This recommendation is from this review:

And Joshua Riek’s ubuntu-rockchip image for the Orange Pi 5 is the community’s standard recommendation for stability, mainline kernel and full hardware acceleration.

The latest version is:

ubuntu-24.10-preinstalled-desktop-arm64-orangepi-5.img.xz from 2024-10-22 23:45 1.7 GB

https://joshua-riek.github.io/ubuntu-rockchip-download/boards/orangepi-5.html

• On my HP EliteDesk 800 G3 Mini i use Kubuntu which works great on this device.
• Kubuntu is Ubuntu with the KDE desktop and many add-ons.
• Kubuntu has the Discover store pre-installed
• From there I can install Home Assistant on Kubuntu
• Home Assistant then can be started from the default browser

We think this configuration is a good starting point for an OS on the Orange Pi 5 for doing some tests for our projects.