ubuntu News - Page 72 of 167 - CNX Software

August 21, 2019August 21, 2019 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 35 Comments

Khadas VIM3L Amlogic S905D3 SBC Targets HTPC Enthusiasts

Khadas recently launched VIM3 single board computer powered by Amlogic A311D that delivers the best performance among Arm-based SBC’s I have tested myself, and for instance, Amlogic A311D is significantly faster than Rockchip RK3399, and the platform is quite suitable for Android gaming. All that power comes at a price however, as Khadas VIM3 starts at $99.99 with 2GB RAM and 16GB storage. That’s fine if you’re going to leverage the features and power of the board, but for some applications, it’s quite expensive. One of those applications is HTPC, as in a world of sub-$50 TV boxes, $100 is a bit too much for watching video content. So the Khadas team is currently developing Khadas VIM3L based on Amlogic S905D3 processor that should provide an excellent platform for HTPC. Khadas VIM3L specifications known so far: SoC – Amlogic S905D3-N0N quad-core Cortex-A55 processor @ 1.9GHz with Arm Mali-G31MP2 GPU up […]

August 13, 2019 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 45 Comments

Orange Pi Zero2 is a Tiny Allwinner H6 SBC with HDMI 2.0, USB 3.0, Ethernet & WiFi

Shenzhen Xunlong Software launched a refresh of their Orange Pi Zero board, namely Orange Pi Zero LTS, a couple of weeks ago. The company is now about to launch another SBC of the “Zero” family. Slightly larger than its predecessor, Orange Pi Zero2 is also quite more powerful with an Allwinner H6 quad core Cortex-A53 processor, and more versatile thanks to the addition of a USB 3.0 port, HDMI 2.0 video output, and a built-in microphone. Orange Pi Zero2 specifications: SoC – Allwinner H6 quad-core Arm Cortex-A53 processor with Arm Mali T720 GPU with support for OpenGL ES3.1/3.0/2.0/1.1, Microsoft DirectX 11 FL9_3 Memory – 512MB LPDDR3 (Allwinner AW52A8G32) Storage – 4GB eMMC Flash and microSD card up to 32GB Video Output – HDMI 2.0a port Video Decoding – 10-bit H265/HEVC up tp 4K60 or 6K30; H264/AVC up to 4K30; VP9 up to 4K30; AVS+/AVS up to 1080p60 Network Connectivity 802.11 […]

August 11, 2019November 27, 2020 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 3 Comments

Reading ID Card Data in Ubuntu with EZ100PU Smart Card Reader (Thai ID Edition)

I was asked help with configuring a smart card reader on a government computer running Windows 7, but this made me wonder what would happen if I connected the card reader to my Ubuntu laptop and whether I’d be able to read content from a Thai ID card. EZ100PU Smart Card Reader Let’s have a look at the card reader itself first. It’s a FAST ID EZ100PU smart card reader compliant with ISO7816 standard. That’s the product page of the specific model, but a search for EZ100PU only reveals the manufacturer may be InfoThink Technology based on Taiwan. The USB smart card reader comes with a CD that includes drivers for Windows, Linux, Mac OS, and Android, as well as an SDK with a demo program and sample code in C++, Visual Basic .NET, and C#. As we’ll see further below, the Linux driver is not needed as it works […]

August 9, 2019August 15, 2019 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 56 Comments

How Do You Handle Backups in Linux? Hardware, Software, Configuration, etc…

Linux EXT-4 File System Corruption & Attempted Recovery There’s a file system corruption bug related to EXT-4 in Linux, and it happened to me a few times in Ubuntu 18.04. You are using your computer normally, then suddenly you can’t write anything to the drive, as the root partition has switched to read-only. Why? Here are some error messages:

[15882.773747] EXT4-fs (dm-4): re-mounted. Opts: (null)
[15898.557605] EXT4-fs error (device dm-4): ext4_iget:4831: inode #2113041: comm rm: bad extra_isize 20100 (inode size 256)
[15898.568305] EXT4-fs error (device dm-4): ext4_iget:4831: inode #2113042: comm rm: bad extra_isize 35148 (inode size 256)
[15898.569774] EXT4-fs error (device dm-4): ext4_lookup:1577: inode #2557277: comm rm: deleted inode referenced: 2113043

[15882.773747] EXT4-fs (dm-4): re-mounted. Opts: (null)

[15898.557605] EXT4-fs error (device dm-4): ext4_iget:4831: inode #2113041: comm rm: bad extra_isize 20100 (inode size 256)

[15898.568305] EXT4-fs error (device dm-4): ext4_iget:4831: inode #2113042: comm rm: bad extra_isize 35148 (inode size 256)

[15898.569774] EXT4-fs error (device dm-4): ext4_lookup:1577: inode #2557277: comm rm: deleted inode referenced: 2113043

What then happens is that you restart your PC, and get to the command where you are asked to run:

esfsck /dev/sda2

1	esfsck /dev/sda2

Change /dev/sda2 to whatever your drive is, and manually review errors. You can take note of the file modified, as you’ll likely have to fix your Ubuntu installation later on. Usually the fix consists of various package re-installations:

sudo apt install --resintall <package-name>

1	sudo apt install --resintall <package-name>

It happened to me two or three times in the past, and it’s a pain, but I eventually recovered. But this time, I was not so lucky. The system would […]

