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+--- Thread: General SBC question and Linux (/showthread.php?tid=2292)
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General SBC question and Linux - jkmooney - 09-29-2016
So, I'm new to SBCs but not quite so new to Linux (started out with RedHat 4.2 after becoming disillusioned with OS/2 Warp). What I'm seeing with the Pine64 is the potential for creating a decent multi-media computer that can run on minimal power. This intrigues me. I could build a multi-media box to run off my solar array when I go camping (Ok...."glamping"....I'll own that
) or, use it as a way to stream games from my "big computer" to my basement TV..
On the Pine 64, I can pretty much do that now with Remix OS (although a Steam Controller driver would be great) but I kinda miss the flexibility and familiarity of Linux. (and my steam controller works with Linux thanks to GitHub).
So, a question for those more experienced with SBCs; are there any you could recommend for my next project? Arm or Intel Atom as long as power requirements are low.
RE: General SBC question and Linux - dkryder - 09-29-2016
you could give this chart a look,
http://hackerboards.com/misc/sbc-survey-june2016/hackerboards.com-june2016-sbc-survey-specs-table.pdf
it's fairly up tp date on the market presently. my experience with the pine64 is that it can use a battery up fairly quickly with browsing. and as it currently stands , it takes a good while to charge up. i'm not sure how to slow down battery drain or speed up charging. i'd be interested in others views on those issues.
RE: General SBC question and Linux - pfeerick - 09-29-2016
(09-29-2016, 07:39 PM)dkryder Wrote: you could give this chart a look,
http://hackerboards.com/misc/sbc-survey-june2016/hackerboards.com-june2016-sbc-survey-specs-table.pdf
it's fairly up tp date on the market presently. my experience with the pine64 is that it can use a battery up fairly quickly with browsing. and as it currently stands , it takes a good while to charge up. i'm not sure how to slow down battery drain or speed up charging. i'd be interested in others views on those issues.
Nice find dkryder... very handy chart! I'm currently liking the looks of the BananaPi /OrangePi boards, but also keeping an eye out for the release of the Banana Pi M2 Ultra, as that is looking to be one sweet little board when it comes out.
Regarding the battery, the experience with my own board indicates that the registers in the PMIC are being configured to charge the battery at the ultra fast rate of ~400ma... So a flat 8000mah battery will take... a LONG time to charge!
To improve the situation (if you ONLY want the pine64 to charge it's battery) you can get it to reset to the default 1.2A charge by (when the battery and power is unplugged - not just when the pine is off) removing the microSD card... and then connecting the battery and power back to the pine. You can turn the pine64 off then (hold the power button for a bit over 10 seconds) and it will continue to charge, as the pine64 does not need to be running for the PMIC to do it's job. xalius would probably be the best person to chase up on that, as I believe he was looking into how the change the PMIC settings, and I've never place with the devicetree stuff so don't even know where to begin! Also, I have come to realise the fuel gauge (how the battery % remaining is calculated) is woefully inaccurate, and can indicate the battery is empty when it is only half flat, thus making it more sensible to rely on tracking the battery voltage instead. Don't know what that means for Androird/RemixOS though, as they are probably just using the %!
RE: General SBC question and Linux - jkmooney - 09-30-2016
Thanks Dkryder
RE: General SBC question and Linux - jkmooney - 10-01-2016
So, following up on some of the list provided by dkryder, a few things come to light:
1) Many of these have SATA: That could be pretty handy for keeping files available across OS's
2) Intel and AMD both have SBC option (nVidia, I'm looking over in your direction....)
3) The Bannana Pi M3 Plus3E looks pretty interesting
4) Orange Pi as well but, according to the website, still uses the Mali M400 GPU (the list says otherwise)
5) Good or bad, the Mali M400 seems to be pretty commonly used. This tells me two things..
a) There's definitely value in getting a Linux driver for it
b) we can't possibly be the only one's who've tried.
So, If I wan't things like Kodi and Moonlight working on this, I'll need to know which boards have Linux distributions that support the onboard graphics and video acceleration.
RE: General SBC question and Linux - Luke - 10-01-2016
(10-01-2016, 07:03 AM)jkmooney Wrote: So, following up on some of the list provided by dkryder, a few things come to light:
1) Many of these have SATA: That could be pretty handy for keeping files available across OS's
2) Intel and AMD both have SBC option (nVidia, I'm looking over in your direction....)
3) The Bannana Pi M3 Plus3E looks pretty interesting
4) Orange Pi as well but, according to the website, still uses the Mali M400 GPU (the list says otherwise)
5) Good or bad, the Mali M400 seems to be pretty commonly used. This tells me two things..
a) There's definitely value in getting a Linux driver for it
b) we can't possibly be the only one's who've tried.
So, If I wan't things like Kodi and Moonlight working on this, I'll need to know which boards have Linux distributions that support the onboard graphics and video acceleration.
Regarding your subpoints - a) and b) the answer is yes and yes. But as I understand it, a part of the problem is Pine's 64 bit architecture and most of the other boards use 32bit linux, and there have been opensource mali 32bit drivers available for years. But they dont work with the pine. As more 64bit SOCs enter the market with mali on SOC, the demand will surely grow. For now, the AW blob is there for those daring to use it ...
RE: General SBC question and Linux - waldo - 10-01-2016
AFAIK, there is no mali driver on the opensource world... Correct me if I'm wrong.
The Lima driver project was intended for that,... But there is little to no activity on it.
RE: General SBC question and Linux - Luke - 10-01-2016
(10-01-2016, 07:51 AM)waldo Wrote: AFAIK, there is no mali driver on the opensource world... Correct me if I'm wrong.
The Lima driver project was intended for that,... But there is little to no activity on it.
Again, I'm no expert but is this not an open source driver? : http://malideveloper.arm.com/resources/drivers/open-source-mali-utgard-gpu-linux-kernel-drivers/
RE: General SBC question and Linux - jkmooney - 10-01-2016
quick read of the Mali Developer web page looks like a "mere mortals need not apply"...
RE: General SBC question and Linux - Luke - 10-01-2016
(10-01-2016, 10:36 AM)jkmooney Wrote: quick read of the Mali Developer web page looks like a "mere mortals need not apply"...
isnt that the case with anything mali at this stage tho?