bq News - CNX Software - Embedded Systems News

April 20, 2021April 23, 2021 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 4 Comments

Linux 5.12 – Main Changes, Arm, MIPS and RISC-V Architectures

Linux 5.12 release was expected last Sunday, but Linus Torvalds decided to release one more release candidate, namely Linux 5.12-RC8, to “make sure things are all settled down“, so the latest Linux kernel is now expected this weekend. Tihs should not yield any significant changes, so we can check what’s new in Linux 5.12, notably with regards to Arm, MIPS, and RISC-V architectures often used in SoC’s found in embedded systems. Around two months ago, the release of Linux 5.11 added support for Intel’s software guard extensions (SGX) and Platform Monitoring Technology (PMT), AMD “Van Gogh” and “Dimgrey cavefish” graphics processors, MIPI I3C host controller interfaces, and much more. Some interesting changes in Linux 5.12 include: Added support for ACRN hypervisor designed for IoT & embedded devices Added support for Playstation DualSense & Nintendo 64 game controllers, as well as Nintendo 64 data cartridges Dynamic thermal power management via a […]

April 25, 2018April 25, 2018 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

BQ Ciclop is an Open Source Hardware 3D Scanner Kit

I’ve already written about 3D scanners, and at the time mentioned the price range varied a lots from just around $100 fo entry-level models to over several thousands dollars for professional solutions. This morning I saw a tweet for one of the cheap model by HE3D, where they claimed the scanner to be “open source”, so I asked, and while you could buy the kit with or without camera for $83.30 or $116.53 respectively, the company shared a rar file with documentation, and design files, so you could also built it yourself, or modify it. 3D scanner kit content: bq ZUM BT-328 controller board micro USB cable Logitech C270 HD webcam 42-stepper motor 2x Laser 12V/1.5A power supply 8mm Bobbin 4x M3*12 self-tapping screws 2x M3*20 self-tapping screws 10x M3*10 screws 6x M3 nuts 28x M8 nuts 18x M8 washer 2.5mm hexagon wrench 3x M8*30 screws 1x 16014 bearing 2x M8*382mm […]

December 27, 2017December 27, 2017 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 2 Comments

UBPorts Ubuntu Touch Firmware to Add Android App Support using Anbox

Last spring, Canonical stopped working on mobile and convergence, and dropped any work on Unity, which explains why Ubuntu 17.10 is now running Gnome desktop environment by default. The company had to take this decision because there was little interest from manufacturers for such solution, and instead they refocused on the more profitable IoT and cloud markets. However, some members of the community still wanted to run Ubuntu on their phone, and that’s why UBPorts community decided to carry on development on their own and released their first stable Ubuntu Touch image for supported smartphones last summer. A phone running Ubuntu Touch is great, but you’d have a very limited set of app to play with, so the developers are now working on adding support for Android apps support. There are various ways to implement such features, but they went with Anbox, as it executes Android apps natively in a […]

June 15, 2017June 15, 2017 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

UBPorts Project Announces its First Stable Ubuntu Touch Release for Supported Smartphones

Canonical may have stopped working on Unity, Mobile & Convergence for Ubuntu last April, but since then, at least two teams have worked on Unity and mobile convergence alive with respectively yunit and UBPorts projects. There has not been much activity on the former, but UBPorts has recently announced the first OTA-1 stable release for supported devices, minus Nexus 4 and 5 for now. This release brings bug fixes, experimental AGPS support, he UBports Welcome app, the OpenStore, and the Terminal and File Browser are preinstalled. It should work on OnePlus One, FairPhone 2, Optimus L90, BQ Aquaris M10 HD / FHD, and possibly some other models. They also mentioned work on Halium – a project aiming to standardize the Android hardware compatibility layer between many Linux distributions – has been progressing nicely, and it can now boot both Ubuntu Touch and Plasma Mobile. Convergence still needs some work, but […]

January 15, 2017 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 5 Comments

