ubuntu News - Page 171 of 187 - CNX Software

February 5, 2013 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 5 Comments

Atmel Introduces SAMA5D3 Cortex A5 Embedded MPUs and Evaluation Kits

Atmel has recently announced the Atmel SAMA5D3 series, a family of high performance, low-power microprocessor units (MPUs) based on ARM Cortex-A5 core. The SAMA5D3 series is designed for embedded applications in the industrial space, including factory and building automation, smart grid, medical and handheld terminals, as well as consumer applications such as smart watches, outdoor GPS, and DECT phones. SAMA5D3 family has the following characteristics: ARM Cortex-A5 core up to 536MHz (850DMIPS). Floating point unit (FPU) with up to 3 times the performance of Cortex A8 FPU. 166MHz bus speed delivering up to 1328MB/s bandwidth. Power consumption: <200mW in active mode at 536MHz with all peripherals activated 0.5mW in low-power mode with SRAM, registers retention and <0.5ms wake-up time ~1.2µA in backup mode with RTC running Connectivity: Dual Ethernet and dual CAN ports (Only one model has both) Gigabit Ethernet MAC with IEEE1588 and 10/100 MAC Two CAN controllers 3x […]

February 1, 2013February 1, 2013 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 2 Comments

Linaro 13.01 Release with Linux Kernel 3.8 and Android 4.2.1

Linaro has just announced release 13.01 which includes Linux Kernel 3.8-rc4 and Android 4.2.1. A lot of work seems to have gone in Arndale board and OpenEmbedded ARMv8. It’s the first time an Ubuntu image is released for Arndale Cortex A15 development board. One the kernel side some Android upstreaming work has been done, as well as some fixes for eMMC, and code for ST Ericsson Novathor 8500 SoC has been reorganized. Version 14 of the big.LITTLE MP (Multi Processing) has been released. The LEG has done further work on Linaro UEFI and GRUB. Here are the highlights of this release: Android Platform Work The first step of the android-build front-end update for new build program has been landed. Origen and Versatile Express manifests have been consolidated into a single manifest. linaro-android-tools were developed to improve development time for kernel developers. See Kernel Update Tools for details. The android-build scripts […]

January 31, 2013March 21, 2013 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 7 Comments

ARM MCU Development in Linux with Energy Micro’s Simplicity Studio, Eclipse, and CodeSourcery Toolchain

Quite a few months ago, I received an Energy Micro EFM32 Tiny Gecko Starter Kit, but I haven’t done much with it. But recently I saw a tweet from EnergyMicro about Simplicity Studio supports for Ubuntu, and I know it can be problematic to find proper tools for ARM MCU development in Linux, so I decided to give it a try. The first part is about Simplicity Studio, and energyAwareTools which are specific to Energy Micro, but the second part deals with setting up Eclipse and CodeSourcery ARM toolchain for MCU development which should be reusable for other MCUs from vendors such as Texas Instruments, NXP and STMicro. I’ve used a PC running Ubuntu 12.04 64-bit with the instructions below. Installing Simplicity Studio and energyAwareTools in Ubuntu Simplicity Studio is part of the 4 steps of the getting started guide with EFM32 MCUs. It has been available for Linux for […]

January 28, 2013January 28, 2013 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 2 Comments

Google Drive Integration in Ubuntu with Insync

There are several ways to get cloud storage in Ubuntu, and access it from Nautilus with products such as Ubuntu One or Dropbox. But if you’re running out of space with those services, you may also consider using your Google Drive account with Insync (Beta). Here’s how I’ve installed the latest version (0.9.35) in Ubuntu 12.04 64-bit:

wget http://s.insynchq.com/builds/insync-beta-ubuntu_0.9.35_amd64.deb
sudo dpkg -i insync-beta-ubuntu_0.9.35_amd64.deb
sudo apt-get install xdotool python-nautilus
sudo apt-get install -f

wget http://s.insynchq.com/builds/insync-beta-ubuntu_0.9.35_amd64.deb

sudo dpkg -i insync-beta-ubuntu_0.9.35_amd64.deb

sudo apt-get install xdotool python-nautilus

sudo apt-get install -f

At this point, reboot or restart nautilus (“nautilus -q” in a terminal window). I’ve then used Dash to launch Insynq. This just launched insync website, and allowed me to register my Google Drive account. You should now see Insynq shows up in your home folder. It may be a good idea to add it as a bookmark as well. At this point, you should realize something is not working that well since Insync does not show in the contextual menu. That’s because you need to run insync manually in a terminal window, […]

