Puppy Linux Discussion Forum

ttuuxxx · Posted: Thu 02 Sep 2010, 09:19 Post subject: Surfboard x86

Ok I just purchased a Surfboard, it cost around $174 USD or $196AUD, here's the specs
CPU Fanless Xcore86 1Ghz “Device on Chip”
BIOS AMI BIOS
RAM 512MB DDR2 onboard
Storage 1 IDE for 2.5 inch internal, 2 x SD external
LAN 10/100 Mbps r6040 NIC
WIFI Optional WIFI module available (802.11 b/g)
3G Network Optional 3G module
Video Integrated 1280 x 1024 with 128 MB dedicated video RAM
VGA out, Composite out and SVHS out
Audio Hi Definition Audio, Stereo speaker, Digital Array Mic
Audio Jack Audio in and out
I/O Enhanced IDE Interface x1, USB 2.0 x 2, RS232 x 1
OS Microsoft Windows XP, Linux
.Surfboard
Power Consumption .5 watts
Per year 40.63 Kwatts
CO2 generated 30.31 pounds
Compared to gasoline 1.58 gallons

It took a bit to get it going on Wary 0.6, Its using xvesa driver so it running slow, sound isn't working externally, but the internal speaker is working with the 2 barks at startup, after that no sound because mplayer and pmusic doesn't work, it works fine online but mplayer just crashes when started.
Looks like it will take a bit of work to get this going, I have Wary installed on 32GB sd card that uses a sd/flash adapter.

below are some pic's, funny after I bought the surfboard I went out and bought a new desk for it Smile

also the speakers you see are ones I bought last week for the wii game system, I had to hack them to work on things because they were made to use the wii 2amp power supply, so basically I opened them up, removed the wii power supply plug and soldiered a 350ma 9v unregulated power adapter that was actually producing 12v. then I closed it up and gave it a test and boom it worked great Smile

Things to do list
compile new drivers, xorg, maybe alsa, mplayer or gxine. and continue testing.

ttuuxxx

Surboard website
http://www.xcore86.com/site/node/11

Lobster · Posted: Thu 02 Sep 2010, 09:52 Post subject:

Very nice Ttuuxxx.

I thought you were going sea surfing on a motherboard . . . pictures helped . . . Wink

Is the silver tube a subwoofer?

ttuuxxx · Posted: Thu 02 Sep 2010, 10:03 Post subject:

jemimah · Joined: 26 Aug 2009 Posts: 4309 Location: Tampa, FL

Can I trouble you for an lsmod? To get a better idea of the hardware...

ttuuxxx · Posted: Thu 02 Sep 2010, 10:14 Post subject:

jemimah · Joined: 26 Aug 2009 Posts: 4309 Location: Tampa, FL

Do you know what the video card is?

You can get a netbook for that price with better hardware - but it can't touch .5watts. Of course if you add a monitor, .5 watts goes out the window.

ttuuxxx · Posted: Thu 02 Sep 2010, 10:42 Post subject:

ttuuxxx · Posted: Thu 02 Sep 2010, 11:28 Post subject:

I think its this driver http://deviceonchip.com/index.php?option=com_rokdownloads&view=file&Itemid=27&id=58:rdc-xorg-driver-r0-0-9
but its getting late, I have to get up for work in 4 hrs.
I'll try again tomorrow, tonight was a good start.
ttuuxxx

jemimah · Joined: 26 Aug 2009 Posts: 4309 Location: Tampa, FL

I think you'll need a kernel driver too, yes?

alas · Joined: 20 Apr 2010 Posts: 19

Hi all, I am new to this forum and an enthusiast puppy fan. I have also ordered a surfboard, and I had the possibility to play with it and puppy linux 4.31 (gecko netbook edition). I would like to share my experience with you so far:

1. interesting features:

a. the keyboard is very light and compact, so I can imagine to use it on travel from home to the office almost like a netbook; it suits in my netbook travel case;

b. puppy 4.31 (gecko edubook edition) runs very well on the surfboard; sound (speakers out and mic) works out of the box, ethernet too.

c. hub supported, which extends the capabilities of the surfboard.

d. I keep the surfboard running during the last two days, and on the contrary to the gecko edubook, it does not become too hot, which is nice.

2. contra

a. wifi: I bought the surfboard with wifi built-in, which needs the driver rtl8188SU and the corresponding firmware; these are not in puppy 4.31; I tried to compile the driver using the archive provided by www.deviceonchip.com, but got a lot of issues... so I ended up using another usb dongle;

b. xorg: it needs the RDC driver (version 1.3) also provided on the web site of device on chip; the driver as just to be copied at /usr/lib/xorg/modules/drivers/; after that, reboot X and configure xorg; though what is anoying to me: I can't get the 1366x768 resolution that my monitor needs, and I am stucked with a 1024x768 resolution...

I think that the wifi trouble can be solved with Lupu 5.1 as it has the driver and the firmware for the usb-wifi; but I don't know if it would behave nicer with X and the RDC driver.

After my contact with Michael Barnes from X86core, it seems that the surfboard behaves well with Quirky 008, but I did not test it.

So far, it is a very green and a efficient product, really happy to use it with puppy.

ttuuxxx · Posted: Mon 06 Sep 2010, 00:52 Post subject:

Hi guys

I have a little SD2USB adapter, when I would run grub2dos to make the grub menu it would give it a pmedia=usbhd because the adapter was a usb, but that didn't work if I wanted to use just the sd card without the adapter in the surfboard, So I updated the script to make it ideflash each time Smile

So once the menu is made just take the SD card out of the adapter and slide it into your sd slot
ttuuxxx

alas · Joined: 20 Apr 2010 Posts: 19

unfortunately, the surfboard does not handle youtube video and flash better than the gecko edubook... that is not good, given the name of the device.

After my emails to Michael Barnes, he told me that it should behave better with unbuntu 10.04 made for the surfboard. I can not imagine that it is true, I tried to tweak the bios in order to make it behave better with youtube video, but no go.

ok, i did not buy the surfboard in order to watch youtube video, nevertheless, not a good experience at this side.

ttuuxxx · Posted: Mon 06 Sep 2010, 16:29 Post subject: Re: flash ooops

gjuhasz · Joined: 29 Sep 2008 Posts: 120

cobyhoff · Posted: Fri 10 Sep 2010, 12:35 Post subject: APM

I don't have a surfboard, but I do have an Edubook, which I assume is very similar as far as the software sees the hardware. All the hardware has been functional out-of-the-box using Lupo 5.1. The only thing that hasn't (and still doesn't) worked is the limited implementation of Advanced Power Management (APM) that the Xcore86 module uses. The real-world manifestation of this is the inability to shut down the computer. (I really dislike holding the power button for 5 seconds after the OS has halted!) It sounds like you have been fighting different problems. Is there really a difference in the display drivers on the surfboard versus the Edubook? I had no problem using Xorg.