Cubieboard 4 Ubuntu Review – Setup, Usability, and Performance

Cubieboard4 is a development board powered by Allwinner A80 octa-core processor with 2GB RAM and 16GB eMMC. I’ve already shown how to get started with the board using the pre-installed Android 4.4 image, and run some benchmarks in Android, so now it’s time to check out the Ubuntu Linaro 14.04 image provided by CubieTech. I’ll show how to install and setup Ubuntu 14.04 on the board using a micro SD card, run desktop applications like Chromium, Libre Office, and son on on the board, and complete the review with some Linux benchmarks. Setting up Ubuntu on Cubieboard4 Firmware images for Cubiebord4 can be downloaded @ http://dl.cubieboard.org/model/cc-a80/Image/. Currently Android 4.4, Debian server, Ubuntu Linaro server, and Ubuntu Linaro desktop with LXDE desktop environment. That’s the latter I’ll use for the experiment, and two images are available: linaro-desktop-cb4-card-hdmi-v0.4.img.7z – Bootable image from micro SD card linaro-desktop-cb4-emmc-hdmi-v0.4.img.7z – Installation image to eMMC to […]

How to Read OpenOffice / LibreOffice Files from the Command Line

Let’s say you have edited a file in LibreOffice Writer, but later you access your computer remotely via SSH for example. You don’t really want to bother copying the file to your current machine, and rather just quickly check its content in the terminal. Is there a way? Since odt files are just some zip files containing XML files, you could manually decompress the file, and open XML files, but there is a more convenient the program is called odt2txt. On an Ubuntu / Debian machine it can be installed with:

For basic usage, you just need to pass the filename as parameter:

But there are also a few more options:

This also wrote with ods (spreadsheets) and odp (presentations) files with ods2txt and odp2txt which are just symlinks pointing to the same program as odt2txt, namely odt2txt.odt2txt. Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft)Jean-Luc started CNX Software in 2010 as […]

Onion Omega is an Atheros AR9331 Wi-Fi Module Supporting Various Docks and Add-on Boards (Crowdfunding)

There are so many inexpensive Wi-Fi modules running Linux that it would be easy to discard Onion Omega as yet another Wi-Fi module based on Atheros AR9331 WiSoC. However, the developers have tried to bring some added value by making programming easier for web developers, integrating it with a cloud platform (free for non-commercial use), and providing basicor Arduino dock, and add-on boards for Ethernet, OLED, Relay… to make building hardware projects easier too. Let’s go through the hardware first, starting with the module specifications: SoC –  Atheros AR9331 400MHZ MIPS 24K System Memory – 64MB DDR2 400MHz Storage – 16MB Flash Connectivity – 10/100 Mbps Ethernet + 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi up to 150Mbps with PCB antenna w/ uFL connector I/Os –  18 GPIOs USB – 1x USB 2.0 Power Supply – 3.3V; Typ. consumption: 0.6W Dimensions – 28.2mm x 52mm (1.1″ x 2.0″) Since this type of module is not […]

Baseball Nano-ITX i.MX6 Board Targets Secure Industrial M2M and IoT Products

Calao Systems has introduced a new Freescale i.MX6 single board computer with Baseball embedded platform, targetting network-connected industrial M2M and Internet of Things (IoT) applications requiring a high-level of security achieved with an FIPS 140-2 trusted platform module, and Crypto Authentication chip. The board is comprised of a Nano-ITX based board and a Freescale.iMX6 (Solo, Dual or Quad) SMARC 1.1 module with the following combined specifications: SoC – Freescale iMX6 Solo, Dual or Quad Cortex A9 processor @ up to 1GHz with Vivante GPU System Memory – 2 GB DDR3L, Storage On Module: 8 GB e-MMC, 8 MB SPI Flash, 1x EEPROM with unique S/N and MAC address On Baseboard: 1x Micro-SD socket, 1x Industrial Grade eMMC NANDrive (optional), 1x Industrial Grade SATA Nandrive (optional), Video Output – HDMI Audio Output – HDMI and optical S/PDIF Connectivity – 2x Gigabit Ethernet, 1x SIM card slot USB – 3x USB 2.0 […]

