yocto

Wandboard Dual Benchmarks, Serial Console Fun, and Distributions List

June 11th, 2013 cnxsoft 5 comments

Since last time I tried Android and Ubuntu on the Wandboard, a few things happened. I’m not talking about Wandboard Quad announcement, but instead I received a Class 10 SD card, which makes the system so much responsive, and a RS232 to USB adapter so that I can access the serial console. So today, I’ll publish some benchmark results on Wandboard Dual since none appear to be available, and play a little with the serial console. A few things also happened on the operating systems side with more distributions now available for the board.

Prerequisites

I ran benchmark in Android, so I installed the latest Android 4.1.2 image (11th of April 2012) to my new SD card (ADATA 16 GB Class 10), and contrary to my poor experience on a 4GB Class 4 micro SD, everything was very fluid. I’ve also installed Google Play in order to install the applications. To do so in any device, you need to download the latest version for your Android version from http://goo.im/gapps. In our case (Android 4.1.2), we need to download gapps-jb-20121011-signed.zip, extract it and copy the files in the micro SD card in a Linux PC:

cd ~/
mkdir gapps-jb
cd gapps-jb 
unzip ~/Downloads/gapps-jb-20121011-signed.zip 
sudo cp ~/gapps-jb/system/* /media/system/ -rf 
sync

In order to capture screenshots, I also had to root the device using the following steps from a Linux PC with Wandboard connected to the PC via its mini USB port:

wget http://downloads.androidsu.com/superuser/su-bin-3.1.1-arm-signed.zip
unzip su-bin-3.1.1-arm-signed.zip
adb push system/bin/su /mnt/sdcard/su
adb shell
mount -o remount,rw /system
busybox cp /mnt/sdcard/su /system/xbin/su
chmod 6755 /system/xbin/su
sync
reboot

At this point you should get a rooted image with a working Google Play on the Wandboard, the final step is to install superuser so that you can control which apps get root access.

Antutu and Quadrant Benchmarks on Wandboard Dual

The screen will rotate with both Antutu 3.3 and Quadrant benchmark, so they are performed in portrait mode. This is using full screen, so the results should still be valid for comparison. The board also overheated once during Antutu’s 3D Graphics benchmarks, and froze. A immediate reboot of the board showed the following message:

CPU: Freescale i.MX6 family TO1.1 at 792 MHz 
CPU is 80 C, too hot to boot, waiting... 
Temperature:   73 C, calibration data 0x59952b5f

I turned the board around so that i.MX6 SoC can get better ventilation, and the benchmark could complete.

With 6190 points, Wandboard Dual performance is between Amazon Kindle Fire (TI OMAP4430) and Samsung Galaxy Nexus (TI OMAP4460), which seems about right. This also compares to 8516 points in Hi-802 (Freescale i.MX 6 Quad), with the quad version getting double the score for integer, over 50% more for RAM and floating-point tests. Surprisingly 3D graphics results are better in Wandboard Dual (1771) compared to Hi-802 (1272) in Antutu. This is an anomaly that could either be due to a different Android version (4.0 vs 4.1) and/or better drivers, or the orientation during the test really affects the results.

Quadrant benchmark places the device just below LG Optimus 2X (Nvidia Tegra 2) and Galaxy Nexus, so no surprises here.

Setting-up the Serial Console on Wandboard

Many boards provide access to the serial console via +3.3V TTL signals, so you can just connect a TTL to USB board. The Wandboard uses RS232 signals, so you’ll need a different type of debug board, or simply a null-modem cable if your computer features a DB-9 serial connector. Mine does not, so I bought a cheap RS232 to USB converter. Build quality is poor, but it does the job. At first, I thought I could just connect it directly to the Wandboard, but it also needs a null-modem cable, Since I don’t have one myself, I used three breadboard wires instead connecting Tx, Rx, and GND following the diagram below:

Source: Microtik

I only connected pin 2,3 and 5, and ignored the other connection which are not needed for our purpose. The picture below shows the end result. I just connect the RS232 to USB converter to a USB hub to access it from Linux or Windows.

In Linux (Ubuntu 12.04), the converter is immediately recognized, and you can just access the serial port with minicom, after setting up 115200bps/8n1 connection to /dev/ttyUSB0. In Windows, you’ll need to install a driver either from the provided CDROM, or download CH341SER.zip.

For reference, here’s the boot log from Android 4.1.2:

U-Boot 2009.08 (Apr 11 2013 – 15:55:59)CPU: Freescale i.MX6 family TO1.1 at 792 MHz
Temperature: 67 C, calibration data 0x59952b5f
mx6q pll1: 792MHz
mx6q pll2: 528MHz
mx6q pll3: 480MHz
mx6q pll8: 50MHz
ipg clock : 66000000Hz
ipg per clock : 66000000Hz
uart clock : 80000000Hz
cspi clock : 60000000Hz
ahb clock : 132000000Hz
axi clock : 198000000Hz
emi_slow clock: 99000000Hz
ddr clock : 396000000Hz
usdhc1 clock : 198000000Hz
usdhc2 clock : 198000000Hz
usdhc3 clock : 198000000Hz
usdhc4 clock : 198000000Hz
nfc clock : 24000000Hz
Board: i.MX6DL/Solo-WandBoard: unknown-board Board: 0×61011 [WDOG ]
Boot Device: SD
DRAM: 1 GB
MMC: FSL_USDHC: 0,FSL_USDHC: 1,FSL_USDHC: 2
*** Warning – bad CRC or MMC, using default environmentIn: serial
Out: serial
Err: serial
Gotr MAC = 00:1F:7B:B2:02:F4
Net: got MAC address from IIM: 00:1f:7b:b2:02:f4
FEC0 [PRIME]
Hit any key to stop autoboot: 0
kernel @ 10808000 (2289836)
ramdisk @ 11800000 (169948)
kernel cmdline:
use boot.img command line:
console=ttymxc0,115200 init=/init video=mxcfb0:dev=hdmi,1280x720M@60,ifStarting kernel …

