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Post by mc10guru on Aug 31, 2021 15:43:05 GMT
Ahoy, I own an Orange Pi PC. This sytem has almost the same specs as the Tauon PC-1 starting at the processor. I have 2 op sys I use on the OPi PC: 1) Lubuntu 16.04 Xenial Xerus K5.04 (slow internet, browser, video) 2) Armbian 10 Buster LXDE (works ok but slow) After trying Engine BASIC on Orange Pi PC H3 and finding it works on the Tauon I decided to try my Linux versions on it. I started with the Armbian 10 system first. Put the card in, turned on the Tauon PC-1 and in about a minute I logged on and went to the LXDE desktop I have installed on Armbian. I will do some testing today and see how well it functions and let everyone know. No one is more surprised than me that it booted right up. I will try Lubuntu another time. So if you want to use Linux in addition to Tauon OS this seems like an EZ way to get it. Just go to Armbian website. Click on downloads and choose the Orange Pi PC as the board. After download burn it to a card (using your favorite program (I use Etcher) then boot it up. The default desktop seems to be XFCE but I prefer LXDE so I installed that. As usual try this at your own risk, YMMV, not responsible for lost data, explosions, etc. Good luck and I hope someone finds this useful. DaveyB
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Post by mc10guru on Sept 2, 2021 22:25:58 GMT
Ahoy, After fiddling with Armbian Buster these are my initial impressions:
Performance of Armbian 10 Buster w/LXDE for the OPi PC (H3 soc w/Mali 400 GPU) running on the Tauon PC-1: Most things work as expected although it is about as sluggish as it was on the OPi PC, usable but no speed demon. I set the resolution at 720P to match the monitor native resolution. This seems to speed up the graphics somewhat.
Armbian runs the Tauon much cooler than Tauon OS: Temp w/no fan: ~41-48 High 53 Lo 40 Temp w/fan speed 2 (of 13) 38-41 High 47 Lo (overnite) 34 (Ambient Temp about 23dC).
Things that do not work right: 1) It does not detect the WiFi adapter so I use Ethernet only. (The OPi PC does not have onboard wireless)
2) On the Craig 19" it appears that sound won't play though HDMI even though the mixer says all is OK. When the LG 24" monitor is available I'll test it on that. It uses ALSA w/o Pulseaudio (sound works on OPi PC)
3) Two of the Debian repositories fail to link. This seems to be an Armbian problem. These missing repositories caused some parts of VLC to fail to install. In turn that caused it to fail to configure during install so VLC failed to play any files. I'll try mplayer next.
4) Video at Youtube (Chromium or Firefox) is slow at anything over 480P. 720P is acceptable but 1080P is unwatchable (same as the OPi PC)
All in all it seems to be usable for basic things. It could work better with some TLC. That's all for now, daveyb
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Post by hentacler on Sept 3, 2021 0:01:59 GMT
Hey. If, for some reason, you want WiFi working, you need to add this driver to your kernel: github.com/fifteenhex/xradio.gitThere is a small chance that it is already there though. Also you need to compile/use this dts (no chance WiFi will work without it): /dts-v1/; #include "sun8i-h3.dtsi" #include "sunxi-common-regulators.dtsi"
#include <dt-bindings/gpio/gpio.h> #include <dt-bindings/input/input.h>
/ { model = "Tauon PC-1"; compatible = "tauon,pc-1", "allwinner,sun8i-h3";
aliases { ethernet0 = &emac; ethernet1 = &xr819; serial0 = &uart0; };
chosen { stdout-path = "serial0:115200n8"; };
connector { compatible = "hdmi-connector"; type = "a";
port { hdmi_con_in: endpoint { remote-endpoint = <&hdmi_out_con>; }; }; };
leds { compatible = "gpio-leds";
status_led { label = "tauon:blue:pwr"; gpios = <&pio 0 15 GPIO_ACTIVE_HIGH>; #default-state = "on"; #linux,default-trigger = "heartbeat"; linux,default-trigger = "pattern"; led-pattern = <0 5000 1 50>; };
pwr_led { label = "tauon:red:status"; gpios = <&r_pio 0 10 GPIO_ACTIVE_HIGH>; linux,default-trigger = "mmc0"; }; };
reg_vdd_cpux: vdd-cpux-regulator { compatible = "regulator-gpio"; regulator-name = "vdd-cpux"; regulator-type = "voltage"; regulator-boot-on; regulator-always-on; regulator-min-microvolt = <980000>; regulator-max-microvolt = <1300000>; regulator-ramp-delay = <50>; /* 4ms */
gpios = <&r_pio 0 6 GPIO_ACTIVE_HIGH>; /* PL6 */ enable-active-high; gpios-states = <0x1>; states = <1100000 0>, <1300000 1>; };
reg_vcc_wifi: reg_vcc_wifi { compatible = "regulator-fixed"; regulator-min-microvolt = <3300000>; regulator-max-microvolt = <3300000>; regulator-name = "vcc-wifi"; gpio = <&r_pio 0 7 GPIO_ACTIVE_HIGH>; startup-delay-us = <70000>; enable-active-high; };
wifi_pwrseq: wifi_pwrseq { compatible = "mmc-pwrseq-simple"; reset-gpios = <&r_pio 0 0 GPIO_ACTIVE_LOW>; post-power-on-delay-ms = <200>; }; };
&cpu0 { cpu-supply = <®_vdd_cpux>; };
&de { status = "okay"; };
&ehci0 { status = "okay"; };
&ehci1 { status = "okay"; };
&emac { phy-handle = <&int_mii_phy>; phy-mode = "mii"; allwinner,leds-active-low; status = "okay"; };
&hdmi { status = "okay"; };
&hdmi_out { hdmi_out_con: endpoint { remote-endpoint = <&hdmi_con_in>; }; };
&mmc0 { vmmc-supply = <®_vcc3v3>; bus-width = <4>; cd-gpios = <&pio 5 6 GPIO_ACTIVE_LOW>; /* PF6 */ status = "okay"; };
&mmc1_pins { bias-pull-up; };