Self-hosted OpenGL ES Development on Ubuntu Touch

Blu wrote BQ Aquaris M10 Ubuntu Edition review – from a developer’s perspective – last year, and now is back with a new post explaining how to develop and deploy OpenGL ES applications directly on the Ubuntu Touch tablet. Ever since I started using a BQ M10 for console apps development on the go I’ve been wanting to get something, well, flashier going on that tablet. Since I’m a graphics developer by trade and by heart, GLES was the next step on the Ubuntu Touch for me. This article is about writing, building and deploying GLES code on Ubuntu Touch itself, sans a desktop PC. Keep that in mind if some procedure seems unrefined or straight primitive to you – for one, I’m a primitive person, but some tools available on the desktop are, in my opinion, impractical on the Touch itself. That means no QtCreator today, nor Qt, for […]

August 19, 2016August 19, 2016 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 7 Comments

Magic Device Tool Helps You Switch Between Android and Ubuntu on Supported Phones

There have only been a few phones released with or supporting Ubuntu so far, and those phones will normally be able to run Android too since Ubuntu Touch relies on Android drivers, and you may decide that Ubuntu is not for you and switch back to Android, or the contrary, if you’ve purchased an Android phone, you may want to install Ubuntu instead. In order to simplify the task of installing operating systems, Marius Quabeck has developed “Magic Device Tool“. As you can see from the screenshot above, 13 phones and tablets are currently supported. You’ll need a computer with Ubuntu 15.04 or greater to install the tool, and I’ve done so on Ubuntu 16.04:

git clone https://github.com/MariusQuabeck/magic-device-tool.git
cd magic-device-tool
chmod +x launcher.sh
./launcher.sh

git clone https://github.com/MariusQuabeck/magic-device-tool.git

cd magic-device-tool

chmod +x launcher.sh

./launcher.sh

The script will also install phablet-tools if it is not already installed, so if you are not root, you’ll need your account to be member of sudoers. Once the initial setup is done, you’ll […]

March 28, 2016March 28, 2016 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 7 Comments

BQ Aquaris M10 Ubuntu Edition Tablets Can Be Pre-ordered For 259.90 Euros and Up

BQ Aquaris M10 Ubuntu Edition tablets were unveiled at Mobile World Congress last month, and were touted as the first Ubuntu devices supporting convergence. The two versions of the tablet are now up for pre-order. BQ Aquaris M10 HD and M10 FHD Ubuntu Edition specifications: SoC – MediaTek MT8163A ARM Cortex-A53 quad-core processor @ 1.5 GHz with ARM Mali-T720MP2 GPU @ 600 MHz System Memory – 2GB RAM Storage – 16GB storage + microSD card slot Display M10 HD – 10.1″ 10-point mulitouch screen; 1280×800 resolution M10 FHD – 10.1″ 10-point multitouch screen; 1920×1200 resolution Video Output – micro HDMI output Audio – Frontal speakers, 3.5mm audio jack, FM radio Connectivity – WiFi 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.0, and GPS Camera – 8MP rear camera with auto-focus and dual flash, and 5MP front-facing camera USB – micro USB OTG port Sensors – Light, accelerometer, eCompass Battery – 7,280 mAh Li-Po battery […]

February 5, 2016March 28, 2016 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 3 Comments

BQ Aquaris M10 Ubuntu Edition Tablet is the First Ubuntu “Convergence” Device

Three years ago, Canonical unveiled their plan to develop Ubuntu for Tablets with support for both tablet mode and full desktop convergence, but development took longer than expected, and in the meantimes some companies launched tablets without real mobile / desktop convergence, such as Cube i7-CM or Mastermind UT One, non of which were really successful. However, with the upcoming Ubuntu 16.04 “Xenial Xerus” LTS release, Canonical has worked it out, and the company cooperated with BQ to develop Aquaris M10 Ubuntu Edition tablet the feature both mobile and desktop modes. BQ Aquaris M10 Ubuntu edition specifications: SoC – MediaTek MT8163A ARM Cortex-A53 quad-core processor @ 1.5 GHz with ARM Mali-T720MP2 GPU System Memory – 2GB RAM Storage – 16GB storage + microSD card slot for up to 64GB of removable storage Display – 10.1″ multitouch screen; 1920×1200 resolution Video Output – micro HDMI output Audio – Frontal speakers, 3.5mm […]