Linux 6.11 is out with Linus Torvalds’ announcement on the Linux kernel mailing list (LKML): I’m once again on the road and not in my normal timezone, but it’s Sunday afternoon here in Vienna, and 6.11 is out. The last week was actually pretty quiet and calm, which is nice to see. The shortlog is below for anybody who wants to look at the details, but it really isn’t very many patches, and the patches are all pretty small. Nothing in particular stands out – the biggest patch in here is for Hyper-V Confidential Computing documentation. Anyway, with this, the merge window will obviously open tomorrow, and I already have 40+ pull requests pending. That said, exactly _because_ I’m on the road, it will probably be a fairly slow start to the merge window, since not only am I on my laptop, there’s OSS Europe starting tomorrow and then the […]
DietPi 9.7 and Armbian 24.8 released with improved support for Rockchip, Amlogic, and Allwinner SBCs
Armbian and DietPi are two separate projects that provide Linux-based OS images optimized for Arm-based single board computers. The last time we had a look at both projects was in June with the release of Armbian 24.5.1 and DietPi 9.4, but there have been several updates since then including the releases of the latest DietPi 9.7 and Armbian 24.8 Yelt just a few days ago. So let’s check out the latest changes. DietPi 9.7 DietPi is a lightweight Debian-based Linux distribution for SBCs and server systems that ships as a minimal image but users can install any packages they want, including the ones required for desktop environment, to match the requirements of the applications. It’s notably used by the Linamp project – a Raspberry Pi 4-based project that brings WinAMP to real life – that we covered a few weeks ago. DietPi 9.7 was released on August 25, 2024 with […]
Amlogic C302X embedded AI camera kit features GMSL2 connectors, Ethernet, WiFi, BLE, and CAN Bus interface
The DAB Embedded CAMKIT-AML302-IMX462, is a compact AI camera kit built around the Amlogic C302X processor with 256MB DDR3 on-chip (SiP) and designed for image processing and machine learning applications. The board also includes GMSL2 interfaces that add support for a range of Sony camera sensors, including global shutter and 3D options. Additionally, it has 100Mbit LAN, Wi-Fi, BLE, and CAN bus connectivity which makes this board useful for various computer vision applications. Previously we have written about similar camera kits including the Pivistation 5, the OpenCV AI Kit Lite, the e-con Systems 360° Camera Kit, and much more Feel free to check those out if you are interested in the topic. DAB Embedded CAMKIT-AML302-IMX462 specifications Processor – Amlogic C302X CPU – Dual Core ARM Cortex-A35 2 TOPS Neural Processing Unit (NPU) OpenCV (Hardware Accelerator) Video Encoder – H.264/H.265/JPEG ISP – High-performance, up to 5MP with HDR System Memory – 256MB […]
Linux 6.10 Release – Notable changes, Arm, RISC-V, and MIPS architectures
Linux Torvalds has announced the release of Linux 6.10 on LKML: So the final week was perhaps not quote as quiet as the preceding ones, which I don’t love – but it also wasn’t noisy enough to warrant an extra rc. And much of the noise this last week was bcachefs again (with netfs a close second), so it was all pretty compartmentalized. In fact, about a third of the patch for the last week was filesystem-related (there were also some btrfs latency fixes and other noise), which is unusual, but none of it looks particularly scary. Another third was drivers, and the rest is “random”. Anyway, this obviously means that the merge window for 6.11 opens up tomorrow. Let’s see how that goes, with much of Europe probably making ready for summer vacation. And the shortlog below is – as always – just the last week, not some kind […]
Ugoos SK1 8K Android TV box with Dolby Vision comes with Amlogic S928X-K SoC, 8GB LPDDR4, 128GB eMMC flash
Ugoos SK1 8K Android TV box is based on the Amlogic S928X-K penta-core Cortex-A76/A55 SoC with 8GB LPDDR4, a 128GB eMMC flash, and support for Dolby Vision HDR. The SK1 model follows the Ugoos AM8 model introduced last year with the Amlogic S928X-J processor, 4GB LPDDR4, and 32GB eMMC flash. The new model provides additional licenses with the S928X-K SoC and more resources that should be suitable for more than just watching 8K videos, and some games and other apps could easily run on the device. Ugoos SK1 specifications: SoC – Amlogic S928X-K CPU – Penta-core processor with 1x Cortex-A76 core @ up to 2.0 GHz, 4x Cortex-A55 cores GPU – Arm Mali-G57 MC2 GPU with support for OpenGL ES 3.2, Vulkan 1.2, and OpenCL 2.0 VPU 8Kp60 H.265, AV1, VP9, AVS3/AVS2 10-bit video decoder; 4Kp60 H.264 decoder, 1080p60 MPEG-4, WMV/VC-1, AVS, MPEG-2, MPEG-1 decoder Low-latency 4Kp60 H.265/H.264 encoder AI […]
Amlogic S905X5M vs S905X4 – Features and benchmarks comparison
Amlogic S905X5M is an update to the Amlogic S905X4 quad-core Cortex-A55 SoC with a higher 2.5 GHz CPU clock and a new generation Arm G310 CPU that delivers up to close to three times the performance of the Mali-G31 MP2 GPU for more advanced and smoother HDR user interfaces. The S905X5M and S905X4 share the same video decoding capabilities, notably AV1 and H265 up to 4Kp75, but the new S905X5M drops support for H.265 1080p60 video encoding, only keeping H.264 1080p30. One of the new features is the inclusion of an NPU designed specifically for Super Resolution enabling video upscaling with better image quality. You’ll find the differences between the Amlogic S905X5M and S905X5 processors in the comparison table below. The Amlogic S905X5M adds some HDMI 2.1 features that deserve an explanation: QMS (Quick Media Switching) – A source device can instantly switch its content’s resolution or frame rate without […]
SBC software news – Armbian 24.5.1, DietPi 9.4, and Otii server for the Raspberry Pi 4/5
There’s been some notable software news for single board computers (SBCs) in the last few weeks with the release of Armbian 24.5.1 Havier with a focus on stability and UX improvement, the release of DietPi 9.4 lightweight Debian distritions for SBCs, and Otii server, the software for Qoitech Arc power supply, meter, and DAQ, has been finally released for the Raspberry Pi 4/5. Armbian 24.5.1 Havier Armbian announced 24.5.1 Havier on May 25 with bug fixes and improvements as a point release, but also some new boards. Here are some of the highlights. New boards Orange Pi 5 Pro FriendlyElec CM3588 NAS board Radxa ROCK 5 ITX Radxa Zero 3E/3W Avaota A1 SBC SK-AM68 board tqma8mpxl board CSC Hinlink H6xk boards RK3588-based Cool Pi CM5 EVB Improve Khadas support Resolve Rockchip patch maintenance nightmare Add functionality to freeze git resources Improve support for Radxa Rock S 0 and test USB […]
Linux 6.9 release – Main changes, Arm, RISC-V, and MIPS architectures
Linus Torvalds has just announced the release of Linux 6.9 on LKML: So Thorsten is still reporting a few regression fixes that haven’t made it to me yet, but none of them look big or worrisome enough to delay the release for another week. We’ll have to backport them when they get resolved and hit upstream. So 6.9 is now out, and last week has looked quite stable (and the whole release has felt pretty normal). Below is the shortlog for the last week, with the changes mostly being dominated by some driver updates (gpu and networking being the big ones, but “big” is still pretty small, and there’s various other driver noise in there too). Outside of drivers, it’s some filesystem fixes (bcachefs still stands out, but ksmbd shows up too), some late selftest fixes, and some core networking fixes. And I now have a more powerful arm64 machine […]