[ 0.000000] Linux version 3.0.35 (root@edward-x220-laptop) (gcc version 4.6.3
[ 0.000000] CPU: ARMv7 Processor [412fc09a] revision 10 (ARMv7), cr=10c53c7d
[ 0.000000] CPU: VIPT nonaliasing data cache, VIPT aliasing instruction cache
[ 0.000000] Machine: Freescale i.MX 6DualLite/Solo Wandboard
[ 0.000000] EDWARD : ram console init at phys 0x3ff00000
[ 0.000000] EDWARD : GPU_Reserved Memory equals to 184549376
[ 0.000000] EDWARD : gpumem init at phys 0×15000000
[ 0.000000] Memory policy: ECC disabled, Data cache writealloc
[ 0.000000] CPU identified as i.MX6DL/SOLO, silicon rev 1.1
[ 0.000000] PERCPU: Embedded 7 pages/cpu @80f67000 s5696 r8192 d14784 u32768
[ 0.000000] Built 1 zonelists in Zone order, mobility grouping on. Total pa0
[ 0.000000] Kernel command line: console=ttymxc0,115200 init=/init video=mxce
[ 0.000000] PID hash table entries: 4096 (order: 2, 16384 bytes)
[ 0.000000] Dentry cache hash table entries: 131072 (order: 7, 524288 bytes)
[ 0.000000] Inode-cache hash table entries: 65536 (order: 6, 262144 bytes)
[ 0.000000] Memory: 80MB 511MB 212MB = 803MB total
[ 0.000000] Memory: 805480k/805480k available, 243096k reserved, 0K highmem
[ 0.000000] Virtual kernel memory layout:
[ 0.000000] vector : 0xffff0000 – 0xffff1000 ( 4 kB)
[ 0.000000] fixmap : 0xfff00000 – 0xfffe0000 ( 896 kB)
[ 0.000000] DMA : 0xfbe00000 – 0xffe00000 ( 64 MB)
[ 0.000000] vmalloc : 0xc0800000 – 0xf2000000 ( 792 MB)
[ 0.000000] lowmem : 0×80000000 – 0xc0000000 (1024 MB)
[ 0.000000] pkmap : 0x7fe00000 – 0×80000000 ( 2 MB)
[ 0.000000] modules : 0x7f000000 – 0x7fe00000 ( 14 MB)
[ 0.000000] .init : 0×80008000 – 0×80038000 ( 192 kB)
[ 0.000000] .text : 0×80038000 – 0x805de000 (5784 kB)
[ 0.000000] .data : 0x805de000 – 0x80620f80 ( 268 kB)
[ 0.000000] .bss : 0x80620fa4 – 0x8075ffe0 (1277 kB)
[ 0.000000] SLUB: Genslabs=13, HWalign=32, Order=0-3, MinObjects=0, CPUs=2, 1
[ 0.000000] Preemptible hierarchical RCU implementation.
[ 0.000000] NR_IRQS:496
[ 0.000000] MXC GPIO hardware
[ 0.000000] sched_clock: 32 bits at 3000kHz, resolution 333ns, wraps every 1s
[ 0.000000] Set periph_clk’s parent to pll2_pfd_400M!
[ 0.000000] arm_max_freq=2
[ 0.000000] MXC_Early serial console at MMIO 0×2020000 (options ’115200′)
[ 0.000000] bootconsole [ttymxc0] enabled
[ 0.000000] Console: colour dummy device 80×30
[ 0.245885] Calibrating delay loop… 1581.05 BogoMIPS (lpj=7905280)
[ 0.334225] pid_max: default: 32768 minimum: 301
[ 0.339085] Mount-cache hash table entries: 512
[ 0.344360] CPU: Testing write buffer coherency: ok
[ 0.450152] CPU1: Booted secondary processor
[ 0.539562] Brought up 2 CPUs
[ 0.546824] SMP: Total of 2 processors activated (3162.11 BogoMIPS).
[ 0.571679] print_constraints: dummy:
[ 0.575671] NET: Registered protocol family 16
[ 0.584294] print_constraints: vddpu: 725 1300 mV at 700 mV fast normal
[ 0.591792] print_constraints: vddcore: 725 1300 mV at 1150 mV fast nor
[ 0.599531] print_constraints: vddsoc: 725 1300 mV at 1200 mV fast norm
[ 0.607166] print_constraints: vdd2p5: 2000 2775 mV at 2400 mV fast nor
[ 0.614921] print_constraints: vdd1p1: 800 1400 mV at 1100 mV fast norm
[ 0.622591] print_constraints: vdd3p0: 2625 3400 mV at 3000 mV fast nor
[ 0.632723] ram_console: got buffer at 3ff00000, size 100000
[ 0.638535] ram_console: found existing buffer, size 35924, start 35924
[ 0.738384] console [ram-1] enabled
[ 0.853886] L310 cache controller enabled
[ 0.858092] l2x0: 16 ways, CACHE_ID 0x410000c8, AUX_CTRL 0×02050000, Cache sB
[ 0.891189] bio: create slab at 0
[ 0.896073] print_constraints: VDDA: 2500 mV
[ 0.900747] print_constraints: VDDIO: 3300 mV
[ 0.906244] SCSI subsystem initialized
[ 0.910531] spi_imx imx6q-ecspi.0: probed
[ 0.914905] spi_imx imx6q-ecspi.1: probed
[ 0.921083] usbcore: registered new interface driver usbfs
[ 0.926918] usbcore: registered new interface driver hub
[ 0.932514] usbcore: registered new device driver usb
[ 0.937753] Freescale USB OTG Driver loaded, $Revision: 1.55 $
[ 0.959552] imx-ipuv3 imx-ipuv3.0: IPU DMFC NORMAL mode: 1(0~1), 5B(4,5), 5F)
[ 0.967929] Advanced Linux Sound Architecture Driver Version 1.0.24.
[ 0.975414] Bluetooth: Core ver 2.16
[ 0.979212] NET: Registered protocol family 31
[ 0.983777] Bluetooth: HCI device and connection manager initialized
[ 0.990329] Bluetooth: HCI socket layer initialized
[ 0.995311] Bluetooth: L2CAP socket layer initialized
[ 1.000555] Bluetooth: SCO socket layer initialized
[ 1.006009] cfg80211: Calling CRDA to update world regulatory domain
[ 1.013552] Switching to clocksource mxc_timer1
[ 1.031297] NET: Registered protocol family 2
[ 1.035969] IP route cache hash table entries: 32768 (order: 5, 131072 bytes)
[ 1.044176] TCP established hash table entries: 131072 (order: 8, 1048576 by)
[ 1.054110] TCP bind hash table entries: 65536 (order: 7, 786432 bytes)
[ 1.061942] TCP: Hash tables configured (established 131072 bind 65536)
[ 1.068925] TCP reno registered
[ 1.072178] UDP hash table entries: 512 (order: 2, 16384 bytes)
[ 1.078354] UDP-Lite hash table entries: 512 (order: 2, 16384 bytes)
[ 1.085163] NET: Registered protocol family 1
[ 1.089892] Unpacking initramfs…
[ 1.104517] Freeing initrd memory: 164K
[ 1.108540] _regulator_get: etb supply vcore not found, using dummy regulator
[ 1.116394] _regulator_get: etm.0 supply vcore not found, using dummy regular
[ 1.124000] _regulator_get: etm.1 supply vcore not found, using dummy regular
[ 1.131799] Static Power Management for Freescale i.MX6
[ 1.137211] wait mode is disabled for i.MX6
[ 1.141702] cpaddr = c0820000 suspend_iram_base=c08ac000
[ 1.147282] PM driver module loaded
[ 1.151249] IMX usb wakeup probe
[ 1.154662] the wakeup pdata is 0xba10d980
[ 1.159272] add wake up source irq 75
[ 1.166674] IMX usb wakeup probe
[ 1.170101] the wakeup pdata is 0xba10d380
[ 1.174498] cpu regulator init ldo=0
[ 1.178494] i.MXC CPU frequency driver
[ 1.193907] ashmem: initialized
[ 1.206930] NTFS driver 2.1.30 [Flags: R/O].
[ 1.211784] fuse init (API version 7.16)
[ 1.216175] msgmni has been set to 1573
[ 1.220878] NET: Registered protocol family 38
[ 1.225640] cryptodev: driver loaded.
[ 1.229435] io scheduler noop registered
[ 1.233445] io scheduler deadline registered
[ 1.237941] io scheduler cfq registered (default)
[ 1.243863] mxc_sdc_fb mxc_sdc_fb.0: register mxc display driver hdmi
[ 1.250576] mxc_hdmi mxc_hdmi: Detected HDMI controller 0×13:0x1a:0xa0:0xc1
[ 1.257649] fbcvt: 1280×720@60: CVT Name – .921M9
[ 1.328272] imx-ipuv3 imx-ipuv3.0: IPU DMFC DP HIGH RESOLUTION: 1(0,1), 5B(2)
[ 1.339386] imx-sdma imx-sdma: loaded firmware 1.1
[ 1.348667] imx-sdma imx-sdma: initialized
[ 1.353209] Serial: IMX driver
[ 1.356501] imx-uart.0: ttymxc0 at MMIO 0×2020000 (irq = 58) is a IMX
[ 1.363098] console [ttymxc0] enabled, bootconsole disabled
[ 1.363098] console [ttymxc0] enabled, bootconsole disabled
[ 1.374893] imx-uart.2: ttymxc2 at MMIO 0x21ec000 (irq = 60) is a IMX
