I guess I should offer my credentials as an 'old timer' even though most of you are probably gonna roll your eyes and think OK here's another guy who had to walk 5 miles uphill both ways to school in the snow when he was a kid. My first distro was slackware back in the 1990s. I ordered it from an tiny little ad in some magazine that a colleague at work showed me when I was complaining about Microsoft Windows 3.1. It came on 50 floppy diskettes, two of which were mislabeled, but I figure it out and got it installed on my laptop one Saturday.

I tried a lot of different distros over the years since then. I even did Linux From Scratch and Beyond Linux From Scratch successfully and used the distro I built that way for quite awhile. So yeah, ain't I the stud.

So why do I have so much trouble with the new distros? Ubuntu and Mint work OK, though there are some little things about them I don't like, things that other people may actually like so I won't say they're 'bad'. The two distros that work best for me are pclinuxos and devuan. Both of these distros happen to be without systemd, but I don't know if that's just a coincidence or not, especially since Mint and Ubuntu use systemd and don't seem all that bad.

Some of it may be that I've just gotten burned out as far as doing research on how to make the arcane incantations to get things to work. Why do I still have to do that? The answer may just be that new hardware and technology requires new stuff that you have to learn. Debian couldn't even display on my monitor. Aurora came up fine from the downloaded iso file, and seemed to install just fine, but then wouldn't boot. Endeavor installed and booted, but seemed to have a very limited selection of apps. (This is one where I could probably figure it out with some research if I weren't so burned out on researching stuff.)

What's weird is that sometimes I find it easier to do things the supposedly hard obscure way rather than the supposedly easy intuitive way. A prime example is, I still watch TV over the air. I have a hauppauge TV tuner and I have hdhomerun for this. I can't, for the life of me, get kaffeine or mythtv or any of these so called '10 foot user interfaces' to do the job. I did get kaffeine to tune stuff in to watch live but not to record. How do I record? I compiled gnutv to record! And I invoke it from a bash shell script where I can easily specify the time, length of recording, name of the file to record to, etc. The script schedules the recording using the 'at' command.

With the hdhomerun system, the only way I could get that to work was using curl with another bash script. Isn't that weird?

Hello!!!

Recently a good friend of mine told me how Linux works and just what I can do with it. He showed me Live Booting so I can dip my feet in the water so to speak, and when I did the first thing I noticed was just how clean it all feels - I had experimented a little with Plasma through my Steam Deck, but not as much aside from basic file stuff, so when I booted up Mint, I saw just how de-cluttered everything was compared to Windows - Not having thousands of apps or widgets that I don't need.

I intend to install Linux onto my External hard drive soon so that I can play around with it further - really test the waters before I commit to it. I was wondering if there are some things I should know before hand - things that a newbie like me should keep in mind before I start to play with Linux.

Hi, I'm a novice at Linux kernel components in general, and this is the first time I've tried to write a kernel module.

I am writing a driver for an e-ink display. So far I just have a module which registers a framebuffer and accepts some ioctl commands for update, fast update, partial update, etc. The display draws the frame buffer and this might be enough for what I want to do, but it doesn't seem to work with things like X server or fbterm which I assume is because I haven't implemented some required functions. (These aren't really my end goal, but I'm just trying to learn the system at this stage)

I am now reading up on DRM and FBTFT as a way to make the driver work with like a "real" display but it's pretty overwhelming. Could someone offer a bit of a rundown on what options are out there? Should I use DRM? Are there alternatives? Has FPTFT been in "staging" for 9 years, should I avoid it?

Thanks for any advice you can offer.

(Code is here, but it's a sloppy mess, and I'm really looking for general advice for personal development)

I am not talking about linux drama (like kernel stuff), but the community itself.

The best example is when people install ubuntu, and people already start saying "it's a bad distro", "snaps suck" etc. Your average user will not notice a difference between .deb and snap packages, but people say that everywhere, so they end up getting confused.

Also when a distro change a few things (like EndeavourOS), and people say it's useless and shouldnt exist, discouraging new people developing their distros.

this is probably the major reason why many people start using linux, and go back to windows in like 1 week.

I've been banging my head against a kernel panic that's both reproducible and maddeningly random. It’s caused by a race condition, and while I can trigger it pretty consistently under certain workloads, actually figuring out the root cause has been a nightmare.

Apple seems to have recently changed the firmware of new Magic Trackpads (with USB-C) so all gestures and setting changes do not work, only cursor moves. This is an issue for Linux but also for macOS 14 and older.

It will probably take some time for kernel to catch up.

I haven't seen anything about this on the internet so here you go

Long story short, my laptop's CPU (7945HX) is a volcano that loves to erupt dramatically in a fountain of lava, even when it’s not strictly necessary.

A while ago, I stumbled upon the amd-pstate kernel driver and learned about its alternative passive and guided modes. From what I understood, passive mode lets the OS directly request specific frequencies, while guided mode takes a hybrid approach: the OS defines a range of acceptable frequencies, and the hardware picks values within that range.

