Continuing my #JavaOnSingleBoardComputers with a new #JavaOnRiscV test! The #StarFive #VisionFive 2 Lite is a 60€ board with 4Gb RAM and a 4-core #RISCV processor, and ... it runs #Java of course ;-)
More info in the blog:
https://webtechie.be/post/2026-01-16-first-test-visionfive-java/
The video is available on YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=70FYg1YzFfM
RISC-V can already be used in an every day scenario - but it highly depends and needs some special love.
If you're interested, I used VF2 boards in production.
* https://gyptazy.com/starfive-visionfive2-the-perfect-risc-v-board-for-ubuntu-review/
* https://gyptazy.com/running-a-risc-v-based-production-tor-relay-node-for-the-onion-network-with-the-visionfive2-board/
The VisionFive2 board, built on the innovative RISC-V hardware architecture, has found a powerful ally in Ubuntu. The exceptional support that Ubuntu provides for VisionFive2, offering the latest packages for RISC-V architecture, even in current releases down to 24.04 is mind blowing. This stands in stark contrast to other operating systems like Debian and FreeBSD,
It's alive!!!
#HardenedBSD booting to multiuser on the #VisionFive #StarFive2 #riscv64 SBC.
Okay, so I figured it out. Several things changed without documentation, and there are undocumented assumptions:
- the newer Ubuntu images for the #StarFive #VisionFive 2 are more automated than they used to be. More of the EFI stuff is fully automated, and used more sophisticated parts of the EFI partition format than u-boot's filesystem commands know about (but the boot commands still read correctly)
- the SD card loader assumes you have no eMMC. (!) I still had eMMC with FreeBSD installed on it, so for a bit the Ubuntu loader was booting FreeBSD from eMMC, *because the Ubuntu u-boot assumes it is on the first valid mmc device*. But the first valid mmc device is the eMMC if it's installed.
And now that I sorted that out, I need to set it aside for the night because I sorted this out in bed and the wifi config tools aren't in the server image so I need a hard-line tomorrow 🙃