Surfboard x86

[alas]

@ttuuxxx/pskin:

thanks both for the great work. I did test the xdelta patch, which works perfectly well on the gecko edubook and on the surfboard until two limitations (which are not related with the patch in itself):

X: the rdc utility works, but I am unable to get a display on my beamer (optoma ep729);

wireless: the 8712u module is present, seems to be loaded at boot, but does not work for the built-in wireless of the surfboard (edubook not tested since I don't have bought a built-in wireless). I compiled the module from the location pskin indicates; the module does compile (with the kernel sources), but same result.

I am happy to report that the edubook as well as the surfboard shut down properly. The rdc driver for X works, as well as sound (which I got working already while compiling the drivers from deviceonchip).

Thanks much for that, happy new year to everyone.
al

[alas]

correction for the surfboard:

wireless module not loaded, even if its there - trying with modprobe returns 'module not found'

lsmod
Module Size Used by
parport_pc 29828 0
lp 9476 0
parport 34508 2 parport_pc,lp
snd_pcm_oss 37440 0
snd_seq_dummy 2608 0
snd_seq_oss 27648 0
snd_seq_midi_event 6892 1 snd_seq_oss
snd_seq 48464 5 snd_seq_dummy,snd_seq_oss,snd_seq_midi_event
snd_seq_device 6968 3 snd_seq_dummy,snd_seq_oss,snd_seq
snd_mixer_oss 15820 1 snd_pcm_oss
battery 10032 0
arc4 1612 2
ecb 2508 2
snd_hda_codec_realtek 193584 1
snd_hda_intel 24264 0
rtl8187 52496 0
snd_hda_codec 64620 2 snd_hda_codec_realtek,snd_hda_intel
mac80211 166056 1 rtl8187
eeprom_93cx6 1964 1 rtl8187
snd_pcm 72496 3 snd_pcm_oss,snd_hda_intel,snd_hda_codec
cfg80211 64972 2 rtl8187,mac80211
snd_timer 20340 2 snd_seq,snd_pcm
apm 16808 1
snd 56516 10 snd_pcm_oss,snd_seq_oss,snd_seq,snd_seq_device,snd_mixer_oss,snd_hda_codec_realtek,snd_hda_intel,snd_hda_codec,snd_pcm,snd_timer
evdev 9472 0
soundcore 6912 1 snd
serio_raw 5168 0
snd_page_alloc 8852 2 snd_hda_intel,snd_pcm
pcspkr 2284 0
r6040 12012 0
mii 5004 1 r6040
fuse 53800 0
aufs 137092 1
nls_iso8859_1 3724 0
nls_cp437 5356 0
usbhid 26112 0
usb_storage 51584 1
squashfs 22928 6
ohci_hcd 23900 0
ssb 43604 1 ohci_hcd
ehci_hcd 32856 0
usbcore 138160 6 rtl8187,usbhid,usb_storage,ohci_hcd,ehci_hcd
yenta_socket 23544 0
rsrc_nonstatic 11276 1 yenta_socket


/mnt/flash/puppy431packages/WifiSurfboard/rtl8712_8188_8191_8192SU_usb_linux_v2.6.0006.20100202/driver/rtl8712_8188_8191_8192SU_usb_linux_v2.6.0006.20100202/8712u.o
/mnt/flash/puppy431packages/WifiSurfboard/rtl8712_8188_8191_8192SU_usb_linux_v2.6.0006.20100202/driver/rtl8712_8188_8191_8192SU_usb_linux_v2.6.0006.20100202/8712u.mod.c
/mnt/flash/puppy431packages/WifiSurfboard/rtl8712_8188_8191_8192SU_usb_linux_v2.6.0006.20100202/driver/rtl8712_8188_8191_8192SU_usb_linux_v2.6.0006.20100202/.8712u.o.cmd
/mnt/flash/puppy431packages/WifiSurfboard/rtl8712_8188_8191_8192SU_usb_linux_v2.6.0006.20100202/driver/rtl8712_8188_8191_8192SU_usb_linux_v2.6.0006.20100202/8712u.ko
/mnt/flash/puppy431packages/WifiSurfboard/rtl8712_8188_8191_8192SU_usb_linux_v2.6.0006.20100202/driver/rtl8712_8188_8191_8192SU_usb_linux_v2.6.0006.20100202/.8712u.ko.cmd
/mnt/flash/puppy431packages/WifiSurfboard/rtl8712_8188_8191_8192SU_usb_linux_v2.6.0006.20100202/driver/rtl8712_8188_8191_8192SU_usb_linux_v2.6.0006.20100202/.8712u.mod.o.cmd
/mnt/flash/puppy431packages/WifiSurfboard/rtl8712_8188_8191_8192SU_usb_linux_v2.6.0006.20100202/driver/rtl8712_8188_8191_8192SU_usb_linux_v2.6.0006.20100202/.tmp_versions/8712u.mod
/mnt/flash/puppy431packages/WifiSurfboard/rtl8712_8188_8191_8192SU_usb_linux_v2.6.0006.20100202/driver/rtl8712_8188_8191_8192SU_usb_linux_v2.6.0006.20100202/8712u.mod.o
/initrd/pup_ro1/lib/modules/2.6.30.5/kernel/drivers/net/wireless/8712u.ko
/initrd/pup_ro2/lib/modules/2.6.30.5/kernel/drivers/net/wireless/8712u.ko
/lib/modules/2.6.30.5/kernel/drivers/net/wireless/8712u.ko

[pskin]

alas,
Thanks for your report. It's a pity about the wireless. When
I compiled it, I noticed a strange thing, that I could not load it using

Code: Select all

modprobe 8712u 

(after having issued depmod -a).
The error was 'module not found'.
However I could load it by

Code: Select all

insmod 8172u.ko

from the directory containing the module.
Maybe you could try this and see if it detects the card.

