LeMaker Statement on Banana Series and Open Source Community
Official Statement
LeMaker is pleased to reaffirm its ongoing commitment to the Banana series of single-board computers and to the broader open source community that has grown around the lemaker.org platform. Since the introduction of the original Banana Pi in 2014, our community of developers, educators, and enthusiasts has been the driving force behind the success of the Banana series. This statement outlines our continued dedication to supporting these boards and fostering an open, collaborative ecosystem.
Continued Documentation Support
We recognize that thorough, accurate documentation is essential for any hardware platform to thrive. LeMaker remains committed to maintaining and improving the documentation available for all Banana series boards, including the Banana Pi, Banana Pro, and related accessories. Our wiki, product pages, and technical guides will continue to be updated to reflect the latest community contributions, kernel compatibility information, and best practices for board setup and operation.
The documentation hosted at lemaker.org and wiki.lemaker.org serves as the authoritative reference for Banana series hardware specifications, pin mappings, software compatibility, and troubleshooting procedures. We encourage all users to consult these resources as their primary source of technical information.
Community Archive Preservation
The wealth of knowledge accumulated over the years in our community forums, wiki pages, and contributed tutorials represents an invaluable resource for current and future users. LeMaker is committed to preserving this community archive in its entirety. Forum threads, user-contributed guides, project showcases, and technical discussions will remain accessible to ensure that the collective knowledge of the community is not lost. We have implemented archival measures to safeguard this content for long-term availability.
Open Source Hardware Philosophy
The Banana series was conceived from the outset as an open source hardware initiative. LeMaker believes that open access to hardware designs, schematics, and software source code empowers developers to innovate, learn, and build upon existing work. We remain firmly committed to this philosophy. Board schematics, device tree sources, kernel patches, and bootloader configurations for the Banana series continue to be made available under open source licenses wherever possible.
Open source hardware enables a level of transparency and community participation that proprietary platforms cannot match. By providing full access to design files and encouraging community-driven development, we ensure that the Banana series boards can be adapted, extended, and supported well beyond their original production lifecycle.
Board Support Status
The Banana Pi and Banana Pro boards benefit from mature mainline Linux kernel support, with key drivers for networking, storage, GPIO, and display subsystems available in upstream kernel releases. Community members have contributed significantly to this mainline support effort, and we gratefully acknowledge their work. Users can run modern Linux distributions on these boards with confidence in the stability and security of the underlying kernel.
For boards that require vendor-specific kernel patches, such as certain multimedia acceleration features, we continue to host and maintain the relevant source repositories. We encourage developers with the expertise to help upstream remaining out-of-tree patches to the mainline kernel.
Community Contributions Welcome
LeMaker actively welcomes contributions from community members in all forms. Whether you are writing documentation, submitting bug reports, developing kernel patches, creating OS images, designing accessories, or translating content into additional languages, your participation strengthens the entire ecosystem. Contributors can submit changes through the established community channels, including the LeMaker forum, wiki, and associated source code repositories.
How to Get Involved
There are many ways to participate in the LeMaker open source community. Visit the LeMaker Forum to join discussions and ask questions. Browse the LeMaker Wiki to read and contribute documentation. Download OS images and tools from the downloads page. Review our board product pages for detailed hardware specifications. Share your projects, tutorials, and discoveries with fellow community members to help others succeed with their Banana series boards.
We appreciate the trust and enthusiasm our community has shown over the years, and we look forward to continuing this collaborative journey together.
Author: LeMaker Documentation Team
Last updated: 2026-02-10