RISC-V Distros

BeagleV-Ahead

T-Head TH1520: 4×C910 @1.85GHz, 4TOPS NPU, BXM-4-64 GPU On sale BeagleBoard.org
Specs
4GB LPDDR4, 16GB onboard eMMC, WiFi5/BT5 (AP6203BM), GbE, microHDMI, microSD, 2× CSI + 1× DSI, mikroBUS, BeagleBone Black cape headers.
Price
Launched around US$150 (BeagleBoard forum); resellers now ask about US$160–190 (unverified)
Preinstalled / official OS
ubuntu / yocto
Doc languages
en
Checked
2026-11-01

Good build quality and a strong cape ecosystem, but the worst software of the three TH1520 boards: the official image has not been updated in three years, so it is only good for collecting or teaching.

Distros

  • Ubuntu Official The only official Linux desktop image, xuantie-ubuntu-23.04-20230705 (Ubuntu 23.04 is EOL)
  • Yocto / OpenEmbedded Official Official Yocto production image 2023-06-10, preinstalled at the factory
  • RevyOS Community RevyOS's beagle directory stops at 20231210 with no updates since
  • Fedora Community Fedora-V Force provides BeagleV-Ahead images
  • Debian Partial Mainline Debian has no official installer support; build the rootfs yourself

Download

BeagleBoard image site (all board models)Official Ubuntu 23.04 (2023-07-05)Official Yocto (2023-06-10, factory image)RevyOS BeagleV-Ahead image (20231210)XuanTie Ubuntu source repo (2023-07-05 release)Fedora-V Force RISC-V mirrorHardware design and issue tracker

Docs and videos

Pitfalls

  • Official images stopped in 2023 (Ubuntu 23.04 / Yocto 2023-06); Ubuntu 23.04 is long EOL and its apt repos are mostly dead
  • RevyOS's beagle image also stops at 20231210, which leaves no continuously maintained distro
  • Flashing eMMC needs USB-C fastboot plus artifacts from the XuanTie toolchain; booting from SD is far simpler
  • Only 4GB RAM, which is tight for a desktop; microHDMI needs an adapter
  • WiFi is an AP6203BM needing its own firmware blob, with incomplete mainline support
  • The cape headers are 3.3V logic — a 5V cape will fry them

Sources10

The full source list and how each claim is judged: Sources