Puppi Raspberry Pi Hardware

[aarf]

Here was the Raspberry Pi this morning residing on a cushion surrounded by a lime hub and being offered appropriate nutrition after its journey from Cambridge . . .

Lobster being grilled by Raspberrians
http://www.raspberrypi.org/forum/absolu ... al/#p63957

I am a bit loath to edit the Debian SD card just yet . . .

hmm.. now the problem is obvious. no burning incense.

[Pence]

Lobster - be brave!

[Lobster]

If you hear a raspy, regular buzz/noise then you have video.

Real hardware. Real Problems. Real Solutions.
Real Puppys using the same hardware.
Thanks Guys.

I think Liz from RPi HQ is right (an experienced Raspberrian)
I need a recommended branded Class 4 SD card for my Debian image.
The only further SD card I have available is 1GB and unbranded.
Not sure if any of the ready compiled distros would fit on that.
Puppy would.
However [sob] I feel any distro would be a fail
due to the need for high quality SD card

There are 10 year olds laughing at me
- I know it!

Tomorrow will be off to Maplins, Currys or Hackerspace
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hackerspace
for SD card.

Initial impressions of Rpi:
Small and cute as a button
Seems robust and so simple.
Hard to believe it is a powerful computer.
The Rpi Foundation did good
Have to send them some money
(have to convert a few sardine cans into human currency)

Learn from my mistakes guys.
Is your power supply micro USB?
Is your SD image ready and compatible?
http://www.raspberrypi.org/forum/absolu ... pi/#p64000

As for incense.
The Rpi will become a Puppy powered
Buddhist shrine running YAP
http://puppylinux.org/wikka/BuddhistYAP
as the Time And Raspberry Dimensions In Space project (aka TARDIS)
is still awaiting coding . . .

. . . and remember about Puppy
Pi
and Purloined Police Phone Boxes
"they are bigger on the inside"

[Lobster]

Raspberry Pi jiffy bag arrives from Cambridge yesterday morning
Lobster prepares opening tools . . .

I have a (only 1GB) Sandisk SD card.
It is branded. It may work. Is there a bootable Rpi image available that fits in 1GB?

Wot no Puppy?

[nooby]

Is your power supply micro USB?

That one can be very important. There are at least two different such.
They are different enough to not fit into the others socket.

One of them is listed to be able to carry higher current while the other
for much less current. But both are very very small and usually named
micro usb or maybe mini usb.

So how does one know which of them that one have?

[Lobster]

The thin one with the smaller plug is the right one.

I am pretty sure my SD card is [how can I put it politely) - rubbish.
I am told these are good. Waiting for stores to open on Sunday . . .

[Dave_G]

Lobster

The SD card issue could turn out to be a show stopper for the Pi if it ain't fixed.

Not sure if the problem lies with the Broadcom binary blob or the
kernel/driver in the distros, but they should look at it as it's very frustrating
and off putting for users trying their Pis for the first time only to see
that it ain't working because they have the wrong SD card type/class.

It will get harder and harder to find the slower class of SD card as manufactures
push for faster and faster devices.

[Dave_G]

Lobster

Although your collection of package opening implements are impressive,
you have forgotten two very important items.
I have taken the liberty of adding them to your pic for future reference.

[aarf]

Lobster

The SD card issue could turn out to be a show stopper for the Pi if it ain't fixed.

Not sure if the problem lies with the Broadcom binary blob or the
kernel/driver in the distros, but they should look at it as it's very frustrating
and off putting for users trying their Pis for the first time only to see
that it ain't working because they have the wrong SD card type/class.

It will get harder and harder to find the slower class of SD card as manufactures
push for faster and faster devices.

i see the current raspberry as having a very limited shelf life, say six months, if not actually expired before it even actually got to the shelf. things are moving fast, and the competition fierce. the builders inexperience with dealing with the manufacturing and distribution chain has left them now with an out of date product. they need to upgrade fast and use their know past mistakes to advantage not continue pushing an out of date product. i.e stop manufacturing the current model immediately and get the next generation into the customer conscience fast.

[Dave_G]

aarf

Although I don't agree with your six month estimation, you do raise some
very valid points.
The SD card problem together with the delays we are experiencing in
being able to purchase the Pi is working against it.

In this fast moving world, people get impatient very quickly and might
lose interest in the Pi opting rather for some other device/board.
I'm no marketing guru but I reckon they are missing a golden opportunity
by not capitalizing on the huge interest shown in the Pi.

