Install Armbian on an SD card. In Armbian-config, you have several choices to install from there, one of them is "boot from EMMC, rootfs on NVME" or something similar to that, I forget the exact wording. Basically the boot files are on EMMC and everything else is on the M.2 It is very fast...

A new design heatsink and fan combo is available for the NanoPC-T4 from Friendlyarm
https://www.friendlyarm.com/index.php?r ... uct_id=263

I've had it ordered for about 3 weeks now, still waiting for delivery

I'm running a Kingston A1000 240 GB with latest Bionic Armbian on my NanoPC-T4 no problems.

Removal of gvfs allowed install of the Mate desktop, thanks for that. As for the Pulseaudio, it seems to be installed but does not show up in any of the menus and no icon on the panel. It is shown as an auto-started application but no sign of it.

Works great, thanks for posting this.

Is the battery for the NanoPC-T4 an option that can be purchased? If not, I can probably make one if I knew which battery to use...Rechargeable/non-rechargeable?