Raspberry Pi revisited

I have ordered this:
http://au.element14.com/raspberry-pi/rpi-b-512-cased/sbc-raspberry-pi-b-512mb-cased/dp/2217158?in_merch=New%20Products&MER=MER-R3C-23PP-PD-NEW-SEARCH&

I already have the first release of the Model B, with only 256MB RAM. The later version has 512MB and also some design improvements.

Previously, I got to an "alpha4" build. Maybe this time I will see if I can take it further.

I plan to build from Raspbian DEBs, as Woof has already been setup for that.

I need to create a new empty skeleton image, that will be populated with kernel and Linux build, then copied to an SD card.

I wasn't going to go back to compiling for armv6, I had decided that my standard would be armv7 (which will not work on the RPi), but, well, I have changed my mind.

What actually prompted this was I was using SeaMonkey 2.17.1 on various old PCs and thinking how slow it is. Then I remembered that I had Chromium running on the RPi, and it ran well, with a 256MB RAM system, of which much less than that is actually available for apps to use. I recall opening 10 tabs and it still worked nicely.

Then I was thinking about my Odroid-X, another ARM board that I purchased, much more powerful. But, with just about all of these boards, Linux does not really fully work, not completely.
They all have problems, and development efforts are very fragmented and often run out of steam.

Which brings me back to the RPi. A runt it may be, but there is an enormous support community and tons of software tools out there. Raspbian Linux continues to be very actively developed.

So, I am going to play with the RPi for awhile.

This was the last build that I did (alpha4), I think, built from Debian Squeeze DEBs:
http://bkhome.org/archive/blog2/201207/puppy-for-raspberry-pi-alpha4.html

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Comments

Bravo!
Username: 01micko
Well that's good news! I have been meaning to revisit Pi development forever.. but yeah, been busy .. (but that diversion has been bearing fruit, scored 100% on assignment :D today). I even got to the point of compiling a 3.6 kernel (iirc re version) patched for AUFS in Slackwarearm-14.0, but abandoned that because of the soft float business and lack of time. The hard float thing does make a big difference and Raspbian is the way to go. Ooohh ..drooling at the possibilities, >=3.8 with F2FS, [url=http://www.raspberrypi.org/archives/4053]Wayland (..yes, that's right, WAYLAND, due later this year), AUFS, Chromium, etc. Hopefully it's all backward compatible with the 256 model B because there are plenty of those wild raspberries about.

' tons of software tools '
Username: Sage
"Not only SW but tons of add-on HW, too. The Pi camera was announced end of last week, already available with devastating array of kit from www.cpc.co.uk. [Well done Mick - presume that ':D' is intended as an emoticon rather than your grade...]

tech
Username: SouthPaws
"Hey Barry, did you get a chance to check this out? I sent you this link back in April, when you were on holiday. I was curious what your thoughts were. http://www.udoo.org/ http://www.udoo.org/udoo-vs-beaglebone-black-vs-wandboard-vs-odroid-x2-vs-raspberry-pi/

...and more
Username: SouthPaws
"Just saw this! http://www.udoo.org/progress-update-lvds-hdmi-yocto-project/

Re Udoo
Username: BarryK
"SouthPaws, Thanks, yes, I did look at it.

udoo finances
Username: don570
" http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2013/04/power-of-arduino-and-raspberry-pi-combined-in-99-androidlinux-pc/ The UDOO was seeking $27,000 to jump start development of the computer. It has already received about $95,000 in six days, with pledges being taken until June 8. Pledges of $99 or more will net contributors a dual-core UDOO board, while a $119 pledge will get you a quad-core board. The dual- and quad-core boards will retail for the slightly higher prices of $109 and $129, respectively, the Kickstarter page says. Contributors are expected to get their deliveries in September of this year. At 4.33×3.35 inches, the UDOO is a little bigger than the Raspberry Pi's 3.37×2.13 inches. Here's UDOO's list of components: Freescale i.MX 6 ARM Cortex-A9 CPU Dual/Quad core 1GHz Integrated graphics, each processor provides 3 separated accelerators for 2D, OpenGL ES2.0 3D and OpenVG Atmel SAM3X8E ARM Cortex-M3 CPU RAM DDR3 1GB 54 Digital I/O + Analog Input (Arduino-compatible R3 1.0 pinout) HDMI and LVDS + Touch (I2C signals) Ethernet RJ45 (10/100/1000 MBit) Wi-Fi Module Mini USB and Mini USB OTG [On The Go] USB type A (x2) and USB connector (requires a specific wire) Analog Audio and Mic SATA (Only Quad-Core version) Camera connection Micro SD (boot device) Power Supply (5-12V) and External Battery connector

on Seamonkey trashing the disk on old machines
Username: dionicio
"I found this article some days ago: http://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/947996 Why does Firefox on Android use so much space and fill up the volume? Maybe could be of use :)

About the AT keyboard
Username: dionicio
"I use this http://www.google.com.mx/url?sa=i&source=images&cd=&cad=rja&docid=ovkL6OtleIA79M&tbnid=V418dhkqynb5pM:&ved=&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.netvicomputacion.com%2Fadaptadores%2F52-adaptador-teclado-ps2-o-at.html&ei=As2kUYpGyoGuAaXkgIAB&psig=AFQjCNHMMlqp49UWG7ZTAUZL6YGhpsgZlw&ust=1369841282076260 and this http://www.google.com.mx/imgres?q=at+to+ps2+adapter&sa=X&biw=1274&bih=849&tbm=isch&tbnid=wRlBqheQa0n9aM:&imgrefurl=http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/pc-interfaces-101,1177-3.html&docid=cD-7qYKIu6fzuM&imgurl=http://img.tomshardware.com/us/2005/11/23/pc_interfaces_101/ps2_usb.jpg&w=425&h=267&ei=fMukUfjeF8z6qAHLn4HwDg&zoom=1&ved=1t:3588,r:21,s:0,i:151&iact=rc&dur=1141&page=1&tbnh=173&tbnw=245&start=0&ndsp=24&tx=79&ty=56 It has to be purple or have a keyboard drawing. and then a KVM switch to old/new computers. :)

OT @Sage
Username: 01micko
">Well done Mick - presume that ':D'.. Yes, was meant as an emote, however D is good in many AU unis: F=Fail P=Pass C=Credit D=Distinction HD=High Distinction.

Test post
Username: nic007
"'nic007' has registered.

Tags: general