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Which version of a distro to install?
(suppo.fi)
Hi Linux- how important is it to install, say Debian, the version that is specifically made for your hardware? For example, if I have a Rock64 SBC, do I have to install Debian-rock64.img or can I just go with Debian-arm64.img? Will I lose performance/features if using generic arm64 image, or conversely, will I gain performance/features if using the image made for my specific SBC? Is the generic image even compatible with all hardwares?
Thank you.
This link here was on the Pine64's Rock64 software wiki page
https://deb.debian.org/debian/dists/bullseye/main/installer-arm64/current/images/netboot/SD-card-images/README.concatenateable_images
It seems like it comes down to better firmware support out of the box.
Thank you! So if it's about firmware, then using a generic image might lead to critical components not working, or the entire system not working, right? I'm wondering about the general concept.
Yes, that's why you should either use manufacturer images or Armbian (https://lemmy.world/comment/4609514). Generic images might also underperform in your board, the GPIO and other low level components will, most likely, not work and you might burn your storage as logging and other I/O intensive operations aren't tweaked for SD/eMMC.
I don't know enough to say. I've used the wrong images in the past and I want to say I had some issues with things like display brightness controls and minor things. I think it still ran fine