FriendlyELEC-Forum

Is there a way to install standard arm64 Ubuntu 20.04 on the R4S? Do I need the serial console to do this?
Alternatively, can the kernel in friendlycore-lite-focal be upgraded from 4.19 to 5.10.x?
Any tips/pointers would be greatly appreciated.

hive wrote:
Is there a way to install standard arm64 Ubuntu 20.04 on the R4S? Do I need the serial console to do this?
Alternatively, can the kernel in friendlycore-lite-focal be upgraded from 4.19 to 5.10.x?
Any tips/pointers would be greatly appreciated.

- there is no way, because standard arm64 won't boot.
- for things as such you certainly need serial console

You can simply use Armbian which is better than Ubuntu in just about any case. And it has active community support, the most important part, which Ubuntu will never have.
https://docs.armbian.com/#what-is-the-d ... bianubuntu

https://www.armbian.com/nanopi-r4s/

I tried Armbian first, but ran into inconsistencies in the network port bring-up. That issue does not seem affect friendlycore-lite-focal. I've posted on the Armbian forum:
https://forum.armbian.com/topic/17286-n ... ian-21021/

hive wrote:
I tried Armbian first, but ran into inconsistencies in the network port bring-up. That issue does not seem affect friendlycore-lite-focal. I've posted on the Armbian forum:
https://forum.armbian.com/topic/17286-n ... ian-21021/

And report will be classified as invalid https://www.armbian.com/bugs/

@igorp: I'm not sure I understand the point you are trying to make with this reply.

You recommended armbian because, as you said "You can simply use Armbian which is better than Ubuntu in just about any case. And it has active community support, the most important part, which Ubuntu will never have."

I'm not trying to step in the middle of some sort of distribution war, I would simply like some constructive help from the community regarding a way to have the network interfaces come up consistently, boot after boot. I posted here to try to get some help from the armbian community. Do you have some constructive community support to offer?

https://forum.armbian.com/topic/17286-n ... ian-21021/

hive wrote:
You recommended armbian because, as you said "You can simply use Armbian which is better than Ubuntu in just about any case. And it has active community support, the most important part, which Ubuntu will never have."

It's just a recommendation, a hint that can save you a lot of time.

hive wrote:
I'm not trying to step in the middle of some sort of distribution war

OS for showing hw features without support is not competitive with a distribution with community (optional commercial) support and far more advanced support. It's like day and night, but of course it looks the same from the distance. Vendor also supports our work and integrate many of our solutions into their OS which serves different purpose - it demonstrate hw features, while other important aspects of OS are neglected.

hive wrote:
I would simply like some constructive help from

Simply? Free support is overloaded and "sold out" for months in advance. There are 1000+ people before waiting for that "simple" constructive help. You will need to do a looooot more if you want something while giving nothing.

I just pointed out that you have to play by the rules, especially if you are not the one paying the bills of that support -> "best effort help"

@igorp Your comments are confusing me.

You suggested armbian would be a better OS for better community support. I heard you and pointed out the issue I ran into with armbian.

You pointed out that armbian has "And it has active community support". Awesome. I'm not convinced my issue is a bug—it might be user error, or just a lack of understanding of how I should be configuring the network interfaces for armbian or possibly the R4S, so I posted it here on the armbian forum here:Home > Community forums > Common issues / peer to peer technical support:
https://forum.armbian.com/topic/17286-n ... ian-21021/

And no one from the community has commented yet (it has only been a day).

I don't understand your comments about free support being sold out and 1000+ people waiting for simple constructive help. I thought you said that armbian has "active community support" -- that's what I'm trying to tap into.
When you say I need to "do a looooot more if you want something while giving nothing." are you suggesting I need to donate or contribute source to get help from the community? That seems strange. Is that how it works with armbian?

And when you say "I just pointed out that you have to play by the rules" --please tell me what the rules are that you think I am not playing by? I posted for peer-to-peer technical support? Isn't that allowed in "the rules"

What would you suggest that I do differently?

hive wrote:
@igorp Your comments are confusing me.

I am trying hard to explain you where you are, but I can't really do much.

hive wrote:
You suggested armbian would be a better OS for better community support. I heard you and pointed out the issue I ran into with armbian.

I am not saying its without issues, but if you want that issues is fixed, someone has to donate his time, pay for(you). You are giving no reason for that. Resolving an issues can cost few hundred or few thousands. I don't have this problem, you do. And there are 1000 people waiting in the line on one person that knows things before you.

Armbian - your only chance - is not a commercial product and it has its support terms you never read. Its not just yet another cheap copy of Linux, like you have been used to in x86 world. Here you can't just hop around. If you will, you will anyway hit our builds or rebranded demo preview stock sw in some variants. With the same problems.

hive wrote:
I don't understand your comments about free support being sold out and 1000+ people waiting for simple constructive help.

Are you the only person on this planet seeking for answer? I am just describing you reality you choose to ignore, while you are providing a link which I am not interested to read. You are not my family, friend, not a customer.

hive wrote:
I thought you said that armbian has "active community support"

Yes, we help each other a lot, but by making a request for more costs, more work and attention it doesn't make you a part of the community yet. We have plenty of that.

hive wrote:
are you suggesting I need to donate or contribute source to get help from the community? That seems strange. Is that how it works with armbian?

You are free to ignore what community needs, what project needs to deal with you or what maintainers needs. But since we are not on your level, we will help you. Just it can take a month or a year.

Who should pay - in any way, not necessarily money - for dealing with you ("customer") and for everything that already works pitch perfect? Just answer yourself to this question.

hive wrote:
What would you suggest that I do differently?

You didn't click the link, you question supporting community projects but you keep pushing a link with your problem and argue with me and waste my time ...

Me too attempted Armbian first, yet ran into irregularities in the organization port raise. That issue doesn't appear influence friendlycore-light central.

For anyone else trying to get Armbian on the NanoPi R4S working, I built my own Armbian image from trunk ( about a month ago, so I ended up with: Armbian_21.05.0-trunk_Nanopi-r4s_focal_current_5.10.24.img) and it seems to work correctly. It does not have the issues that I experienced using the pre-built image.