Armbian 22.05 has been released!

Armbian

Armbian 22.05

Highlights:

*  Thousands of hours have been invested to stabilize supported board images
*  Hundreds of Linux kernel and user space related bug fixes completed by the Armbian team
*  Added support for new boards
*  Established new Maintainers

What’s New:

Our first priority is to support and enhance the Community. To that goal, Armbian releases updates and bug fixes from our Contributors on a regular basis. We are excited to add support for the following new boards:

* DevTerm A06
* Orange Pi R1+ LTS
* Radxa Rock 3A
* Radxa Zero

And to announce new Maintainers and movement to supported status the following boards:

* ESPRESSObin
* Radxa Rock Pi 4

A complete list of bug fixes and updates are linked below.

Community Call to Action:

As an Armbian Community member or user you know that we support many different single board computers, with each release requiring a significant investment of time, effort and money. While most Linux distributions can create a single build and then release their distribution, we must test our releases against many different hardware platforms which is much more time consuming and makes providing consistent stable images more challenging. We are able to develop new and updated releases due to the significant contribution of time from our Maintainers, developers and limited donations.

At present our funding and Community time contributions allows us to complete one medium sized project per year related to our tools such as the Build Framework or our configuration tool along with bug fixes, support for new boards, etc. Clearly this level of support, while appreciated, does not allow us to complete many of the outstanding issues or improvements needed or requested by the Community. Accordingly, we believe we are at an inflection point, where in order to move forward and address the Community’s needs, Armbian needs to transition to a new business model. One where growth will require us to acquire additional funding before we can address many of the larger issues.

How can you help?

Time: For those who want to contribute time, please consider becoming a board Maintainer of one of the many boards that Armbian supports.

Money: For those who can help monetarily, please consider making a donation.

Credits:

This release represents the hard work of exceptional individuals who have contributed their time and expertise. Many thanks to (in alphabetical order):

150balbes, adeepn, AmadeusGhost, amazingfate, belegdol, catalinii, chbgdn, DJAlPee, EvilOlaf, heisath, hzyitc, iav, igorpecovnik, julianwhitehm, lanefu, littlecxm, Myron-S, ManoftheSea, neheb, NicoD, paolosabatino, peter279k, piter75, psztoch, RadxaYuntian, RichNeese, rpardini, schwar3kat, The-going, Tonymac32, theblackhole, TRS-80, umiddelb, yang

To see the full release changelog, please visit: Release Changelog

The full release can be read: here

--

Hello All,

As Firefly boards make up some of the supported Armbian boards, our media team wanted to get an update out to the Firefly Community.  If this is the wrong place for this announcement someone on the moderation team please reach out and we can find a better place for it.  Otherwise, we will continue to update you here in this thread as new releases are put out.

Have a great day!

Armbian

Armbian 22.05.3

What’s New :
* All board images have been rebuilt due to corruption found in certain images
* Fixed Orange Pi 3 LTS bluetooth support
* Added board images for Orange Pi 4 LTS
* Upgraded bootloader to 22.04 for Rockchip family boards

How can you help?
Time: For those who want to contribute time, please consider becoming a board Maintainer of one of the many boards that Armbian supports.

Money: For those who can help monetarily, please consider making a donation.

To see the full release changelog, please visit: Release Changelog

The full release can be read: here

Armbian

Armbian 22.05.4

What’s New:

More desktop flavors have been enabled for all boards that support desktops:
* Xfce
* Budgie
* Gnome
* Cinnamon
* KDE Plasma



How can you help

Time: For those who want to contribute time, please consider becoming a board Maintainer of one of the many boards that Armbian supports.

Money: For those who can help monetarily, please consider making a donation.

To see the full release changelog, please visit: Release Changelog

The full release can be read: here

Armbian

Armbian 22.08

What’s New?

