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Post by hentacler on May 10, 2020 21:20:30 GMT
As already said, SD card is a bottleneck. Btrfs filesystem that is currently used in our tauon.img has parameter called "commit". It says how often (in seconds) to write data to SD card (to do sync). Before this sync is done, data that is supposed to be stored in persistent storage, only stored in RAM. High value may cause data loss in case of power loss or improper device shutdown. But it seems that low value is terrifyingly bad for SD cards. Default value is 30 seconds. In our tauon.img value is 5 seconds and I don't think it is acceptable. Restoring it to 30 makes applications start 3 times faster (really). But we can go even further and set it to 300. With such value performance is really much better. But we will always need to shutdown device properly. Or we can use simple command "sync" to force data commit at any time. After this command exits, it should be safe to turn off device in any way... But who knows...
You can choose your value by editing "/etc/fstab" and rebooting device.
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Agrax
New Member
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Post by Agrax on May 24, 2020 20:04:17 GMT
Installed Fedora. Works perfect, much better and faster than Android, especially with fast SD card.
If it could be installed directly on Tauon, it would be great.
Unfortunately I am just a user on the Linux not much of a developer and not much time to start at the moment.
But adding a package manager and "Software Manager" like in Linux Mint, would be a great advantage over Android OS as it is now. Besides, Android is primarily developed for phones not for such pretty little machines.
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Post by jonrobertson on May 27, 2020 8:40:03 GMT
My understanding from the blog is that the PC-1 was developed as an educational/learning computer. One of the primary QA staff is a young boy.  For that audience, Android is certainly better than a "typical" Linux distro. That's also why smart phones and many (non-Apple) tablets have Android installed. I've played with Linux off and on since 1991, when someone in college showed it to me. I've used it on-the-job for specific tasks. (One of those was setting up bugzilla for an internal bug tracking system.) I've also played with various distros and Linux desktops through the years. But even as a "power user" and software developer, I still prefer the user friendliness of Windows or Mac OS X. Recently, I set up a web server on a Raspberry Pi 4 using Raspbian 10 (Buster). I suspect that I've used Linux more in the past month than I did in the previous 29 years. One of the strengths, but also weaknesses (especially for me), of Linux is that various distros are configured so differently. Even sticking with a specific distro (in my case, Debian, and Raspbian, which is built from Debian), things change quickly. There are tons of articles and posts on "how to" do things in Raspbian that are now out of date. I ran into that several times, and the information posted was often less than 2 years old. IMO, most Linux distros are definitely not suited for your typical end user or for an educational/learning computer. That's why most big box stores don't sell computers with Linux pre-installed on them. |
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Post by jonrobertson on May 27, 2020 8:46:44 GMT
But adding a package manager and "Software Manager" like in Linux Mint, would be a great advantage over Android OS as it is now. Besides, Android is primarily developed for phones not for such pretty little machines. I haven't tried out the Fedora image yet (still on my to-do list, ugh...). However, Fedora does have a package manager. Prior to Fedora 22, it used yum. Fedora 22 and later use dnf. Fedora Package Management System
If you're able to run X and a GUI desktop, there is a GUI front-end for the package manager. How to Find and Install Software Applications in Fedora Linux |
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Post by hentacler on May 31, 2020 11:17:24 GMT
I haven't tried out the Fedora image yet (still on my to-do list, ugh...) Don't worry! After five years in this, I know very well that most people who are interested in Linux are only interested in chatting about Linux. They don't want to spend time learning or trying something. I don't fool myself thinking that someone will read my guides and try proposed solutions. |
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Post by heydiho on May 31, 2020 13:15:43 GMT
Ha ha, you are right, but the learning curve is steep and there is only so many hours in the day:). Also, your image works well out and booted straight up, so why build from scratch? Well, that is exactly your point, I guess. I also played with the Fedora 32 btrfs setting. Firefox sometimes had trouble with youtube, but was OK for less intensive sites.
Your guide did get me reading about basic things to build from scratch (your guide was a very good overview for a noob like me) like what Das U-boot was, and the Sunxi linux wiki.
Hentacler, Admin says if I ask really nicely, you can get Termux working on Tauon OS. It doesn't install properly. It will download, but when trying to install, it says: “Error, can’t load bootstrap”. It is a killer app for me on android. Would you be able to help this? It is a nice bridge between two worlds. Do you know of this issue?
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Post by hentacler on May 31, 2020 14:55:05 GMT
Not sure I can see any reason to use Termux... If our android device is rooted (Tauons are rooted by default), we can use any full linux desktop distribution. I have Fedora on my smartphone too. It looks something like this (you may want to skip first 2 minutes - it was mega laggy before I turned off OpenGL compositing): www.youtube.com/watch?v=tOSFYxCF7Q8Termux's main advantage was that it doesn't require root. But after latest security updates from Google, such is no longer possible. Termux is already killed and it only still works on some devices because it is compiled with old deprecated API level targeted. |
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Post by dponyatov on Jun 16, 2020 13:56:13 GMT
1) `Buildroot` (or Yocto) should be used to build custom Linux system (w/o packages for the first time)
2) the main problem is AllWinner, never do next PC-2 with anything else i.MX -- other vendors are covered by NDA, no video, no GPU, no good guy support
2a) build it with latest Raspberry Pi, all compatibility problems will be solved off the shelf
3) cross-compiling from Linux host, any user can clone build scripts, run `make kernelconfig`, select needed options, and rebuild from scratch
4) netboot over Ethernet for development and generic use, and optionally burn to SD card for end-user
5) needs a community for throw-end games development for native ARM embedded Linux (no-emu)
PS: $99 price looks good for mass using as thin terminals, and throw-end office workers, going to buy one Tau for tests next months
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Post by mscdex on Jul 2, 2021 7:10:56 GMT
Are the u-boot device config, kernel config, and dts files that are currently working with the PC-1 available anywhere? I checked the Fedora image and didn't find any copies of those in there. I'm interested in getting a buildroot setup working but it would be helpful to not have to duplicate existing work.
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For that audience, Android is certainly better than a "typical" Linux distro. That's also why smart phones and many (non-Apple) tablets have Android installed.