Ubuntu support for Banana Pi?

[Robert Heller]

At Fri, 28 Feb 2025 14:20:46 +0000 "Ubuntu user technical support,? not for general discussions" <ubuntu-users at lists.ubuntu.com> wrote:

> 
> On Friday, February 28th, 2025 at 10:05 PM, Oliver Grawert <ogra at ubuntu.com> wrote:
> 
> > Hi,
> > Am Freitag, dem 28.02.2025 um 13:35 +0000 schrieb Turritopsis Dohrnii
> > Teo En Ming via ubuntu-users:
> > 
> > > I have the intention of buying Banana Pi because it has more than 1
> > > network port and can function as a router or firewall. Raspberry Pi
> > > only has 1 network port and can't function as a router or firewall at
> > > all.
> > 
> > 
> > Not in its default setup, but there are plenty of addon Hats that
> > provide up to 5 gigabit ports ... here is one example:
> > 
> > https://52pi.com/products/u5000-m-2-nvme-dual-usb3-0-to-2-5g-ethernet-for-raspberry-pi-5
> > 
> > If you are after using Ubuntu you are best served with a Pi, which is
> > fully supported and gets regular security updates like any other Ubuntu
> > ... all other options will mean you will have to use something like the
> > armbian debian fork, debian itself or create your own Ubuntu userspace
> > rootfs and maintain the boot setup and kernel yourself ...
> > 
> > ciao
> > oli
> 
> Thank you for the link. Do you mean that if I choose other brands of Pi other than Raspberry Pi, I would not be able to use Ubuntu and need to use Armbian instead?

Armbian is effectively Ubuntu customized for those boards.  Most of those 
boards have "exotic" SOCs (System-On-a-Chip), with various "custom" I/O 
features.  The ARM "SOC" is something like the north/south-bridge typical of 
a x86-ish motherboard, but a lot less "standardized" and often with a bunch of 
extra I/O, that on a x86-ish system would live off in PCI(e)-land (eg in a PCI 
Express slot or something) -- things like cameras, video, special I/O 
interfaces (CAN, USARTS, Audio, IR (remote controls), GPIO, I2C, SPI, PWM, 
ADCs, User Definable LEDs on the SBC, etc.)

Armbian supplies kernals with driver logic to support the various extra 
features on these various ARM processor boards.  Base Ubuntu does not provide 
that -- things will *probably* work for basic standard stuff, but you won't 
have access to the extra I/O features of these boards, unless you want to 
delve into the kernal and boot hackery yourself.  Armbian takes care of that 
for you, often with manufaturer support.

> 
> Regards,
> 
> Mr. Turritopsis Dohrnii Teo En Ming
> 
> > 
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