So i open this thread to get more information about the plans for the future of Manjaro ARM Unstable. To be more specific, i remember reading in some previous correspondence that the “unstable” version of Manjaro ARM was the only one that is actively being maintained. So i guess this involves all Manjaro ARM releases out there. I might not be very much informed about the whole thing other than being a user of this as my main OS for the last year or so. So bear with me here.
The thing is, we have been getting very frequent updates (syncing with arch arm repos but also specific firmware updates) up until a month ago which i assume marks the start of unfortunate events for our beloved @Darksky. I did not know up until then that he was pretty much the only guy who maintains this for us (i am on a RPI5 but i think his absence has affected all the unstable releases of ARM).
Maybe there is nothing of concern, maybe it is normal for an OS not taking package updates frequently (considering the stable releases are rarely updated) but because we kind of got used to it, we are worried that the project might get abandoned (if darksky does not return for example).
The same question has been asked in other threads but did not really get an answer. So yeah, here is a new thread for it.
PS: All the best wishes and prayers for our @Darksky to get back to his full health in a jiffy.
are there any efforts to get someone back into dan’s position or is his conclusion correct and we should look for a different distro for our arm-devices?
What device are you on? Depending on the device, you might have options, or not.
I am on Pi5. In terms of “rolling” releases, Pi5 is out of luck. I could get “arch arm” to work. I could also install KDE Plasma on top of it. But it required a lot of work on my part. And the “result” was not even half complete. Still requires a lot of time and effort to look and work as “half polished” as Manjaro, which i am not inclined to spare.
Manjaro ARM was really great on the Pi. I mean it still is, i am writing this from Manjaro right now. @Darksky did a great job on it. But he has to retire at some point Can’t blame the guy.
I just tried this. It is actually quite nice. It asks you questions very similar to stable distro installers. However, the restult is not good. I selected KDE Plasma full as desktop environment, it downloaded and installed everything (quite cool), but the desktop does not come up after a reboot. SDDM is running and all. I can swap ttys and i can go to the command line. I am pretty sure the solution is very simple but it will probably take hours of google searches and this is just the start of it. I dont want to deal with this anymore. I am getting older too
I remember endevour abandoning the arm branch like some time last year? Did they reactivate it? Maybe a new maintainer took over. I need to look.
Edit: The images in github are from last year. Probably still abandoned.
ARMbian KDE Neon is pretty much the same with a lite RPIOS with Kde Plasma. Old packages and all.
Strange, I didn’t have a problem when I downloaded it a few hours ago.
Just out of interest, I have tried running glmark2 (a GPU test program) on several RPI5 KDE implementations.
Manjaro KDE and RPI OS + KDE both gave values of just over 300 (its a composite value - no particular units).
Armbian KDE Neon gives values of around 600, and EndeavourOS gave a value of just under 700.
(Higher values are better)
Update: Note that the Manjaro result was for X11. For Wayland, it’s 650, which is good.
Unfortunately, I can’t use Wayland on Manjaro because I use 2 screens and the system sometimes freezes when the cursor passes between the screens. I haven’t been able to fix this.
Operating System: EndeavourOS
KDE Plasma Version: 6.4.5
KDE Frameworks Version: 6.18.0
Qt Version: 6.9.2
Kernel Version: 6.12.47-1-rpi-16k (64-bit)
Graphics Platform: Wayland
Processors: 4 × ARM Cortex-A76
Memory: 3.9 GiB of usable RAM
Graphics Processor 1: V3D 7.1.7.0
Graphics Processor 2: V3D 7.1.7.0
Product Name: Raspberry Pi 5 Model B Rev 1.0
Yes, it works. It is almost the same as Manjaro ARM so i guess we found the perfect alternative. I will slowly migrate to this now. Thanks @JonG for letting us know that this project was somehow revived. I thought it was dead.
Yeah i am on Endevour now. To me, almost nothing has changed. The only difference “hopefuly” is that this one will continue to be maintained. Anybody who will follow me, i’ll see you at their forum.
Good luck to everyone. Manjaro ARM was great. If somebody takes over the maintenance task, i might come back. Specifically thanks to @tartanpion and @Darksky.
Mod note:- Marked the post by @JonG as the solution on your behalf, as their comment ultimately led to your resolution.
not much to chose from on radxa rock4b. still with the state manjaro is in i suppose i’ll give armbian a shot. hope manjaro arm will get revived someday. thanks to everyone who made it possible thus far. it was honestly amazing having an arch-based distro so easily available on an sbc at all and it being, for the most part, such a smooth experience. thanks
Can’t blame the guy.