Linux

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 2 Comments on Kodi 14.2 Linux Tested on MeLE PCG03 with Ubuntu 15.04

Kodi 14.2 Linux Tested on MeLE PCG03 with Ubuntu 15.04

I’ve already tested Kodi 14.1 on MeLE PCG03 running Windows 8.1, with the Intel Atom Z3735F device performing greatly for 1080p videos, working DTS and Dolby pass-through (no HD Audio though) and automatic frame rate switching working at all frequencies I tested. Later I installed Lubuntu 15.04 on the mini PC, and I had planned to test Kodi 14.x in Linux to compare the performance in Windows 8.1. Unfortunately, I did not manage to mak HDMI audio, nor the audio jack work in Linux, so instead I purchased a cheap USB sound card from DealExtreme for around $2 US, and connected a pair of USB powered speakers to enable audio output. The USB sound card performs pretty well, and out of the 80 or so videos I used for testing, only one had some saturation issues likely due to the sound card itself. I installed Kodi 14.2 using the recommended […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 2 Comments on PCOMnetA5 is a Small Dual Ethernet Board Powered by Freescale Vybrid Processor

PCOMnetA5 is a Small Dual Ethernet Board Powered by Freescale Vybrid Processor

F&S Elektronik Systeme has introduced a credit card sized industrial board powered by Freescale Vybrid single core Cortex A5 SoC featuring two Ethernet ports, support for RGB panels with resistive touch, and various I/Os headers for USB, UART, CAN and so on. The board is comprised of a baseboard and the company’s PicoMODA5 module with the following combined specifications: SoC – Freescale Vybrid Cortex-A5 processor @ 500 MHz with 512KB cache, NEON instructions and GPU System Memory – 256 MB RAM Storage – 128 MB Flash + µSD slot Display – 18-bit RGB LCD with 4-wire analog resistive PCAP-Touch via I2C Connectivity –  2x 10/100M Ethernet with IEEE1588, optional WiFi USB – 2x USB 2.0 host ports via header, 1x micro USB 2.0 device port Other I/Os 2x CAN RS232/RS485 1x I2C, 1x SPI 7x Digital I/O Supply Voltage –  +5V DC/ ±5% Dimensions – 80x50mm Operating Temperature Range – […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 8 Comments on Intel Compute Stick is up for Pre-order for $110 and Up (USA Only)

Intel Compute Stick is up for Pre-order for $110 and Up (USA Only)

Intel Compute Stick is finally available for pre-order on US based online merchants such as Amazon and Newegg with prices starting at $109.99 and up excluding shipping and two versions with either Linux or Windows 8.1. Both versions of the device share most of the specifications: SoC – Intel Atom Z3735F Quad-Core “Bay Trail” processor @ 1.33 GHz (1.83 GHz burst frequency) and Intel HD Graphcis System Memory – 2 GB DDR3 (Windows) or 1 GB DDR3 (Linux) Storage – 32 GB eMMC (Windows) or 8 GB eMMC (Linux) + micro SD slot Video & Audio Output – HDMI 1.4a Connectivity – 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 4.0 USB – 1x USB 2.0 port, 1x micro USB port for power Misc – Power button Power Supply – 5V/2A via micro USB port. Dimensions and Weight – N/A The Windows 8.1 model is codenamed BOXSTCK1A32WFCR, comes with 2GB RAM and 32GB […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 7 Comments on ESP8266 Wi-Fi Module is Now Supported in Arduino IDE

ESP8266 Wi-Fi Module is Now Supported in Arduino IDE

ESP8266 revolutionized the IoT world by offering an ultra low cost Wi-Fi solution either standalone or connected to a micro-controller board via SPI or UART. There are plenty of tutorials on the web to play with the Wi-Fi module, but it’s only recently an Arduino IDE has added support for ESP8266. If you want to try it, you can download the binary for Linux, Windows, or Mac OS X. Since my computer is running Ubuntu 14.04, I download and extracted arduino-1.6.1-linux64.tar.xz to install it in my PC. Now simply run the arduino script to start the IDE, and select to Tools->Board->Generic ESP8266 board. I don’t own an ESP8266 module myself, but Olimex tried it on their ESP8266-EVB: They connected a serial debug board and selected Tools->Port->/dev/ttyUSB0 in the IDE Selected Tools-> Programmer->esptool Loaded Blink example, and modified it to turn on and off the relay on their evaluation board. If […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 2 Comments on Kodi 14.2 Final and Kodi 15 Alpha 2 Released

