I'm new.

Are there generic images for a soc ? like the rk3399, to test for example on the orange pi 4 ?

 

Is it so painfull to install regular debian ? (the debian documentation is painfull to read, for sure).

12 minutes ago, Jack953 said:

Is it so painfull to install regular debian ?

 

Debian is a community backed OS. If nobody beside Armbian is providing Debian (Armbian is Debian or Ubuntu for your hardware), that's it.

 

12 minutes ago, Jack953 said:

the debian documentation is painfull to read, for sure

 

Documentation for open source community backed project are made by random people in their free time. If its not good, you can correct that and make a better one. I am afraid there is no other way.

 

And yes, there is far from simple to have the same experience as on your Intel based desktop.

14 hours ago, Igor said:

 

...based desktop.

Ok thanks, but let me highlight my first question.

Are there generic armbian images for a soc ?

If there are not generic images, maybe i could take the image of the most similar board ?

15 hours ago, Jack953 said:

Are there generic images for a soc ? like the rk3399, to test for example on the orange pi 4 ?

Yes, there are, but in addition to the "common" kernel, it is important to have a "common method of starting" the system in your hardware.

39 minutes ago, balbes150 said:

Yes, there are...

Ok where ?

39 minutes ago, balbes150 said:

it is important to have a "common method of starting

Right, I could use theyr uboot... Also I could take theyr device tree ?

12 minutes ago, Jack953 said:

Right, I could use theyr uboot... Also I could take theyr device tree ?

When you have a "universal" u-boot loader (the order in which external and internal media are polled and run is important) on your device, which is able to properly activate all the equipment and automatically start the system from any medium using the standard method (extlinux.conf), then you will have access to the "universal image" for further experiments.

 

4 hours ago, Jack953 said:

Are there generic armbian images for a soc ?

If there are not generic images, maybe i could take the image of the most similar board ?

Generic images that would  be covered with a same kernel? Not yet, but you can join some platforms today. Generally speaking - too many problems and IMO perhaps a year or more to have good coverage under one. Actually two binaries - one 32 and one 64bit.

For the booting part - not possible on boards that have nothing on board (SPI/eMMC) to solve 1st stage booting. That is very hw specifics. But again, some boards are similar enough and can share this.

Ok thanks.

 

You might want to watch this talk here, Andre is explaining his ideas how to create a single generic firmware image.

15 hours ago, Igor said:

Not yet, but you can join some platforms today. Generally speaking - too many problems and IMO perhaps a year or more to have good coverage under one.

There are images with a single core, which already work well on several platforms (rk3328 + rk3399 + all aml s9xxx). I've been testing this option for a few weeks now, the results are encouraging. It is very convenient for me to use one USB flash drive to start the system at once on all devices with minimal reconfiguration of the DTB used.

4 hours ago, balbes150 said:

There are images with a single core...

Balbes, its the 2nd time you tell me "yes", but where are those images ?

8 hours ago, balbes150 said:

There are images with a single core, which already work well on several platforms

Good to know you made a progress on this - I tried to get some progress on this several months ago without much of a success ... then I have to adjust my estimation. 

 

Build system is ready for this.

On 12/4/2019 at 11:22 PM, Igor said:

Good to know you made a progress on this - I tried to get some progress on this several months ago without much of a success ... then I have to adjust my estimation. 

 

Build system is ready for this.

It's easy to check.

The last 5.99 kernel package I sent in UPDATE is generic and can be used on rk33xx and all s9xxx. Please note, you need the correct setting of the DTB used, depending on the mechanism of starting a particular model of the device. 

On 12/4/2019 at 6:52 PM, Jack953 said:

Balbes, its the 2nd time you tell me "yes", but where are those images ?

Are looking subject about TV boxes, there the entire grinding halt after the info.