ARM SBC Devices Reference List

Peter Boy (pboy) Version F37,F38 Last review: 2023-07-xx

You are in the Fedora Server documentation staging area!

These documents are not approved yet and may be incomplete and/or incorrect. Take everything here with a grain of salt! You would probably prefer to study the published documentation.

Status of this document: Work in progress.

Abstract TBD

Fedora is considered difficult on SBCs and is only executable on selected models. This is not so much a problem of Fedora as of the manufacturers, who extensively use OSS software for their boards themselves, but are conversely very hesitant to make their driver adaptations available as OSS.

The limitation to selected models is due precisely to Fedora’s advantage of consistently insisting on OSS software without exception. Thus, with Fedora all advantages of OSS are available for use on SBC devices as well, especially security and unrestricted, unlocked, and reliable usability.

Open Source friendlyness und Fedora supported
CPU Power and Performance (at least 64 bit)
RAM, 2 GB at minimum, 4 GB recommended
Wired network connection with 1 GB speed continuously, no throughput slowed down by hardware properties
Availability of high-speed mass storage, Sata or PCIe / NVMe, without bandwidth limitations
Bootability via onboard firmware (SPI) or internal high-speed storage
Solid and compact case to protect hardware and efficient use of space
Stackability for safe and long-term accommodation
Efficient and economical power consumption

The following list contains some models available to the Fedora Server working group and community and summerizes their experiences (in alphabetical order). These are specifically supported and tested for each release. You can rely on experienced Fedora Sever Edition users.

Table 1. Devices – tested, approved & recommended
Model	(1)	(2)	(3)	(4)	(5)	(6)	(7)	(8)	(9)	Sum
Khadas VIM 1	??	??	??	??	??	??	??	??	??	??/18
Pine64 RockPro64	+2	+2	+2	+2	+1	+2	+1	+2	+2	16/18
Radxa Rock Pi 4a	+1	+2	+2	+2	+2	+2	+2	+1	+2	16/18
Yet another model	??	??	??	??	??	??	??	??	??	??/18
yet another model	??	??	??	??	??	??	??	??	??	??/18
again another model	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	??/18
Raspberry 4	??	??	??	??	??	??	??	??	??	??/18

There are some devices (in alphabetical order) worth of testing according to written material – which may or may not be accurate. Be prepared to have to solve unexpected problems. Please, contribute your experiences to the community, e.g. using the issue/comment link above.

Table 2. Devices – probably useful according to written material
Model	(1)	(2)	(3)	(4)	(5)	(6)	(7)	(8)	(9)	Sum
Friendly Elec NanoPC-T4				.	.	.	.	.	.	??/18
Khadas VIM 3 pro	??	??	??	??	??	??	??	??	??	??/18
Khadas Edge V	??	??	??	??	??	??	??	??	??	??/18
LibreComputer Roc-RK3399-pc (FireFly Maker)	+2	+2	+2	+2	+1	+?	+?	+?	+?	??/18
Radxa Rock Pi 4a plus	+?	+2	+2	+?	+?	+?	+?	+1	+?	??/18
some other model				.	.	.	.	.	.	??/18
again another model				.	.	.	.	.	.	??/18

Miscellaneous additional information

(TBD: to be expanded, adding detailed installation and configuration description, probably on a separate page each)

Radxa Rock Pi 4a

A nice, very compact model
With nvme board installed the mSD slot is not accessible anymore. In case of boot issues, the case must be disassembled.
The SPI module is not supported by Fedora. You may use Armbian to install a Fedora compatible SPI boot loader (F36 - F38).

Pine64 RockPro64

With the compact case you can’t install the NVMe daughter board. You would have to use the much bigger NAS case. With the compact case you can just use the eMMC connector.
This model is specifically recommended if you want zu built a NAS including 2 SATA disks.

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