A5-V11 Mini Router Runs OpenWRT (Linux) For Just $8

In case you you still think OpenWRT capable NEXX WT1520 router is still too expensive at $15, what about an $8 OpenWRT router? That’s what LY mini wireless router costs including shipping, and it’s better known as A5-V11, the name of its PCB. It’s not exactly a 3G/4G router as the casing implied, but it does support external USB 3G/4G dongles like most other routers with USB on the market. A5-V11 specifications: SoC – Mediatek/Ralink) RT5350F MIPS processor @ 360MHz System Memory – 32MB RAM (W9825G6EH-75). Some people reported theirs only have 16MB RAM, so YMMV. Storage – 4MB NAND flash (Pm25LQ032) Connectivity – Wi-Fi 802.11b/g/n up to 150 Mbps; 1x 10/100M Ethernet USB – 1x USB 2.0 host port, 1x micro USB port for power Misc – Power LED, factory reset pinhole Power – 5V via micro USB port Dimensions –  6.1 x 2.3 x 1.4 cm Contrary to […]

$15 NEXX WT1520 Wi-Fi Router Supports OpenWRT

TP-Link WR703N is a popular low cost router well supported by OpenWRT that costs about $23 shipped. But there’s now a new cheaper router that’s been mentioned in comments on CNX Software a few times, with a different processor, but otherwise similar specs plus an extra Ethernet port. NEXX WT1520 is powered by Mediatek RT5350F, sells for $15 including shipping from sites like Banggood, Aliexpress and eBay, and can run OpenWRT, although it’s not officially supported yet. NEXX WT1520(F/H) specifications: SoC – Mediatek (previously Ralink) RT5350F MIPS processor @ 360MHz System Memory – 32MB RAM Storage – 4MB NAND flash Connectivity: Wi-Fi 802.11b/g/n up to 150 Mbps with built-in PIFA antenna 2x 10/100M Ethernet (LAN and WAN) USB – 1x USB 2.0 host port, 1x micro USB port for power Misc – Status LED, reset pinhole, power button Power – 5V via micro USB port Dimensions –  63 x 43 […]

Gigabyte MP30-AR0 is an ARM Server Motherboard Powered by Applied Micro X-Gene 1 SoC

So far, it’s been pretty hard to buy ARM server motherboards for individuals, as most, if not all, products were reserved to corporate entities, but with Gigabyte MP30-AR0 server motherboard featuring the first generation Applied Micro X-Gene 64-bit ARM processor this might be about to change. [Update: As mentioned in comments I was probably wrong here, since the motherboard is listed on the Gigabyte’s B2B website, and not its B2C website]. MP30-AR0 specifications: Processor – AppliedMicro X-Gene 1 processor with 8 ARMv8 cores up to 2.4GHz (TDP 45W) System Memory – 8 x DIMM slots, Single, dual rank UDIMM modules @ 1333/1600 NHz supported (up to 16GB) Storage – 4x SATA III 6Gb/s ports + 1x SD card slot Connectivity – 2x 10GbE SFP+ LAN ports (integrated), 2x GbE LAN ports (Marvell 88E1512), 1x 10/100/1000 management LAN Graphics – Video Integrated in Aspeed AST2400. 2D Video Graphic Adapter with PCIe […]

Amlogic is Working on S905 and S912 64-bit ARM Cortex A53 Processors

The relatively popular Amlogic S805 and S812 Cortex A9 processors are soon going to be joined by Amlogic S905 and S912 processors, both featuring ARM Cortex A53 64-bit cores, with the former destined to entry-level media players, and the latter for higher end devices including 4K60 / HDMI 2.0 support, as well as H.265 and AVS+ hardware video codecs. The company is now showcasing its new processors at China Content Broadcasting Network Exhibition (CCBN) 2015 in Beijing until March 28. Details are sparse, but we still know a few features for the new Amlogic 64-bit ARM processors: CPU – Quad Core ARM Cortex A53 CPU @ 2.0 GHz with 512KB unified cache. GPU – S905: 5 core Mali-450MP to 750MHz with OpenGL ES 11./2.0 and OpenVG 1.1 support, unnamed 2.5D GPU S912: TBD Video – 4K@60 Hz video decoding 10-bit HEVC and AVS+ codec support; H.264 up to 4K 30 […]