LicheePi 4A
T-Head TH1520: 4×C910 @1.85GHz + C906 + E902, 4TOPS NPU
On sale
Sipeed
- Specs
- 4/8/16GB LPDDR4X, 8/32/128GB eMMC, 2× GbE, WiFi5/BT5, HDMI 2.0 + 4-lane MIPI DSI, 2× MIPI CSI, 4× USB3, 40-pin GPIO.
- Price
- About US$120 for 8GB and US$180 for 16GB (reseller quotes, unverified)
- Preinstalled / official OS
- revyos
- Doc languages
- en / zh
- Checked
- 2026-11-01
The best-documented TH1520 board with the largest community; the RevyOS desktop works, but closed-source GPU/NPU support is the weak spot. Community derivatives such as openwrt exist too (not listed as standard distro ids).
Distros
- RevyOS Official The vendor's recommended system; newest image 20251226 (Debian-based + kernel 6.6)
- Debian Partial Mainline Debian 13 boots on the LPi4A, but you need your own U-Boot/DTB — there is no official installer image
- Ubuntu Partial Only an ubuntu-base rootfs; set up the kernel and bootloader yourself
- Fedora Community Fedora-V Force provides TH1520 images
- Arch Linux RISC-V Community archriscv supports TH1520
- Armbian Community Armbian officially supports LicheePi 4A
- Gentoo Community The Gentoo wiki has a dedicated TH1520 page
- NixOS Community Community repo nixos-licheepi4a (reusing the RevyOS kernel/U-Boot)
- openEuler Community The openEuler RISC-V SIG provides images
- openKylin Community Community openKylin image
- deepin Community deepin RISC-V port
- Buildroot Partial RevyOS builds boot/rootfs with Buildroot
Download
RevyOS LicheePi 4A image (20251226)RevyOS flashing overview (including the U-Boot env reset)Sipeed Wiki image collection (English)Sipeed Wiki image collection (Chinese, the most complete)Sipeed download share (specs/schematics/tools)Armbian LicheePi 4ANixOS on LicheePi 4A (community)Fedora RISC-V builder (chainsx)Gentoo TH1520 deployment guidedeepin RISC-V imageopenKylin LPi4A image (community)
Docs and videos
Pitfalls
- The GPU is an Imagination BXM-4-64 with a vendor closed-source blob only, so there is no GPU acceleration under mainline; the NPU needs the T-Head-specific SDK
- 16GB boards shipped before 2023.8.1 have a U-Boot memory-detection bug; flash the 16G-specific u-boot or memory-hungry apps crash
- To flash, hold BOOT while powering on to enter fastboot (USB 2345:7654); a normal power-up won't enter download mode
- Upgrading from RevyOS <= 20240720 requires `env default -a -f; env save` to reset the U-Boot environment first
- The 8GB and 16GB versions use different device trees in boot.ext4; mixing them means no boot
- Since 2026-09 RevyOS has been pushing new coreboot+EDK2 firmware (replacing U-Boot SPL); it is experimental — confirm your board variant before flashing
RuyiSDK test reports12
Systems RuyiSDK actually tested on this board. Open a report for install steps and the verdict.
| Distros | Status | Versions | Last tested | Report |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Arch Linux RISC-V | ● Good | — | 2025-01-14 | Open report |
| Armbian | ◐ Basic | 23.09.15 | 2024-03-04 | Open report |
| deepin | ● Good | 25-beige-preview | 2025-01-24 | Open report |
| Fedora | ● Good | 42(fvf) | 2025-08-13 | Open report |
| irradium（not covered here） | ● Good | 3.8 | 2025-06-16 | Open report |
| NixOS | ◐ Basic | 23.05 | 2025-03-04 | Open report |
| openEuler | ● Good | 24.03-sp2(LTS) · 25.03(Innovation) | 2025-07-30 | Open report |
| openKylin | ● Good | v2.0-SP2 | 2025-09-19 | Open report |
| OpenWrt（not covered here） | ◐ Basic | — | 2024-06-21 | Open report |
| RevyOS | ● Good | 20251226 | 2026-03-17 | Open report |
| Slackware | ● Good | 15 | 2025-07-11 | Open report |
| Tizen（not covered here） | ◐ Basic | — | 2025-09-20 | Open report |
Status meanings: good — fully usable (desktop boots); basic — basic system (serial console works); part — partial functionality; cft — image exists, needs verification; cfh — documented as supported but fails to boot; cfi — claimed supported, no image; wip — announced only.
Sources17
- mirror.iscas.ac.cn/revyos/extra/images/lpi4a/20251226/
- docs.revyos.dev/en/docs/Installation/intro/
- wiki.sipeed.com/hardware/en/lichee/th1520/lpi4a/3_images.html
- wiki.sipeed.com/hardware/zh/lichee/th1520/lpi4a/3_images.html
- dl.sipeed.com/shareURL/LICHEE/licheepi4a
- armbian.com/licheepi-4a/
- github.com/ryan4yin/nixos-licheepi4a
- github.com/chainsx/fedora-riscv-builder
- wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/User:Dlan/RISC-V/TH1520
- deepin-community.github.io/sig-deepin-ports/images/riscv64
- matrix.ruyisdk.org/reports/LicheePi4A/ArchLinux/README/
- matrix.ruyisdk.org/reports/LicheePi4A/Armbian/README/
- matrix.ruyisdk.org/reports/LicheePi4A/Deepin/README/
- matrix.ruyisdk.org/reports/LicheePi4A/Fedora/README/
- matrix.ruyisdk.org/reports/LicheePi4A/irradium/README/
- matrix.ruyisdk.org/reports/LicheePi4A/NixOS/README/
- matrix.ruyisdk.org/
The full source list and how each claim is judged: Sources