After along time I downloaded a new armbian image, after doing apt update/upgrade for the last year or so.

I was quite surprised to see that the pcduino3nano is now deprecated, while other A20 boards are still supported.

What was the exact reason that the pcduino3nano was dropped from support?

 

If I keep using the deprecated OS, can I fully use apt update/upgrade for all user stuff?

What would happen to all kernel and u-boot update packages? Is the latest armbian for the pcduino3nano automatically disabling those updates, or do I need to do something manually?

*should* I block kernel & u-boot updates?

 

thanks, Michale Jasson 

7 minutes ago, Michale Jasson said:

 

After along time I downloaded a new armbian image, after doing apt update/upgrade for the last year or so.

I was quite surprised to see that the pcduino3nano is now deprecated, while other A20 boards are still supported.

What was the exact reason that the pcduino3nano was dropped from support?

 

If I keep using the deprecated OS, can I fully use apt update/upgrade for all user stuff?

What would happen to all kernel and u-boot update packages? Is the latest armbian for the pcduino3nano automatically disabling those updates, or do I need to do something manually?

*should* I block kernel & u-boot updates?

 

thanks, Michale Jasson 

Hi Michale.   

 

Your best bet would be to freeze the kernel and u-boot packages.  Additional you could remove the armbian apt repository.   Upstream debian and ubuntu will still work as long as they're still supporting the release you're on.

Older boards that don't receive much attention from the community are often dropped.   Unfortunately I don't think you'll find a reason much more specific.  Please take a few minutes to understand some of our project's challenges.  

If you're passionate about the board, and would like to test and contribute, PRs are accepted and it could get moved back to Community Supported Status.

2 hours ago, Michale Jasson said:

What was the exact reason that the pcduino3nano was dropped from support?

Under a dozen developers, seemingly hundreds of boards.  I think between lack of hardware in developers hands and really low download numbers were primary reasons.

the PC duino is upstreamed with u-boot and kernel (dts).. So I assume it would be even safe to update kernel and u-boot (no guarantee but chances are high that not much should break).. If it runs productive I would probably backup first before the upgrades.. But there's not much which should IMO go wrong.. and otherwise maybe someone here will give you some hints how to fix it. Otherwise freeze kernel and then there's not much which can go wrong..