Here’s where I’m confused: how does this distinction translate to the end user? I’ve always assumed that in guided mode, you could set minimum and maximum frequency values by modifying /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpufreq/policy*/scaling_max_freq and .../scaling_min_freq, while passive mode relied more on the governor requesting specific frequencies.

I really liked the idea of setting upper and lower limits, so I went with guided mode. This didn’t last long; turns out, the nvidia-powerd.service(dynamic boost) constantly overwrites these values whenever anything remotely GPU-intensive happens.

I ended up switching to passive mode with the idea of using the userspace governor to manually set my desired frequencies for those moments where the CPU gets a little too dramatic with light applications or games.

Now here’s where things get weird. If I set a desired frequency, say 4 GHz, most of my 32 threads adhere to it. But a handful of them go way higher than that, reaching up to 5.44 GHz, while others dip below, running at 3.85 GHz.

Interestingly, setting a specific frequency still influences all cores: lowering the limit to 3 GHz makes the "steamy cores" hit 4.23 GHz, while the not so steamy ones stay around 2.87 GHz.

I suspect something changed in recent kernel versions (possibly 6.12), because I kinda remember being able to limit frequencies fairly recently, and they’d stay rock-solid at those values. The weirdest part is, I recall doing that in guided mode (which supposedly shouldn’t be able to do that?).

Furthermore, upper and lower limits seem to be completely ignored now, even in guided mode, as cpupower frequency-info reports that the current frequency exceeds the set upper limit:

available cpufreq governors: conservative ondemand userspace powersave performance schedutil
  current policy: frequency should be within 400 MHz and 3.00 GHz.
                  The governor "userspace" may decide which speed to use
                  within this range.
  current CPU frequency: Unable to call hardware
  current CPU frequency: 3.59 GHz (asserted by call to kernel)

So, my questions are:

• Are the differences between passive and guided mode purely internal, or they are meant to be used/tweaked differently?
• Has amd_pstate changed the way it behaves in recent kernel versions?

I have this dream of rolling into my office and just having a slim brick to plug in and work. 99% of my job is done on web applications and it would be sufficient to work from a phone. I've tried Samsung Dex, I hate it. I want to fiddle around with custom kernel, etc. etc. Has anyone turned an old phone into a working non-phone Linux system?

https://www.armbian.com/

https://preview.redd.it/151wv378h14e1.png?width=1237&format=png&auto=webp&s=79c313b265cdeab9a87e844ec9c5aa1d91540cea

We are thrilled to announce Armbian Release 24.11.1, packed with significant updates across our entire ecosystem! These updates are aimed at enhancing functionality, expanding hardware support, and refining the user experience for both developers and everyday SBC users. Let’s dive into the exciting new features!

Core system updates:

Armbian Build Framework
The updated build system introduces new tools for faster builds and seamless integration. Optimized compilation workflows and prebuilt configurations make deploying custom firmware easier and more efficient, especially for developers focusing on specialized projects.

Armbian Config Utility
Armbian Config Next Generation has seen improvements in hardware control, streamlined service management, and automated configuration scripting, all designed to make system setup more efficient. Security patches and bug fixes further enhance reliability for device management.

Rockchip Linux Kernel
This kernel release brings major improvements to performance and compatibility for Rockchip-based single-board computers (SBCs). Key enhancements include better power management, enhanced GPU driver stability, and expanded support for advanced peripherals. Numerous bug fixes are also included, ensuring smoother and more reliable operations.

These updates are focused on improving performance, expanding hardware support, and refining tools for developers and SBC users alike. Visit the provided links for more comprehensive information on each update.

Significant Userspace Improvements

We are introducing significant advancements in the userspace with our refactored system configuration utility, armbian-config, rewritten from the ground up. This utility supports customization and automation of tasks in the Armbian environment, simplifying setup processes for various configurations and use cases. It helps users configure networks, manage SSH settings, adjust hardware features, and easily install or uninstall software packages. We have integrated unit testing and fast updates through GitHub, maximizing efficiency. We welcome your contributions!

Minimal OS

Armbian is available in both Debian and Ubuntu flavors. Each variant has its unique strengths, but we treat them both equally to ensure a consistent Armbian UX experience. We provide a smooth and straightforward Netplan assisted lightweight systemd-networkd or feature rich Network Manager based networking solution, ensuring consistent network configurations across different images. Migration between Armbian, Ubuntu, or Debian is seamless. Whether you need to set up an Access Point or simple or advanced networking, we’ve got you covered. For application installations, use armbian-config for a quicker setup or follow the standard installation path.

Notable Software Packages with Easy Installation

With a single command or through a menu-driven process, users can install popular software packages such as Docker, Portainer, Pi-Hole, OpenHab, and Kuma. The selection of available software titles is expanding rapidly through our system configuration tool. We designed this tool to allow new installation scripts to be added effortlessly, enabling community contributions. Comprehensive automation is in place to verify code from multiple perspectives, and unit tests for each function as well as automatic documentation generation are supported. Once a new feature is added, we regularly verify it for deployment and reliability.