[ 1.382337] ion: failed to create debug files.
[ 1.390269] loop: module loaded
[ 1.393806] FEC Ethernet Driver
[ 1.399457] fec_enet_mii_bus: probed
[ 1.404138] ehci_hcd: USB 2.0 ‘Enhanced’ Host Controller (EHCI) Driver
[ 1.410914] fsl-ehci fsl-ehci.0: Freescale On-Chip EHCI Host Controller
[ 1.417758] fsl-ehci fsl-ehci.0: new USB bus registered, assigned bus number1
[ 1.445550] fbcvt: 1280×720@60: CVT Name – .921M9
[ 1.458239] fsl-ehci fsl-ehci.0: irq 75, io base 0×02184000
[ 1.478225] fsl-ehci fsl-ehci.0: USB 2.0 started, EHCI 1.00
[ 1.478840] hub 1-0:1.0: USB hub found
[ 1.478859] hub 1-0:1.0: 1 port detected
[ 1.479061] add wake up source irq 72
[ 1.479108] fsl-ehci fsl-ehci.1: Freescale On-Chip EHCI Host Controller
[ 1.479146] fsl-ehci fsl-ehci.1: new USB bus registered, assigned bus number2
[ 1.508239] fsl-ehci fsl-ehci.1: irq 72, io base 0×02184200
[ 1.568231] fsl-ehci fsl-ehci.1: USB 2.0 started, EHCI 1.00
[ 1.568751] hub 2-0:1.0: USB hub found
[ 1.568769] hub 2-0:1.0: 1 port detected
[ 1.569014] Initializing USB Mass Storage driver…
[ 1.569191] usbcore: registered new interface driver usb-storage
[ 1.569200] USB Mass Storage support registered.
[ 1.569207] ARC USBOTG Device Controller driver (1 August 2005)
[ 1.571543] android_usb gadget: Mass Storage Function, version: 2009/09/11
[ 1.571554] android_usb gadget: Number of LUNs=1
[ 1.571563] lun0: LUN: removable file: (no medium)
[ 1.571976] Gadget Android: controller ‘fsl-usb2-udc’ not recognized
[ 1.571992] android_usb gadget: android_usb ready
[ 1.571998] Suspend udc for OTG auto detect
[ 1.572011] USB Host suspend begins
[ 1.572017] will suspend roothub and its children
[ 1.572034] ehci_fsl_bus_suspend begins, DR
[ 1.572055] ehci_fsl_bus_suspend ends, DR
[ 1.572069] host suspend ends
[ 1.572079] USB Gadget resume begins
[ 1.572085] fsl_udc_resume, Wait for wakeup thread finishes
[ 1.588243] dr_controller_run: udc enter low power mode
[ 1.588257] USB Gadget resume ends
[ 1.588264] fsl-usb2-udc: bind to driver android_usb
[ 1.588623] mousedev: PS/2 mouse device common for all mice
[ 1.589446] i2c /dev entries driver
[ 1.590367] imx2-wdt imx2-wdt.0: IMX2+ Watchdog Timer enabled. timeout=60s ()
[ 1.590500] Bluetooth: Virtual HCI driver ver 1.3
[ 1.590665] Bluetooth: HCI UART driver ver 2.2
[ 1.590674] Bluetooth: HCI H4 protocol initialized
[ 1.590682] Bluetooth: Generic Bluetooth USB driver ver 0.6
[ 1.590838] usbcore: registered new interface driver btusb
[ 1.591034] cpuidle: using governor ladder
[ 1.591042] cpuidle: using governor menu
[ 1.591155] sdhci: Secure Digital Host Controller Interface driver
[ 1.591163] sdhci: Copyright(c) Pierre Ossman
[ 1.591279] _regulator_get: sdhci-esdhc-imx.2 supply vmmc not found, using dr
[ 1.591529] mmc0: SDHCI controller on platform [sdhci-esdhc-imx.2] using ADMA
[ 1.592600] _regulator_get: sdhci-esdhc-imx.1 supply vmmc not found, using dr
[ 1.594892] mmc1: SDHCI controller on platform [sdhci-esdhc-imx.1] using ADMA
[ 1.594949] sdhci sdhci-esdhc-imx.0: no write-protect pin available!
[ 1.595985] _regulator_get: sdhci-esdhc-imx.0 supply vmmc not found, using dr
[ 1.598163] mmc2: SDHCI controller on platform [sdhci-esdhc-imx.0] using ADMA
[ 1.599163] VPU initialized
[ 1.600129] mxc_asrc registered
[ 1.613568] revserved_memory_account:viv_gpu registerd
[ 1.614174] Thermal calibration data is 0x59952b5f
[ 1.628463] Anatop Thermal registered as thermal_zone0
[ 1.628628] anatop_thermal_probe: default cooling device is cpufreq!
[ 1.651107] usbcore: registered new interface driver usbhid
[ 1.651115] usbhid: USB HID core driver
[ 1.653535] logger: created 256K log ‘log_main’
[ 1.655731] logger: created 256K log ‘log_events’
[ 1.655910] logger: created 256K log ‘log_radio’
[ 1.658127] logger: created 256K log ‘log_system’
[ 1.661501] zram: num_devices not specified. Using default: 1
[ 1.661510] zram: Creating 1 devices …
[ 1.662414] usbcore: registered new interface driver snd-usb-audio
[ 1.662976] mxc_hdmi_soc mxc_hdmi_soc.0: MXC HDMI Audio
[ 1.663145] mxc_spdif mxc_spdif.0: MXC SPDIF Audio
[ 1.665520] _regulator_get: 1-000a supply VDDD not found, using dummy regular
[ 1.665836] sgtl5000 1-000a: sgtl5000 revision 17
[ 1.666016] print_constraints: 1-000a: 850 1600 mV at 1200 mV normal
[ 1.732249] asoc: sgtl5000 imx-ssi.1 mapping ok
[ 1.745029] asoc: mxc-spdif imx-spdif-dai.0 mapping ok
[ 1.758656] asoc: mxc-hdmi-soc imx-hdmi-soc-dai.0 mapping ok
[ 1.763333] ALSA device list:
[ 1.763341] #0: sgtl5000-audio
[ 1.763347] #1: imx-spdif
[ 1.763352] #2: imx-hdmi-soc
[ 1.763489] GACT probability NOT on
[ 1.763502] Mirror/redirect action on
[ 1.763510] u32 classifier
[ 1.763514] Actions configured
[ 1.763522] Netfilter messages via NETLINK v0.30.
[ 1.763571] nf_conntrack version 0.5.0 (12588 buckets, 50352 max)
[ 1.764463] ctnetlink v0.93: registering with nfnetlink.
[ 1.764503] NF_TPROXY: Transparent proxy support initialized, version 4.1.0
[ 1.764511] NF_TPROXY: Copyright (c) 2006-2007 BalaBit IT Ltd.
[ 1.765241] xt_time: kernel timezone is -0000
[ 1.765954] IPv4 over IPv4 tunneling driver
[ 1.767126] GRE over IPv4 demultiplexor driver
[ 1.767807] ip_tables: (C) 2000-2006 Netfilter Core Team
[ 1.767945] arp_tables: (C) 2002 David S. Miller
[ 1.767996] TCP cubic registered
[ 1.769282] NET: Registered protocol family 10
[ 1.773276] Mobile IPv6
[ 1.773312] ip6_tables: (C) 2000-2006 Netfilter Core Team
[ 1.773536] IPv6 over IPv4 tunneling driver
[ 1.778363] NET: Registered protocol family 17
[ 1.778408] NET: Registered protocol family 15
[ 1.796703] Bluetooth: RFCOMM TTY layer initialized
[ 1.796714] Bluetooth: RFCOMM socket layer initialized
[ 1.796722] Bluetooth: RFCOMM ver 1.11
[ 1.796730] Bluetooth: BNEP (Ethernet Emulation) ver 1.3
[ 1.796737] Bluetooth: BNEP filters: protocol multicast
[ 1.796746] Bluetooth: HIDP (Human Interface Emulation) ver 1.2
[ 1.796882] mmc0: new high speed SDHC card at address 59b4
[ 1.797072] L2TP core driver, V2.0
[ 1.797080] L2TP IP encapsulation support (L2TPv3)
[ 1.797510] mmcblk0: mmc0:59b4 SD 14.7 GiB
[ 1.797717] L2TP netlink interface
[ 1.797743] L2TP ethernet pseudowire support (L2TPv3)
[ 1.797751] lib80211: common routines for IEEE802.11 drivers
[ 1.797760] lib80211_crypt: registered algorithm ‘NULL’
[ 1.797767] VFP support v0.3: implementor 41 architecture 3 part 30 variant 4
[ 1.882447] ThumbEE CPU extension supported.
[ 1.887281] Bus freq driver module loaded
[ 1.887291] Bus freq driver Enabled
[ 1.887358] mxc_dvfs_core_probe
[ 1.887565] DVFS driver module loaded
[ 1.892653] drivers/rtc/hctosys.c: unable to open rtc device (rtc0)
[ 1.913882] mmcblk0: p1 p2 p3 < p5 p6 p7 p8 p9 > p4
[ 2.188839] Freeing init memory: 192K
[ 4.311415] init: cannot find ‘/system/etc/install-recovery.sh’, disabling ”
[ 4.333127] android_usb: already disabled
[ 4.337524] mtp_bind_config
[ 4.340602] adb_bind_config
[ 4.345090] adb_open
root@android:/ #

