[Armbian newsletter] - Armbian Weekly Highlights

Dear armbians,

The ThinkPad X13s hummed as the kernel upgraded, while Rockpi-S saw multiple fixes—its new kernel demanding a bootloader update, now automated. A ghost touch vanished from BigTreeTech boards. Meanwhile, CoolPi GenBook awaited revival, and Ubuntu Plucky arrived—an era of seamless innovation unfolded.

Recent Highlights

ThinkPad X13s (ARM64)

• Enabled RTW88 in-kernel USB drivers.
• Kernel upgrade from 6.13-rc7 to Jhovold’s WIP/SC8280XP-6.13 Final. (Commit) – Contributed by rpardini & igorpecovnik

Rockpi-S

• Automatic U-Boot flashing now supported upon package installation. (Commit) – Contributed by igorpecovnik
• This improvement was made possible by our team identifying and resolving issues reported here.

H96 Max V56

• U-Boot updated to version 2025.01. (Commit) – Contributed by hqnicolas & igorpecovnik

BigTreeTech Boards

• CB1:
  • Adjusted DTS for Edge 6.12 and Current 6.6. (Commit) – Contributed by JohnTheCoolingFan
• TSC2007 Touchscreen:
  • Addressed ghost touch issues for Edge 6.12 and Current 6.6. (Commit) – Contributed by JohnTheCoolingFan

Rockchip64 Platform

• Rebased patches against 6.13 final. (Commit) – Contributed by rpardini & igorpecovnik
• Dropped upstreamed patches for 6.13-rc7.
• Ongoing upgrade for Rockchip BSP Linux 6.1, migrating from RKR4.1 to RKR5.

CoolPi GenBook

• U-Boot bumped to 2025.01. (Commit) – Contributed by andyshrk

Odroid C1 and OneCloud

• Moved to EOS (End of Support) due to kernel assembly issues.
• We are constantly working to bring older boards back if fixes become available.

MBA8mxpl and MBA8mxpl Ras314

• Images upgraded to latest version.

CLI / IoT Nightly Images

• Upgraded to the latest Ubuntu 25.04 Plucky.

Build System Enhancements

• Improved U-Boot Rebuild Logic: Addressed an issue where the build system skipped rebuilding updated U-Boot versions, opting to use cached versions instead. This ensures that the latest U-Boot changes are always incorporated during builds. (Commit) – Contributed by bmx666
• Optimized External IP Retrieval: Enhanced the method for determining the external IP address by limiting the curl execution time to 2 seconds. This prevents potential hangs during the login process when the Message of the Day (MOTD) header module is enabled. (Commit) – Contributed by Igor Pecovnik

Community Contributions

Special thanks to our contributors:

• Rpardini, Igorpecovnik, JohnTheCoolingFan, Hqnicolas, Amazingfate, Andyshrk, bmx666, and many others for their tireless efforts to improve Armbian.

How to Get Involved

Contributing to Armbian is as easy as donating $5. Your support helps improve hardware compatibility and sustain open-source innovation. If you can’t donate, but have skills, we’re always welcoming contributions to development, testing, and documentation!

Interested in contributing? Check out our GitHub repository to report issues, suggest improvements, or submit pull requests. Every contribution helps shape the future of Armbian!