Hi, I am looking for a SBC to self host stuff on. I would like it to be somewhat open hardware (manufacturer provides schematics and drivers are open source). Which is why I initially wanted to buy a banana-pi router but after reading a post in this /c/ I found that mainline linux support is fairly rare in these arm/riscv SBCs.

So I was hoping someone more knowledgeable would help me find some options. Here are my “wants”:

  • Low power drain
  • Open source hardware and software
  • Mainline linux support
  • 2 ethernet ports, at least 1Gb
  • at least 2GB RAM - could do with 1GB I suppose
  • a reasonable way to connect 2 SSDs and 2 HDDs - ie. 4 sata ports or one pcie port (not through USB)
  • EU seller. Not required but I hate dealing with import taxes and I like guarantees
  • Finally I need it to have “wake on power”, so that it can start automatically after power outage

The more I search the internet, the more it seems that this mythical computer does not exist but maybe someone knows more than me. Thanks for your replies.

Edit: I’m likely going to settle with the Visionfive 2 since it has official ubuntu support and I won’t have to rely on some hacky linux image provided by the manufacturer. It has 2 LAN ports and an M.2 NVME which I’m gonna split into 4 SATAs. Also 8GB RAM is plenty for the lightweight stuff I want to host, maybe even Nextcloud won’t be that painful.

Final note: I’m actually not sure how much is the Visionfive 2 open-source but it seems better than intel and AMD stuff so I’m willing to compromise since I actually want to buy something that exists. But anyone reading this in the future beware that I don’t know whether it’s really open source to the last logic gate. (likely not)

    • @shyguyblueEnglish
      35•1 year ago

      I can second the Zimaboard. I’ve got two HDDs hooked up to the SATA ports, and grabbed a cheap PCIE SATA daughter card for the SSDs.

      I also used a PC power supply to run 12v to the board, and i use the built in SATA power cables. Look up “how to use pc psu as power supply”, it’ll tell you how to get it running without a motherboard.

      Here’s my setup: PC case network setup

    • @TMP_NKcYUEoM7kXg4qYeOPEnglish
      1•1 year ago

      Thanks for your reply. Unfortunately I don’t think the Orange Pi 5 Plus is mainline Linux ready, or at least the RK3588 is not there yet so it seems to me that it’s more of a hacky board. I don’t think the Zimaboard is open source but it seems pretty good although I personally would buy a coreboot compatible small form factor PC if I went x86.