- Kernel and u-boot upgrade to latest upstream versions (2022.07 and 5.15.y / 5.19.y)
- New Rockchip RK3588 Rock 5b WIP target
- Enabled additional code security analysis
- Improved kernel and u-boot upgrade testing, which can now run even on every commit to the code base
- Enabled automated build processes to regenerate community supported images weekly
- Improved documentation for board maintainers and developers

Check the release changelog below for a full log of changes and fixes.

How can you help?

Time: For those who want to contribute time, please check open applications

Money: For those who can help monetarily, please consider making a donation


To see the full release change log, please visit: Release Changelog

To see full release visit: Armbian 22.08 Release

Armbian

Armbian 22.11

What's New?

* added Bananapi M5, Odroid M1 and Rockpi 4C plus
* enabled community images with weekly release cycle
* added ultra minimal images optimized for software deployment
* added RiscV64 UEFI build support
* improved support for Rockpi S
* kernel upgrade is frozen by default to improve stability

Check release changelog below for full log of changes and fixes.

Reasons to choose Armbian…

* Friendly, optimized and extremely lightweight universal OS with low memory footprint
* Specially tailored images for dedicated hardware or UEFI (aarch64, x86, Riscv64)
* Powerful SDK that knows how to build a package, an image or a whole Debian like Linux distribution
* Community development on GitHub with many CI features
* 2FA authentication via SSH
* Automated language selection
* ZRAM & ZSWAP
* Intel emulation support (box64)
* Wireless drivers for 8192eu, 8812au, 8821cu, 88x2cs, 8822bs (plug and play)
* ZFS compilation support
* Stable (CURRENT) or latest (EDGE) software release experience
* Fixed and rolling release cycle
* Support for all major desktop environments (cinnamon, gnome, xfce)

Reasons to work with and support Armbian…

* Armbian releases quarterly at the end of February, May, August, November
* Armbian does a lot of planning and finalizing for each release
* Releases include coordination between developers, dedicated board maintainers and our many volunteers

How can you help?

* Time: For those who want to contribute time, please check open applications
* Money: For those who can help monetarily, please consider making a donation

To download Armbian Community releases visit:  Armbian Community Releases

To download Armbian official releases visit: Armbian Official Releases

To see the full release change log, please visit: Release Changelog

Armbian

Armbian 23.02

What's New?


Armbian 23.02 Quoll is now available! It features a new LTS kernel based on Linux 6.1.y (where possible), with builds around Bullseye and Jammy, as well as, introduces Debian Bookworm and Ubuntu Lunar for developers. Armbian OS remains one of the most popular OS’s on the new Rockchip RK3588 platform, featuring official support for Radxa Rock 5 and Orange Pi 5.

Armbians’ mission is to provide a sustainable, maintainable, and uniform system offering that can be trusted to run on various single-board computers.

For details, please visit release change log or watch this interview with Armbian’s founder.

Complete rework of build framework

Development, which took over two years to complete, brings significant improvements on all levels. This will be the last release before we switch to the new build framework, which has been completely rewritten. The new build framework has an advanced but simple-to-use logging system and we no longer use external compilers and the caching system has been reworked to maximize space and computing resources. Compilation works on all architectures and operating systems, including now officially supporting WSL2. The future is today!

git clone https://github.com/armbian/build

Every contribution counts

This release represents the hard work of exceptional individuals who have contributed their time and expertise. Many thanks to (in alphabetical order):

150balbes, AGM1968, Azq2, EvilOlaf, Heisath, Kreyren, ManoftheSea, RichNeese, SteeManMI, The-going, Tonymac32, adeepn, amazingfate, belegdol, brent, catalinii, efectn, linkage, henkiejan1, hzyitc, iamdrq, iav, igorpecovnik, jock, koftikes, Marcone, matthijskooijman, mhoffrog, paolosabatino, rpardini, schwar3kat, SteeMan, sgjava, xlazom00

Special thanks to all of the Armbian users, supporters and project partners who understand our works importance and help the project with donations of time, money, hardware and expertise!

