debian News - Page 54 of 81 - CNX Software

September 27, 2017September 27, 2017 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 17 Comments

Short Demo with 96Boards SynQuacer 64-bit ARM Developer Box

Even if you are working on ARM platforms, you are still likely using an Intel or AMD x86 build machine, since there’s not really a good alternative in the ARM world. Linaro talked about plans to change that at Linaro Connect Budapest 2017 in March, and a few days ago, GIGABYTE SynQuacer software development platform was unveiled with a Socionext SynQuacer SC2A11 24-core Cortex-A53 processor, and everything you’d expect from a PC tower with compartment for SATA drives, PCIe slots, memory slots, multiple USB 3.0 ports, and so on. The platform was just demonstrated a Linaro Connect San Francisco right after Linaro High Performance Computing keynotes by Kanta Vekaria, Technology Strategist, Linaro, and Yasuo Nishiguchi, Socionext’s Chairman & CEO. If you have never used a system with more than 14 cores, you’d sadly learn that the tux logos at boot times will only be shown on the first line, skipping […]

September 25, 2017September 26, 2017 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 35 Comments

Checking Out Debian and Linux SDK for VideoStrong VS-RD-RK3399 Board

VideoStrong VS-RD-RK3399 (aka VS-RK3399) is a features-packed development board powered by Rockchip RK3399 hexa core core processor which offers an alternative to Firefly-RK3399 board. The company sent me a development kit for evaluation, and I’ve already looked into VS-RD-RK3399 hardware and SDK in the first part of the review. Today, after shortly looking into the pre-installed Android 7.1 OS to make sure the board boots fine, I’ll report my experience with Debian 9, and building it from source. A Quick Look at Android 7.1 I connected the board to my HDMI TV, added an Ethernet cable, and after powering it, VS-RK3399 promptly booted into Android 7.1 with the following launched. It just has a few apps pre-installed, and lack Google Play store, but as I’ve seen in the new version of the SDK, a patch for Google Play store is provided, if that’s something you need for your use case. […]

September 19, 2017September 19, 2017 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 3 Comments

uCAN CAN Ethernet Converter and Logger is Based on Orange Pi Zero Board

The CAN bus is a serial communication protocol used in automotive and automation applications. The guys at ucandevices.pl have designed a solution around Orange Pi Zero board that allows you to log CAN bus data or act as a bridge between the CAN bus and Ethernet or WiFi. They call it “CAN Ethernet converter, CAN Logger, Linux CAN computer”. Sorry, no shorter name that I could find… uCAN (pronounced micro CAN) CAN Bus board specifications: Main Board – Orange Pi Zero with Allwinner H2+ quad core cortex-A7 processor, 256 MB RAM Network Connectivity – 10/100M Ethernet, 802.11 b/g/n WiFi Can Bus – 2-pin terminal block; support for CAN version 2.0 support Power Supply – DC 5V/2A via micro USB port Dimension – 50 x 50 x 20 mm The device comes pre-load with Debian distribution provided by Armbian plus various CAN tools. The getting started video below shows uCANTools web […]

September 4, 2017September 5, 2017 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 4 Comments

Orange Pi 2G IoT Board Can Now Boot Linux from NAND Flash

Orange Pi 2G IoT is a $10 development board with a 2G cellular modem that was launched last March. The board is based on RDA Micro RDA8810PL processor designed for cheap Android phones, but Linux support was also promoted, and an RDA8810 Android SDK was released in April. It was the first time RDA8810 was used in a development board, and unsurprisingly it was, and still is, a challenge to use such board, as software support is on-going… So people who purchased the board has troubles with controlling GPIOs, or booting Linux from the SoC’s built-in NAND flash, instead reverting to booting from a micro SD card. Luckily, Orange Pi forum’s user surfero75 worked on the latter, found a solution, and posted instructions in Spanish. He wrote those instructions leveraging the work done by Aib user, and I summarized the main steps below explaining how install and boot from NAND […]

August 25, 2017October 30, 2017 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 12 Comments

Purism Librem 5 Open Source Linux Smartphone Focuses on Privacy (Crowdfunding)

