Odroid H2+ - what distro/config works?

I know there are a number of folks with H2's (and H3/H4's) that work with LCNC, but mine has been a nightmare.

So far, the only distro that seems to work seamlessly is Deb 13.  Every other combo I've tried (over the past two years) has problems of some kind.

MX21/MX23, Mint, Deb 11/12, LCNC Isos, net and full installs of same, everything winds up with some problem.

Ethernet NIC not recognized at all, unable to install R8125 drivers properly, wifi dongles not recognized.  Tried plenty of RT kernels, followed Rod's installation guide, etc.  

I've lost count how many times I've installed some variation of linux and gone through the headache of configuring all the insane/dumb settings just to have a working system... only to hit a roadblock 95% through the process.  Spend a couple hours each time only to get a horrible ping time or some other crippling error.

Unfortunately, Deb 13 has recently started shipping with python3.12... and I'm trying to use Probe Basic.  Which now fails due to 'imp' module being discontinued in python3.12.  forum.linuxcnc.org/qtpyvcp/53790-probe-b...-installation#309684

And I've no clue if I can switch python3.11 for 3.12 - or if that's even possible.

I was about to run out and buy a RPi5 tonight, and then I - thankfully - found out the VTK backplot isn't compatible with RPi.

I've got a working HP 800 G2, but it's too big to fit in my enclosure without a month of modifications.  And I'm not just going to buy an H3 in the hopes it works 'cause it's one higher.

Before I take a chainsaw to my control panel, if there's anyone running an H2+ can you please post up:

• Distro and version, and where you pulled it
• LCNC version and where/how you installed it
• Any other system mods/updates you did (nic driver), and how to accomplish same in detail

As an alternative, if you have a recommendation for a PC with the same or smaller footprint (110mm) that you know works without issue, please let me know.

At this point, money is not an issue... time and frustration-avoidance are the priority.

Thanks in advance.

I have a H2+ and its been running happilly with Debian 10 for  a long time. NIC support was added in kernel 5.9 and  Debian 10 came with kernel 5.10 which was fine. Wifi is always problematic and I  heve built  the driver for a number of Wifi dongles. It can take a bit of Sleuthing to find what WiFI chip your dongle uses, then some googling to find some source code to  compile.

Before Deb 10, you had to download the source from Realtek for the NIC. I have done that too.
Today with Debian 12  the R8125-dkms driver should fix any issues as it is being built from source too. But I have not tried it.
So in summary, I think I would try Debian 12, install the DKMS driver and apply the cpu affinity script I mention in my help file  which is on this forum and be prepared to build a Wifi driver. However I have yet to need to build a wifi driver on Debian 12.

VTK is now supported in the debian packages and one of the QTPYVCP devs I know has got it going recently on a Pi5 with the image on the downloads page (Use Balena Etcher to burn it)

 

Thanks Rod.

When I first tried using this H2+ LCNC was in the middle of the python2/3 fiasco and I was struggling between Deb 10/11 and the r8125 drivers.

I'll try Deb 12 again, although I've tried it about a dozen times in the past 4 days.

spumco wrote:

Thanks Rod.

When I first tried using this H2+ LCNC was in the middle of the python2/3 fiasco and I was struggling between Deb 10/11 and the r8125 drivers.
 

Me too and why I fled Debian 10 in favour of building from source on Bullseye. I had to build the wifi driver. Now that PC points to Seb's buildbot. It uses ethercat so not so sensitive to network latency. HArdkernel say building the NIC driver gives a lot better performance. I may have done that.

rodw wrote:

VTK is now supported in the debian packages and one of the QTPYVCP devs I know has got it going recently on a Pi5 with the image on the downloads page (Use Balena Etcher to burn it)


 

Rod -

Any idea how they got PB going on the Pi5?  I'm unable to use any of the apt/.deb/Dev install methods.  Keep getting an error about libc-bin needs to be reinstalled, but can't find an archive.

 

Nevermind - got it sorted.  Just reloaded with Balena and everything worked peachy.

Getting latency errors with PB, but not with any other sim.  Odd, but I'll open a new thread on that.