Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 2 Comments on Tizen 1.0 SDK and Source Code Release

Tizen 1.0 SDK and Source Code Release

The Tizen Technical Steering Group has announced, today, the release of Tizen 1.0 “Larkspur”. Tizen 1.0 release provides several new SDK features and improvements including: Simulator: A new browser-based tool that supports the Tizen APIs and allows you to run and debug your web applications, and simulate running applications with various device profiles. IDE: Enhancements include more flexibility around templates and debugging tools. Emulator: Significantly improved emulator performance through Intel’s Hardware Acceleration Manager for Windows and OpenGL acceleration for Linux. Updates to the platform source code include: Web: Support for additional features of W3C/HTML5 specification Location: Support for POI (Point of Interest) and route search Connectivity: Wi-Fi Direct key features added You can see the full list of changes by reading the release notes for the SDK and the source code. Tizen has also added a bug tracker and a wiki for the community and a few back-end changes have been […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 2 Comments on Virtual Hardware Platforms: Test & Debug Software Before the Silicon is Ready

Virtual Hardware Platforms: Test & Debug Software Before the Silicon is Ready

Historically software could only be tested and debugged when the first silicon sample was ready, and the software team could not participate in the design process. But thanks to Virtual Hardware Platforms, software can be executed at speeds close to real time on an abstract model of the hardware, available long before a design has been completed. The virtual platform is designed to simplify the creation and support of virtual prototypes and allow design teams to begin developing software weeks to months before a hardware prototype is available, and software teams can use it as their application development platform. For example, Freescale is using a Virtual Hardware Platform for their new Vybrid Controllers to emulate both Cortex A5 and Cortex M4 cores, as well as peripherals and run OS such as Linux or MQX before the Controllers are ready (Q2 2012). One Virtual Hardware Platform has just won the ACE […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 3 Comments on Android SDK Tools and ADT Revision 17 with VM Acceleration for x86 Emulator

Android SDK Tools and ADT Revision 17 with VM Acceleration for x86 Emulator

Google has released revision 17 of the SDK Tools and the Eclipse plugin. This release brings new features and bug fixes in for Lint static checker, the build system, and the emulator among other things. Here’s what’s new for Lint in r17: Lint API Check – Added check for Android API calls that require a version of Android higher than the minimum supported version. You can use the @TargetApi annotation to specify local overrides for conditionally loaded code. New Lint Rules – Added over 40 new Lint rules for a total of over 80, including checks for performance, XML layouts, manifest and file handling. Ignoring Lint Warnings – Added ability to suppress Lint warnings in Java code with the new @SuppressLint annotation, and in XML files with the new tools: namespace prefix and ignore attribute. New Eclipse Lint UI – Improved HTML and XML reporting and Eclipse integration. Improvements to […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 58 Comments on Instructions to Run Raspberry Pi Fedora 14 Remix in QEMU

Instructions to Run Raspberry Pi Fedora 14 Remix in QEMU

As mentioned in my previous post, the Raspberry Pi Foundation has just released the Fedora 14 Remix SD card image that can be installed either via  installer (easiest method) or using dd / windd as with the previous image. In this blog post, I’ll give the instructions how to run Raspberry Pi Fedora 14 Remix in QEMU using a similar method than the one I used for Debian Squeeze. I tested since in machines with Ubuntu 10.04 LTS and Debian 6.0.4. Download the image using BitTorrent raspberrypi-fedora-remix-14-r1.img.gz.torrent or via the HTTP link available on Raspberry Pi Download page. Decompress the image:

Download kernel 3.0.4 image for qemu, if you don’t have it yet.

Since the rootfs is full (in the real board it will be resized to the size of the SD Card), we need to increase the size of the rootfs partition. First create and empty 3G […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 6 Comments on Raspberry Pi Releases Arch Linux SD Card Image

Raspberry Pi Releases Arch Linux SD Card Image

The Raspberry Pi Foundation has just announced the release of Arch Linux for the Raspberry Pi. This image is based on a minimal image of Arch Linux and does not come with a graphical interface. This distribution may not be suitable for beginners and you may be better off using the Debian SD Card image or even the upcoming Fedora 14 Raspberry Pi Remix image. You can always install extra packages with Pacman,  the Arch Linux package manager. To update the package list:

To Install LXDE Graphical Interface:

To run LXDE:

You can download it using BitTorrent: archlinuxarm-01-03-2012.zip.torrent (preferred method) or via one of the HTTP mirrors: archlinuxarm-01-03-2012.zip. (This link will redirect your download to the closest available HTTP server). The default login credentials are: root/root I haven’t tried it, but you should be able to use this release in qemu, by following instructions similar to the one […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 61 Comments on Raspberry Pi Releases 1st SD Card Image (Debian) – How-to use it in QEMU

Raspberry Pi Releases 1st SD Card Image (Debian) – How-to use it in QEMU

The Raspberry Pi Foundation has just released the first SD Card Image that you will be able to use with your Raspberry Pi board. This image is based on Debian Squeeze (6.0) and comes with  LXDE user interface and Midori browser, development tools, and sample code for accessing the multimedia functionality on the device. You can download it using BitTorrent: debian6-17-02-2012.zip.torrent (preferred method) or via one of the many http mirrors available on RPi Community page. This image contains all necessary files including the binary blob and closed source libraries, the kernel and the root file systems. If you want to to prepare an SD Card with this image simply use dd in Linux: unzip debian6-17-02-2012.zip sudo dd if=debian6-17-02-2012/debian6-17-02-2012.img of={sd_card_path} where sd_card_path is the device pointing to you SD Card (e.g. /dev/sdc). Make sure you use the correct device (e.g. with fdisk -l) or you may wipeout your hard drive […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 4 Comments on Firefox 4 for Android and Firefox Mobile for Computer

Firefox 4 for Android and Firefox Mobile for Computer

Mozilla has just released Firefox 4 for Android or Nokia N900 (Maemo) which is available for download at http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/mobile/download/ and on the Android Market. Have a look at the video below to see the main features of Firefox 4 Mobile such as multiple tabs, full screen browsing (no menu),  panning and zooming, firefox sync to synchronize all your devices,  spam filters, add-ons, personas and more. If you do not have an Android device or Nokia N900, you can still test if your mobile website works fine as Mozilla also provides Firefox for mobile to your desktop computer  for Windows, MAC OS X and Linux. I’ve try it for Windows XP. There is no installer, after you download the file, simply extract the files in C:\Program Files for example, and then run C:\Program Files\fennec\fennec.exe to start Firefox 4 Mobile on your computer, it will open a 480×800 Window. Fennec is the […]