The release of the Linux distribution Armbian 26.8 has been published, providing a compact system environment for single-board computers with processors based on ARM, RISC-V, and x86 architectures, supporting various models such as Raspberry Pi, Odroid, Orange Pi, Banana Pi, Helios64, pine64, Nanopi, and Cubieboard based on Allwinner, Amlogic, Actionsemi, Freescale/NXP, Marvell Armada, Rockchip, Radxa, and Samsung Exynos processors.
The assemblies are formed using the Debian and Ubuntu package bases, but all components are completely rebuilt with a custom build system that includes optimizations for reducing size, increasing performance, and applying additional security mechanisms. For example, the /var/log partition is mounted using zram and stored in RAM in compressed form with data being flushed to storage once a day or upon shutdown. The /tmp partition is mounted using tmpfs.
The project supports over 30 different Linux kernel build variants for various ARM and ARM64 platforms. An SDK is provided to simplify the creation of your own system images, packages, and distribution editions. ZSWAP is used for swapping. When logging in via SSH, there is an option for two-factor authentication. It includes the box64 emulator, which allows running programs compiled for x86 architecture processors. Ready-made packages are offered for launching user environments based on KDE, GNOME, Budgie, Cinnamon, i3wm, Mate, Xfce, and Xmonad.
Key changes in Armbian 26.8:
- The installer has been rewritten, now delivered as a module armbian-config instead of a standalone script and covered during unit testing. For flash memory operations, support for SPI (Serial Peripheral Interface) and MTD (Memory Technology Device) interfaces is provided, separate handlers for eMMC and NVMe have been implemented, and support for bootloader replacement has been added.
- The Armbian Imager toolkit has been updated to version 2.0, providing an interface for selecting and downloading system images, writing to SD cards, and initial system setup. For boards with Qualcomm chips using UFS (Universal Flash Storage), the ability to flash using the QDL (Qualcomm Device Loader) tool has been added. Improved detection of connected devices in Windows and Linux. UEFI images can now be built in the form of bootable Live ISO files, which can be used with IPMI Virtual CD and cloud environments that only support ISO image formats.
- The Linux kernel has been updated to version 7.1. An experimental repository is also available with a kernel package version 7.2, built for platforms rockchip64, meson64, mvebu64, sunxi, and bcm2711.
- The U-Boot bootloader has been updated to version 2026.07 for Rockchip RK35xx, Amlogic, i.MX6, and mvebu boards.
- Fresh drivers for wireless devices rtl8852bs, rtl8189es, rtl8192eu, and uwe5622 are offered in a separate repository.
- Support for the following boards has been implemented:
- Anbernic RG DS and RG Vita Pro
- Radxa Cubie A7Z and Dragon Q6A/Q8B
- Seeed reComputer RK3576 and RK3588 DevKit
- TI BeagleBadge and TMDS64EVM
- Orange Pi 4 Pro and Zero 3W
- Sovol Zero and SV08
- Walnut Pi Box and 1B
- EmbedFire LubanCat 5IO
- LuckFox Nova
- SpacemiT K3 Pico-ITX
- Milk-V DuoS
- Avnet MaaXBoard 8ULP
- NanoPi NEO3 Plus
- KICKPI K3B
- Graperain G3568 v2
- EASY EAI Nano
- Mellow Fly C5
- CIX P1,
- Xiaomi Pad 6S Pro
- Tanix TX6S
- Support for the Banana Pi R2 board has been resumed.
Source: opennet.ru