and a Yocto based image with XFCE:

U-Boot 2013.04-rc2-00847-gdebad5d (Apr 11 2013 – 13:47:03)CPU: Freescale i.MX6DL rev1.1 at 792 MHz
Reset cause: POR
Board: Wandboard
DRAM: 1 GiB
MMC: FSL_SDHC: 0
*** Warning – bad CRC, using default environmentIn: serial
Out: serial
Err: serial
Net: FEC [PRIME]
Warning: FEC using MAC address from net deviceHit any key to stop autoboot: 0
mmc0 is current device
reading boot.scr
** Unable to read file boot.scr **
reading uImage
3938036 bytes read in 183 ms (20.5 MiB/s)
Booting from mmc …
reading imx6dl-wandboard.dtb
** Unable to read file imx6dl-wandboard.dtb **
## Booting kernel from Legacy Image at 12000000 …
Image Name: Linux-3.0.35-wandboard+yocto+g64
Image Type: ARM Linux Kernel Image (uncompressed)
Data Size: 3937972 Bytes = 3.8 MiB
Load Address: 10008000
Entry Point: 10008000
Verifying Checksum … OK
Loading Kernel Image … OK
OK

Starting kernel …

Linux version 3.0.35-wandboard+yocto+g64fee2d ([email protected]
CPU: ARMv7 Processor [412fc09a] revision 10 (ARMv7), cr=10c53c7d
CPU: VIPT nonaliasing data cache, VIPT aliasing instruction cache
Machine: Wandboard
Memory policy: ECC disabled, Data cache writealloc
CPU identified as i.MX6DL/SOLO, silicon rev 1.1
PERCPU: Embedded 7 pages/cpu @8135d000 s5440 r8192 d15040 u32768
Built 1 zonelists in Zone order, mobility grouping on. Total pages: 215040
Kernel command line: console=ttymxc0,115200 root=/dev/mmcblk0p2 rootwait rw
PID hash table entries: 4096 (order: 2, 16384 bytes)
Dentry cache hash table entries: 131072 (order: 7, 524288 bytes)
Inode-cache hash table entries: 65536 (order: 6, 262144 bytes)
Memory: 80MB 768MB = 848MB total
Memory: 847672k/847672k available, 200904k reserved, 0K highmem
Virtual kernel memory layout:
vector : 0xffff0000 – 0xffff1000 ( 4 kB)
fixmap : 0xfff00000 – 0xfffe0000 ( 896 kB)
DMA : 0xfbe00000 – 0xffe00000 ( 64 MB)
vmalloc : 0xc0800000 – 0xf2000000 ( 792 MB)
lowmem : 0×80000000 – 0xc0000000 (1024 MB)
pkmap : 0x7fe00000 – 0×80000000 ( 2 MB)
modules : 0x7f000000 – 0x7fe00000 ( 14 MB)
.init : 0×80008000 – 0×80038000 ( 192 kB)
.text : 0×80038000 – 0x80aaedc4 (10716 kB)
.data : 0x80ab0000 – 0x80b05860 ( 343 kB)
.bss : 0x80b05884 – 0x80b559a0 ( 321 kB)
SLUB: Genslabs=13, HWalign=32, Order=0-3, MinObjects=0, CPUs=2, Nodes=1
Preemptible hierarchical RCU implementation.
NR_IRQS:496
MXC GPIO hardware
sched_clock: 32 bits at 3000kHz, resolution 333ns, wraps every 1431655ms
Set periph_clk’s parent to pll2_pfd_400M!
arm_max_freq=2
MXC_Early serial console at MMIO 0×2020000 (options ’115200′)
bootconsole [ttymxc0] enabled
Console: colour dummy device 80×30
Calibrating delay loop… 1581.05 BogoMIPS (lpj=7905280)
pid_max: default: 32768 minimum: 301
Mount-cache hash table entries: 512
CPU: Testing write buffer coherency: ok
hw perfevents: enabled with ARMv7 Cortex-A9 PMU driver, 7 counters available
CPU1: Booted secondary processor
Brought up 2 CPUs
SMP: Total of 2 processors activated (3162.11 BogoMIPS).
devtmpfs: initialized
print_constraints: dummy:
NET: Registered protocol family 16
print_constraints: vddpu: 725 1300 mV at 1150 mV fast normal
print_constraints: vddcore: 725 1300 mV at 1150 mV fast normal
print_constraints: vddsoc: 725 1300 mV at 1200 mV fast normal
print_constraints: vdd2p5: 2000 2775 mV at 2400 mV fast normal
print_constraints: vdd1p1: 800 1400 mV at 1100 mV fast normal
print_constraints: vdd3p0: 2625 3400 mV at 3000 mV fast normal
hw-breakpoint: found 6 breakpoint and 1 watchpoint registers.
hw-breakpoint: 1 breakpoint(s) reserved for watchpoint single-step.
hw-breakpoint: maximum watchpoint size is 4 bytes.
L310 cache controller enabled
l2x0: 16 ways, CACHE_ID 0x410000c8, AUX_CTRL 0×02050000, Cache size: 524288 B
bio: create slab at 0
mxs-dma mxs-dma-apbh: initialized
print_constraints: VDDA: 2500 mV
print_constraints: VDDIO: 3300 mV
vgaarb: loaded
SCSI subsystem initialized
spi_imx imx6q-ecspi.0: probed
spi_imx imx6q-ecspi.1: probed
usbcore: registered new interface driver usbfs
usbcore: registered new interface driver hub
usbcore: registered new device driver usb
Freescale USB OTG Driver loaded, $Revision: 1.55 $
imx-ipuv3 imx-ipuv3.0: IPU DMFC NORMAL mode: 1(0~1), 5B(4,5), 5F(6,7)
MIPI CSI2 driver module loaded
Advanced Linux Sound Architecture Driver Version 1.0.24.
Bluetooth: Core ver 2.16
NET: Registered protocol family 31
Bluetooth: HCI device and connection manager initialized
Bluetooth: HCI socket layer initialized
Bluetooth: L2CAP socket layer initialized
Bluetooth: SCO socket layer initialized
cfg80211: Calling CRDA to update world regulatory domain
i2c-core: driver [max17135] using legacy suspend method
i2c-core: driver [max17135] using legacy resume method
Switching to clocksource mxc_timer1
NET: Registered protocol family 2
IP route cache hash table entries: 32768 (order: 5, 131072 bytes)
TCP established hash table entries: 131072 (order: 8, 1048576 bytes)
TCP bind hash table entries: 65536 (order: 7, 786432 bytes)
TCP: Hash tables configured (established 131072 bind 65536)
TCP reno registered
UDP hash table entries: 512 (order: 2, 16384 bytes)
UDP-Lite hash table entries: 512 (order: 2, 16384 bytes)
NET: Registered protocol family 1
RPC: Registered named UNIX socket transport module.
RPC: Registered udp transport module.
RPC: Registered tcp transport module.
RPC: Registered tcp NFSv4.1 backchannel transport module.
Static Power Management for Freescale i.MX6
wait mode is disabled for i.MX6
cpaddr = c0820000 suspend_iram_base=c0890000
PM driver module loaded
IMX PCIe port: link down with power supply 0!
IMX usb wakeup probe
IMX usb wakeup probe
cpu regulator init ldo=0
i.MXC CPU frequency driver
JFFS2 version 2.2. (NAND) �© 2001-2006 Red Hat, Inc.
msgmni has been set to 1655
alg: No test for stdrng (krng)
io scheduler noop registered
io scheduler deadline registered
io scheduler cfq registered (default)
MIPI DSI driver module loaded
mxc_sdc_fb mxc_sdc_fb.0: register mxc display driver hdmi
mxc_hdmi mxc_hdmi: Detected HDMI controller 0×13:0x1a:0xa0:0xc1
imx-ipuv3 imx-ipuv3.0: IPU DMFC DP HIGH RESOLUTION: 1(0,1), 5B(2~5), 5F(6,7)
Console: switching to colour frame buffer device 240×67
imx-sdma imx-sdma: loaded firmware 1.1
imx-sdma imx-sdma: initialized
Serial: IMX driver
imx-uart.0: ttymxc0 at MMIO 0×2020000 (irq = 58) is a IMX
console [ttymxc0] enabled, bootconsole disabled
console [ttymxc0] enabled, bootconsole disabled
imx-uart.2: ttymxc2 at MMIO 0x21ec000 (irq = 60) is a IMX
loop: module loaded
GPMI NAND driver registered. (IMX)
vcan: Virtual CAN interface driver
CAN device driver interface
FEC Ethernet Driver
fec_enet_mii_bus: probed
ehci_hcd: USB 2.0 ‘Enhanced’ Host Controller (EHCI) Driver
add wake up source irq 72
fsl-ehci fsl-ehci.1: Freescale On-Chip EHCI Host Controller
fsl-ehci fsl-ehci.1: new USB bus registered, assigned bus number 1
fsl-ehci fsl-ehci.1: irq 72, io base 0×02184200
fsl-ehci fsl-ehci.1: USB 2.0 started, EHCI 1.00
hub 1-0:1.0: USB hub found
hub 1-0:1.0: 1 port detected
add wake up source irq 75
fsl-ehci fsl-ehci.0: Freescale On-Chip EHCI Host Controller
fsl-ehci fsl-ehci.0: new USB bus registered, assigned bus number 2
fsl-ehci fsl-ehci.0: irq 75, io base 0×02184000
fsl-ehci fsl-ehci.0: USB 2.0 started, EHCI 1.00
hub 2-0:1.0: USB hub found
hub 2-0:1.0: 1 port detected
Initializing USB Mass Storage driver…
usbcore: registered new interface driver usb-storage
USB Mass Storage support registered.
ARC USBOTG Device Controller driver (1 August 2005)
mousedev: PS/2 mouse device common for all mice
i2c-core: driver [isl29023] using legacy suspend method
i2c-core: driver [isl29023] using legacy resume method
i2c /dev entries driver
Linux video capture interface: v2.00
mxc_v4l2_output mxc_v4l2_output.0: V4L2 device registered as video16
mxc_v4l2_output mxc_v4l2_output.0: V4L2 device registered as video17
i2c-core: driver [mag3110] using legacy suspend method
i2c-core: driver [mag3110] using legacy resume method
Bluetooth: Virtual HCI driver ver 1.3
Bluetooth: HCI UART driver ver 2.2
Bluetooth: HCIATH3K protocol initialized
Bluetooth: Generic Bluetooth USB driver ver 0.6
usbcore: registered new interface driver btusb
sdhci: Secure Digital Host Controller Interface driver
sdhci: Copyright(c) Pierre Ossman
mmc0: no vmmc regulator found
mmc0: SDHCI controller on platform [sdhci-esdhc-imx.2] using ADMA
mmc1: no vmmc regulator found
mmc1: SDHCI controller on platform [sdhci-esdhc-imx.1] using ADMA
sdhci sdhci-esdhc-imx.0: no write-protect pin available!
mmc2: no vmmc regulator found
mmc2: SDHCI controller on platform [sdhci-esdhc-imx.0] using ADMA
VPU initialized
mxc_asrc registered
Thermal calibration data is 0x59952b5f
Anatop Thermal registered as thermal_zone0
anatop_thermal_probe: default cooling device is cpufreq!
usbcore: registered new interface driver usbhid
usbhid: USB HID core driver
usbcore: registered new interface driver snd-usb-audio
mxc_hdmi_soc mxc_hdmi_soc.0: MXC HDMI Audio
mxc_spdif mxc_spdif.0: MXC SPDIF Audio
sgtl5000 1-000a: Failed to get supply ‘VDDD’: -19
print_constraints: 1-000a: 850 1600 mV at 1200 mV normal
sgtl5000 1-000a: sgtl5000 revision 17
usb 1-1: new full speed USB device number 2 using fsl-ehci
mmc0: new high speed SDHC card at address 1234
mmcblk0: mmc0:1234 SA04G 3.63 GiB
mmcblk0: p1 p2
asoc: sgtl5000 imx-ssi.1 mapping ok
asoc: mxc-spdif imx-spdif-dai.0 mapping ok
asoc: mxc-hdmi-soc imx-hdmi-soc-dai.0 mapping ok
ALSA device list:
#0: sgtl5000-audio
#1: imx-spdif
#2: imx-hdmi-soc
NET: Registered protocol family 26
TCP cubic registered
NET: Registered protocol family 17
can: controller area network core (rev 20090105 abi 8)
NET: Registered protocol family 29
can: raw protocol (rev 20090105)
can: broadcast manager protocol (rev 20090105 t)
Bluetooth: RFCOMM TTY layer initialized
Bluetooth: RFCOMM socket layer initialized
Bluetooth: RFCOMM ver 1.11
Bluetooth: BNEP (Ethernet Emulation) ver 1.3
Bluetooth: BNEP filters: protocol multicast
Bluetooth: HIDP (Human Interface Emulation) ver 1.2
lib80211: common routines for IEEE802.11 drivers
VFP support v0.3: implementor 41 architecture 3 part 30 variant 9 rev 4
Bus freq driver module loaded
Bus freq driver Enabled
mxc_dvfs_core_probe
DVFS driver module loaded
drivers/rtc/hctosys.c: unable to open rtc device (rtc0)
EXT3-fs: barriers not enabled
input: 2.4G Wireless Receiver as /devices/platform/fsl-ehci.1/usb1/1-1/1-1:1.0
generic-usb 0003:1915:AF11.0001: input,hidraw0: USB HID v1.11 Keyboard [2.4G W0
mmc1: queuing unknown CIS tuple 0x80 (50 bytes)
input: 2.4G Wireless Receiver as /devices/platform/fsl-ehci.1/usb1/1-1/1-1:1.1
generic-usb 0003:1915:AF11.0002: input,hidraw1: USB HID v1.11 Mouse [2.4G Wire1
mmc1: queuing unknown CIS tuple 0x80 (7 bytes)
mmc1: queuing unknown CIS tuple 0x80 (4 bytes)
generic-usb 0003:1915:AF11.0003: hidraw2: USB HID v1.11 Device [2.4G Wireless 2
mmc1: queuing unknown CIS tuple 0x02 (1 bytes)
mmc1: new SDIO card at address 0001
kjournald starting. Commit interval 5 seconds
EXT3-fs (mmcblk0p2): using internal journal
EXT3-fs (mmcblk0p2): recovery complete
EXT3-fs (mmcblk0p2): mounted filesystem with writeback data mode
VFS: Mounted root (ext3 filesystem) on device 179:2.
devtmpfs: mounted
Freeing init memory: 192K
INIT: version 2.88 booting
Starting udev
udevd[82]: starting version 182
Starting Bootlog daemon: bootlogd.
ALSA: Restoring mixer settings…
No state is present for card sgtl5000audio
Found hardware: “sgtl5000-audio” “” “” “” “”
Hardware is initialized using a generic method
Configuring network interfaces… No state is present for card sgtl5000audio
No state is present for card imxspdif
Found hardware: “imx-spdif” “” “” “” “”
Hardware is initialized using a generic method
No state is present for card imxspdif
No state is present for card imxhdmisoc
Found hardware: “imx-hdmi-soc” “” “” “” “”
Hardware is initialized using a generic method
No state is present for card imxhdmisoc
eth0: Freescale FEC PHY driver [Generic PHY] (mii_bus:phy_addr=1:01, irq=-1)
udhcpc (v1.20.2) started
Sending discover…
PHY: 1:01 – Link is Up – 100/Full
Sending discover…
Sending select for 192.168.0.109…
Lease of 192.168.0.109 obtained, lease time 7200
/etc/udhcpc.d/50default: Adding DNS 192.168.0.1
done.
Starting rpcbind daemon…rpcbind: cannot create socket for udp6
rpcbind: cannot create socket for tcp6
done.
hwclock: can’t open ‘/dev/misc/rtc’: No such file or directory
Fri Apr 12 13:14:00 UTC 2013
hwclock: can’t open ‘/dev/misc/rtc’: No such file or directory
INIT: Entering runlevel: 5
Starting Xserver
Starting system message bus: dbus.
Starting advanced power management daemon: apmd.
apmd[460]: apmd 3.2.1 interfacing with apm driver 1.13 and APM BIOS 1.2
hwclock: can’t open ‘/dev/misc/rtc’: No such file or directory
Starting syslogd/klogd: done
* Starting Avahi mDNS/DNS-SD Daemon: avahi-daemon
…fail!
Starting Telephony daemon
Starting Linux NFC daemon
imx-audio: setting default mixer settings.
amixer: Unable to find simple control ‘Playback’,0

