Image | Radxa Dragon Q6A

[webfinder42]

Creating an image request

I would really appreciate support for an official DietPi image for the Radxa Dragon Q6A. It would be very useful for lightweight and efficient deployments on this board.

Formal device information

• Device name | Radxa Dragon Q6A
• Official product URL | https://radxa.com/products/dragon/q6a
• GitHub resource URL (if available) | https://github.com/radxa-build/radxa-dragon-q6a/releases
• Image download URL | https://github.com/radxa-build/radxa-dragon-q6a/releases

Is the SBC officially supported by the Debian installer?

• not yet

If not, is a reliable 3rd party Debian image available for this SBC?

• armbian https://armbian.com/boards/radxa-dragon-q6a
• maybe for more help: https://github.com/radxa-repo

If not, are there install instructions for Debian available?

• https://dl.radxa.com/dragon/q6a/
• R2 Radxa OS image for Q6A is Ubuntu 24.04 :-/

[ben-auo]

FYI, I had better luck with the Armbian image: https://armbian.com/boards/radxa-dragon-q6a

I was able to get it to boot via SD card (although it bootloops once): https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1wGH98_PAxHXOL_lWbtNs79AjncicB7KI?usp=sharing

I then flashed to this NVME SSD drive: https://www.ebay.com/itm/325114877339 but it hangs after the initial bootloop and I had to force reboot via ctrl-alt-del but then it finally loaded to the DietPi login and I was able to complete the install.

Benchmarks completed:                                                                                                │ 
                │  - CPU performance : Duration = 1.61 seconds (lower is faster)                                                       │ 
                │  - CPU temps       : Idle = 31 °C | Full load = 48 °C                                                                │ 
                │  - RootFS I/O      : Write = 91 MiB/s | Read = 179 MiB/s                                                             │ 
                │  - RAM I/O         : Write = 2023 MiB/s | Read = 4317 MiB/s                                                          │ 
                │                                                                                                                      │ 
                │ Compare these results online with other users, using the link below:                                                 │ 
                │  - https://dietpi.com/survey#benchmark                                                                               │ 
                │                                        

[ben-auo]

Here's the benchmark with the official Radxa eMMC module:

Benchmarks completed:                                                                                                │ 
                │  - CPU performance : Duration = 1.62 seconds (lower is faster)                                                       │ 
                │  - CPU temps       : Idle = 31 °C | Full load = 47 °C                                                                │ 
                │  - RootFS I/O      : Write = 184 MiB/s | Read = 188 MiB/s                                                             │ 
                │  - RAM I/O         : Write = 2048 MiB/s | Read = 4561 MiB/s                                                          │ 
                │                                                                                                                      │ 
                │ Compare these results online with other users, using the link below:                                                 │ 
                │  - https://dietpi.com/survey#benchmark                                                                               │ 
                │     

[ben-auo]

The official Radxa UFS module was a pain to install but it was worth it for read-speed:

1. On another computer, install EDL Tools and SPI Boot Firmware
2. Flash the firmware
3. Download the minimal Armbian Debian Trixie UFS image
4. Extract the image into the /flat_build/spinor/dragon-q6a directory
5. Run sudo edl-ng --loader prog_firehose_ddr.elf --memory UFS write-sector 0 *.img
6. Run sudo edl-ng --loader prog_firehose_ddr.elf reset

Benchmarks completed:                                                                                                │ 
                │  - CPU performance : Duration = 1.62 seconds (lower is faster)                                                       │ 
                │  - CPU temps       : Idle = 30 °C | Full load = 47 °C                                                                │ 
                │  - RootFS I/O      : Write = 177 MiB/s | Read = 1472 MiB/s                                                             │ 
                │  - RAM I/O         : Write = 2051 MiB/s | Read = 4544 MiB/s                                                          │ 
                │                                                                                                                      │ 
                │ Compare these results online with other users, using the link below:                                                 │ 
                │  - https://dietpi.com/survey#benchmark                                                                               │ 
                │   

p.s. props to VennStone for the UFS help

p.p.s. the UFS read speed fluctuates quite a bit in my testing. hdparm -Tt /dev/sda results in 894.60 MB/sec read speed. fio --name=seq_read --ioengine=libaio --rw=read --bs=1M --direct=1 --numjobs=1 --iodepth=32 --size=1G --filename=/tmp/fio_test_file --runtime=60 --time_based --output-format=normal --group_reporting results in 4999 MiB/s read speed.

[ben-auo]

Last comparison using a nicer Kingston Gaming NVMe:

Benchmarks completed:                                                                                                │ 
                │  - CPU performance : Duration = 1.62 seconds (lower is faster)                                                       │ 
                │  - CPU temps       : Idle = 30 °C | Full load = 46 °C                                                                │ 
                │  - RootFS I/O      : Write = 549 MiB/s | Read = 607 MiB/s                                                             │ 
                │  - RAM I/O         : Write = 1962 MiB/s | Read = 4248 MiB/s                                                          │ 
                │                                                                                                                      │ 
                │ Compare these results online with other users, using the link below:                                                 │ 
                │  - https://dietpi.com/survey#benchmark                                                                               │ 
                │