Armbian
Description
Armbian is a base operating system platform for single board computers (SBCs) that other projects can trust to build upon.
- Lightweight Debian or Ubuntu based Linux distribution specialized for ARM development boards
- Each system is compiled, assembled and optimized by Armbian Build Tools
- It has powerful build and software development tools to make custom builds
- A vibrant community
What is the difference between Armbian and Debian/Ubuntu?
- Debian or Ubuntu officially do not support most of those boards/boxes. Armbian does.
- Armbian userspace has many small but vital performance or security adjustments
- Armbian fancy some kernel development and a lot of its maintaining. Debian relies on upstream sources for ARM hardware which can be years behind and/or lack of many functions
- Armbian userspace is lean, clean but 100% Debian/Ubuntu compatible
- Many stock Debian bugs are fixed on the way, “better than original :)”
- The Armbian build system is a central part of this whole ecosystem. You can DIY. Debian is much harder.
- Dedicated support forums per boards/boxes
- Plug’n’Play vs. complicated install scenarios on stock Debian
- unified development scenarios and user experience vs. mess of different setup instructions scattered all around
Installation
Via Armbian Imager to SD Card
Select Manufacturer
Choose from 70+ supported SBC manufacturers or load a custom image.
Select Board
Pick your board using real photos and metadata from armbian.com.
Select Image
Choose desktop or server, kernel variant, and stable or nightly builds.
Flash
Download, decompress, write, and verify automatically.
Build your custom image with armbian/build
Supported Boards
Further images are available on the download page