The release of the Linux distribution Armbian 23.11 has been presented, providing a compact system environment for various single-board computers with processors based on ARM, RISC-V, and x86 architectures, including various models of 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 builds are formed using package bases from Debian and Ubuntu, but the environment is completely reconstructed using its own build system with 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 a compressed form with data flushed to the storage once a day or upon shutdown. The /tmp partition is mounted using tmpfs.
The project supports over 30 variants of the Linux kernel builds for different ARM and ARM64 platforms. To simplify the creation of custom system images, packages, and distributions, an SDK is provided. ZSWAP is used for swap. When logging in via SSH, an option for two-factor authentication is available. The package includes a box64 emulator that allows running programs compiled for x86-based processors. Ready-made packages are offered for running desktop environments based on KDE, GNOME, Budgie, Cinnamon, i3-wm, Mate, Xfce, and Xmonad.
Release Features:
- The support rules for boards have been enhanced, implying three levels of support: standard (full support), intermediate (staging, testing readiness for support), and community support. Khadas VIM1S, Khadas VIM4, Texas Instruments TDA4VM, and Xiaomi Pad 5 Pro have been moved to the standard support category.
- Support has been added for boards such as Hikey 960, NanoPi R6S/R6C, TI SK-TDA4VM, Xiaomi-elish, Tanix TX6, Inovato Quadra, and Mekotronics R58X-Pro.
- The option to choose different login managers (LightDM, SDDM, and GDM3) has been made available.
- The Linux kernel has been updated to version 6.6. Support for kernel 6.6 has been added for NanoPi R6S/R6C boards.
- Kernel settings have been updated to support Waydroid and Redroid (environments for running Android applications in Linux distributions).
- Bluetooth support has been added for VIM1S/VIM4 boards.
- Performance has been improved on Banana Pi CM4 boards.
- A fresh Linux kernel with experimental HDMI support has been implemented for RK3588 boards.
- Fixed issues in the screen managers.
- Experimental UEFI/EDK2 support added for RK3588 plans.
- Daily builds based on Debian 13 (‘Trixie’) and Ubuntu 23.10 have begun.
- Automated tests for build quality assurance have been expanded.
Source: opennet.ru
