[ARM] A discussion of different ARM SBC formats and uses for them

There was a discussion about Arm hardware in another topic and it was decided to split it off to a new Topic. I’m using this post as a starting point for the new topic and to explain the split.

Pudge

AW YEAH!

n2p

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Odroid gang!
one of us! one of us!! :partying_face:

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Is that the N2?

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And some.

(It’s the N2+ 4GB)

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I own the ‘normal’ N2 and it’s a nice plaything. I ran it as a video server for a while and as a webserver later. I just don’t know what to seriously do with it apart from playing with it.

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It’s actually pretty useable as a low powered desktop pc…

During the summer, in the extreme heat, I used mine all day long, because my normal pc kept heating up the room too much

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@jonathon You finally got it! Looking forward to hearing about your experience on ARM. If you come up with any improvements, let us know.

Ooops, sorry. That sentence taken out of context could go many different ways.

I have been using an Odroid N2+ with 64 GB eMMC, first with Gnome on it, now with modded Budgie on it for my daily driver for almost 2 Months. For about 80 per cent of what I do, I don’t even notice I’m on a low powered device. The thing I like the most, the Odroid N2 is silent. Nice when listening to music.

Pudge

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:joy:

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I do not own a desktop PC, just a laptop. So it’s a plaything now. I wish I could find a more suithing use for it though. It’s a great piece of hardware for sure!

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You could always experiment with some homelab stuff, if you’re interested in that kind of stuff of course…

You could have it run some stuff like pi-hole, vpn-server, cloud storage etc…

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Holds true for that other thing as well… No kids here.

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A pi hole would not be the worst way to use it, though it’s quite powerful to be used only as such.

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@jonathon Hope you share thoughts on it after some use … I interested in your thoughts on it :pray:

as it came 2nd choice for me

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The EndeavourOS Arm install script has an option to install a very basic Archlinux Arm install to be used as a headless LAN server, NAS, media streamer, etc.

The server installation instructions then tells how to setup a Linux client Lap Top / PC using openssh, FUSE, and sshfs to access the LAN Server. There are also manuals for setting up SAMBA, for Windows clients, and miniDLNA for streaming media to DLNA enabled devices.

The server instructions will come up in a basic github pdf viewer, scroll down to the ‘download’ button and the pdf will then be in a browser viewer which can be used to save or print the pdf.

It does require a monitor (a TV with HDMI connections would work), and a keyboard to install the server. After that it could be run headless.

If you are interested in experimenting with networking, you could try this. Plus, no one that I am aware of has installed a headless server yet with the install script. So you would actually be testing this feature for us.

Pudge

EDIT:
Forgot to mention, you don’t need a SSD or other large storage device just to experiment. You can use a 32 GB USB 3 thumb drive for data storage to play around with before deciding if you want to spring for larger SSD storage and SSD data backup.

Second EDIT:
@Shjim
A Rapsberry Pi 4b could also be used for this, plus I have a test LAN server on an Odroid XU4 at the moment. Works great.

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Cool idea! When I get some time to play a little I will for sure have a look at this. Thanks Pudge!

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For NAS-type usage they’ve just released this:

Stick a couple of large HDDs in there and you have a nice media server. :grin:

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I saw that. Had to wipe the drool off my chin.

EDIT:
Just looked closer at the ODROID-HC4, and it is basically a repurposed Odroid C4.

So far, Archlinux Arm does not support the Odroid C4 SBC with a base install image.
Although one could possibly utilize something like Media-Vault or any other number of software packages.
End of EDIT ##########################################################

Odroid also has these available for a nice LAN server, NAS. The HC1 and HC2 are based on the Odroid XU4, and as I said above I currently have an Odroid XU4 as a headless server and it works well.

Pudge

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@jonathon
You originated this discussion, so I’m asking your thoughts on splitting this off on a separate topic in the ARM section.

Pudge

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Good call, Pudge.

As to that dock thing-a-ma-bob, that looks like something I could use. I currently have some wires and hacky stuff to access external hdd/ssd’s… this is a lot cleaner

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