'd be interesting to see if results differ. Apart from necessary board-specific patches, dev trees, and some defaults that make sense for typical SBC workloads, it's close to vanilla Debian and can run better than vendor dists. Arch Linux on ARM has also come a long way in the past few years.

mindslight 4y ago

This is my only requirement for a Raspberry Pi killer - to work out of the box with stock kernels and distributions rather than needing some hacky device-tailored distribution that will eventually go unsupported, or worse some hacked up kernel that will stagnate from the day it's released. I'm not running a server farm with 1000's of nodes and full time staff to make Linux work on them. Rather I've got a bunch of homogeneous devices for personal use and the more similar I can make them all the better. It's why I moved away from the embedded ARM dumpster fire to low power amd64 motherboards for my Kodi/WifiAP machines. They generally just work, and if they do break there is still no bespoke tinkering. The Raspberry Pi only mitigates this by being popular enough that there is interest to keep it going and develop around its warts and keep the software going. But it's not without its pain when you step away from Raspian.

rcarmo 4y ago
What kind of AMD motherboards are you using? I need to have ARM hardware (porting software, etc.) but am interested in getting something x64-based I can stack (3-5 units) and that doesn’t break the bank (also, something that doesn’t require individual PSUs would be great).
- mindslight 4y ago
  I'm sorry that I don't have a good answer for your question. I've got two such machines, both regular ITX motherboards. The main is an Asrock N3700-ITX (only driving 1080p), the secondary is an ECS KBN-I/2100. The main AP is the "router", which is a Ryzen 5700G on a full ATX board. If I needed another AP, I would get another decently powerful but lower idle current machine to replace the main entertainment center one, and then trickle the N3700 elsewhere. Or if I didn't want to do that, I believe I have seen one or two amd64 boards targeted at being RPi replacements. The biggest thing is I want expansion PCIe so I've got flexibility later. For power supplies, I'm using PicoPSUs on both. But I've also seen motherboards that take 18VDC. Or if you are willing to do some wiring you could power multiple motherboards from one supply.
  - rcarmo 4y ago
    Yeah, the power angle is a pain, having a bunch of wall warts is not ideal. But thanks - it seems I have some researching to do.
    - mindslight 4y ago
      If a bunch of wall warts is your only problem, you can solve that by using one larger power supply (same voltage, higher current) and wiring all the units in parallel. Although even though it would be in my wheelhouse, I've never really done this for production - it makes it harder to change the setup and more prone to error (reverse polarity and the like).