Category: Ubuntu

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments on Gumstix Alto35 Customizable Touchscreen Board

Gumstix Alto35 Customizable Touchscreen Board

A few months ago, Gumstix introduced Geppeto, a web platform that allows you to design and order your own baseboard for Gumstix Overo systems-on-module within minutes. The company has just announced Alto35, an expansion board built entirely with Geppetto. The Alto35 replaces Palo35 Overo-series expansion board with the same features, but adding the possibility of customizing the board via Geppetto. Alto34 expansions board features the following: 3.5″ LCD resistive touch screen Stereo audio in/out jacks 3D accelerometer (STMicro LIS33DE) RC servo USB – 2x USB mini-B ports, including console port (FT232RQ USB UART) LEDs in 4 different colors, 2 tactile switches. 2×70-pin AVX Headers compatible with Overo COMs. Power – 3.5V-5V All Overo computers-on-module are compatible with Alto35 board, so you can just use existing software solutions such as Linaro Ubuntu, Robot Operating System, and the Yocto Project. Alto35 is available for $89 including the display (not the Overo module), […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments on Linaro 13.05 Release With Linux Kernel 3.10, Android 4.2.2, and Ubuntu Raring Ringtail

Linaro 13.05 Release With Linux Kernel 3.10, Android 4.2.2, and Ubuntu Raring Ringtail

Linaro 13.05 has just been released with Linux Kernel 3.10-rc2 and Android 4.2.2. This is the first release with Ubuntu 13.04 (Raring Ringtail) images. There’s also Linux Linaro Stable (LSK) preview based on kernel 3.9.4. BeagleBone Black support has been added and preliminary hwpack and images are available, an Android Arndale image with virtual framebuffer is also available. You can now get a desktop environment (XFCE) on Aarch64 / ARMv8. Hardware packs with Real-time Linux kernel (PREEMPT_RT) can be downloaded for Pandaboard and Arndale. More work has gone into Aarch64, big.LITTLE HMP, and ARM virtualization (KVM). Finally an UEFI is available not only for Vexpress boards, but also Samsung Origen and Arndale boards, as well as Texas Instruments Pandabord and Beagleboard. Here are the highlights of this release: LAVA First prototype production run of LAVA Lmp completed, tested functional. Beaglebone Black is now running in LAVA. TC2s is now running […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 2 Comments on RebeccaBlackOS is a Linux Distribution Showcasing Wayland

RebeccaBlackOS is a Linux Distribution Showcasing Wayland

nerdopolis, a developer and a Rebecca Black fan, has been maintaining a Linux distribution called RebeccaBlackOS that uses Wayland’s reference compositor Weston as the default for handling its graphical user interface, and automatically start “Friday” song as it boots. This distribution actually supports both Wayland and X, as even though QT, GTK, EFL (Enlightenment Foundation Libraries), Clutter, and SDL (Simple DirectMedia Layer) have all been compiled to support Wayland, many apps don’t work with Wayland, so Xwayland provides a way to run many, but not all, X apps in Wayland. You can try the latest 1.8 GB ISO image (24 May 2013), which is based on 32-bit Kubuntu 13.04, by transferring it to a USB flash drive via Unetbootin, or by using the ISO directly in VirtualBox (it will then use the framebuffer). I planned to try it before writing this post, by the “18 hours, 10 minutes remaining” message […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 18 Comments on $129 Wandboard Quad Board With Freescale i.MX 6Quad and 2GB RAM

$129 Wandboard Quad Board With Freescale i.MX 6Quad and 2GB RAM

When Wandboard launches their Wandboard Solo and Wandboard Dual boards, many people asked when there would be a quad core version. At the time, the company said they had no plan for a quad core version to keep costs low. If we are to believe a Wandboard Quad listing on mouser.com, they must have changed their mind of they now offer a Freescale i.MX6 Quad version with 2GB RAM, and SATA support, which will sell for $129 (as shown on Wandboard site) or $139 (mouser.com) once it becomes available. The Specifications are very similar to Wandboard Dual, except for the quad core processor, 2GB RAM, and working SATA connector: SoC – Freescale i.MX 6Quad quad core Cortex A9 processor @ 1.2 GHz + Vivante GC2000 GPU System Memory – 2GB RAM Storage – 2x micro SD card slot + SATA connector Video Output – HDMI Audio I/O – HDMI, S/PDIF […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 2 Comments on 2013 Embedded Market Study – Software Development & Processors

