Allwinner H-Series Category - CNX Software

February 9, 2026 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

Linux 6.19 Release – Main changes, Arm, RISC-V, and MIPS architectures

Linus Torvalds has just released Linux 6.19 on the Linux Kernel Mailing List (LKML): No big surprises anywhere last week, so 6.19 is out as expected – just as the US prepares to come to a complete standstill later today watching the latest batch of televised commercials. The betting man would expect them all to be AI-generated, but maybe some enterprising company decides to buck the trend? Doubtful, but there’s always a slight chance. But for anybody outside the US, maybe taking the newest kernel out for a spin instead is an option? I have more than three dozen pull requests for when the merge window opens tomorrow – thank you to all the early maintainers. And as people have mostly figured out, I’m getting to the point where I’m being confused by large numbers (almost running out of fingers and toes again), so the next kernel is going to […]

December 31, 2025 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 13 Comments

Year 2025 in Review, CNX Software stats, and looking ahead to 2026

Time for the last post of 2025, as the year is almost over. I’ll look back at key developments and notable products launched in 2025, share some CNX Software website traffic statistics, and look ahead to 2026. Year 2025 in Review After 22 product releases in 2024, Raspberry Pi calmed down a little bit in 2025, and the highlights of the year included the Raspberry Pi 500+ mechanical keyboard, the 5-inch variant of the Raspberry Pi Touch Display 2, and a Raspberry Pi 5 1GB RAM. What didn’t quite stop were the accessories from third parties for Raspberry Pi SBC and Raspberry Pi Pico boards. The most exciting Arm SoC release of 2025 was probably the 12-core CIX P1 Armv9 SoC found in Radxa Orion O6 SBC, MINISFORUM MS-R1 Arm mini PC, and Orange Pi 6 Plus board, but while performance was fine, it was overhyped in 2024, and software […]

December 26, 2025December 26, 2025 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 20 Comments

OpenMediaVault 8 (OMV8) ” Synchrony” released for 64-bit x86 (AMD64) and Arm (ARM64) platforms only

OpenMediaVault 8, or OMV8 for shorts, codenamed “Synchrony” has been released, now supporting only 64-bit architectures (AMD64 and ARM64), and dropping 32-bit systems based on the i386, armel, and armhf architectures. OpenMediaVault is a popular, open-source network-attached storage (NAS) solution based on Debian Linux that’s been around for many years. I had my first experience with it in 2017 when I reviewed FriendlyELEC NanoPi NEO NAS Kit based on a NanoPi NEO2 SBC with an Allwinner H5 64-bit Cortex A53 SoC, but sadly not recommended for OMV8 (more on that below). The main reason for killing 32-bit support is that the Salt Project only supports 64-bit builds. OpenMediaVault 8 highlights: Upgrade to Debian 13 (Trixie). Replace cpufrequtils with linux-cpupower Improve several user and group-related RPCs. Developers should note that the RPCs UserMgmt::enumerateSystemUsers, UserMgmt::enumerateUsers, UserMgmt::enumerateAllUsers and UserMgmt::getUserList now return only basic user information. Set the parameter detail to full to get […]

December 1, 2025December 12, 2025 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 7 Comments

Linux 6.18 LTS release – Main changes, Arm, RISC-V, and MIPS architectures

Linus Torvalds has just announced the release of Linux 6.18 on the Linux Kernel Mailing List (LKML), which will likely become the next LTS kernel [update: it’s now official]: So I’ll have to admit that I’d have been happier with slightly less bugfixing noise in this last week of the release, but while there’s a few more fixes than I would hope for, there was nothing that made me feel like this needs more time to cook. So 6.18 is tagged and pushed out. Most of the last-minute fixes are minor fixes to drivers, with some random noise elsewhere (bluetooth, ceph, afs..). Nothing strikes me as standing out, but hey, there’s a shortlog appended if you want to see the details. And this obviously means that the merge window will open tomorrow, and I already have three dozen pull requests pending. Thanks. And as I already mentioned a couple of […]