Reasons to choose Armbian
* friendly and optimised Linux OS with a low memory footprint
* specially tailored images for dedicated hardware
* powerful SDK that can build a Linux distribution
* 2FA authentication via SSH
* automated language selection
* ZRAM & ZSWAP
* point or rolling release
* supporting all major desktop environments

Armbian

Armbian 23.05 Suni

The Armbian project is nearing its 10-year anniversary, and we're excited to announce that our upcoming release Armbian 23.05, codename “Suni”, will be the biggest one yet! It's a significant milestone as it marks the first release based on our completely refactored build framework! The new framework has been in development for around 3 years, during which we combined our decades long experience with Linux and embedded systems with the latest technologies that have emerged in recent years. We've taken all that knowledge and expertise to create something truly exceptional for our users and Linux community at large.

Continue reading to learn more about the project and our latest news and updates!

Our Focus

Armbian delivers four point releases each year, representing our team's dedicated efforts to stabilize this complex and ever-changing system.

We release updates every 4 months, with weekly meetings for both our developers and community. Our team consists of individuals with varying levels of experience/interaction, including full-time contributors, part-time contributors, and helpful volunteers. Armbian serves as a foundational project that brings immense value to the entire Linux community. Even if you opt for a different Linux distribution on your single board computer, there's a possibility that you're still benefiting from Armbian or utilizing some of its components.

Our primary focus is to provide optimized images tailored to specific hardware. Additionally, we offer a generic aarch64 image that works seamlessly on compatible UEFI hardware like Ampere Altra. However, only a few single board computers support this standard, and it is currently in the early alpha phase, lacking certain important features for these devices. Hence, we adhere to existing boot scenarios and provide specific images for each hardware. Our entire ecosystem is designed to handle the generation of numerous images efficiently when the need arises.

Another significant aspect driving our efforts is addressing the diversity in single board computers. We strive to simplify the process to a point where anyone can create OS images from sources. Our technology outshines major players in the field such as LFS, Gentoo, Yocto, and Buildroot. Interestingly, many ARM-focused Linux distributions are essentially Armbian under a different name! We are committed to streamlining complexity and offering an exceptional solution for the community.

For Users

Users have not been left behind! Check out what's new.

Improvements and enhancements

We are pleased to announce several improvements and enhancements at the user level:

- Armbian Bookworm based images: We are introducing Armbian Bookworm-based images, providing the latest features and updates from Debian community.
- i3 supported: i3 has been added as the fourth officially supported desktop environment, expanding the options available to our users.


- Fixes and Enhancements: We have addressed issues in key tools such as armbian-installer, armbian-config, and armbian-firstrun, ensuring a smoother user experience.
- Streamlined Packages: We have optimized our package base, making it nearly identical across different underlying package bases and desktop choices. This standardization improves predictability and enhances security.
- Consistent Application Packages: Regardless of the chosen package base or desktop environment, the application packages remain the same. This ensures consistent functionality and ease of use.
- Improved Ubuntu-Based Assemblies: We have successfully removed the unnecessary “Ubuntu advantage” services from our Ubuntu-based assemblies, as they do not provide any advantages in this specific hardware segment. Internet browsers are installed without snap technology, and we directly host many 3rd party
    applications in our repositories.
- Fast and Safe Updates: Our streamlined system allows for fast and safe updates, ensuring that users can easily stay up to date with the latest improvements and security patches.


Gaming

Armbian is also gaming-friendly. Thanks to the community-maintained script, armbian-gaming, you can easily turn your ordinary Linux device into a gaming platform. You'll have the opportunity to play games specifically developed for x86 architecture using Wine. The emulation feature works seamlessly on both 32-bit and 64-bit hardware. Additionally, Armbian provides support for popular gaming platforms such as Steam, PlayStation, Android emulation, and even PS2 games. Get ready for an immersive gaming experience on your Armbian-powered system! Special thanks to NicoD-SBC, ptitSeb, rpardini, and monkaBlyat

These enhancements aim to provide a seamless, secure and fun user experience, further establishing Armbian as a reliable choice for single board computer users!