Kodi 14.2 Final and Kodi 15 Alpha 2 Released

Kodi developers have recently announced two release for Kodi: the stable version of Kodi 14.2 Helix, which should be the last Kodi 14 release, and Kodi 15 Alpha 2 Isengard with some interesting new features. Since Kodi 14.2 is a minor release, no new features have been added, but they fixed several bugs: Application stopped responding on Windows Gap-less playback on MP3 Playback of rtmp protocol Scanning of newly added episodes Fix multipath source scanning Loading external subtitles in some cases packaging of PIL module on Android. This fixes some script error when using weather add-on Fix video playback on all platform after refresh rate change Various bugs that were present in PVR add-ons. Save weather location Fix filtering of foreign add-ons ftps handling Use LastWrite instead of ChangeTime for file system on Windows As usual, you can download the release via Kodi download page for Windows, Linux. Mac OS […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 6 Comments on Scaleway Provides Dedicated ARM Servers for 10 Euros per Month, 0.02 Euro per Hour

Scaleway Provides Dedicated ARM Servers for 10 Euros per Month, 0.02 Euro per Hour

Earlier this year, Online Labs launched a beta hosting program using custom-designed C1 dedicated servers powered by Marvell Armada 370/XP quad core processor. The company has now launched a commercial service called Scaleway providing hosting service on these baremetal servers for 9.99 Euros per month, or 0.02 Euro per hour, as well as a “Infinite Storage” service with 1GB data for 0.02 Euros per month. Here are the details of the 10 Euros plan: Server based on Marvell Armada 370/XP quad core ARMv7 processor Memory – 2GB Memory Storage – 50GB SSD Disk 1x Reserved public IPv4 200Mbit/s – Unmetered bandwith Operating Systems – Ubuntu, Debian, Fedora, ArchLinux ARM. Docker supported. That’s not a VPS, but a dedicated server. For reference, I currently pay around $20 per month (Linode) for a server with an Intel Xeon E5-2680 dual core processor with 2 GB RAM and 50 GB SSD storage, and 3 […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 7 Comments on ActDuino S500 Development Board Features Actions Semi S500 Quad Core Processor

ActDuino S500 Development Board Features Actions Semi S500 Quad Core Processor

Actions Technology is a subsidiary of Actions Semiconductor SoC vendor, that makes solutions based on Actions Semi SoCs, and recently joined Linaro. The company is said to focus on “focuses on solutions for smart handheld and smart home devices. Its main products are tablet, over-the-Top (“OTT”) set-top boxes and Bluetooth enabled boombox solutions, along with total product and technology solutions based on the Android platform”. We already know it will soon release a 96Boards compliant board, but in the meantime, the company has officially launched Actduino S500 development board powered by a new S500 quad core Cortex A9 processor. I actually found out about this board on ARMDevices.net last October, and sent an email asking for information to the company, but I have not received an email yet after 6 months… At the time, the processor was called ATM7059, but now it’s S500, and it’s unclear if they just renamed […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 19 Comments on Allwinner V3 SoC Targets 1080p60 Action Cameras, Supports Linux or Camdroid OS

Allwinner V3 SoC Targets 1080p60 Action Cameras, Supports Linux or Camdroid OS

I’ve previously written about Allwinner V10 and V15 SoC for video applications such as cameras, digital video recorder, and so on. So far, I’ve not found devices based on these, but Allwinner already announced another V-series processor with Allwinner V3 designed for Action camera recording up to 1080p resolution at 70 frames per second. Key specifications are listed below: CPU – ARM Cortex-A7 @1.2GHz Memory 16-bit DDR3/LPDDR3/DDR3L SDRAM controller, up to 1333Mbps 16-bit DDR2 up to 800Mbps, 16-bit LPDDR2 up to 1066Mbps up to 2GB RAM Video / Picture Up to 1080p@60fps or 2-channel 1080p@30fps H.264 video encoding 8M JPEG encoding H.264 1080p@60fps decoding, MJPEG 1080@30fps decoding Integrated ISP up to 8M pixels (HawkView ISP) 2 channel outputs for display and encoding respectively Supports various input and output formats Supports AE/AF/AWB Saturation adjustment, 2D/3D noise reduction,  defect pixel correction, and distortion correction Audio Codec Integrated 92dB audio codec 2x ADC […]