&mmc1 { pinctrl-names = "default"; /* pinctrl-0 = <&mmc1_pins>; */ vmmc-supply = <®_vcc_wifi>; mmc-pwrseq = <&wifi_pwrseq>; bus-width = <4>; non-removable; status = "okay";
/* * Explicitly define the sdio device, so that we can add an ethernet * alias for it (which e.g. makes u-boot set a mac-address). */ xr819: sdio_wifi@1 { reg = <1>; compatible = "xradio,xr819"; interrupt-parent = <&pio>; interrupts = <0 11 IRQ_TYPE_EDGE_RISING>; interrupt-names = "host-wake"; //local-mac-address = [dc 44 6d c0 ff ee]; }; };
&ohci0 { status = "okay"; };
&ohci1 { status = "okay"; };
®_usb0_vbus { gpio = <&r_pio 0 2 GPIO_ACTIVE_HIGH>; /* PL2 */ status = "okay"; };
&uart0 { pinctrl-names = "default"; pinctrl-0 = <&uart0_pa_pins>; status = "okay"; };
&uart1 { pinctrl-names = "default"; pinctrl-0 = <&uart1_pins>; status = "okay"; };
&uart2 { pinctrl-names = "default"; pinctrl-0 = <&uart2_pins>; status = "disabled"; };
&uart3 { pinctrl-names = "default"; pinctrl-0 = <&uart3_pins>; status = "disabled"; };
&usb_otg { dr_mode = "otg"; status = "okay"; };
&usbphy { /* USB Type-A port's VBUS is always on */ usb0_id_det-gpios = <&pio 6 12 GPIO_ACTIVE_HIGH>; /* PG12 */ usb0_vbus-supply = <®_usb0_vbus>; status = "okay"; };
&mali { //assigned-clock-rates = <384000000>; assigned-clock-rates = <576000000>; };
Small comment regarding last lines: Here we set GPU clock rate. Before some kernel version (I don't remember exact value) around 5.8-5.10 default clock rate was 384MHz, but the GPU is able to work fine on 576MHz. So in newest kernel versions they changed the rate to 576Mhz. If you have a really fresh kernel, you don't need that block. But if you use older kernel, you might want to leave it to increase performance. This only applies for sure to the mainline kernel. Not sure what armbians use.
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Post by mc10guru on Sept 3, 2021 1:04:51 GMT
Thanks, My compile skills are rustier than my 1998 Dakota pickup. Last time I compiled a kernal was about the year that truck was built and my main computer system ran eComStation OS/2 V4.55 (my longest uptime was 11 mos & 29 days until a power failure). I'm fine using ethernet but that leaves it in my test/work area (bedroom) and not my comfy spot (dinette w/table). My Armbian Buster build is using a kernal about 5.6.X IIRC. I'm finding out that these H3 SBCs all seem so similar in specs that almost anything for one works on another. What runs on the Tauon PC-1 runs on the OPi PC runs on the Libre ALL-H3-CC Tritium. Its just the subtle differences that change things. Proof of this is EngineBASIC NG boots on all those boards. So when I get time I'll try a few other H3 Armbian builds and see what works, maybe one will click with the WiFi. The only thing is I prefer LXDE to XFCE so I get the basic CLI build then install LXDE to it. And sound in Linux is always a PAT process: Pray-Adjust-Test... It is all not too important to me as I have too many Linux systems and want to spend more time in Tauon OS. It was mostly a proof of concept test. If someone can find a use for it on the Tauon then it's worth it daveyb
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Post by hentacler on Sept 3, 2021 10:05:24 GMT
Ye, H3 SBCs are mostly the same. But they may have different hardware present and, unlike desktop PCs, ARM boards can't detect and configure that hardware themselves. That is why we need dts files (that are later compiled to dtb files). Some time ago I made mainline kernel and dts for tauon. And also u-boot config. If you have that much, it is relatively easy to install any linux distribution (that supports ARM), any environment etc.
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Post by mc10guru on Sept 6, 2021 18:51:50 GMT
Ahoy, Well Lubuntu 16.04 Xenial Kernel 5.3.5. for the OPi PC also boots and runs on the Tauon PC-1. It runs slowly but better overall than Armbian did. I tried sound and it works (using Pulseaudio) unlike Armbian (using straight ALSA). Once again it needs the wireless support added but ethernet works fine. I have to say that this is the Linux distro I'd use on the Tauon. So I'm posting this from Lubuntu on the Tauon PC-1. Now to update it. daveyb Attachments:
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Post by hentacler on Sept 10, 2021 6:18:33 GMT
Hardware 3d acceleration should work too, even with Orange Pi images. Linux version of Homeworld (pretty good old game) runs with decent FPS. I also tried to run Doki Doki Literature Club (visual novel) and it works fine too, utilizing hardware 3d. You can also launch OpenArena (quake-like game), minetest (minecraft clone), Neverwinter Nights (using box86), but, unfortunately, FPS is around 10-20. Wine runs too (using box86 again) and allows to launch Windows apps and some old Windows games with some DirectX. Unfortunatly, box86 + wine combo is very unstable and most apps don't even start. I also have rooted android smartphone with USB Type-C hub that supports HDMI, keyboard and mouse. Linux distros run pretty good on it. Just a little bit less comfortable than real PC. But linux distros on android phones generally lack hardware 3d and lose to Tauons in this aspect. I managed to get more or less working Vulkan acceleration on my particular phone, but it is not very useful.
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