Running local boot scripts (/etc/rc.local).
Stopping Bootlog daemon: bootlogd.

Poky 8.0 (Yocto Project 1.3 Reference Distro) 1.3+snapshot-20130412 wandboard-d0

wandboard-dual login:

Images, BSPs, and Source Code for Wandboard Solo/Dual/Quad

Software support, although not 100% perfect, appears to be now much better than before, both in terms of stability and features, and the number of available images.

As of writing, Wandboard provide 2 Android images on their download page:

Android 4.2.2 Preview – Android 4.2 will become the official image, but this currently very much work in progress with no Bluetooth, limited UVC camera support, and probably quite a few bugs. The image is available for both Wandboard Dual and Quad. Source is not available yet, but soon will be.
Android 4.1.2 – Current somewhat stable image for Wandboard Dual and Solo. Source is available for download as a tarball, and via their git repo.

Linux kernel source is available as a tarball or via Wandbaord’s git repository. Several Linux based distributions and BSP are now available:

Ubuntu 11.10 – For Wandboard Solo/Dual and Quad with GPU hardware acceleration, and VPU video decoding.
Freescale Yocto BSP – Wandboard Solo and Dual are officially part of Freescale i.MX6 Yocto BSP. You can build it yourself, or download some prebuilt image such as the one with xfce desktop environment
Buildroot – Buildroot for Wandboard Dual can be built. Most features seem included, but gstreamer appears to be missing.
Ubuntu 13.04 / Debian 7 – There are instructions to retrieve minimal rootfs for those 2 distributions on Wandboard Wiki, but those probably do not support GPU / VPU.
Community Squeeze OS – You may have never heard of that one, I hadn’t. CSOS, based on Fedora 18, is used by the “Community Squeeze Player project”, a network music player, similar to Logitech Squeezebox The image is only available for Wandboard Dual for now. Visit slimdevices forums for details.

Wandboard is also part of mainline U-Boot, so you can just get the source from DENX, build it for Wandboard, and put it on your board. There’s also some work to get Wandboard into Linux mainline, but I’m not really sure about the status.

Categories: Android, Fedora, Freescale i.MX, Linux, Linux 3.0, Ubuntu Tags: Android, Linux, bsp, buildroot, debugging, jelly bean, kernel, source code, u-boot, ubuntu, wandboard, yocto

Gumstix Alto35 Customizable Touchscreen Board

June 1st, 2013 cnxsoft No comments

A few months ago, Gumstix introduced Geppeto, a web platform that allows you to design and order your own baseboard for Gumstix Overo systems-on-module within minutes. The company has just announced Alto35, an expansion board built entirely with Geppetto. The Alto35 replaces Palo35 Overo-series expansion board with the same features, but adding the possibility of customizing the board via Geppetto.

Alto35 with Overo Module

Alto34 expansions board features the following:

3.5″ LCD resistive touch screen
Stereo audio in/out jacks
3D accelerometer (STMicro LIS33DE)
RC servo
USB – 2x USB mini-B ports, including console port (FT232RQ USB UART)
LEDs in 4 different colors, 2 tactile switches.
2×70-pin AVX Headers compatible with Overo COMs.
Power – 3.5V-5V

All Overo computers-on-module are compatible with Alto35 board, so you can just use existing software solutions such as Linaro Ubuntu, Robot Operating System, and the Yocto Project.