2013 Embedded Market Study – Software Development & Processors

UBM releases a study of the embedded market every year, by surveying over 1,000 embedded professional every year. They’ve just published their 2013 Embedded Market Study (85 pages report), after surveying over 2,000 engineers and managers, so let’s see whether anything has evolved in the software development and processor space compared to 2012. Again this year, most respondents are based in the US (62%), followed by Europe (20%), and Asia (12%). C/C++ languages still rule the embedded world with 81% market share, although a little less than last year (85%), assembler is a distant third (5%). Interestingly, the average size of development teams seems to have shrunk from 15.9 in 2012 to 14.6 in 2013, the average project being composed of 4 software engineers, 2.9 hardware engineers, 2.7 firmware engineers, 2 QA/Test engineers, 1.5 system integrators, and 1.5 with other functions. About a third of project last less than 6 […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 3 Comments on N70-A and N70-B AllWinner A20 and A31 Based Android Netbooks with 13.3″ Display

N70-A and N70-B AllWinner A20 and A31 Based Android Netbooks with 13.3″ Display

Last year, H6 Android Netbook featured AllWinner A10 Cortex A8 processor, 1GB RAM, 4GB Flash, and came with a 10.1″ display with 1024×600 resolution, and people who tried did not seem very satisfied with their purchase. This year however, we should get more better hardware thanks to devices like N70-A and N70-B, respectively powered by AllWinner A20 with 1GB RAM, and AllWinner A31 with 2GB RAM, that both come with a 13.3″ display (1280×800). There’s also N101-A model powered by AllWinner A20, but it comes with a 10.1″ display with 1024×600 resolution.  All models are available with 8, 16 or 32GB flash, feature Wi-Fi 802.11n and Ethernet connectivity, a 0.3MP front camera, an SD card reader, 2 USB ports, 1 HDMI output, as well as mic IN and headphone jacks. For some reasons, AllWinner A20 models runs Android 4.2.2, but AllWinner A31 still runs Android 4.1.2. You should be able […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 31 Comments on Installing Android Studio IDE in Ubuntu – Hello World Application

Installing Android Studio IDE in Ubuntu – Hello World Application

Google I/O started yesterday, and Google released an early access preview version of Android Studio, a new IDE based on IntelliJ IDEA with drag-and-drop GUI layout editor, Gradle-based build system, Lint tools, the ability to preview how apps look on different screen sizes, and more. This may eventually replace the Eclipse + ADT Plugin combination currently used, so I’ve decided to give it a try in Ubuntu 13.04 64-bit, but it’s also available for Windows and Mac OS X. First, head over to Android Studio Installation instructions, and download Android Studio for you operating system via your Browser (You’ll have to accept an EULA), then open a terminal to extract it:

Now let’s start Android Studio:

And I did press enter to continue, but Android Studio complained about JAVA_HOME no being defined. Let’s just install Sun Oracle JAVA JDK since this is the recommended method. I’ve used the  […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 2 Comments on Linaro 13.04 Release With Linux Kernel 3.9 and Android 4.2.2

Linaro 13.04 Release With Linux Kernel 3.9 and Android 4.2.2

Linaro 13.04 has just been released. It features Linux Kernel 3.9-rc7 and Android 4.2.2. A lot of work has been done on ARMv8 (Cortex A53) with further work on OpenEmbedded, more testing, and updates to the GCC toolchain. Calxeda EnergyCore server has been added to LAVA, Origen Quad now gets hardware video acceleration in Android Jelly Bean. Still more cleanup has been done on the kernel side with regards to Samsung and ST SoC, and a big.LITTLE porting guide is now available (linaro login required). Here are the highlights of this release: LAVA Prototype of a new publishing system is used to overcome performance problems with android-build.linaro.org. Calxeda EnergyCore support is merged in LAVA, and an isolated system has been set up for web benchmarking. Fedora support is merged in LAVA. A user can submit LAVA jobs using a Fedora pre-built image. Boot commands are untangled from LAVA dispatcher. They’re now […]

UP 7000 x86 SBC