November 20, 2025November 26, 2025 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 11 Comments

Black Friday and Cyber Monday 2025 – International deals, coupons, and events

Like every year since 2014, I’ll list a few international deals for Black Friday and Cyber Monday 2025, as many CNX Software readers cannot benefit from promotions on Amazon’s Black Friday and Cyber Monday events, which will take place from November 20 to December 1. I’ve gathered various deals, discount coupon codes, and events from relevant manufacturers of single board computers, MCU development boards, mini PCs, Smart Home devices, and DIY products, as well as popular online stores, including AliExpress, Banggood, and others. AliExpress Black Friday and Cyber Monday 2025 event AliExpress sales event for Black Friday and Cyber Monday 2025 has just started and will last until December 3, 2025 (although I can see until November 29 and December 4 in some places). You can use some of the coupons on the screenshot above, or some alternative coupon codes for the US and some other countries (excluding DE, RU, […]

September 29, 2025November 6, 2025 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 2 Comments

Linux 6.17 release – Main changes, Arm, RISC-V, and MIPS architectures

Linux 6.17 has just been released on LKML: No huge surprises this past week, so here we are, with kernel 6.17 pushed out and ready to go. Below is the shortlog for just the last week – not the full 6.17 release – as usual. It’s not exciting, which is all good. I think the biggest patch in there is some locking fixes for some bluetooth races that could cause use-after-free situations. Whee – that’s about as exciting as it gets. Other than that, there’ the usual driver fixlets (GPU and networking dominate as usual, but “dominate” is still pretty small), there’s some minor random other driver updates, some filesystem noise, and core kernel and mm. And some selftest updates. This obviously means that the merge window for 6.18 will open tomorrow, and I already have four dozen pull requests pending. Thanks to the proactive people – you know who […]

August 5, 2025August 6, 2025 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 10 Comments

Sipeed NanoCluster palm-sized cluster board takes up to 7 system-on-modules

Sipeed NanoCluster is a palm-sized cluster board with seven slots for Raspberry Pi CM4/CM5, Sipeed LM3H (Allwinner H618), and/or Sipeed M4N (AXera AX650N AI SoC) system-on-modules, and other compatible SoMs might also work. The board handles inter-module communication through an 8-port RISC-V-based Gigabit switch, and supports up to 60W USB-C PD or PoE (optional) power. The NanoCluster also offers independent UART and power control for each module, and is suitable as an entry-level/educational platform for HomeLab users working with distributed computing, Kubernetes, Docker, and edge computing. Sipeed NanoCluster specifications: Supported SOMs Raspberry Pi CM4 – Broadcom BCM2711 quad-core Cortex-A72 SoC @ 1.5 GHz with VideoCore VI GPU, 1GB to 8GB RAM, up to 64GB eMMC flash (optional) Raspberry Pi CM5 – Broadcom BCM2712 quad-core Cortex-A76 SoC @ 2.4 GHz with VideoCore VII GPU, 1GB to 16GB RAM, up to 64GB eMMC flash (optional) Sipeed LM3H – Allwinner H618 quad-core Cortex-A53 […]

July 28, 2025 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 5 Comments

Linux 6.16 Release – Main changes, Arm, RISC-V, and MIPS architectures

Linus Torvalds has just announced the release of Linux 6.16 on LKML: It’s Sunday afternoon, and the release cycle has come to an end. Last week was nice and calm, and there were no big show-stopper surprises to keep us from the regular schedule, so I’ve tagged and pushed out 6.16 as planned. It’s worth noting that the upcoming merge window for 6.17 is going to be slightly chaotic for me: I have multiple family events this August (a wedding and a big birthday), and with said family being spread not only across the US, but in Finland too, I’m spending about half the month traveling. That means that I will try very hard to get most of the merge window done the first week before my travels start, and I already ended upgiving a heads-up on that to the people who tend to send me the most pull requests. […]