3D Rendering of Alto35 board in Geppeto

Alto35 is available for $89 including the display (not the Overo module), but what makes it interesting is that you can just clone the design in your web browser (preferably Chrome), modify it to your own liking, save and order. Within 3 to 4 weeks, you should get your own custom board delivered to your door. There’s a $1,999 setup fee on top of the board price ($71.43 without display), so this is only interesting if you plan to order several boards. Geppetto licensing allows you to keep your design private, but you can also opt to release it to the Geppetto community.

Categories: Hardware, Linux, Testing, Texas Instruments OMAP 3, Ubuntu Tags: Linux, gumstix, linaro, overo, ros, tools, ubuntu, yocto

Yocto Project 1.4 “Dylan” Release

April 27th, 2013 cnxsoft 4 comments

The Yocto Project Release 1.4 has just been announced. This release codenamed “Dylan” and based on Poky 9.0.0 is the sixth release of the project. The Yocto Project is a framework that creates embedded Linux distributions, and has been getting more and more traction with silicon vendors such as Intel, Freescale and Texas Instruments.

Yocto Project 1.4 bring the following new features and updates:

Major performance improvements – The overall build time has been reduced by more than 10%. Kernel build time is reduced by about 25%. With rm_work enabled, 40% less storage will be used for the tmp directory.
Smart, a replacement for zypper
Support for read-only rootfs
Wayland support, an X replacement.
Systemd support, a replacement for the system V init daemon.
Usability improvements to HOB, bitbake, yocto-bsp and other tools, including UI improvements, new features and bug fixes.
Documentation improvement/update and a new kernel development manual and profiling manual.
A complete rewrite of the yocto-autobuilder to allow for easier configuration, faster build times, and easier to maintain code
Support for postinstall scripts to run at roofs creation time, which will reduce image boot time.
Support for both the Linux 3.8 kernel and LTSI (3.4) kernel
Over 400 bugs fixed

You can download The Yocto Project 1.4 to give it a try. Alternatively, you can also retrieve the code via git:

git clone -b dylan git://git.yoctoproject.org/poky.git

For further details, you can visit Yocto Project 1.4 Features page.

The next version (The Yocto Project 1.5) will be released in October 2013, as the project follows a 6-month release schedule. Yocto Project 1.5 Features page is still work in progress, but the next release will focus on improving developer experience, validation automation, and further performance improvement. A list of bugs and enhancements is also available.

Categories: Linux, Linux 3.0, Software management Tags: Linux, bsp, open source, openembedded, poky, yocto

Wandboard Releases Updated Android and Ubuntu Linux Images and Source Code

April 1st, 2013 cnxsoft 3 comments

Since I’ve received my previous short review of the Wandboard Dual development board, there has been more work on done the platform with new Android and Ubuntu images, Jelly Bean source, Linux SDK release, and git repo setup. I’ve tried the binary images, and had a quick look at the source code and corresponding documentation.

Wandboard Dual (Click to Enlarge)

Android 4.1.2 Image and Source Code

Wanboard has release an improved Android image on the 14th of March which you can download for both Solo and Dual version of the development board with the following Changelog:

Fix HDMI audio/playback issue with certain monitor.
Add support for wifi on wandboard-dual.

Known issue:
Might need to turn off “Avoid poor connections” in Wi-Fi ->Advanced to keep connection alive.

I’ve given it a try in Wandboard Dual, ~~and it seems Ethernet support is gone~~ (Sorry my mistake, Ethernet IS working, but there’s no indication when it’s connected, and it’s pretty slow), Wi-Fi works but I’ve encountered the known issue above, and it’s quite slow, at least at the beginning, because of mmcqd process that seemed very busy with my microSD card. Adb is still not working so for a development board it’s quite a massive shortcoming if you want to develop Android apps for the platform.

I was able to install Google Play in the Wandboard. First download gapps-jb-20120726-signed.zip, then extract it and copy the files in the micro SD card as follows in a Linux PC:

cd ~/
mkdir gapps-jb
cd gapps-jb
unzip ~/Downloads/gapps-jb-20120726-signed.zip
sudo cp ~/gapps-jb/system/* /media/system/ -rf
sync

But then I decided to stop playing with Android on Wandboard for now, because I don’t like to torture myself using a system so slow. CPU usage is always around 6 to 7, the popup window showing “App is not responding : Wait / Kill” appears very often, and sometimes even the mouse point can’t be moved around.

The company also provides 2 Android Jelly Bean source code release:

wandboard_android_4.1.2_fullsource.tar.xz (1.6GB) – Full sourcecode for the Wandboard Android release. This is after the repo command and hence contains all necessary packages.

wandboard_android_4.1.2_minimal.tar.xz (100MB) – Small release containing the Freescale Android Jellybean release and the necessary patches for Wandboard.

For tarballs contains a file called Wandboard_Android_4.1.2_UserGuide.pdf with the instructions to build Android, create a bootable SD card and install Google Apps.

Ubuntu 11.10 Image, Source Code and Kernel repo

The company also released an updated Ubuntu 11.10 image that you can download for the dual version only. There’s no Changelog provided with the file. All I can say is that it could be a bit smoother than before (although boot time is still over 2 minutes), both Ethernet and Wi-Fi are working, but 2D/3D GPU acceleration is still not supported, as es2gears and glmark2-es2 are still using software rendering with this image. However, hardware video acceleration is working, as I could play most Linaro samples with Totem Player:

H.264 codec / MP4 container (Big Buck Bunny), 480p/720p/1080p – OK
MPEG2 codec / MPG container, 480p/720p/1080p – OK
MPEG4 codec, AVI container – OK
VC1 codec (WMV), 480p/720p/1080p – OK
Real Media (RMVB) – Failed. The required plugins (gstreamer-plugins-ugly) are automatically detected and installed by Totem Player, but the videos still fail to play.
WebM 480p/720p/1080p – OK

Video codec support is pretty good, as they did not cut corners to save cost with codec licenses (maybe it’s not possible with Freescale). There are still some bugs however. For example, if one video cannot play, you’ll have to restart the board to be able to play other videos, and if you turn off your TV or change source, you may lose HDMI audio until you reboot the board.

One the audio side it’s not as good. The board can decode AC3 and Dolby Digital 5.1, but DTS, DTS-HD MA, DTS-HD HR, TrueHD 5.1 & 7.1 and Dolby Digital 7.1 do not work. I don’t know if this is an implementation or a license issue.

Wandboard team also provided a new Linux Sourcecode SDK (Release Candidate) during last week-end. The file contains source code for u-boot and wandboard linux kernel, as well as binaries, firmware, tools and documentation. The file doc/wand-dev.pdf in the tar file explains how to build U-boot and the Linux kernel, and how to create a bootable micro SD card. It also briefly explains how to p[lay with bluetooth, Wi-Fi and audio drivers.The company has also setup a git server http://repo.or.cz/w/wandboard.git for Wandboard Android and Linux development, and Wandboard is now part of mainline U-boot.

That means currently Android and Ubuntu images for Wandboard still need more work, so you can't really expect to get the board and develop some applications without issues just yet. It seems Wandboard a~~nd/or Technexion, the company providing the EDM module~~ [Update: Albeit the MAC Address on my module belong to Technexion, I've been told they don't provide the module], at least partially relies on the community to help them improve support for the board. But this is happening, as Fabio Estevan is the one behind mainlining wandboard support in U-boot, and more work is being done as others work on buildroot and Yocto Project support. You can follow the progress in Wandboard Forums. I’ve also been informed that some XBMC people are working with the board, so you may expect an XBMC release in a (little) while.

Categories: Android, Freescale i.MX, Linux, Ubuntu, Video Tags: Android, Linux, buildroot, jelly bean, open source, technexion, u-boot, ubuntu, wandboard, xbmc, yocto

Gumstix Unveils $249 Pepper Single Board Computer Powered by TI Sitara AM3359

March 22nd, 2013 cnxsoft No comments

Gumstix has just announced a new single board computer for Linux embedded development and experimentation. Pepper is powered by Texas Instruments Sitara AM3359 Cortex A8 processor, and comes with 512MB DDR2, WiFi and Bluetooth connectivity, a 4.3″ LCD touchscreen and more.

Gumstix Pepper Key features:

Processor – Texas Instruments Sitara AM3359 Cortex A8 processor up to 720 MHz
System Memory – 512MB DDR2
Storage – microSD card slot (No flash)
Connectivity:
- Wifi – 802.11 b/g/n
- 10/100/1000M Ethernet
- Bluetooth 3.0
Display – Samsung 4.3″ LCD resistive touchscreen (480 x 272)
USB – 2x USB OTG connectors
Expansion headers – For I2C, SPI and UARTs
GPIO-controlled push buttons and LEDs
Sensors – 3D Accelerometer (ST LIS33DE)
Power – 5V

Since there’s no flash, a microSD is used to boot the board. Gumstix provides a Linux distribution built with the Yocto Project which you” eventually be able to download here (the page is pretty empty right now). Documentation for the board is limited at the moment, but will eventually show up on Gumstix’s Pepper page.

