Radxa Rock 5 board advice?

Ask Fedora
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1

I’m thinking of getting a Radxa Rock 5 ITX+ or similar https://vi.aliexpress.com/item/1005008131571862.html?gatewayAdapt=glo2vnm

Does anyone here use one with Fedora or have any recommendations?

I have a RockPro64 and swore I’d never buy another one (due to difficulty of installation), but now I’m travelling and need another Fedora system that is portable.

3

I sympathize, I have also had the urge to try another bigger/more powerful SBC for some time. The thing is, they don’t support UEFI and you need a device tree for the board that tells the kernel how to configure the HW (which you probably already know as you mentioned the difficulty of installation).

Because of this friction and because the SBC needs additional parts like a case, a fan, and a PSU, I think a mini PC is a less painful alternative. Something like a Minisforum UM870 Slim.

4

That is a very nicely up-to-date mini PC.
I’ll put it on the list.

There is a bootloader for the Radxa in a Github - so I can get it to work … with some effort … also the Roobi OS device loader?? I’m not entirely sure how that works.

5

They have even newer ones, but the price goes up faster than performance does, IMO.

That’s the main question, I guess: how much time and effort do you want to invest? Is it a hobby project or a system that needs to work reliably?

There appears to also be a UEFI implementation for RK3588 boards, based on the EDK2 code. But it’s all a bit too hacky for my taste if you need something reliable.