I know it. I’m literally typing this on a Raspberry Pi. I used to run Arch Linux on it, but Arch Linux on ARM has severe issues. It’ll literally go months with no package updates.
One day I’ll get brave and switch it to Gentoo. Just need to put together a build server first.
Yocto and compile it all yourself. Arch people might think they are cool because they have to use a console to install their de but creating the devicetree for your board and then only get a console over a serial connection or ssh is the true linux experience.
Python rebuilds don’t cause (noticeable) problems for AMD64 Arch Linux.
And any time anyone offers any kind of help on the Arch Linux Arm forums to try to help resolve the issue, the admins ignore and/or lock the thread. They’re not open to help and the people on the forums are super frustrated about it.
ARM is kinda lacking the hardware to motivate developers, I think. Raspberry Pi generally has good support for server stuff, but I don’t think you could really justify desktop use before maybe 2019 (release of rpi 4 with much faster CPU and more RAM), and Android devices are generally really locked down.
If the SOC makers want their hardware to be popular for longer, they really need to add mainline kernel support.
I looked at them as a tinkering platform. But I don’t want to buy something which is probably abandoned in a few months.
Those SoCs usually have one distro with a patched out of date kernel and overall lacking support of upstream drivers to install an off the shelf distro.
Arm devices are notoriously closed. Apple silicon is an extreme example, where it only works thanks to reverse engineering the HW.
This is why I gave up on a really amazing ARM device that I wanted to use as a router. I ended up having to buy an Intel-based mini PC simply because I didn’t have more time to invest in creating and burning random disk images to SD cards and USB flash drives.
And each of these SoCs requires people, ideally the manufacturer, to actually put in the work to make the hardware work on Linux. So many SBCs with severely outdated kernels …
I know it. I’m literally typing this on a Raspberry Pi. I used to run Arch Linux on it, but Arch Linux on ARM has severe issues. It’ll literally go months with no package updates.
One day I’ll get brave and switch it to Gentoo. Just need to put together a build server first.
Yocto and compile it all yourself. Arch people might think they are cool because they have to use a console to install their de but creating the devicetree for your board and then only get a console over a serial connection or ssh is the true linux experience.
SteamOS on the Frame may soon alleviate some of those woes, given it’s based on Arch and has an ARM processor iirc. Can’t hurt, anyhow.
Usually those are from python rebuilds which clog the other packages for weeks at a time. Maybe they could use your build server.
Python rebuilds don’t cause (noticeable) problems for AMD64 Arch Linux.
And any time anyone offers any kind of help on the Arch Linux Arm forums to try to help resolve the issue, the admins ignore and/or lock the thread. They’re not open to help and the people on the forums are super frustrated about it.
I have had great success running NixOS on my Pi. You can build software on your main computer and remote deploy with SSH :)
Does the cross compilation work fine? I’ve had some issues in the past building on macOS for x64.
Yes. I only have one extra line in my configuration:
boot.binfmt.emulatedSystems = [ "aarch64-linux" ];Which compiler?
It’s been a while. I can’t even really remember which language. Now that I think of it, it might have been C#.
Major or minor?
Core. I’m a software architect, not a musician 💖
I want to quit my day job so I can focus on ARM power mode support in Linux
I wish I was smart enough to even consider this
Good news: you could just financially support me!
I would like you to.
ARM is kinda lacking the hardware to motivate developers, I think. Raspberry Pi generally has good support for server stuff, but I don’t think you could really justify desktop use before maybe 2019 (release of rpi 4 with much faster CPU and more RAM), and Android devices are generally really locked down.
Never mind the absolute ocean of ARM SoCs, not to mention Apple’s silicon
If the SOC makers want their hardware to be popular for longer, they really need to add mainline kernel support.
I looked at them as a tinkering platform. But I don’t want to buy something which is probably abandoned in a few months.
They don’t give a shit about hobbyists. We don’t give them contracts worth hundreds of millions of dollars.
Those SoCs usually have one distro with a patched out of date kernel and overall lacking support of upstream drivers to install an off the shelf distro.
Arm devices are notoriously closed. Apple silicon is an extreme example, where it only works thanks to reverse engineering the HW.
What we need are more ARM PCs with UEFI and mainline Linux drivers. That way they would run a generic OS image just like an x86 PC.
Most ARM PCs require an image built specifically for that system. That makes them a real pain the ass to work with.
This is why I gave up on a really amazing ARM device that I wanted to use as a router. I ended up having to buy an Intel-based mini PC simply because I didn’t have more time to invest in creating and burning random disk images to SD cards and USB flash drives.
And each of these SoCs requires people, ideally the manufacturer, to actually put in the work to make the hardware work on Linux. So many SBCs with severely outdated kernels …
I suppose ARM really missed the mark by not establishing a universal power framework.