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Title: What's the linux support like? [Print This Page]

Author: ballsystemlord Time: 2/18/2017 12:37
Title: What's the linux support like?
Hello, I am seeking an SBC. I've revied over 70 and firefly came up in the top ten. I wish to know how well Linux is supported. Can you run the latest kernel (4.9.x) and everything works?

Author: AussieJohn Time: 2/18/2017 15:47
hi, linux support is generally pretty good except accelerated god support is still semi-work-in-progress but that isn't because of firefly but rather because the chipset maker has been slow to realise drivers(issues with arm and mali). this is all changing though as rock chip have been more active lately with realise source and code etc to allow firefly to implement the fixes on the linux side etc. now firmly haven't released an update bistro in some months so the current but still leave much to be desired and overall I've found that firefly support on the forum is somewhat lacking most weeks and is probably due to them being a small team that are con-currently working on serval products/support for products at the same time so while they are working heaps behind the scenes as can be seen in there repos dont expect there to be much direct support on the forums from one week to another as you won't always get prompt answers.

as for hardware, I've got a rk3288 and everything from price, shipping right through to the packaging and actually the hardware itself is of top quality and somewhat reminds me of earlier apple products in terms of presentation and physical quality (please dont compare directly as both companies have vastly different resources but hopefully you get the picture that firefly makes good quality boards)

while i haven't used ardour on these board or any of my other SBC's as i can't stand what google did when the morphed linux into android but bare in mind no matter what version of android you use on ANY SBC is going to use a very old kernel that was branded off in the 3.x days (someone correct me if I'm wrong here) so most backend feature on android have to be back ported in comping from linux.

as for linux support there is decent connectivity and programming support form the dual pin headers, stability hasn't been an issue from me as my system have been running 24/7 for about 10-12 months now with only a couple reboots when i relocated the sbc to another location. it is linux after all. i can't remember the current kernel version used but be aware that rock chip along with firefly and other users of the rk3288 are active and have been sending fixes etc to the main kernel branch so mainline kernel usage will follow at some stage. currently you can boot of the mainline kernel and there are build using this allow with a decent build of slackware that uses mainline kernel too, other ports such as detain mainline from other boards work too however you may need to add wifi drivers etc with a recompile at this current time.

depending on what you usage scenario is along with you technical abilities with hardware/software will depend on if this board is suitable for you purposes. if you are starting out though id suggest a raspberry pi or better yet the odroid xu4 if you need more power
basically

Author: ballsystemlord Time: 4/4/2017 07:47

this is all changing though as rock chip have been more active lately with realise source and code etc to allow firefly to implement the fixes on the linux side etc. now firmly haven't released an update bistro in some months so the current but still leave much to be desired and

You seem to be suffering from Felinus-Keyboard-us. Would you be so kind as to revise this?
I ordered one of the new rk3399's, so it's not that I'm going to really miss out on your comment, but it would be nice to understand the whole thing ( I did try a few times

.
Thanks

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