Remarkable Contributors and Supporters

We would like to express our heartfelt appreciation to the exceptional individuals who have poured their time and expertise into making this release possible. A big “Thank You” goes out to the following contributors (listed in alphabetical order): 150balbes AGM1968 EvilOlaf Heisath PanderMusubi SteeManMI, TheLinuxBug Tonymac32 adeepn amazingfate belegdol brentr efectn hzyitc iav igorpecovnik lanefu littlecxm matthijskooijman mhoffrog monkaBlyat paolosabatino pyavitz radoslavv rpardini schwar3kat

Special thanks to Armbian users, supporters, greater Linux community and project partners who recognize the importance of our work and generously contribute their time, financial support, hardware, and expertise. Your support plays a crucial role in the progress of the project, and we are deeply grateful for your contributions.


Best regards,
The Armbian Team

Armbian

Armbian 23.8 Colobus
We are very pleased to announce the public availability of Armbian OS 23.08, the Linux distribution, and 23.08 package set, under the codename »Colobus«. After the complete rework of our build framework, we proceeded with refreshing repository management and automation processes. We have significantly stabilized both our framework and many hardware platforms we are taking care of.

Continue reading to learn more about our latest news and updates!

Our Focus
Armbian delivers four point releases each year, representing our team’s dedicated efforts to stabilize this complex and ever-changing system.

We release updates every 4 months, with weekly meetings for both our developers and community. Our team consists of individuals with varying levels of experience/interaction, including full-time contributors, part-time contributors, and helpful volunteers. Armbian serves as a foundational project that brings immense value to the entire Linux community. Even if you opt for a different Linux distribution on your single board computer, there’s a high possibility that you’re still benefiting from Armbian.

Our primary focus is to provide optimized images tailored to specific hardware. Additionally, we offer a generic aarch64 image that works seamlessly on compatible UEFI hardware like Ampere Altra. However, only a few single board computers support this standard, and it is currently in the early alpha phase, lacking certain important features for these devices. Hence, we adhere to existing boot scenarios and provide specific images for each hardware. Our entire ecosystem is designed to handle the generation of numerous images efficiently when the need arises.

Another significant aspect driving our efforts is addressing the diversity in single board computers. We strive to simplify the process to a point where anyone can create OS images from sources.

Improvements and enhancements
Users have not been left behind! Check out what's new.

Remarkable Contributors and Supporters
We would like to express our heartfelt appreciation to the exceptional individuals who have poured their time and expertise into constantly making Armbian great. Warm “Thank You” goes to Armbian developers & contributors @rpardini @igorpecovnik @viraniac @pyavitz @paolosabatino @efectn @amazingfate @Tonymac32 @lanefu @glneo @hzyitc @belegdol @adeepn … to Armbian infrastructure support staff @EvilOlaf @Rafal-Hacus @TheLinuxBug and many more!

Everyone, please enjoy new Armbian 23.08!

Join Us
Excited about being a part of the project? Join us at https://www.armbian.com/participate/

Best regards,
The Armbian Team

Further information

Armbian

Armbian 23.11 Topi
We’re excited to announce the latest Armbian release, v23.11! This update comes with a plethora of changes, making the Armbian experience even better.

A Decade of Advancement in Single Board Computer Support
For a decade, Armbian Linux has been at the forefront of advancing and supporting the diverse single board computers (SBC) landscape. With 16 point releases under our belt since the adoption of this methodology, we’re continually enhancing our offerings.

Without further ado, here are the key highlights of this release!

Evolving Support Policies
In our continual quest for improvement, we are refining our support policies to ensure better reliability and comprehensive assistance for select boards:

Standard Support: Boards receiving comprehensive, reliable support.
Staging Support: Boards undergoing rigorous support validation.
Community Maintained: Boards benefiting from the strength of community support.
More info can be found here.