July 31, 2019 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 24 Comments

Orange Pi Zero LTS SBC Launched for $8.49 and Up

Orange Pi Zero LTS is an update to Orange Pi Zero Allwinner H2+ board with the same specifications, but tweaks to the hardware that Shenzhen Xunlong Software claims lower power consumption and reduce heat. The SBC supports Armbian’s Debian and Ubuntu images, and best suited for headless applications that require network connectivity via Ethernet and/or WiFi such as smart speakers. The board also features one USB port, and two I/O headers for expansion. The good news is that you can now buy Orange Pi Zero LTS for the same price as the original model, namely $8.49 for the 256MB RAM version, and $10.49 for the 512MB model$10.49 for the 512MB model, excluding shipping costs ($4.73 to my location). Here’s a reminder of Orange Pi Zero LTS (v1.5) specifications: SoC – Allwinner H2+ quad-core Cortex A7 processor @ 1.2 GHz with Mali-400MP2 GPU @ 600 MHz System Memory – 256 to […]

July 25, 2019July 26, 2019 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 28 Comments

PineBook Pro Arm Linux Laptop now up for pre-order for $199.99

Pine64 unveiled a Pinebook Pro laptop prototype at FOSDEM 2019 as an update to the original Allwinner A64 powered Pinebook laptop, but instead of just being a toy to play with, Pinebook Pro aimed to be used as a daily driver thanks to a relatively powerful Rockchip RK3399 processor combined with 4GB RAM, and 64/128GB storage, and equipped with a 14″ Full HD display all for a target price of $200. Last May, we noticed some good progress on the software development side with a demo showcasing Ubuntu & Debian with MATE desktop, 4K video playback, 3D graphics acceleration, and USB-C video output. The good news is that Pinebook Pro has just launched and can be pre-ordered for $199.99 on Pine64 store. [Update: If you are an existing forum member, you may want to redeem your coupon here] Pinebook Pro laptop specifications: SoC – Rockchip RK3399 big.LITTLE hexa-core Arm Cortex […]

July 24, 2019 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 2 Comments

Waveshare Jetbot AI Kit for NVIDIA Jetson Nano Board Sells for $100 and Up

NVIDIA Jetson Nano developer kit was launched for $99 last March with impressive specifications for the price including one module with four Arm Cortex-A57 cores, a 128-core Maxwell GPU, and 4GB LPDDR4 RAM. The company also introduced Jetbot robot based on the new board, with all instructions available on Github, but until now you had to put some efforts to build it up as the fairly long list of parts had to be purchased or 3D printed separately. It’s now become easier, as Waveshare has started selling their Jetbot AI kit on Amazon for $122.99 without Jetson Nano, and $259.99 with, meaning you may be better off purchasing NVIDIA board separately for around $100, or you may purchase the complete kit directly on Waveshare website for $215.99 plus shipping, or $99.99 without the SBC. Jetbot AI kit content: Optional NVIDIA Jetson Nano SBC 64GB micro SD Card Metal box Camera […]

July 17, 2019July 17, 2019 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 39 Comments

Checking Out Machine Check Exception (MCE) Errors in Linux

I recently reviewed ODROID-H2 with Ubuntu 19.04, and noticed some errors messages in the kernel log of the Intel Celeron J4105 single board computer while running SBC-Bench benchmark:

[180422.405294] mce: [Hardware Error]: Machine check events logged
[180425.656449] mce: [Hardware Error]: Machine check events logged
[180483.582825] mce_notify_irq: 17 callbacks suppressed
[180483.582827] mce: [Hardware Error]: Machine check events logged
[180484.991484] mce: [Hardware Error]: Machine check events logged
[180594.700684] mce_notify_irq: 13 callbacks suppressed
[180594.700686] mce: [Hardware Error]: Machine check events logged
[180858.202115] mce: [Hardware Error]: Machine check events logged
[181178.047031] mce: [Hardware Error]: Machine check events logged

[180422.405294] mce: [Hardware Error]: Machine check events logged

[180425.656449] mce: [Hardware Error]: Machine check events logged

[180483.582825] mce_notify_irq: 17 callbacks suppressed

[180483.582827] mce: [Hardware Error]: Machine check events logged

[180484.991484] mce: [Hardware Error]: Machine check events logged

[180594.700684] mce_notify_irq: 13 callbacks suppressed

[180594.700686] mce: [Hardware Error]: Machine check events logged

[180858.202115] mce: [Hardware Error]: Machine check events logged

[181178.047031] mce: [Hardware Error]: Machine check events logged

I did not know what do make of those errors, but I was told I would get more details with mcelog which can be installed as follows:

sudo apt install mcelog

1	sudo apt install mcelog

There’s just one little problem: it’s not in Ubuntu 19.04 repository, and a bug report mentions mcelog is not deprecated, and remove from Ubuntu 18.04 Bionic onwards. Instead, we’re being told the mcelog package functionality has been replaced by rasdaemon. But before looking into the utilities, let’s find out what Machine Check Exception (MCE) is all about from ArchLinux Wiki: A machine check exception (MCE) is an error generated by the CPU when the CPU detects that a hardware error or failure has occurred. Machine check exceptions (MCEs) can occur for a variety […]