Support Armbian / generic 64-bit ARM SBCs (Orange Pi, Rock Pi, Banana Pi, …) #2849

Background

bin/install.sh is currently hard-coded to refuse anything other than Raspberry Pi 2/3/4-64/5 or x86. That's narrower than the actual capability of the stack — most of Anthias is distro- and SoC-agnostic Linux + Docker — but the device-detection step bails before the rest gets a chance.

Goal: add best-effort support for generic 64-bit ARM SBCs running Armbian (Orange Pi, Rock Pi, Banana Pi, etc.). "Best-effort" because hardware video decode varies per chipset; we'd ship a fallback that works everywhere, with hooks for per-SoC polish later.

Audit: where the Pi-isms actually live

What's not Pi-specific (works on Armbian as-is)

• Django/Celery/Redis stack, the REST API, the frontend, the install-time playbook flow, user/group setup.
• network role: NetworkManager + polkit, distro-version-aware but not Pi-specific.
• Viewer container is privileged: true, so /dev/dri/* passes through and Mesa DRM/KMS Just Works for any board with a mainline driver (Mali via panfrost/panthor, Lima, Etnaviv, Adreno).
• ALSA, systemd, cgroups, filesystem layout — identical on Armbian.

The one genuinely hard part: hardware video decode

The viewer relies on GStreamer + V4L2-M2M plugins for hardware-accelerated H.264/H.265. Plugins differ per chipset:

• Pi → rpivid (Pi kernel + firmware).
• Rockchip RK3568/3588 (Rock 5, Orange Pi 5) → rkmpp.
• Allwinner H6/H616 → cedrus (V4L2-M2M, mainline).
• Amlogic → meson-vdec.

Without the right plugin, the viewer falls back to software decode: fine at 720p, stutter-prone at 1080p, pegs CPU at 4K. A "generic-arm64" image works for low-res signage but isn't ideal as a daily-driver for video walls.

Tiered scope

Tier 1 — generic-arm64 ("it boots, software-decoded video"). ~1-2 days.

Single PR, contained changes:

• bin/install.sh::set_device_type — add a fallback branch: uname -m == aarch64 and no Pi-string match → DEVICE_TYPE=generic-arm64.
• ansible/site.yml:19 — add generic-arm64 to the validated set.
• ansible/roles/system/tasks/docker.yml — add generic-arm64: arm64 to docker_arch_by_device_type.
• bin/install.sh:292 — extend the --skip-tags raspberry-pi branch to also skip on generic-arm64.
• bin/upgrade_containers.sh:87 — extend the vchiq-strip regex from ^(x86\|pi5)$ to ^(x86\|pi5\|generic-arm64)$.
• tools/image_builder/__main__.py — add a generic-arm64 build target. Effectively a thinner pi5 variant (Qt 6, arm64, no libraspberrypi0, no Broadcom userland).
• CI matrix — publish ghcr.io/screenly/anthias-{server,viewer,redis}:latest-generic-arm64.
• README + install banner — say "and 64-bit ARM SBCs (best-effort, software video decode)".

After Tier 1, an Armbian user can bash <(curl -sL https://install-anthias.srly.io), the installer recognizes the board, the playbook runs, and the stack comes up. Video plays via software decode.

Tier 2 — per-SoC video decode. Weeks not days.

• Per-SoC viewer image variants with the right GStreamer plugins.
• Test matrix for the popular boards.
• Per-board image tags (rk3588, rk3568, allwinner-h6, …).

Tier 3 — first-class.

• Rolling Armbian builds in CI.
• Pi-Imager-style installer image with cloud-init.

Open question for Tier 1: pre-built image vs build-on-device

Two ways to ship the generic-arm64 viewer/server image:

• Publish in CI — same as the existing pi5/pi4-64 builds. Real cost: an extra arm64 build matrix entry, ~5-10 min per build, plus the GHCR storage. Best UX: install completes without waiting on a local build.
• Build on the device (MODE=build) — bin/upgrade_containers.sh already supports it. Slower install (~30-60 min on an Orange Pi 5 building the viewer), but zero ongoing CI cost until a board is popular enough to warrant it.

Decision is partly philosophy (do we commit CI bandwidth to "best-effort" before validating demand?) and partly practical (image_builder's QEMU-emulated arm64 build vs the GitHub Actions arm64 runner availability). Worth deciding before opening the PR.

Acceptance criteria for Tier 1

• A fresh bash <(curl -sL https://install-anthias.srly.io) install on an Armbian aarch64 board (Orange Pi 5 or similar) completes the playbook without Pi-specific tag failures.
• The Anthias web UI is reachable.
• An H.264 1080p test video plays end-to-end (software decode acceptable).
• Existing Pi installs (pi5/pi4-64/pi3/pi2) and x86 installs are unaffected — same image tags, same device-type detection, same playbook.