[Feature Request]: Are you planning to support the armel architecture?

[zooyer]

Which feature would you like to have?

Some older devices are armel and want to install Armbian.

Funding

• [ ] I am willing to cover expenses

[github-actions[bot]]

Hey @zooyer !

Looks like it's your first time interacting with Armbian here on GitHub.

Welcome and thank you for taking the time to report an issue :heart:.

Don't forget to star :star: the repo.

[github-actions[bot]]

Jira ticket: AR-2638

[leggewie]

I guess it all comes down to volunteers stepping up to build and test. Are you interested to do that,@zooyer?

[zooyer]

I guess it all comes down to volunteers stepping up to build and test. Are you interested to do that,@zooyer?

I am very willing to participate in the test。

[igorpecovnik]

willing to participate in the test

Thank you for your willingness! However, from our perspective, the situation is far more complex.

Such idea / project would place additional pressure on multiple people / teams, including:

• Hardware developers
• Build framework developers
• Test automation engineers
• Coordinators managing communication with testers (additional support beyond you is necessary)
• Support staff

This is a considerable undertaking, and unfortunately, we lack dedicated funding sources beyond private contributions. Industry is not interested for old hardware, meaning reliance must be placed on third-party organizations. Donations from end users traditionally cover only 0.5% of the total project costs, making it an unsustainable funding model for supporting (endless) feature requests.

tl;dr;

Armbian's infrastructure can provide some assistance, but not at scale. To move forward, we strongly encourage you to build momentum within the community forums and rally a critical mass of contributors. This will require significant effort and time, with no guaranteed outcome - however, this is the approach I would take.

While we can support your initiative through promotion via our social channels, we do not have the capacity for direct involvement. Even maintaining critical Armbian infrastructure is a challenge with our current resources. One of critical parts is testing infrastructure - Linux development (especially embedded) in 2025 does not rely on users to tests, but robots.

[zooyer]

willing to participate in the test

Thank you for your willingness! However, from our perspective, the situation is far more complex.

Such idea / project would place additional pressure on multiple people / teams, including:

• Hardware developers
• Build framework developers
• Test automation engineers
• Coordinators managing communication with testers (additional support beyond you is necessary)
• Support staff

This is a considerable undertaking, and unfortunately, we lack dedicated funding sources beyond private contributions. Industry is not interested for old hardware, meaning reliance must be placed on third-party organizations. Donations from end users traditionally cover only 0.5% of the total project costs, making it an unsustainable funding model for supporting (endless) feature requests.

tl;dr;

Armbian's infrastructure can provide some assistance, but not at scale. To move forward, we strongly encourage you to build momentum within the community forums and rally a critical mass of contributors. This will require significant effort and time, with no guaranteed outcome - however, this is the approach I would take.

While we can support your initiative through promotion via our social channels, we do not have the capacity for direct involvement. Even maintaining critical Armbian infrastructure is a challenge with our current resources. One of critical parts is testing infrastructure - Linux development (especially embedded) in 2025 does not rely on users to tests, but robots.

Thank you for your response! I understand the challenges involved. I'll start by exploring the community and seeing how I can gather support.

[tabrisnet]

https://www.debian.org/releases/trixie/ suggests that armel is a dead letter. do you mean armhf or armv7?