as there is no new images or mainstream installs … is VF2 dead ?
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VF2 To live。
Armbian Linux (2024.8.29)
Fedora 40
OpenSUSE for VisionFive 2 (2024.8.23)
ubuntu24.04 for VisionFive 2
Rumor has it that there will be debian-2409 this month
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A lot is now in mainline kernel. Distribution are making there own images with own kernels.
Here an example: https://youtu.be/OxbkgMJXKOk
only the GPU drivers are really missing. (and Camara and display)
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upstream’s kernel is still missing some patchs. 
JH7110 Upstream Status | RVspace
And… Yes… GPU is missing driver…
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I use mine daily. I haven’t upgraded since it was new early this year. It works well. I have able to compile and use the TADS 3 Interactive Fiction development system, something I have yet to do on any version of Raspberry Pi 5. I see no need to upgrade at this point.
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My board runs Home Assistent, mqtt and Influxdb 24/7. I’m running Gentoo Linux and updating the packages daily. But stuck with kernel 6.6.20. I doubt if there will be a newer patched kernel someday.
So my board is fully allive 
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I’m running Ubuntu 24.04 on mine and it’s running 6.8 kernel. Boots directly from m.2
RC
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v6.11 is out today and none of the missing patches were included.
What I don’t understand is that some patches seemed “pretty simple” and the author requested for some review but couldn’t push it to mainline in 6 months.
Today the 2 weeks 6.12 merge window starts… let’s hope!
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I’m not sure why they’re running such an old kernel. I’m running 6.8.0-44 on my Ubuntu 24.04 machine. Works awesome!
RC
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I’m grateful to discover fedora 40 images and tweak them to point to early release f41 package repos, but as you know everybody is waiting for completed gpu drivers to arrive within mainline.
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According this page https://www.phoronix.com/news/Linux-6.12-RISC-V there will improvements for RISC-V architecture in the upcoming Linux kernel (6.12) but not what we were expecting. 
What a pity because the 6.12 kernel will be the 2024 LTS one which means that many distributions will use it to create their release this year. See you next year… We missed the boat.
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I has been my experience with android/linux arm/aarch64 sbc boards, the moment you buy it, you choose to use a frozen version to get a gui, or you choose a mainline version where you get no gui or no-gpu-support/less-capable gui. In fact I bought 3 different tv boxes and 3 different arm tablets and the arm manufacturer updates were notoriously non-existent. SO you get what you get.
I was hoping the VisionFive 2 ecosystem would be different. I bought this board 2 years ago and the support for the gpu within the VF2 SOC is still not where I thought it was going to be.
On the positive side, the VF2 does boot off of the nvme, but there aren’t a comparable number of pcie lanes to what is offered on x86_64. The pcie version being used on the board is not comparable to the pcie version used on x86_64 either. Pi SBC’s have been generations behind when it comes to pcie versions as well, but that’s where all the performance truly resides. When I am compiling/linking with rust on the VF2, the vf2 compile durations are reaching comparable duration times. BUT when VF2 linking duration CRAWLS compared to the x86_64. I must admit rust cargo does complete the compile of the modules successfully, and it does complete the link successfuly and the output binary does run and behave correctly. We need to have extreme patience to use these boards. I think this VF2 will find use somewhere, but in the use-case I was hoping for which is to possibly replace my laptop or my tv box or to become an NAS at home, I’m sorry to say it doesn’t satisfy my requirements. I was hopeful it would, but as is and with what is available for it now, NO it does not satisfy my requirement. I am hopeful for more capable server-class hardware to come out that is riscv64-based.
Concerning future Starfive products, I will buy Starfive products only when all their device drivers have been reported to be pushed and fully supported directly from mainline linux repositories. I hope the Starfive team are listening.
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It you look at the Visionfive 2 Github repo you will see activity
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That’s the point!
I can agree with that if it’s a closed device. But here, the product is sold as an open source one. And they are providing a dashboard to follow improvements (= merging their code to mainline)
I also do. But my concern is that they may not have enough resource to achieve their goal:
If you want to emerge from anonymity and become an option like the others, you have to know and follow the rules.
The rules are clear: your code has to be in the Linux kernel so that anyone can use it, and not just on a repo that you maintain on your own. The kernel is regularly updated but most known distributions stick to LTS versions to make maintenance easier. We know that the kernel coming out just before the end of the year is promoted to LTS. This year there’s a good chance that it will be 6.12.
It’s based on 6.6 and today, kernel 6.12 merge window closes…
The only hope that I can see is that another vendor will use this chip: Framework | Introducing a new RISC-V Mainboard from DeepComputing
They may well strengthen the development team.
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For the GPU folks need to reach out to Frank Binns and his team to get it completed.
Imagination Technologies has been very slow to release the OpenSource Code for the GPU in the VisionFive2. They seem to be releasing it for Other devices rather that the one we need.
Perhaps if more folks were to contact them and ask for it they may re look at its Priority as they need to provide the kernel updates for it as well.
I have created an Issue here Request for Full Linux support for the PowerVR B-Series BXE-4-32 used by the VisionFive 2 (#3) · Issues · imagination / linux-firmware · GitLab
Please feel free to add your voices to it as well.
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One day late… but rumour was right 
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Not a day late， 
According to Shanghai time in China。
So it’s debian2409, not debian2410 
Starfive has been working hard。 
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And the now have a StarFive Debian official archive so you can update without breaking things.
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You can follow this doc to install a debian as your own:
https://rvspace.org/en/project/Building_StarFive_Debian_Image
But the problem is there is no opensource driver for GPU.
The closesource driver is not fully compatible any version of debian’s packages.
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