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I am looking for a hardware that would be somewhat similar to the Turris Omnia but with full support for all the hardware components when running an upstream distro (e.g. OpenWRT/Debian/Ubuntu ...).

Here is the component list inspired by OpenWRT's device page (linked above):

  • dual-core CPU (Marvell Armada 385) or better
  • 2 GB RAM
  • 8 GB flash
  • 6 Gbit ports (or more)
  • SFP connector (optional, but nice to have)
  • 2x USB 3.0 (or better and/or more)
  • 2 mini PCIe slots with 2.4GHz and 5Ghz Wi-Fi cards (the slots are more important to have than the cards)
  • 1 mini PCie together with mSATA interface

For the sake of this question I'd count OpenWRT, Debian or even Ubuntu as upstream distros (so naturally Arch, Gentoo etc would also qualify). It'd be acceptable for me if the kernel and device tree (i.e. "boot files") were specific to the device, but I don't want some kind of forked distro (TurrisOS is an OpenWRT fork that's always lagging behind, Mikrotik RouterOS is half-proprietary it seems) or something bare bones (e.g. Buildroot-based like in the Asus RT-N66U) where updates don't come in packages (but as a single image to be flashed).

Armbian is a nice example of what I am looking for. An upstream distro, combined with device-specific files required to boot and all nicely packaged up.

Currently neither Debian nor OpenWRT fully support all the hardware components.

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  • What about OpenEmbedded/Yocto Project? If you have device trees then you can whip up a custom OS for almost anything ARM in a matter of days. With upstream package support. There's even a (commercial) CVE scanner which can be tied into it. – Jan Dorniak Jan 26 '20 at 16:03
  • Also, what do you mean by your last point "mPCIe with mSATA" do you mean two interfaces? Or did you mean m.2? Also, mPCIe is a thing of the past mostly. – Jan Dorniak Jan 26 '20 at 16:09
  • Not an answer since it does not fulfill all requirements, but have a look at nxp.com/design/qoriq-developer-resources/… - I'm almost sure it has full Yocto support. – Jan Dorniak Jan 26 '20 at 16:11
  • @JanDorniak I mSATA and mPCIe are different things, not any mPCIe slot will work with mSATA although the form factor (m.2) usually matches. So just that: a slot that will work for an mPCIe card or an mSATA disk. Yeah, Yocto/Poky is nice, it's also way higher maintenance to roll your own (even with the ability to use packaging) than use an upstream distro. Thanks for your input. That NXP board is somewhat similar to another NXP hardware we use at work (with Yocto, btw). – 0xC0000022L Jan 26 '20 at 19:47
  • m.2 has different keys. Although the specs are usually violated in PC motherboards (no standard survives the commercial market) but the keys should tell you what you can and cannot connect. In theory it only fits if it will work. In the price ranges we are looking at you might as well build a PC. – Jan Dorniak Jan 26 '20 at 20:00

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