Puppy Linux Discussion Forum

[technosaurus]

I never saw anything about rca out, but many older/cheaper TVs have an rca input but no hdmi ... the big issue there would be fixing the various GUIs to work at such a low resolution.

[Geoffrey]

[technosaurus]

rob's tools may be helpful to bootstrap a build environment
http://landley.net/code/aboriginal/downloads/binaries/cross-compiler-armv6l.tar.bz2
http://landley.net/code/aboriginal/downloads/binaries/system-image-armv6l.tar.bz2
http://landley.net/code/aboriginal/downloads/binaries/root-filesystem/native-compiler-armv6l.tar.bz2
http://landley.net/code/aboriginal/downloads/binaries/root-filesystem/simple-root-filesystem-armv6l.tar.bz2
http://landley.net/code/aboriginal/downloads/binaries/root-filesystem/root-filesystem-armv6l.tar.bz2
http://landley.net/code/aboriginal/downloads/binaries/extras/lfs-bootstrap.tar.gz-armv6l

[darkcity]

[don570]

I followed a link at the raspberry site and found this....

[technosaurus]

There are plenty of ARM bootloaders already, but why bother if you don't plan to run multiple distros... unless you just like waiting for extra stuff to load so you can reminisce about your blissful windows days.

[sickgut]

there are plenty of android tablets out there that boot from a sdhc card slot when you wanna run linux, the BIOS just knows to try to boot from the sdhc card if its inserted, before it boots off the internal storage. There is no bootloader required on the sdhc card to get it to work, it boot from a FAT32 partition and then the root fs is either contained within a file or covers the rest of the sdhc card as a ext2 partition.

Im posting this info because this is very similar to how the raspberry behaves, i dont know if these android tablets are booting from a GPU tho. No bootloaders required anyway....

[nooby]

I've heard that those Androids that boot from a Smartphone or
from a Tablet that have GPRS on it first boot up the radio cirquit
and then it boots the ordinary software that we are used to.

The code for booting the radio is proprietary and if you don't
boot the radio then you fail to boot the linux code too.

But that is only my poor recollection of somethign that was way
over my head. But it is worth looking into.

It at least apply to most tablets with sim cards and GPRS in them
unless them are built in a different way. Maybe them are.
But most such things most likely need to be jailbreaked first?

Unless one can do as some smartphones. One are told how to
cold start them like the repair person does it to load new software
into them. But then one must find somebody that know such for
each model. What buttons to hold down and exactly what to do next.

[Lobster]

Some ideas
http://youtu.be/OIRox_x-LUo

Some tools
http://www.learn-c.com/

Personally I think I might have to finally develop ASQ . . .
http://peace.wikia.com/wiki/ASQ

What is your planned project?

[sickgut]

I am worried about the HDMI only output that the raspberry uses for its display....

I have no hdmi capable TV or Monitor........

Maybe there are others like me. If i can find a HDMI to normal VGA convertor or svideo or video rca lead the kind an old home dvd or vhs player has, then maybe we can post here a link to an online store that sells these.

right now, if i had a raspberry... i wouldnt be able to use it....

ill scan the raspberry site to see if the hdmi to vga adaptor is an option or if they recommend any particular connector... maybe a usb capture device with hdmi input will be enough for users to see stuff on their laptop screen or desktop screen while running......

[666philb]

ooops

[technosaurus]

Max resolution for the composite video is 720x576 pal(eu) or 720x480 ntsc(us)
This is aka RCA or "yellow plug"

I suspect many standard televisions won't support the max though... need to figure out what "standard" tv resolution is. In the mean time it would be a good idea to fix various apps to work in 640x480x16

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_video_connectors

[starhawk]

Been over there trying to figure that one out myself. IIRC I figured out a way to output video at base VGA using 74xx chips and a resistor ladder, but it would cost more than the Pi itself and you'd only get 640x480. You'd also be limited to CRT monitors built in the 1990's -- the kind of monitors that could genuinely deal with a fixed resolution like that!

Oh, right, and you'd be soldering for a couple /days/... hope you like lead fumes

So I threw out the partial schematic. Good for starting the woodstove, but not much else, lol. I could do higher resolutions if someone wanted to tell me of a very inexpensive source of 74xx chips rated to be at least twice as fast (more is better here) than a standard 74HCxx.

Problem in a nutshell is this: the SoC (System On Chip, sorta like a CPU that does everything else as well) that they picked out has no analog video output whatsoever. So yes you can convert the /connectors/ from HDMI->DVI->VGA but you're still going to be just as stuck -- and you'll have wasted between $7 and $10 to boot!

AFAIK (and believe me, I've tried to think of everything else!) the ONLY way to get analog video (VGA, DVI-A, etc.) is using a "scan converter" that costs more than the Pi -- you'll shell out at least $30 for the converter, and the Pi is supposed to cost $25 (well, they do have a $35 option with twice the RAM... but I'm not sure that counts).

[nooby]

Heheh the Pi cost 25$ while the Monitor for it costs say at least
ten times as much if you are lucky to find a Sales version?
I was that lucky I have a Samsung monitor named T200HD
which have two HDMI inputs? and it is about 19 or 20 inch or so.

[raffy]

Over at the R-Pi forum, people say that used DVI monitors are cheap.

And when a large VGA monitor or VGA projector can't be found, I use VGA-TV converter. Now I won't have to do that with the R-Pi.