Pepper package costs $249, and includes the Pepper SBC, a 4.3″ TFT LCD with 4-wire resistive touch screen, a 5V US power adapter, and a 8GB microSD preloaded with Linux (Yocto build).

Via Linux Gizmos

Categories: Hardware, Linux, Texas Instruments Sitara Tags: development board, gumstix, sbc, texas instruments, yocto

Atmel Introduces SAMA5D3 Cortex A5 Embedded MPUs and Evaluation Kits

February 5th, 2013 cnxsoft 1 comment

Atmel has recently announced the Atmel SAMA5D3 series, a family of high performance, low-power microprocessor units (MPUs) based on ARM Cortex-A5 core. The SAMA5D3 series is designed for embedded applications in the industrial space, including factory and building automation, smart grid, medical and handheld terminals, as well as consumer applications such as smart watches, outdoor GPS, and DECT phones.

SAMA5D3 family has the following characteristics:

ARM Cortex-A5 core up to 536MHz (850DMIPS).
Floating point unit (FPU) with up to 3 times the performance of Cortex A8 FPU.
166MHz bus speed delivering up to 1328MB/s bandwidth.
Power consumption:
- <200mW in active mode at 536MHz with all peripherals activated
- 0.5mW in low-power mode with SRAM, registers retention and <0.5ms wake-up time
- ~1.2µA in backup mode with RTC running
Connectivity:
- Dual Ethernet and dual CAN ports (Only one model has both)
  - Gigabit Ethernet MAC with IEEE1588 and 10/100 MAC
  - Two CAN controllers
- 3x HS USB ports that can be configured as three host or two host and one device port
- 3x SDIO/SD/MMC ports, up to 7x UARTs, 2x SPIs, 3x TWIs, soft modem, CMOS sensor interface, 12-bit ADC, 32-bit timers, etc…
Display and Camera Support:
- Graphic LCD controller (For most models)
- Resistive touchscreen interface
- CMOS sensor interface
- 2x Synchronous Serial Controller (SSC) interfaces
Security – Secure boot, AES/Triple DES encryption engine, Secure Hash Algorithm (SHA) and True Random Number Generator (TRNG)

Atmel SAMA5D3 Block Diagram (Click to Enlarge)

There are 4 MPUs in this series each with specific features:

SAMA5D31 – LCD Controller (LCDC), RMII 10/100 Mbit Ethernet (EMAC), High Speed Multimedia Card Interface (HSMCI2), and UART0/1
SAMA5D33 – LCD Controller (LCDC), and Gigabit Ethernet (GMAC)
SAMA5D34 – LCD Controller (LCDC), Gigabit Ethernet (GMAC), CAN0/1, and High Speed Multimedia Card Interface (HSMCI2)
SAMA5D35 – Gigabit Ethernet (GMAC), RMII 10/100 Mbit Ethernet (EMAC), CAN0/1, High Speed Multimedia Card Interface (HSMCI2), UART0/1 and TC1 (Timer Counter 1)

Atmel provides evaluation kits for each MPUs:

Atmel SAMA5D31-EK – $595
Atmel SAMA5D33-EK – $595
Atmel SAMA5D34-EK – $595
Atmel SAMA5D35-EK – $445

SAMA5D31-EK

They all comes with 4Gb DDR2, 2Gb NAND Flash, 128Mb NOR , 32Mb SPI Serial DataFlash, 512Kb EEPROM, and lots of connectors. SAMA5D35-EK is cheaper because it does not include a 5.0” WVGA resistive TFT LCD module. Debugging is done with J-Link and CDC on-board, and an optional JTAG test access port is available. The kits comes preloaded with Linux demonstration software and a graphical user interface (GUI) based on Qt.

As with SAM9 processors, Atmel provides 3 bootloaders (AT91Bootstrap, U-Boot and Barebox), Linux distributions, and Buildroot and OpenEmbedded/Yocto support via linux4sam.com, and an Android 4.0 port will be available at www.at91.com/android4sam in March. The If you don’t plan to use an OS for your application, the company also offers a C-language software package (softpack). Development can be done in Windows or some Linux distributions (Ubuntu, Debian, Fedora and openSUSE). You can also access full documentation, and download the design and manufacturing Files (including schematics, gerbers, test programs…) for all 4 evaluation kits (Select “Other Documents”).

The Atmel SAMA5D3 is in mass production now, and pricing starts below $7 US for 1,000-pcs quantities. You can get more information on SAMA5D3 series microsite, and find out more about (or buy) SAMA5D3 evaluation kits on Atmel e-Store.

Categories: Android, Atmel SAMA5, Linux Tags: Android, Linux, atmel, barebox, cortex a5, debian, development kit, fedora, ics, openembedded, opensuse, u-boot, ubuntu, yocto

Embedded Linux Conference 2013 Schedule

January 24th, 2013 cnxsoft 2 comments

The Embedded Linux Conference (ELC 2013) will take place on February 20 – 22, 2013 at Park 55 Hotel in San Francisco, California.

ELC consists of 3 days of presentations, tutorials and sessions. There will be over 50 sessions during those 3 days. I’ll highlight a few sessions that I find particularly interesting, and that did not get presented at ELCE 2012 (AFAICR).

February 20

11:00 – Anatomy of the arm-soc git tree by Olof Johansson, Google

We are now two years into the new maintainer model for ARM platforms, and we have settled down into a workflow that maintainers have adjusted well to. Still, when new platforms arrive, or when maintainer ship changes hands, there’s sometimes a bit of ramp-up in getting used to how we organize our git tree and how we prefer to see code submitted to fit that model.

This presentation will give an overview of how we have chosen to organize and maintain the arm-soc tree, and advice to developers and maintainers on best practices to help organize your code in a way that makes life easier for everybody involved.Main audience for this presentation is developers working on upstream kernels for ARM platforms, including platform maintainers.

12:00 – The OpenEmbedded Project 2 Years After Adopting the Yocto Project by Koen Kooi, Circuitco Electronics

The Yocto Project was announced slightly more than 2 years ago at ELC-E Cambridge and in the OpenEmbedded e.V. General Assembly the day after the conference I proposed to embrace and adopt the Yocto Project as the core for OpenEmbedded.

In the past 2 years the ecosystem has seen tremendous growth, but not always in sane directions. This presentation will detail how the Yocto Project, the OpenEmbedded Project, the community and the companies involved evolved during that time.

The Angstrom Distribution and the Beagleboard will be used as examples since those were first OE classic targets to be publicly converted to the new world order.

This presentation will also try to clear up to confusion about what people actually mean when they say “this runs yocto”

14:00 – How to Cook the LTSI Kernel with Yocto Recipe by Hisao Munakata, Renesas Electronics

LTSI is the Linux Foundation CE workgroup project that creates and maintains long-term stable kernel for industry use. Recently LTSI-3.4 was released, and it is committed to being kept maintained till the community applies bug-fix and security fix patches on LTS-3.4. The community LTS maintainer Greg Kroah Hartman stated it would last at least till May 2014. This would dramatically reduce your own effort to collect such important patches by you. Furthermore, Linux Foundation Yocto project that provides a recipe for custom Linux BSP creation will add support for LTSI kernel from this release. Given this significant improvement I want to help LTSI user to start work with it. In this session, I will introduce the specification of LTSI-3.4 (enhancement from the community kernel) and how to write a Yocto recipe to collect your own enhancement patches on top of the official LTSI-3.4 kernel.

15:00 – Common Clock Framework: How to Use It by Gregory Clement, Free Electrons

The common clock framework, which was included in the 3.4 kernel in the beginning of 2012, is now mandatory to support all new ARM
SoCs. It is also part of the “one zImage to run them all” big plan of the ARM architecture in the Linux kernel.After an introduction on why we needed this framework and on the problems it solves, we will go through the implementation details of this framework. Then, with real examples, we will focus on how to use this framework to add clock support to a new ARM SoC. We will also show how the device tree is used in this process.The last part of the talk will review how device drivers use this framework, using examples taken from various parts of the kernel.

16:00 – Controlling Multi-Core Race Conditions on Linux/Android by Mike Anderson, The PTR Group, Inc.

Multi-core processors are now the rule rather than the exception in high-end applications. But, as we try to port our legacy applications to multi-core platforms, what pitfalls lay in wait? This presentation will outline the conditions that lead to multi-core race conditions and outline the techniques for identifying and redesigning code to successfully function in a multi-core world.

17:00 – Optimizing GStreamer Video Plugins: A Case Study with Renesas SoC Platform by Katsuya Matsubara, IGEL Co., Ltd.

GStreamer is the leading multimedia framework for various OS platforms, notably Linux systems. A variety of multimedia applications can be constructed with well-implemented plugins, which have versatile functions such as image scaling, cropping, color conversion, and video decoding. However, in the case of embedded systems, they should require further system integration to utilize specialized hardware acceleration engines in SoC for optimal performance.

