v1.8.0-rc5 - Reliable boot, opt-in overclock, Debian 14 desktops, i3 and MATE

Release candidate. Twelve images, four fixes that came out of hardware testing, and Debian 14 in server and desktop flavours.

This release replaces v1.8.0-rc4, which should not be used: its images can hang during the first boot, right after "Reached target Paths."

Fixed

Boot hang on some boards (the important one)

Images could freeze while systemd was starting its services. The cause was in the kernel clock driver: Armbian's patch set removes the two safety notifiers that park the CPU on the 24 MHz oscillator and gate the PLL while it is being reprogrammed, so the cores kept executing on a clock that was relocking — a silent lockup, triggered by the first burst of frequency changes at boot. That made it look random: identical images sometimes booted.

Armbian hit the same bug on H3/H5 and fixed their 6.18 kernel in July; the 6.12 kernel (used by the Debian 11 image) never got the fix. This release restores those notifiers on 6.12, and no longer force-enables the 1368 MHz operating point that made the frequency changes more aggressive (see below).

Chromium showed a white window on the Debian 13 desktop

Chromium's GPU process cannot get a usable GL context on the Mali400: the lima driver only exposes GLES 2.0 while Chromium's compositor needs ES 3.0, so the window mapped but nothing was ever painted. The Debian 13 and 14 desktop images now start Chromium with a Mesa software GL context (LIBGL_ALWAYS_SOFTWARE=1 in /etc/chromium.d/), and drop Armbian's AcceleratedVideoDecoder flags, which target boards with an exposed video decoder — the H3 has none here. Rendering goes through the CPU: fine for a page or two, not for heavy multi-tab browsing. The Ubuntu 24.04 desktop is unaffected and keeps its stock configuration.

Debian 14 desktop images could not be built

Debian 14 renamed the NetworkManager applet package (network-manager-gnome to network-manager-applet). Two places still asked for the old name, both now handled.

Changed

The overclock is an explicit switch again: smartpi-oc

sudo smartpi-oc on       # enable 1368 MHz, then reboot
sudo smartpi-oc off      # back to stock, then reboot
sudo smartpi-oc status   # current state

After enabling and rebooting, sudo smartpi-oc status reports current max: 1368000 kHz and governor: performance.

By default the images now run the stock frequency table — up to 1296 MHz with the adaptive governor. The switch enables a device-tree overlay carrying the 1368 MHz operating point and boots with the performance governor, so the CPU sits at that frequency instead of hopping between frequencies: the overclock stays whole, without the transitions that destabilised boards at boot. Note that the SmartPi One has no software-controlled CPU regulator — VDD-CPUX is fixed by the board — so the voltages listed in kernel operating-point tables are declarative only; 1368 MHz is stress-test validated on Yumi boards at that fixed voltage. The thermal throttle stays active at 85 C, and a heatsink with an active fan is recommended for sustained workloads.

Desktop images name their desktop environment

Desktop image names now carry the environment they ship, so a downloaded file is identifiable on its own:

Yumi-smartpi1-trixie-debian13-desktop_XFCE-<timestamp>.img.xz
Yumi-smartpi1-trixie-debian13-desktop_i3-<timestamp>.img.xz
Yumi-smartpi1-forky-debian14-desktop_MATE-<timestamp>.img.xz

Scripts that referenced the previous -desktop- names need updating.

New

Debian 14 (Forky): server, XFCE desktop and MATE desktop

Debian 14 joins the matrix in three flavours. Treat them as previews: the distribution keeps moving until Debian freezes it.

i3 window manager on Debian 13

The lightest desktop of the set, keyboard-driven, a good fit for a bare SmartPi One on a monitor. It and the MATE image are the first to use Armbian's desktop tier system (desktop plus Chromium, roughly half the footprint of the XFCE images).

Twelve images in total

Debian 11 (server), Debian 12 (server, XFCE), Debian 13 (server, XFCE, i3), Debian 14 (server, XFCE, MATE), Ubuntu 22.04 (server), Ubuntu 24.04 (server, XFCE).

Unchanged since v1.8.0-rc4

• Yumi boot logo built into U-Boot, drawn centered the instant the video output initialises.
• Works on any screen up to 4K UHD: the display is fixed at 1280x720@60, which every screen from the SmartPad panel to a 4K monitor accepts and upscales. Remove video=HDMI-A-1:1280x720@60 from /boot/armbianEnv.txt to negotiate the native mode instead.
• HDMI console fixed (simpledrm blacklisted), SSH over USB on the OTG port (NCM gadget: Linux, Windows 11, macOS), WiFi tools preinstalled.
• Kernel and U-Boot packages matching the images ship with the release, for both kernel branches.

Flashing

With Raspberry Pi Imager, through the Yumi repository:

rpi-imager --repo https://yumi-lab.github.io/SmartPi-armbian/os_list.json

On macOS, allow the Imager access to removable volumes when asked, otherwise the write fails at the very end.

Validation status

Hardware-tested on a SmartPi One: boot and display on Debian 12, 13 and 14, the Chromium fix on the Debian 13 desktop, the MATE desktop, and the boot logo. The Debian 11 image carries the kernel fix described above but has not been re-tested on hardware since; report anything unexpected.