Boards Elevated to Standard Support
We are pleased to include the following boards to our Standard Support tier:

Khadas VIM1S
Khadas VIM4
Texas Instruments TDA4VM
Xiaomi Pad 5 Pro
Key Improvements in This Release
Addressing numerous bugs for improved functionality for Banana Pi CM4.
Mainline Kernel for RK3588 with experimental HDMI support.
Fixed Display Managers across all desktops.
Experimental EDK2/UEFI Support for RK3588 boards.
Introducing Ubuntu Mantic and Debian Trixie as daily image builds.
Enhancing quality control through automated tests.
Highlights of Completed Actions
Closed Projects
In this version, we’ve successfully closed several projects, including switching the default login manager, enabling artifacts creation at pull request, and adding support for Hikey 960. Additionally, we’ve updated the edge kernel to v6.6 and introduced new Armbian wallpapers. The support for various boards like NanoPi R6S/R6C, TI SK-TDA4VM, Xiaomi-elish, and more has been added, enhancing the range of compatible devices.

Closed Tasks
Numerous tasks have been completed, ranging from removing vendor-specific patches to adding support for different boards like Tanix TX6, Inovato Quadra, and Mekotronics R58X-Pro. Improvements have been made for specific kernels, such as cleaning up EOL kernels for Rockchip64, updating kernel configs for Waydroid and Redroid support, and enabling Bluetooth support for VIM1S/VIM4.

Solved Bugs
This release addresses various bugs and issues, ensuring a smoother user experience. Bug fixes include resolving errors with specific commands, fixing compilation issues for different kernels, addressing display output problems, and enhancing hardware support for several boards, such as Orange Pi 3 LTS, LicheePi 4A, and Khadas Vim1s.

The complete list of actions can be found here.

Remarkable Contributors, Supporters and Partners
We extend our heartfelt appreciation to the individuals who have contributed immensely to the growth and success of Armbian.

Remarkable Contributors: @adeepn, @amazingfate, @belegdol, @brentr, @chainsx, @efectn, @EvilOlaf, @ginkage, @glneo, @hzyitc, @igorpecovnik, @Kreyren, @marcone, @msdos03, @paolosabatino, @prahal, @pyavitz, @rpardini, @schwar3kat, @tdleiyao, @Tonymac32, @viraniac

Support Staff: Didier, Lanefu, Rafal, Adam, Werner, and many others have dedicated their expertise and time to provide support and guidance.

We also extend our gratitude to our esteemed partners. Find out more about them here.

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

Thank you for being an essential part of the Armbian community!

The Armbian team

Armbian

New Release Approaching Fast!

We are excited to announce that our new release is approaching quickly, with an estimated release date of May 25th. Our team is working actively on the final touches, focusing on stability and fine-tuning advanced features such as 3D and video acceleration. We’re utilizing the best available methods, as there are multiple options to consider.

We are adjusting our build targets to include stable, rolling and application-specific builds.

Stable Releases: For those who prefer a more reliable and tested environment.
Rolling Releases: For the latest updates and experimental features.
Applications: Optimized builds for specific applications.
We will continue to support Jammy (old stable Ubuntu) while gradually introducing Noble as the latter has numerous bugs from upstream user space applications.

Official Partnership with Radxa:

We are thrilled to announce a new official partnership with Radxa. This collaboration will enhance support for their newly released RK3588 boards, bringing more robust and reliable options to our users.

Community Engagement and Giveaways:

One of our current giveaways is nearing its end, but don’t worry – a new one is here! Stay tuned for more exciting opportunities.
Focus Areas:

As we approach the release date, we ask for your help, especially in the areas of desktop acceleration and desktop environments. While we have covered base OS system features well, your contributions and feedback are invaluable.

Community Poll Results:

We recently conducted a poll to understand our community’s involvement in open-source projects. Here are the results:

- I’m an active contributor: 28.6%
- Contributed occasionally: 31.7%
- Not yet, but I’d like to: 28.6%
- No, why?: 11.1%

These results are based on 63 votes and show a vibrant and engaged community, with a significant number of active and occasional contributors. For those who haven’t contributed yet but would like to, we encourage you to get involved. Your participation can make a significant difference!

Thank you for your continued support and contributions. Together, we can make Armbian even better!

Best regards,
The Armbian Team