I replaced my custom nightmare of nixos on rpi5 (too much disk space used, too much IO used for raspberry) to a raspbian+arm+homebrew and i could not be happier
Oh no, i was going to setup the same, would you mind sharing more details? I just need a text-only linux for basic stuff. Do you share your nixos config anywhere?
Good reminder that the Raspberry Pis only have good software support if you stick to whatever the foundation is releasing. Because that same foundation has stayed obsessed with their weird custom ways of doing things, instead of furthering efforts like UEFI on ARM. Some of it is insultingly stupid - like for revD of the 5, you better now update the magic boot partition of your RPi with the device tree overlay for revD, because it will use the old device tree, but also expect the overlay to be there so it can actually work. To say the least, that is never what overlays were supposed to be for.
> custom ways of doing things, instead of furthering efforts like UEFI on ARM.
I thought uBoot was more or less the standard way of booting embedded Linux? Is it really worth bringing the entire UEFI environment, which is basically a mini OS, to such devices? Embedded devices are often designed to handle power loss or even be unplugged by users, so the boot up process is generally as lean as possible.
This is exactly why I’ve to replaced my home server by a low-power x86 NUC instead. No custom build needed to run NixOS and idle power consumption turns out to be slightly lower than the Raspberry Pi 5.
Idle consumption is truly horrid on the Pi 5, even with all the hacks and turning absolutely everything off and hobbling the SoC to 500 Mhz it's imposible to get it under 2W. I'm convinced that the Pi Foundation doesn't think battery powered applications are like, a thing that physically exists.
It is acutely on point. The only reason people have to put in work again and again to fix distributions like Fedora for Raspberry Pi models is because the foundation pulls stunts like that revD. Right now, you can take Buildroot at git master, build an RPi image and have it randomly not work on one of two what looks like identical RPi 5 boards. That's bad, and there is no reason for it.
I replaced my custom nightmare of nixos on rpi5 (too much disk space used, too much IO used for raspberry) to a raspbian+arm+homebrew and i could not be happier
Oh no, i was going to setup the same, would you mind sharing more details? I just need a text-only linux for basic stuff. Do you share your nixos config anywhere?
Sadly, I came to the same conclusion. This is also why I no longer buy raspberry pis.
Good reminder that the Raspberry Pis only have good software support if you stick to whatever the foundation is releasing. Because that same foundation has stayed obsessed with their weird custom ways of doing things, instead of furthering efforts like UEFI on ARM. Some of it is insultingly stupid - like for revD of the 5, you better now update the magic boot partition of your RPi with the device tree overlay for revD, because it will use the old device tree, but also expect the overlay to be there so it can actually work. To say the least, that is never what overlays were supposed to be for.
> custom ways of doing things, instead of furthering efforts like UEFI on ARM.
I thought uBoot was more or less the standard way of booting embedded Linux? Is it really worth bringing the entire UEFI environment, which is basically a mini OS, to such devices? Embedded devices are often designed to handle power loss or even be unplugged by users, so the boot up process is generally as lean as possible.
U-Boot nowadays speaks UEFI :) (and so does LK)
New Android devices all use a UEFI bootloader: https://source.android.com/docs/core/architecture/bootloader...
SecureBoot might be more useful than UEFI on SBC like Pi.
The grub EFI shim is signed, but does or doesn't verify kernel image and initrd and module (and IDK optionally drive and CPU and RAM hw) signatures?
mokutil does module signature key enrollment. Kernel modules must be signed with a key enrolled in the BIOS otherwise they won't be loaded.
To implement SecureBoot without UEFI would be to develop an alternate bootloader verification system.
But what does grub or uboot or p-boot do after the signed grub shim is verified?
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This is exactly why I’ve to replaced my home server by a low-power x86 NUC instead. No custom build needed to run NixOS and idle power consumption turns out to be slightly lower than the Raspberry Pi 5.
Idle consumption is truly horrid on the Pi 5, even with all the hacks and turning absolutely everything off and hobbling the SoC to 500 Mhz it's imposible to get it under 2W. I'm convinced that the Pi Foundation doesn't think battery powered applications are like, a thing that physically exists.
Allow me to ask you what’s the NUC computer you are using?
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Could these choices have anything to with the alleged focus on Compute Module and less focus on the "normal" Raspberry? Does anyone know?
not really, it has been like that since day1. it has more to do with the weird architecture of the bcm chips they use.
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It is acutely on point. The only reason people have to put in work again and again to fix distributions like Fedora for Raspberry Pi models is because the foundation pulls stunts like that revD. Right now, you can take Buildroot at git master, build an RPi image and have it randomly not work on one of two what looks like identical RPi 5 boards. That's bad, and there is no reason for it.
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Very sorry, but people are allowed to have opinions and to express them. If the opinions upset you, then don't read them - by your logic anyway.
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The first rule of bringup is thermal support.
and sleep
Just another Raspberry Pi HAT ;)
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You have been able to run full Linux distros on Raspberry Pi for ages. Ubuntu since 23.10 and Debian most notably.
Honestly, a Pi 5 is powerful enough to run a full desktop very comfortably. It's not a low-powered computer anymore by any means.
Indeed, after adding the NVME SSD card and installing Ubuntu on the drive, it's my daily driver.
great