Starting to ‘explore’ the system, and it looks very different from the typical Linux system I have been used to since 1997.. The base directory structure is different, with many ‘additions’.. This is probably standard for Android, but not what I am accustomed to! I decided to format a (micro) SD card, and insert it, as this … Continue reading →
The APC(s) have finally arrived, after payment of ransom and ‘fees’ to the appropriate revenue authorities, and shipping organisations.. As expected, this is a typical Android 2.3 system, with a Linux heart, but many proprietary drivers and scripts, and reduced Linux command functionality.. I connected a USB/UART serial converter, and – so far – have a root … Continue reading →
In preparation for the (final!) arrival of the APC, I have been setting up a suitable serial console connection, via USB to a UART, and have tested it on the Raspberry Pi.. After remembering (from years ago..) that you have to connect TX to RX – and vice-versa – the serial console worked without a problem, but … Continue reading →
As my APCs are being held to ransom, until I get an invoice for UK customs duty and taxes (by post!!) and am then able to pay it (online?).. I decided to add another flavour of cross-compiler to the ones I already have installed. This one comes from the self-contained OpenELEC environment which is used to create … Continue reading →
Harking back to the good old HP9000 workstation, and HP-UX, during my time at HP.. The ‘Common Desktop Environment’ (CDE) has now been open sourced, with (apparently) good old Motif to follow soon.. It may have been ugly by modern standards, but still better looking by far than Windows 3.0… Some of this became part of the … Continue reading →
As the complete source code for the APC is still unavailable, and it seems that the ‘standard’ Android OS on the device does not include some sort of console, the only way to get control (at least of the boot process) would appear to be by using the UART port on the board, and a pinout / … Continue reading →
Leigh Scott (leigh123linux) has already produced an NVIDIA driver patch for 304.30 to compile – and run – on kernel 3.6-rc1.. Get it at: http://cvs.rpmfusion.org/viewvc/rpms/nvidia-kmod/devel/3.6_kernel.patch?revision=1.2&root=nonfree&view=markup I’ve applied the patch, and all is OK, now… So – 3.6-rc1 now works, with VMware 8.0.4 (patched) and NVIDIA 304.30 (patched)… … Continue reading →
Kernel version 3.5 has not been out for very long, but now there is 3.6-rc1 already – available from http://git.kernel.org/?p=linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git;a=summary Compiling now, and will be interesting to see if anything breaks! Update: Compiled and installed OK, and VMware 8.0.4 (patched) compiles OK, but – unusually – the NVIDIA driver (304.30) compilation fails: ……………………….from /home/rgadsdon/NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-304.30/kernel/nv-acpi.c:15: /usr/src/linux-3.6-rc1/arch/x86/include/asm/uaccess_64.h: In function ‘copy_from_user’: … Continue reading →
As the APCs are still ‘awaiting customs clearance’, I decided to try to cross-compile the kernel source available at github: https://github.com/apc-io/apc-8750 Unfortunately, many of the APC-specific drivers (‘wmt’) are currently missing.. The system is an Android 2.3 one, and the kernel is based – as you would expect – on Linux kernel version 2.6.32. (In this case … Continue reading →
As 3.5 isn’t working – yet – I updated the Dreamplug to the latest 3.4.x – 3.4.7: $ uname -a Linux rgdreamplug 3.4.7 #1 Mon Jul 30 20:28:47 BST 2012 armv5tel armv5tel armv5tel GNU/Linux