This presentation shows the case study experience of integrating video plugins with a Renesas SoC platform. It will discuss how to access hardware inside a plugin, assigning buffer memory suited for hardware, and eliminating the ‘memcpy’ call.The audience will learn about essential technique for integrating GStreamer into embedded system. An understanding of the basics of video codecs and color formats is required.

February 21

10:30 – Kernel Testing Tools and Techniques by Matt Porter, Texas Instruments, Inc.

This BoF is intended to bring together anybody that tests the Linux kernel to share best practices and brainstorm new ideas. Topics may range from .config testing, module/built-in drivers, test methods and tools for testing specific driver subsystems, VM/scheduler/interrupt stress testing, and beyond.

The discussion is targeted at Linux kernel developers, test engineers, and embedded Linux product teams/consultants with the common task of testing Linux kernel integrity. Attendees should have a firm grasp of building and deploying the kernel as well as kernel/userspace kernel APIs.

11:30 – LLVMLinux: Compiling the Linux Kernel with LLVM by Behan Webster, Converse in Code Inc.

The LLVM project is an extensive compiler technology suite which is becoming commonplace in many industries. Technology built with LLVM is already shipped in millions of Linux devices as a part of Android/Renderscript. Increasingly it is becoming a big part of the development process for embedded projects, all the way up through to high performance computing clusters. This session will provide an update on the status of the LLVM Linux project; a project which is cooperating with both the Linux kernel and LLVM communities to build the Linux kernel with Clang/LLVM.This talk is for experienced developers who are interested in toolchain technology and Linux Kernel programming.

13:45 – Toybox: Writing a new Linux Command Line from Scratch by Rob Landley, Multicelluar

In 2003 I decided to replace twenty-two GNU packages in Linux From Scratch (everything except the compiler, kernel, and libc) with BusyBox, and then rebuild the result under itself. This didn’t remotely work, so I started testing and improving BusyBox until it did, putting in so much work on BusyBox its maintainer handed the project over to me.In 2006 I handed BusyBox off to a new maintainer and started over from scratch on a fresh implementation, Toybox. In 2011 Tim Bird (founder of CELF) convinced me to repurpose Toybox as a new BSD-Licensed Posix-2008 compliant command line for Android.

This panel explains what’s in the “standard” Linux command line: drawing commands from POSIX, LSB, Android Toolbox, Linux From Scratch, and more. How to determine what should be in the base system, and how to know what to exclude, and why the “standards” aren’t enough.

14:45 – Open Graphics with the Yocto Project by Ross Burton, Intel

Closed-source binary drivers and libraries are endemic in embedded, with binary blobs essential on many modern boards to use the on-board 2D, 3D, or video acceleration. Recently there has been progress in open drivers from manufactures for various platforms including Intel, from 3D acceleration with OpenGL to hardware video decode/encode with VA API. This presentation will explain why open drivers are better than closed, discuss the options available, and describe what is available in the Yocto Project BSPs for you to use.The audience for this talk is expected to be developers and architects interested in the state of open graphics in Linux. Knowledge of this field will be assumed.

16:00 – Designing for Optimisation by Mans Rullgard, ARM / Linaro

Performance is an important aspect when developing mobile applications as it affects both the interactive user experience and the device battery life. This presentation will introduce techniques and tools (e.g. profilers) useful for creating high-perfomance code starting at the high-level design stage (code organisation, data layout, etc.) and following through to implementation considerations. Specific instruction sets (e.g. NEON) will not be a primary focus, the goal rather being to enable efficient use of these without delving into details, thus giving the presentation a broader applicability.The target audience is developers of compute-intensive (native) applications or libraries who need to achieve the best possible performance. No special expertise beyond general familiarity with userspace Linux programming is assumed.

17:00 – Atom for Embedded Linux Hackers and the DIY Community by Scott Garman, Intel Open Source Technology Center

As costs have come down and the power of embedded platforms has increased, the hacker/maker community is playing an increasingly critical role in the creation of disruptive technologies. The “Next Big Thing” will likely start out as a hacker project using a commodity embedded hardware platform. Intel’s Atom-based offerings continue to grow while targeting new niches in embedded applications. This talk will outline exciting new developments with Atom processors in the embedded space, and how hackers can make best use of these advantages.This talk will be relevant to hackers, hobbyists, and people interested in developing embedded products based on Atom, and is open to all technical experience levels.

February 22

9:00 – In Kernel Switcher: A Solution to Support ARM’s New big.LITTLE Implementation by Mathieu, Linaro

The ‘In Kernel Switcher’ (IKS) is a solution developed by Linaro and ARM to support ARM’s new big.LITTLE implementation. It is pairing together an A7 (LITTLE) and an A15 (big) processor into a logical entity that is then presented to the kernel as one CPU. From there the solution is seeking to achieve optimal performance and power consumption by switching between the big or the LITTLE core based on system usage.This session will present the IKS solution. After giving an overview of the big.LITTLE processor we will present the solution itself, how frequencies are masqueraded to the cpufreq core, the steps involved in doing a “switch” between cores and some of the optimisation made to the interactive governor.

The session will conclude by presenting the results that we obtained as well as a brief overview of Linaro’s upstreaming plan.

10:00 – Lessons Learned in Designing a Self-video Self-hovering Nano Copter by Gregoire Gentil, Always Innovating

Always Innovating has announced a new product, the MeCam, a self video nano copter to point-and-shoot yourself. The MeCam launches from the palm of a hand and hovers instantly. This talk will review the lessons learned during the design of this product:

hardware - CPU: the choice and the different trade-offs involved with this selection.
hardware - sensors: the complete list of the 14 sensors, their advantages and drawbacks.
software - core: the architecture of the Linux based system and the key challenges.
software - stabilization algorithm: the experience during the tuning of the different algorithms participating to the self hovering.

This talk targets developer with good expertise in both hardware and software. No deep knowledge in a specific field is mandatory but serious understanding of ARM and the Linux kernel is a plus.

11:15 – Task Scheduling for Multicore Embedded Devices by Gap-Joo Na, Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute (ETRI)

Since Completely Fair Scheduler (CFS), which is default scheduler of Linux mainline kernel, has been introduced in kernel 2.6.23, due to its remarkable performance, we’ve paid little attention to improving the scheduler. In this presentation, we will show the CFS limitations, unsatisfactory fairness among cores and long response time to user interactive tasks by some experimental result. And then we will explain you an example scenario to solve this vulnerable point in multicore environment.

12:15 – Tips of Malloc and Free by Tetsuyuki Kobayashi, Kyoto Microcomputer

Sometimes you may encounter segmentation fault at malloc or free. It looks a bug of malloc library, but at most case it is not. Some other part destroys heap management area. It is very hard to tell which program actually destroys the heap if the process is very large and uses so many libraries and threads.
In this session I will show you some tips to trouble shoot heap problem.

tips of malloc library in glibc
how to hook and replace malloc
use mspace in dlmalloc to separete memory spaceExpected audience is developers who writes code in C/C++ language and want to solve problems related heap memory.

14:15 – How to Build Your Own Digital Signage Solution with Yocto Project by Nitin, Intel Corporation

Summary of the proposal:

This talk describes the presenter’s experience with using the Yocto Project, along with various open source layers, to build a digital signage solution from scratch. The presenter covers how various components are used from the oe-core, meta-web-kiosk, meta-security, meta-virtualization, and meta-nuc layers to get a working solution for digital signage. The talk provides a live demo of the solution, along with access to the source code & build environment.

Targeted Audience:

This talk is targeted to the open source development community. The audience can expect to get more knowledge about how they can build their own digital signage solution with the help of the Yocto Project and various open source layers.

15:15 – olibc: Another C Runtime Library for Embedded Linux by Jim Huang, 0xlab

olibc is derived from bionic libc used in Android, which was initially derived from NetBSD libc. olibc is expected to merge the enhancements done by several SoC vendors and partners, such as Qualcomm, TI, Linaro, etc., which is known to be the major difference from glibc, uclibc, and other traditional C library implementations. Typically, the code size of olibc runtime should be about 300 KB. For ARM target, olibc would benefit from ARMv7 specific features like NEON, Thumb-2, VFPv3/VFPv4, and latest compiler optimization techniques. Also, olibc is released under BSD License.

Those are just my choices among over 50 sessions. You can check the full schedule to find out which sessions suit you best.

You can register for ELC 2013 online.

There are two type of fees:

Professional Fee (If your company is paying for you to attend this event): 550 USD
Hobbyist Fee: 100 USD (up from $70 last year, who said there’s no inflation?)

Prior to ELC 2013, you can also attend the Android Builders Summit on February 18 & 19 for $200 extra, and/or Yocto Project Developer Day on February 19 at no additional cost.

Categories: Android, Graphics, Intel Atom, Linux, Programming, Software management, Testing, Texas Instruments OMAP 3 Tags: 0xlab, Android, Linux, always innovating, arm, beagleboard, big little, circuitco, digital signage, elc 2013, free electrons, google, gstreamer, igel, intel, kernel, kyoto microcomputer, linaro, llvm, ltsi, olibc, openembedded, optimization, ptr group, renesas, texas instruments, toybox, yocto

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