Linux 4.7 Release – Main Changes, ARM and MIPS Architectures

Linux 4.7 is out: So, after a slight delay due to my travels, I’m back, and 4.7 is out. Despite it being two weeks since rc7, the final patch wasn’t all that big, and much of it is trivial one- and few-liners. There’s a couple of network drivers that got a bit more loving. Appended is the shortlog since rc7 for people who care: it’s fairly spread out, with networking and some intel Kabylake GPU fixes being the most noticeable ones. But there’s random small noise spread all over. And obviously, this means that the merge window for 4.8 is open.Judging by the linux-next contents, that’s going to be a bigger release than the current one (4.7 really was fairly calm, I blame at least partly summer in the northern hemisphere). Linus Linux 4.6 brought USB 3.1 superspeed, OrangeFS distributed file system, 802.1AE MAC-level encryption (MACsec), and BATMAN V protocol support, improved […]

VicoVR is a Wireless 19-Point Full-Motion Tracker for Virtual Reality Working with Android and iOS (Crowdfunding)

There’s a wide a virtual reality solution from cardboard kits that now sells for a couple of dollars to full featured headset with motion tracking selling for several hundred dollars or more. 3DiVi has designed a Kinect like motion tracking device that connects to your Android and iOS smartphone, and is supposed to offer similar tracking capabilities of more expensive head mount displays (HMD) such as HTC VIVE at about half the cost, while also replacing the cables of those kits with wireless connectivity through WiFi and Bluetooth 4.0 LE. The company offer three VicoVR devices part with the following specifications: VicoVR Sensor SoC – Unnamed Samsung Exynos processor Connectivity – Bluetooth 4.0 LE, WiFi 802.11 b/g/n Data stream Bluetooth – User pixel mask @ 30 fps, 3D coordinates up to 19 skeletal joints per user (max 2 users) @ 30 fps, 3D point cloud @ 30 fps up to […]

Meizu Pro 5 Ubuntu Edition Now Supports Desktop Mode via Wireless Display

Meizu PRO 5 Ubuntu Edition is a powerful smartphone running Ubuntu based on Samsung Exynos 7420 octa-core processor, 3GB RAM and 32 GB internal store. However, the main disappointment at the time of the launch was that it did not feature any physical video output interface, so convergence (desktop mode) was not available at the time, but Canonical has now implemented wireless display support with OTA11, and the phone will switch to desktop mode when connected to a WiDi adapter. That’s what the company had to say about the release: The latest Over-The-Air update has landed and this is a special one. We’ve introduced wireless display capabilities, which means that you can enjoy the full Ubuntu PC experience running from the latest Ubuntu smartphone, the Meizu Pro 5. And the best bit is, it will be available for all future Ubuntu smartphone and tablet devices (with supporting hardware)! The Product […]

Linux 4.6 Release – Main Changes, ARM and MIPS Architectures

Linus Torvalds released Linux Kernel 4.6 earlier today: It’s just as well I didn’t cut the rc cycle short, since the last week ended up getting a few more fixes than expected, but nothing in there feels all that odd or out of line. So 4.6 is out there at the normal schedule, and that obviously also means that I’ll start doing merge window pull requests for 4.7 starting tomorrow. Since rc7, there’s been small noise all over, with driver fixes being the bulk of it, but there is minor noise all over (perf tooling, networking, filesystems,  documentation, some small arch fixes..) The appended shortlog will give you a feel for what’s been going on during the last week. The 4.6 kernel on the whole was a fairly big release – more commits than we’ve had in a while. But it all felt fairly calm despite that. Linux 4.5 added […]

Meizu PRO 5 Ubuntu Edition Smartphone is Up for Sale for $370

Meizu PRO 5 Ubuntu Edition, the first high-end smartphone running Ubuntu operating system, is now available on jd.com for $369.99, and Russian people can order it here. However, one of the key selling point of using an Ubuntu phone would be desktop and mobile use, the so-called “convergence”, but since there’s no MHL or HDMI output, and the USB-C port does not carry the video signals on this phone, that feature will be missing. Meizu Pro 5 Ubuntu Edition smartphone specifications as listed on JD.com: SoC – Samsung Exynos 7 Octa (7420) octa core processor with four Cortex A57 cores @ 2.1GHz, four Cortex A53 cores @ 1.5Ghz, and a Mali-T760 MP8 GPU System Memory – 3GB LPDDR4 Storage – 32 GB UFS 2.0 storage + micro SD slot up to 128GB Display  – 5.7″’AMOLED capacitive touchscreen with 1920×1080 resolution. Gorilla Glass 3. Camera – 21MP rear camera with autofocus and […]

Low Cost Development Boards Linux Benchmarks – Raspberry Pi vs Banana Pi vs Orange Pi vs ODROID

LoveRPi, a distributor and reseller of electronic boards and accessories, has run benchmarks from the Phoronix Suite on several low cost development boards: $46* Banana Pi M2  based on Allwinner A31s quad core Cortex A7 processor @ 1.0 GHz with Armbian (Ubuntu 14.04) $74* Banana Pi M3 based on Allwinner A83T octa core Cortex A7 processor @ 1.80 GHz with Debian 8.3 $32 ODROID-C1+ based on Amlogic S805 quad core Cortex A5 processor @ 1.5 GHz with Ubuntu 14.04 $40 ODROID-C2 based on Amlogic S905 quad core Cortex A53 processor @ 2.0 GHz with Ubuntu 16.04 $74 ODROID-XU4 based on Samsung Exynos 5422 quad core ARM Cortex-A15 @ 2.0GHz quad core ARM Cortex-A7 @ 1.4GHz with Ubuntu 15.10 $10 Orange Pi One based Allwinner H3 Cortex A7 processor @ 1.2 GHz with Armbiam (Debian 8.3) $15 Orange Pi PC based on Allwinner H3 Cortex A7 processor @ 1.3 GHz with […]

Play High-end PC Games on ARM Linux Boards with Moonlight Embedded

Nvidia first showcased PC games streaming to Nvidia Project SHIELD Game Console at CES 2013, and since then Moonlight project has been created to provide an open source implementation compatible with Nvidia Gamestream, and supported on Linux, Mac OS and Windows PC, Android & iOS mobile devices, as well as Samsung VR kits. There’s also an implementation called Moonlight Embedded designed for ARM Linux platforms such as Raspberry Pi,ODROID, Cubox-i boards, and ODROID-C1 and ODROID-C2 boards even got support for H.265 streaming very recently allowing for better quality over H.265 at a given bit rate, and possibly 4K @ 60 Hz gaming on ODROID-C2 board. You’ll need a Windows gaming PC with an Nvidia GTX 600/700/900 series GPU, a wired connecting or a high-end 802.11 router or greater, and Nvidia Geforce Experience (GFE) installed on your PC. H.265 requires an Nvidia 900 series GPU such as Nvidia GTX960. Once this […]

Linux 4.5 Released – Main Changes, ARM and MIPS Architectures

Linus Torvalds released Linux Kernel 4.5 on Sunday: So this is later on a Sunday than my usual schedule, because I just couldn’t make up my mind whether I should do another rc8 or not, and kept just waffling about it. In the end, I obviously decided not to,but it could have gone either way. We did have one nasty regression that got fixed yesterday, and the networking pull early in the week was larger than I would have wished for. But the block  layer should be all good now, and David went through all his networking commits an extra time just to make me feel comfy about it, so in the end I didn’t see any point to making the release cycle any longer than usual. And on the whole, everything here is pretty small. The diffstat looks a bit larger for an xfs fix, because that fix has […]

UP 7000 x86 SBC