Olimex Linux firmware v Armbian

[phill]

Sorry if this is in the wrong place, but couldn't find any better.

With regards to the Lime 2 what are the differences between the official Linux firmware and the Armbian firmware?

[hook]

I am wondering the same.

Or more specifically what is the difference between:

- Olimex' Debian image
- Debian stock
- Armbian

I've found a list of Armbian improvements here:
https://docs.armbian.com/
but am not entirely convinced (yet) why I should prefer that over vanilla Debian.

Also it seems that Olimex uses the Sunxi kernel instead of the mainline.

[igorpec]

I am wondering the same.

Or more specifically what is the difference between:

- Olimex' Debian image
- Debian stock
- Armbian

I've found a list of Armbian improvements here:
https://docs.armbian.com/
but am not entirely convinced (yet) why I should prefer that over vanilla Debian.

Also it seems that Olimex uses the Sunxi kernel instead of the mainline.

Our work is more polished and optimized than stock Debian in many areas. We have well polished server - IOT / light desktop base, U-boot, legacy and vanilla kernels are additionally patched on the top of sunxi and mainline sources. We work on those tiny improvements daily and some of them might be critical. BTW: current vanilla kernel is best choice for all cases but playing accelerated video.

And we provide real OS, not firmware since our system is getting regular updates on standard way: "apt-get update / upgrade" to all what we do on the top of Debian / Ubuntu. Daily beta and regular monthly.

I guess we are bad in sales if you are still not convinced

[hook]

Our work is more polished and optimized than stock Debian in many areas. We have well polished

I should hope so! But when you say optimised and "compiled from scratch", what exactly do you mean with it?

That you (native) re-compile optimised for size all the packages in Debian Stable and latest Ubuntu release seems a bit much for a hobby project.

kernels are additionally patched on the top of sunxi and mainline sources. We work on those tiny improvements daily and some of them might be critical. BTW: current vanilla kernel is best choice for all cases but playing accelerated video.

I was looking at the vanilla kernel ideally, yes. I plan to use my Lime 2 eMMC (but booting from a 2.5" HDD via SATA) as my home server to replace my current DreamPlug (with Gentoo on it).

And we provide real OS, not firmware since our system is getting regular updates on standard way: "apt-get update / upgrade" to all what we do on the top of Debian / Ubuntu. Daily beta and regular monthly.

Sooo, that means Debian stable + patched kernel & uboot + some custom packages from the Armbian repo?

I guess we are bad in sales if you are still not convinced

Well, let's fix this

The biggest potential setback here is, of course, the stability and support. Debian is well known for its stability esp. on servers and supports a stable release for 5 years. How can Armbian match this?

What I'm also confused is whether the current stable Armbian release supports eMMC (and SATA) on the Lime 2, or not? The download page says "no", but on github it seems more "yes-ish". Is the issue only in building your own kernel or what?


P.S. Če si kej v Lublan, te z veseljem na kak čaj al pa per pelem

[igorpec]

That you (native) re-compile optimised for size all the packages in Debian Stable and latest Ubuntu release seems a bit much for a hobby project.

This applies to our modifications, but for the base we take Debian / Ubuntu packages as they come with debootstrap. I don't see any point recompiling that. We need armhf and arm64 package base and both are available, latter since Jessie.

I was looking at the vanilla kernel ideally, yes. I plan to use my Lime 2 eMMC (but booting from a 2.5" HDD via SATA) as my home server to replace my current DreamPlug (with Gentoo on it).

eMMC Lime2 is supported, but we just don't provide images for it. Ideal would be to provide upgrade from normal to eMMC if possible ... perhaps this already works, but don't have this particular board to try out. The diff is in u-boot and kernel device tree.

Sooo, that means Debian stable + patched kernel & uboot + some custom packages from the Armbian repo?

Exactly.

The biggest potential setback here is, of course, the stability and support. Debian is well known for its stability esp. on servers and supports a stable release for 5 years. How can Armbian match this?

What matter most is kernel and board configs. There is not a single doubt that our kernel is in better shape than generic arm Debian or from vendor, the rest varies from board (family / vendor) to board. Its at least the same.

The project is online 3 years and is more and more community managed. This adds even more stability.

P.S. Če si kej v Lublan, te z veseljem na kak čaj al pa per pelem

O.K. Pošljem kontakt info pod zasebno.

[hook]

OK, after trying both Olimex' Debian image and Armbian images, I am convinced that Armbian is the better option.

Essentially it is Debian stable (or Ubuntu, if you choose so), with an optimised kernel for each board individually and with much saner defaults. The rest stays vanilla, so you can simply

Just as an example, when you boot Armbian, the ethernet works out of the box and you can ssh to it right away. With the Olimex' Debian image, you have to enable the internet connection by hand first (quite troublesome, if you don't have a monitor and keyboard extra).

Armbian also comes with a very nifty installer, with which you can simply install the image from the SD card onto your eMMC or SATA disk.

BTW, if anyone needs help with understanding Debian, this (Free) ebook is brilliant: https://debian-handbook.info