I hope they get the stuff sorted out and quickly other wise it would be a
great pity.
I for one am very excited about the Pi and have even started to learn
ARM assembly to get to know the intricacies of the ARM.

[Lobster]

Lobster - be brave!

OK
Next time will include hammer and crowbar . . . and teeth.

The Pi is an exciting product. In the future Pi compatibility may end up as an ARM standard.
The Pi foundation WANT others to clone and market similar devices.

What you have to appreciate is we have the ability to support ONE type of cheap hardware. If you write for specific hardware - brill.

The peripheral problems are all solvable.

Also think how much you have learned using Puppy.
It now continues. We need more programmers and hardware projects.
Just imagine a computer course where your hardware is provided not
as a textbook but a computer which can store all your coursework.
It is a new way of learning and we are all the teachers and students . . .

Lesson 1 connect your computer and boot up.
[Lobster puts on Dunce cap and goes to stand in the corner]

[aarf]

i also see the raspberry competing in only one direction: price.
in this world of excess cash it will not holdup. other aspects: convenience, functionality, ability, ease of use, ruggedness and durability are best met elsewhere at a insignificant price differential in real purchasing power terms. cheap complete ready made tablets are now abundant. not to mention powerful multi-functional phones. sorry but thats the way it is.

[aarf]

remember too that intel is bringing out a x86 chip suitable for phones/tablets in a few short months time.

[Lobster]

Success!

Posting from Pi (raspberry flavour)
- using Debian Squeeze.

All day been trying to get Raspberry Pi to work.
Some important lessons . . . will follow

Basically the dd process I used from Puppy was not working.
I had to use a magick wand (optional) and my sisters Windows 7 netbook.

So shameful!

[Jasper]

Hi Lobster,

Delighted to read your good news. Celebrate with a fish tea and supper.

My regards

[prehistoric]

I've had problems with dd under Puppy before, and not just with SD cards. I'm afraid Pudd needs to be replaced for several reasons. (Don't ever try to copy a 900 GB partition. The heat death of the Universe will occur before it completes.) Some of my work-arounds have been strange. Using old SD cards is a fairly simple example. In other cases I've used USB adapters which seem to have introduced enough delay in the handshaking to make transfer possible. I'd like someone who actually knows what's going on to explain things.

[aarf]

pussy in its initial stages used dd and this was accomplished from the then current puppy. i remember failing a few times too but it was my fault in not doing things correctly. when i did it right it succeeded, and i did it right a number of times. have also dd other thing too, i think eg., fedora and mint all from puppy. cant remember which puppy.

very pleased to hear of your eventual success though. hope we can move forward fast from here to puppy success.

[Lobster]

Looking forward to my well deserved fish supper. Thanks Jasper. Thanks aarf

I've had problems with dd under Puppy before

m m m . . . until we had hardware there was no way of testing
- I assumed dd was working . . .
but dd irregularities needs to be tested.
Are we using the full dd or the busybox version in Slacko?
Is this a dd eror ? Puppy? Slackware? Slacko?

Is it possible the SD card needs formatting before writing and this was not in the Rpi instructions? I thought formatting would be part of writing? Silly me . . .

The Debian Squeeze windowing will be very familiar to Puppys with programs such as Geany, Midori (not a fav - but good enough) and everything you need to get you squamulose with Python.

Everyone knows an SD card needs formatting. I should have known.

[Dave_G]

Lobster

Fantastic news that you have it up and running.
Did you use the original non working SD cards and reformatted them under 7
or did you go get new one/s?

[Lobster]

New one. Verbatim. Class 4. I was told by the geek in the games shop that you can get up to class 10 - 10 is the best?
Mind you he also told me had bought a Raspberry Pi on ebay for £21 and had not opened it yet.

We believe him don't we boys and girls.

It is good news. I was really happy with LXDE in Squeeze. It will be very familiar to Puppys. To give you an example of speed; Midori took about 10 seconds to load. Next time (now Midori was loading from memory cache) was aprox. 3 seconds.

I will be formatting and seeing if the other SD cards I have work. I want them to work from dd in Puppy. The important thing is the hardware works.
It is the stupid crustacean that needs extra cod liver oil . . .

Tomorrow I will be looking at the tools in Squeeze and doing some sort of tutorial.
Frankly I think it is a great base to boot strap Puppy from.
I may look at Fedora next but I was very content with Debian Squeeze.