Armbian
Armbian is a lightweight Linux distribution for ARM motherboards, known for its stability, high performance, and excellent hardware support. It provides Debian and Ubuntu-based systems optimized for various ARM single-board computers.
The Radxa Dragon Q8B is based on the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8cx Gen 3 (Qualcomm SC8280XP) compute platform and supports running Armbian.
System Image Downloads
Armbian provides multiple system images for the Radxa Dragon Q8B, offering two kernel lines: vendor 7.0.11 (stable) and edge 7.1.8 (rolling):
Stable Release Images
Official Armbian images that are hand-selected and well-tested (Stable):
- Armbian 26.8.1 - Ubuntu 26.04 (Gnome Desktop): Based on the vendor 7.0.11 kernel, full desktop environment for daily use
- Armbian 26.8.1 - Debian 13 (Minimal): Based on the vendor 7.0.11 kernel, lightweight system for IoT applications
Other Images
In addition to the stable releases, Armbian also provides:
- Desktop: Ubuntu 26.04 with Cinnamon / Gnome / KDE Plasma desktop environments
- Minimal: Ubuntu 26.04 / Debian 13 minimal systems (including versions supporting UFS storage)
- Dedicated applications: Kali Linux, Home Assistant, OpenMediaVault, and more
- It is recommended to use Armbian Imager to download and flash images.
- Rolling releases (edge kernel) are only suitable for experienced Linux users and not recommended for production environments.
Download: Armbian Radxa Dragon Q8B Download Page
Flashing the System
The Armbian images are flashed in the same way as Radxa OS. Please refer to the following pages:
First Boot Configuration
On first boot, the system will guide you through basic configuration:
- Set root password
- Create a regular user account
- Confirm language settings
- (Optional) Transfer system to internal storage
You can also use the armbian-config tool for system configuration, including:
- Network settings (static/dynamic IP, hotspot)
- Change login shell (ZSH)
- Enable SSH two-factor authentication
- Install common software
- System optimization, etc.