rock64/ubuntu start-up

[pas059]

Hi,

I kave some problems with my new rock64 sbc (4Go, Ubuntu on 16Go eMMC, wifi). Here they are:

1: generally the first starts crash, with the red led on. After few restarts (or/and time of use), i have the impression that the board works better. Perhaps that a required working  temperature is not reached before a given time (?)

2: after the start-up, the board always give the error: Fail to apply network settings. You light not able to connect to bluetooth network via this machine. Exception: org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.Spawn.ExecFailed: fait to execute program org.blueman.Mechanism: Permission denied

3 the highligthing of the menus items are very very slow to follow the mouse cursor

4 taking a screenshot does not work

that's all for now. Someone can help
Regards
Pascal

[Luke]

Which exact image are you trying to boot. Thanks.

[pas059]

i use this file "xenial-mate-rock64-0.5.15-136-arm64.img.xz", and i flash my eMMC with etcher and the eMMC-USB adapter.
No problem or errors signaled while programming the eMMC
regards

[Luke]

i use this file "xenial-mate-rock64-0.5.15-136-arm64.img.xz", and i flash my eMMC with etcher and the eMMC-USB adapter.
No problem or errors signaled while programming the eMMC
regards

That is a very old release. Please install Bionic LXDE for desktop use. Performance is much better than the old Mate image.

[pas059]

thanks for reply Luke.

So i installed Bionic LXDE. Indeed, it seems to be more stable than xenial-mate, BUT fortunately because it is not as complete as Xenial-mate. I was surprised when downloading,  by the size of the image which is half of the one of Xenial (1GB vs 500MB); i thought that some remaing parts would be dounwloded later, but no further downloads. But why not if it contains what i need?
So here there are my first remarks:

1: the Red led is always ON, but i assume that the OS does not turn the led off because the board works
2: i did not find a way to change the keyboard settings from QWERTY to AZERTY
3: devices like USB keys, Network Devices don't appear in the File manager, and selecting Devices or Network or Computer in the File manager outputs the message: Operation not supported
4: i did not find tool for selecting a wifi access (altought my wifi dongle is detected)

Some one can help? should i download other softwares (but where)?

Regards
Pascal

[Luke]

First things first: the Red LED is meant to stay on.

I don't know how familiar you are with Linux (your question regarding downloading software leads me to think the answer is 'not very'), but the reason why the image is delivered very barebone's is because thats how most people like it -- so that they can download what they need and customize it to their liking. This obviously makes it much less intuitive for newcomers.

So I have two suggestions for you:
1) take this as a challenge and learn a little about the command line and apt package manager thats used by Ubuntu. There are many good tutorials out there  - google is your friend  :
OR
2) decide that you don't want to learn too much about CLI at this time and download Armbian's Ubuntu Xenial image, which is much more user friendly.

[pas059]

hi Luke,
you are rigth, i'm a newcomer to linux, but i'm not a beginner, designing softwares is my job since several dozens of years; i even worked on Unix (without X11) in the past, so when you speak to me of command lines, for me it's a kind of return to the past.

but why not?
I just wonder if this version of linux is a version under development (so not finished, not fully tested, without a rich set of software components,...) or a minimal, but reliable version which can be improved by adding components.

Besides, i not sure that the Armbian version is better than the xenial-mate in term of reliability and performances.

So, i think that i will follow your 1st suggestion but not too long.

Nevertheless, i think that this version is too minimal (there is not even a trash can to put everything in it )

regards
Pascal

[fire219]

At this point, most of the available images for Rock64 are pretty well developed and stable. They are just not "all but the kitchen sink" type images, because there's little need for that. Such an image would be several gigabytes to download (a pain for someone like me on a slow home internet connection) and would come with many programs that most users don't care about. And with Ubuntu, it's really easy just to add whatever you want to the system using the apt package manager.

If the image isn't what you want, make it what you want. The DIY mindset is one you need in the Linux world except at the most superficial layer.

[pfeerick]

I was surprised when downloading, by the size of the image which is half of the one of Xenial (1GB vs 500MB); i thought that some remaining parts would be downloaded later, but no further downloads. But why not if it contains what i need?

The answer here is simply that the Mate DE is a lot larger than the LXDE ... LX is a might more light-weight (in system resources) desktop environment, and comes with a smaller install size to match.

1: the Red led is always ON, but i assume that the OS does not turn the led off because the board works

If the red light you are talking about is near the power jack (meaning it's changed colour? Mine are green), it will be always on as long as you have power connected to the board. It simply indicates that the board is receiving power. If you mean the red led next to the reset and power on buttons, that is software/user controllable, but at lot of the images just turn the LED on and leave it on.

3: devices like USB keys, Network Devices don't appear in the File manager, and selecting Devices or Network or Computer in the File manager outputs the message: Operation not supported

That doesn't sound right... sounds like there could be an issue with the install or the image.

I can't comment on the other points, as I've not used LXDE for ages on the rock64 (I'm more a MATE user), so I'm not sure where the configuration stuff is. But as fire219 said, it is a stable / well developed image / DE, but is a minimal one.

[pas059]

Hi,
I advanced a little...
The red led that is on is the one near the white.

For my french keyboard, by changing the field XKBLAYOUT to "fr" in the file /etc/default/keyboard solve the problem. Like this it's more easy
Then using apt command, i updated+upgraded what could be upgraded.

For the detection of usb devices, "File manager PCManFM" does not mount automatically (or not) these device although its preferences are set int this way. If i use the command line
sudo mount /dev/sda1 /media/usb
then the usb key contents is visible in the open file dialog of the softwares, but very seldom in PCManFM.
And, if i select Devices or Network in PCManFM, it gives the error: Operation not supported , which is in my mind different than an execution error.

Concerning the wifi, my wifi dongle is detected, but as i did not find a way to use it, i installed the package "network-manager-gnome". After that i have a icon in the taskbar but the icon has a little red cross over it. A clic on it, shows a menu in wich there is an item corresponding to my wifibox. But selecting this item do nothing; if i select the 'Edit connections...' item, a window is open showing my wifi box, but once again trying to edit these connections do nothing. Well,  probably it is necessary to install another packages, but which?

Any ideas?
Otherwise, as LXDE is a light DE, is it possible to install other DE package like gnome or KDE?
Apart these inconveniences, the board works better than with xenial-mate-rock64-0.5.15-136-arm64 (faster, more reliable).

regards