Mele: installing -dev packages

I posted recently about getting Ubuntu Lucid Lynx running on my Mele A1000 ARM box:
http://bkhome.org/archive/blog2/201204/running-lucid-ubuntu-on-mele-a1000.html

I haven't got Internet access from it yet, and it needed a heap of '-dev' packages to turn it into a compile environment. So I had to chase up all the DEBs and dependencies manually and download them on my laptop, then transfer them over to the Mele and install them. Which took a few hours, well, more than a few.

Ubuntu no longer have the ARM DEBs for Ubuntu Lucid Lynx in the official repos, but I found them here:
https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/lucid/armel/

If you know a package name, you can append it to the URL, for example:
https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/lucid/armel/libxrender-dev

Time to sleep. In the morning I plan to compile some apps.

Ha ha, today I bought a USB keyboard. This one appeals to the child in me! Actually, it is practical, as I need it to fit into a small space. It is a Migear Junior keyboard:

Price was AU$14.95 from Dick Smith:
http://dicksmith.com.au/product/JT3004/migear-junior-learning-qwerty-compact-keyboard

The keyboard has nice big letters, very easy to see. It is a delicate construction though -- the Mele is sometimes a bit slow to respond when I hit a key (running Lucid with Gnome2!) and when I first started to use the keyboard, I thumped a key a bit too hard (thinking that it hadn't worked) and it stopped working entirely -- however I pried the key-cap off and examined underneath -- there is a delicate little rubber mechanism, which must have got squashed. I put it together again and the key works. I find that typing lightly on the keys is the best, which is ok by me -- I have been using it for a few+ hours and like the feel of it.

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Comments

Doudou


Improve responsiveness
Username: Steev
"I've been running Ubuntu on my A10 tablet for a couple of days and found that changing the CPU frequency governor to "fantasy" greatly improves responsiveness. echo fantasy > /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu0/cpufreq/scaling_governor The difference should be noticeable immediately. Fantasy seems to be similar to ondemand except it ups the frequency much faster.

Lucid is armv7 +sfp
Username: BarryK
"I compiled some utilities statically using Rob Landley's uClibc armv6 Aboriginal root filesystem. This is running in the Mele, so is not a cross-compile. However, I have just discovered that Lucid Ubuntu ARM is armv7 +thumb2 +sfp (soft floating point). Karmic Ubuntu was the last that targeted armv6. I have just compiled ROX-Filer in the Mele, but it does so without any CPU-tuning parameters, which I presume means that it will default to armv7 instructions? With a normal 'configure' I think that I can specify '--build=armv6l-unknown-linux-gnueabi' (I am completely new to ARM compiling!), but ROX has it's own automatic configuration script. I wonder if there is some environment variable that I could export prior to the compile? Well, I will create a PET and give it to Lobster, see if it runs on the RasPi.

Barely finger-warm
Username: BarryK
"Guys, I am really sold on these ARM chips. I keep marveling at the CPU/GPU chip in the Mele -- it is only barely finger-warm. No heatsink. Incredible to compare that with the x86 CPUs that have huge heat dissipation plumbing and fan, plus a heatsink on the GPU.

Mele A1000 revertable?
Username: Ted Dog
"LOL Rooey good one. I've got one ordered and paid, kind of like to use it for its intended purpose most of the time. Did you save the OEM firmware or is it just safely by-passed? Also was it how long from paid to delivered from the same source?

Re buying the Mele
Username: BarryK
"Ted Dog, It was sent by China Post air mail. I placed the order, um, I think it was 7th March, and it arrived on 10th April -- just when I was leaving for a holiday in Melbourne, so I didn't get to play with it until the 18th April! Regarding the firmware, I haven't touched it. The Mele automatically will boot from an SD card if inserted (and bootable) at power-on.

Governor and I/O Schedular
Username: SagSaw
"Following settings have improved my Android responsiveness drastically and has not affected battery life .... echo "interactive" > /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu0/cpufreq/scaling_governor echo "21" > /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpufreq/interactive/go_hispeed_load echo "1008000" > /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpufreq/interactive/hispeed_freq echo "600000" > /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpufreq/interactive/min_sample_time echo "12000" > /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpufreq/interactive/timer_rate Also need to make changes to the I/O schedular assuming it is CFQ ... BFQ would be ideal ... but if you cant get BFQ then for CFQ the following setting is required ... echo "NO_NEW_FAIR_SLEEPERS" > /sys/kernel/debug/sched_features

Tab based on Allwinner A10 chip
Username: SagSaw
"Hello I am using this tab http://nxgelectronics.in/specificationsxtabA10.html should cost about 90 dollars Its pre rooted ... based on Allwinner A10 chip (MELE 1000) ... m working on getting debian running in chroot first and then hacking the boot sequence to enable SD card boot ... will post the results soon ... Have been successful in getting debian installed (Wheezy 7) in chroot and running a few command line programs ... m now trying for the gui up and running ... i am using Bodhilinux ARM desktop packages as E is pretty light on resources ... and they have a preconfigured tablet interface for the GUI ...

Tags: puppy