By the way, there will soon be an edubook remaster of Wary 5,
in which the rtl8188 driver is known to work for the edubooks with the
realtek adapter (presumably the same as the adapter in the surfboard?).

Please let me know if you ever find a module that works on the
edubook with that realtek adapter. It would be nice to have
a pup431 that works perfectly on all edubooks and surfboards.

Regards,
pskin

[pskin]

alas,
I noticed in your lsmod output that there is a driver
called rtl8187 loaded. I wonder what happens if you
blacklist this module?
(Setup-->wizard wizard-->configure startup of puppy-->blacklist a module)
Regards,
pskin

[pskin]

duplicate post deleted

[alas]

pskin,

thanks for your time - it works with insmode on the surfboard! the other module (rtl8187) was the one of my netgear wg111 usb dongle, I even did not blacklist it, and it works.

Many many thanks, that's a really great improvement for the surfboard. Now, last thing to solve would be the connection to a beamer with the vga port of the edubook. But it has time.

greetings,

al

[Aitch]

pskin
spotted your post of 2 weeks ago on the Edubook site, about somewhere to upload the 4.31 patch

http://www.deviceonchip.com/index.php?o ... &Itemid=85

If you still need somewhere, you could try dropbox, or mediafire

http://www.dropbox.com/

http://www.mediafire.com/

Dropbox linux page says it can be added to repos, whilst Mediafire you can upload without an account, but I'm not sure how anyone would know how to find them....
both are free upload sites

Aitch

[alas]

Hi all,

hereafter a short report on my tryings with lucid 5.2 and wary 5 on the surfboard:

Lucid 5.2 on surfboard: rdc driver not present, as it seems, or I can not find it from the xorgwizard; but networking is working, probably sound too;

~ EDIT: the rdc driver is not present because there is none working with xorg 7.5; networking and sound work.

Lucid 5.2 on gecko edubook: everything works out of the box, even X, and I don't understand why; I did not have time to check out xorg.conf, but shall do it asap; it probably uses the vesa driver.

~EDIT: yes, it does use the vesa driver -- and get the right resolution;


wary 5 on surfboard: almost everything works out of the box, but the wirless built-in dongle; the wireless device has been recognized and the module 8192s has been loaded, and I can scan the network, but can't connect via dhcp; I am using the driver 8712u on the surfboard with puppy 4.31 edubook edition, and it works like a charm.

wary 5 on the gecko edubook: everything ok, from X to sound, to poweroff. Wireless not tested since I don't have a built-in dongle on the edubook.

Short report, but more as I go on.

al

[kevin bowers]

A few things don't seem to work on mine. I posted the details on the Gecko thread: http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewto ... 3&start=15. 5.2 seems to be just a hair slower than 4.31, but still runs circles around anything else I've tried, and I've tried everything I could find or think of. Unless and until they make massive improvements in their processor I won't bother with a surfboard however much I like the concept.

[ttuuxxx]

double post

[ttuuxxx]

A few things don't seem to work on mine. I posted the details on the Gecko thread: http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewto ... 3&start=15. 5.2 seems to be just a hair slower than 4.31, but still runs circles around anything else I've tried, and I've tried everything I could find or think of. Unless and until they make massive improvements in their processor I won't bother with a surfboard however much I like the concept.

I also believe that the concept was good, just that the base memory should be doubled and the cpu could be 50% faster.
The best version of the concept is the new Commodore 64, It does circles around the Surfboard by its spec's, but will take much more power consumption. http://www.commodoreusa.net/CUSA_C64.aspx
But still I have hope that we will get the Surfboard running faster and better
I haven't had time to build a version yet. Barry is building a tiny linux version, this might just be an idea new base for Surfboard/OLPC and the rest of the newer smaller pc's.
ttuuxxx

[kevin bowers]

I am still of the opinion that the lack of internal cache memory is the major limitation of the Gecko, I assume the surfboard has the same problem. It isn't that it's too small, it lacks one completely, so that every last bit has to travel down the pipeline to the RAM, one at a time.

I shall have to check out the Commodore, my original 64 was stolen about 1981 or 2. It was my second home computer and actually had pretensions of being a useful machine!

[ttuuxxx]

Hi guys I went off the rocker and purchased a 500GB 2.5 Seagate sata for the surfboard and below are a few pictures of me installing it, I haven't tested it yet, just got to the point of partitioning it up and just started a frugal install of 432. I'll keep you informed on how it turns out
ttuuxxx

[ttuuxxx]

well The frugal install on the sata drive worked The reason why I purchased the drive was to see if it would speedup the surfboard and well guess what. Its just as slow as ever even with a 10GB swap partition.
Maybe I'll try Dpup on it.
ttuuxxx

[ttuuxxx]

I took the pup-431-edubook.iso and updated with the pup-431-edubook_update.delta that pskin made and uploaded the updated iso to http://www.smokey01.com/ttuuxxx/NorhTec ... pdated.iso
md5sum 85bee2db4622723b71da858ab9beba8d
this is the best version to date, but I'm still testing others.
ttuuxxx

[ttuuxxx]

pup-431-edubook_updated.iso is probably the best version around, its still slow and my kids can forget about playing club penguin on it, Its shocking how slow flash can actually move, but if your just surfing the net and are used to dialup, lol that's what it reminds me of, then your good.
Heck I find it a real shame I wasted like $270.00 AU on this, $200 for the pc/shipping/tv-out and $70 for 500GB sata drive, Hmmm anyone in Australia want a updated surfboard for $200Au with shipping included, heck I'll toss in the 500GB drive with puppy on it also

I just want to move on to my next pc project.
ttuuxxx