Tuesday, November 10, 2026 News from Linux distributions' own feeds Linux stable 7.3.3 · longterm 6.18.62
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Armbian Blog

Github Highlights

blog.armbian.com

Key points

Armbian's latest GitHub Highlights report covers the launch of the armbian/external packaging pipeline for third-party software, kernel and U-Boot version bumps on many platforms, and work on desktops and repository infrastructure. A new update-manager (Software Updater) build for Armbian was also promoted to stable.

External packages pipeline

  • The new armbian/external repository builds and mirrors third-party software, with a package site at external.armbian.com.
  • Tooling includes a dependency check (blocking in pull requests, plus a daily report), building from source, sync every 2 hours, parallel and incremental uploads, and removal of old versions after a successful upload.
  • Debug packages are not mirrored.
  • Initial packages: charsiu (LLM runtime for the RK3576 NPU), claude-code, codex, grok-cli, zed-editor, gh-riscv64 (GitHub CLI for riscv64), sunshine, umu-launcher, winetricks, once, openclaw, and mesa built from the Tegra X1 branch with libdrm.
  • profile-sync-daemon 8.0 is built for forky and resolute, and fastfetch moves to revision 2.
  • Install-menu apps (Claude, 1Password, Brave, Heroic) are mirrored from vendor repositories.

Kernels

  • Edge moves to Linux 7.3.1 on qcs6490, qrb2210 and sc8280xp; mvebu edge is given as 7.3.1 in the overview and 7.3 in the change list.
  • The whole imx8m family moves edge to 7.3.
  • rockchip64 bleedingedge goes to 7.4-rc1, and mainline is bumped to 7.4-rc2.
  • qcs6490 vendor moves to Radxa 7.0.11, and the QSEE fTPM is enabled on edge and vendor.
  • ThinkPad X13s switches to BRANCH=edge with many fixes.
  • The rk35xx vendor kernel enables the PCF85063 RTC driver, beeper inputs and the TLV320AIC31xx codec.
  • Build fixes for Linux 7.4 land in the rtl8723ds, rtl8852bs and unisocwifi drivers; rtl88x2cs is bumped to e12226b6.

U-Boot

  • Mainline v2026.10 arrives on Orange Pi 5, NanoPi M5, Mekotronics R58-4x4, Banana Pi M2, and Youyeetoo YY3588 and R1 V3.
  • sunxi64 tries the NVMe boot target before PXE and DHCP, and PCIe enumeration behind a PCIe switch is fixed (Cubie A5E).
  • SpacemiT K1 gets a fix for a vprintf() overflow with PRINT_TIMESTAMP, and CONFIG_SYS_CBSIZE is raised to 1024.
  • Helios64 sets the SD I/O domain in SPL.

Boards and platform fixes

  • New board support: Torder R10D (RK3566, community), Orange Pi A31s, DEBIX Model A (imx8m) and Orange Pi 5 Ultra WiFi.
  • RK3588 vendor-next: CPU frequency scaling fixed (thermal zone, OPP mask).
  • RK356x HDMI gains a 164.82MHz fractional PLL rate, and dw-hdmi-qp gains HDMI 2.0 scrambling for 4K@60.
  • rockchip64: runtime PM fixes backported to 6.18, SD UHS-I (SDR104) on ROCK Pi 4, and the NPU enabled on dshanpi-a1-cm5 with 7.3.
  • SpacemiT K1: a JPU driver fix removes a 3-minute boot stall, and module compilation is fixed.
  • Other fixes: both 1G Ethernet ports on hinlink-h68k, freezes under load on NanoPi NEO Plus2, USB-C DP-alt on Orange Pi Zero 3W, and a quieter fan on ayn-odin3.
  • uefi-x86: sound drivers restored on edge, the Goodix 27C6:01EA touchpad fixed, a larger GRUB menu font on HiDPI panels, and a clean splash from GRUB to the desktop.
  • Turris Omnia gets omnia-mcutool and the MCU firmware; Radxa Dragon Q8B installs EDK2 and updates the SPI NOR from armbian-install.

Security

  • CI now selects kernel CVE fixes per run, and a build extension applies armbian/cve kernel security fixes; KERNEL_CVE_PATCHES is documented.
  • Claude-assisted backports cover 4 CVEs on kernels 6.1 and 6.12.
  • A why tool reports whether a CVE is covered and, if not, the reason.

Desktops

  • Hyprland becomes a supported desktop with tiered package lists; on Debian forky and sid it is the Omarchy port (armbian-hyprland-shell), and a forky Hyprland image is added for uefi-x86.
  • Hyprland companion packages handle booting and restoring snapper snapshots, first boot on an encrypted root, and titlebars rebuilt for Hyprland 0.57.0.
  • KDE Plasma: branding now survives the first login, and System Settings, Discover and its update notifier are installed.
  • GNOME: Numix is the default icon theme, the dock includes Ptyxis, and the GDM login screen shows an Armbian wallpaper.
  • update-manager is installed on all desktops except Hyprland and KDE Plasma.
  • Desktops install without Recommends unless the YAML asks for them.
  • systemd-networkd-wait-online is disabled on NetworkManager systems, and profile-sync-daemon no longer starts for root.

Repository, installer and Imager

  • The repository update workflow now separates incoming, beta and stable flows, publishes from configuration files, waits for live CI uploads, and takes external packages from armbian/external.
  • Nightly builds are limited to Debian trixie and Ubuntu resolute minimal images.
  • armbian-install creates the btrfs root subvolume @, selects the SPI image by install target, keeps the UFS rootfs clear of u-boot.itb, and fixes SPI, SD and in-use disk handling on boards like the Turris Omnia.
  • Imager fixes flashing of images with a partial last sector on Windows and cleans up AppImage repacking.
  • mtd-utils joins the minimal CLI package list.
  • Documentation now covers flashing SpacemiT boards with TitanFlasher, and Open Collective is dropped from the funding file.

Summary by DistroNews, based on the original post.

This cycle is defined by the launch of the armbian/external packaging pipeline, broad kernel and U-Boot version bumps across platforms, and substantial desktop and repository infrastructure work. The new armbian/external repository establishes a dedicated build and mirror pipeline for third-party software, with tooling for dependency checks,

This is the summary Armbian Blog published with the story. The full text is on the original page.

Read the original at blog.armbian.com