January 26, 2013March 28, 2013 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 9 Comments

Raspberry Pi Now Has Experimental Support for VP6, VP8, MJPEG and Ogg Theora Video Codecs

The guys working on the Raspberry Pi (mainly dom) have added preliminary support for VP6, VP8, MJPEG, and Ogg Theora free video codecs, as well as Ogg Vorbis audio codec. Unlike H.264, MPEG-2 and VC1, those are not handled by the hardware video decoder in Broadcom BCM2835 processor, but are accelerated by the Videocore GPU. This means that only SD (and possibly 720p) videos are supported for those codecs. The best way to get support is probably to patiently wait for the Raspberry Pi foundation to release a new Raspbian image, but in case you couldn’t possibly wait, here are the steps to follow: Download and run Hexxeh’s rpi-update script in the Raspberry Pi in order to get the very latest build:

wget https://github.com/Hexxeh/rpi-update/raw/master/rpi-update
chmod 755 rpi-update
sudo ./rpi-update

wget https://github.com/Hexxeh/rpi-update/raw/master/rpi-update

chmod 755 rpi-update

sudo ./rpi-update

Add the following two lines to /boot/config.txt:

start_file=start_x.elf
fixup_file=fixup_x.elf

1 2	start_file=start_x.elf fixup_file=fixup_x.elf

Reboot the Raspberry Pi The GPU firmware is now updated, but you still need the latest version of omxplayer. […]

January 23, 2013January 23, 2013 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 24 Comments

How to Access the Serial Console in HI802 / GK802 mini PC

One of the advantage of HiAPad Hi802 (aka Zealz GK802) is that it provides access to UART and I2C pins via through holes on the board. UART4 Tx and Rx pins give you access to the serial console which is a must for bootloader (U-boot), and kernel development or for debugging. The first thing is the open the casing and locate the debug pins on the board. The very best way is probably to solder a pin header, but since I don’t have header, nor soldering iron, I’ve done it the “MacGyver” way with 3 wires connected to TxD, RxD and GND, and some sticky tape. You can now insert the other side of the wires into your USB to TLL debug board (GND <-> GND, Tx <-> Rx, and Rx <-> Tx), and connect it to your Windows or Linux PC. The serial board should be recognized as a […]

January 20, 2013January 20, 2013 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 7 Comments

PicUntu – Rockchip RK3066 Linux Distribution for mini PCs (UG802, MK808, …)

Many people are using RK3066 mini PCs because they currently offer the best performance to cost ratio, but until now they were mainly limited to Android Jelly Bean, although there was some preliminary port of Ubuntu available for the devices. Now, this preliminary port has become a specific Linux distribution for Rockchip RK3066 PCs-on-a-stick called PicUntu, which is based on Ubuntu 12.10, and can optionally support Xfce or Gnome desktop environments. This distribution is known to work on UG802 and MK808, but should also work on some other RK3066 mini PCs such as iMito MX1. The latest version is Picuntu 0.9 RC 2.2, and features such as WiFi, Ethernet, HDMI audio, USB webcam are known to work, What you won’t get, however, is hardware video decoding and GPU support since Rockchip does not provide the relevant binary files for Linux, but this does not seem to stop the developers from […]

January 16, 2013January 19, 2013 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 4 Comments

DaVinci Movile Kite Full-HD Tablet Boots Android and Ubuntu

DaVinci Mobile, an Italian company, has just announced a Samsung Exynos 4412 quad core tablet running Android 4.0 (ICS) and Ubuntu 12.04 Precise that should sell for 373 Euros in Italy, or just 29 Euros with a subscription. The specifications of this tablet are as follows: SoC – Samsung Exynos Quad-Core Cortex A9 processor @ 1.4 Ghz + Quad-Core Mali-400MP GPU System Memory – 2GB DDR3 Storage – 32GB flash + microSD card socket Display – 10.1 “IPS Multi-touch Capacitive Panel (1920×1200) with a viewing angle of 178 ° Connectivity Wi-Fi – 82.11 b/g/n Bluetooth 4.0 GPS- A-GPS Sensors – Gyroscope Camera – VGA front camera, 2.0 MP rear camera USB – miniUSB port Audio I/O – 3.5 mm jack for headphones Battery – 5400mAh 3.7V Weight – 539g Dimensions – 258.3x164x9.5mm The hardware specifications appear to perfectly match Ramos W30HD tablet, sold for less than $300 on Chinese websites […]