Dedicated Application Images

To offer the best possible user experience and ensure compatibility, we provide dedicated images with pre-configured applications on top of a clean Armbian OS. These dedicated images contain only the essential components required to run specific applications, delivering optimal performance. For instance:

Home Assistant: We provide images with Home Assistant functionality on par with their official HAOS. This ensures users have the same level of integration and support as with HAOS, tailored for Armbian environments.

Security-oriented Armbian OS Images: For security-focused use cases, we also provide images that come with pre-installed security tools commonly found in Kali Linux. This gives users a ready-to-go solution for security-related projects.

OpenMediaVault: For storage enthusiasts, we offer pre-installed OpenMediaVault images to help set up personal or home NAS solutions quickly and efficiently.

These dedicated application images are optimized for their respective purposes and provide the essentials without the overhead of unnecessary components. This enables users to focus directly on their application goals without the hassle of configuration from scratch.

Desktop Images

While Armbian primarily focuses on minimal OS images for deployments, our desktop variants are designed to deliver streamlined desktop experiences on both x86 workstations and many small SBCs. We have narrowed our desktop environments to KDE Neon, Gnome, and XFCE. All three options are available for powerful hardware, while XFCE is the choice for low-powered, older devices. Each option comes with 3D acceleration if the SoC supports it, and Rockchip-based hardware also features 4K video playback out of the box.

Partnership Collaborations

We are collaborating with leading vendors of single-board computers (SBCs). Recently, in partnership with Radxa, we successfully deployed a low-power mirror server running Armbian, built around their ITX platform: Radxa Rock 5 ITX. We also provide platinum support for this hardware, as well as for Rock 5B+ and 5C models.

In collaboration with Khadas, we maintain Khadas Edge2 and several models from the VIM series. Additionally, we organized a giveaway of two powerful Mind workstations, limited to active contributors to the Armbian project. Open source maintainers sacrifice their time to ensure the smooth functioning of the code we all use, and we wanted to show our appreciation.

We also offer platinum support for the Allwinner-powered CB1, developed by the renowned 3D printer manufacturer Bigtreetech. In collaboration with BananaPi Tech, we provide advanced support for their computing module CM40 and the Rockchip RK3588-powered BananaPi M7. We are also developing for their RISC-V platform-based BananaPi F3.

Our renewed cooperation with FriendlyElec sees us maintaining several devices, such as the M6, T6, and R6x, all built around RK3588. Additionally, we offer advanced support for Mekotronics, Innovato, Libre Computer, Texas Instruments, JetHome, SmartNow, AlfredSmart, and others. Our contribution to the community is in providing OS images for all build targets. However, for boards that are not under active team supervision, while most of them function well, we cannot commit to resolving tickets related to unsupported models due to limited resources.

Remarkable Contributors

Our heartfelt gratitude goes out to individuals who have significantly contributed to the growth and success of Armbian:

AaronDewes, adeepn, aiamadeus, alex3d, alexl83, amazingfate, as-jackson, belegdol, benhoff, bmilde, brentr, btbxbob, buldo, chainsx, ColorfulRhino, davidandreoletti, dependabot, dimitry-ishenko, dust-7, efectn, EvilOlaf, fridtjof, ginkage, HeyMeco, hqnicolas, igorpecovnik, IsMrX, itlhd, JohnTheCoolingFan, jomadeto, Joshua-Riek, lpapadakos, mahdichi, mattx433, monkaBlyat, MrSuicideParrot, mr-toolcraft, mschirrmeister, paolosabatino, pyavitz, pykpkg47, RadxaNaoki, RadxaStephen, rpardini, rvalle, schmiedelm, schwar3kat, sicXnull, siis2992, SuperKali, Tearran, The-going, Tonymac32, viraniac, williammartin

We also thank our support staff: Didier, Lanefu, Adam, Werner, Aaron, and many more for their dedicated expertise in providing 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 your continuous support of the Armbian community!

The Armbian Team.

I asked this because I feel like people have something against tumbleweed like there is something really wrong with it or something...maybe its just me but I got the impression from this sub that not everyone likes it

I haven't tried tumbleweed yet but I actually think its cool and want to try it out

I never really thought about until now, but i've always used guake/yakuake and set a global shortcut to my terminal as (ctrl+alt+space).

No real reason for the specific shortcut other than that it required minimal hand movement, no break in eye contact with a monitor, and felt comfortable.

So what do you do?

Edit

I see a lot of consistent key-bindings that are pretty common (e.g. meta+enter). I distro hopped a lot until i landed on manjaro(1.5yrs) and then endeavourOS(3yrs). I wanted a consistent keybinding to open a terminal across all distros i tried, hence the ctrl+alt+space key-binding. Just an extra FYI.

Edit 2

After reading one of the posts (credit runawayasfastasucan), I forgot one of the reasons for wanting a one-handed/two handed method for opening a terminal. I can't remember why (maybe torrent or update monitoring on a slow internet.

and so I googled, "max length of an argument in linux". Unfortunately, the answer I got was "arguments in Linux never end" /s

Just kidding, good day :)

(P.S., the real answer I got was PATH_MAX=4096 for an individual filepath and ARG_MAX=128*1024 for the entire command line)