Purism is computer manufacturer founded in 2014 whose mission is to “provide the highest quality hardware available, ensuring the rights of security, privacy, and freedom for all users”, and so far, they’ve delivered several Intel Core i5/i7 laptops running their PureOS Linux distribution based on Debian with an emphasis on privacy protection. The company has now launched a crowdfunding campaign on their own website to develop and manufacture Librem 5 Linux smartphone with the same philosophy. The phone will use open source software even for the GPU, so the company currently selected i.MX6 for the project since they can use etnaviv open source driver for the Vivante GPU, but they hope to switch to the more powerful i.MX8 processor for the final design, which explains why the hardware specifications are not set in stones yet: SoC- NXP i.MX6/i.MX8 CPU with Vivante GPU System Memory – 3GB LPDDR3 Storage – 32GB […]

August 17, 2017August 17, 2017 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 9 Comments

Raspbian for Raspberry Pi Boards Gets Upgraded to Debian Stretch

While Raspberry Pi boards support many different operating systems, Raspbian is by far the most popular option, and in the last two years the distribution was based on Jessie (Debian 8), the Raspberry Pi foundation has just announced it was now replaced by an update to Stretch (Debian 9). The Jessie version is completely gone from Raspbian Download page, and you’ll only be offered to download “Raspbian Stretch with Desktop” or “Raspbian Stretch Lite”. So what has changed compared to Jessie? Debian 9 changelog will list the main differences compared to Debian 8, but some modifications have also been made in Raspbian itself: Version 3.0.1 of Sonic Pi “Live Coding Music Synth” app – See changelog Chrome 60 stable with improved memory usage and more efficient code Bluetooth audio is supported by the bluez-alsa package by default instead of PulseAudio Better handling of “non-pi users”, as previously many applications assumed […]

August 17, 2017 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 3 Comments

NutsBoard Pistachio 3.5″ Embedded SBC is Powered by NXP i.MX 6Dual/Quad Processor

I don’t write about i.MX6 solutions much anymore, since there are so many options available on the market, but Pistachio SBC has been designed by a company I had never heard of before: NutsBoard, and they’ve released documentation and software publicly, which does not always happen in the industrial/embedded space. Pistachio single board computer specifications: SoC – NXP ARM Cortex-A9 IMX6 Quad/Dual @ 800MHz System Memory – Up to 2GB LPDDR3 Storage – 4GB eMMC flash, 1x SATA interface, 1x micro SD card slot Display I/F / Video Output 2x LVDS (6 or 8 bit) 1x 24-bit VGA output 1x HDMI port up to 1920×1080 (FHD) 1x I2C AR1021 touch controller Audio – SGTL5000 audio codec with class D amplifier; 1x audio header for speaker and microphone Connectivity – Gigabit Ethernet (Qualcomm AR8035), industrial grade wireless module (Jorjin WG7833) with dual band WiFi 802.11 a/b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.2 USB – 4x […]

August 10, 2017August 10, 2017 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 20 Comments

VoltaStream ZERO NXP i.MX6ULL Linux Audio Board Follows Raspberry Pi Zero Form Factor

Back in 2013. Philip came with the idea of designing a development board for audio application, and after various experiments with off-the shelf Raspberry Pi boards and audio DACs, he founded PolyVection company, and started designing the board. Forwarding to today, he has completed his work and introduced VoltaStream ZERO to the world, a board based on NXP i.MX6ULL processor with 512MB or 1GB RAM, and a choice of Texas Instruments DAC. It also follows Raspberry Pi Zero form factor, like the upcoming Banana Pi BPI-M2 Zero board. VoltaStream ZERO specifications: SoC – NXP i.MX6ULL ARM Cortex-A7 processor @ 996 MHz System Memory – 512 MB or 1 GB DDR3 Storage – micro SD card slot Audio 1x I2S for integrated DAC, 1x I2S for GPIO access, 1x S/PDIF header / TOSLINK jack Analog DAC – Texas Instruments PCM5121 (106 dB) or PCM5142 (112 dB) USB – 1x micro USB […]