The Armbian community informed 9to5Linux.com today about the release of Armbian 24.8 (codename Yelt), the latest stable iteration of the Debian and Ubuntu-based distribution designed for ARM devices.
Released three months following Armbian 24.5, the new update brings improved stability to RK3588 hardware with recent bootloader enhancements, better graphic rendering with 4K60p video acceleration across KDE Plasma and GNOME offerings, and comprehensive support for the BigTreeTech CB1 IO board useful in 3D printing ventures.
This release broadens support for various new ARM boards such as the Libre Alta and Solitude, Radxa E25, Rock 5C, RISCV64, and Banana Pi F3. It also launches 3D acceleration capabilities in Debian-based Armbian builds, expands support for the ThinkPad X13s and
Armbian 24.8 also rolls out support for the new Linux 6.10 kernel which brings enhanced performance, security updates, and extensive hardware compatibility, along with ZFS support. Additionally, this version marks the launch of long-term support (LTS) for devices such as Odroid C1, NanoPi NEO, Banana Pi BPI-M1, ClearFog, Helios64, and TinkerBoard.
There is also good news for those who want to use Armbian with a more rich desktop environment, such as GNOME or KDE Plasma. Starting with this release, there are now official builds pre-installed with GNOME, Xfce, Cinnamon, and KDE Plasma (from KDE neon) desktop environments.
The Armbian development team also took time to do significant code cleanup ensuring a leaner and more efficient codebase. Older devices have been deprecated as well as Armbian moves to mainline-only support for many devices.
“Our focus remains on boards with platinum support, where vendors assist us in mitigating costs, ensuring top-tier support and contributing to open-source efforts. If you’re looking for the best-supported boards, we highly recommend selecting from this category,” said the Armbian Team.
Last but not least, experimental support for Ubuntu 24.04 LTS (Noble Numbat) is also here as it’s entering its final testing phase as a host-supported build target. Check out the detailed changelog for more details about the changes included in Armbian 24.8, which you can download for your device from the official website.
Image credits: Armbian (edited by Marius Nestor)