- arm-netbook - Mailman test

An update on the OLIMEX TERES-I laptop
by Mike Leimon 02 Sep '16

02 Sep '16

Oh yeah, I stumbled across this blog update yesterday as well. https://olimex.wordpress.com/2016/08/31/teres-i-diy-open-source-hardware-ha… Now I do realize that yet again that some people around here aren't the biggest fans of OLIMEX however, keep in mind that I'm not submitting this to ruffle any feathers. I just found this blog post to be quite interesting in that it describes a lot of similar problems and issues I've read about in one form or another on the mailing list. It seems to me that they still have a lot of work ahead of them before they start to get anywhere. I personally think that the modular CPU card design is vastly superior however, it's still really neat to see more and more ARM laptops in the pipeline. Perhaps it means that before too long there will be more pre-compiled software and better drivers available for these systems as a whole. -Mike

2 1

online course in "working together with integrity"
by Luke Kenneth Casson Leighton 01 Sep '16

01 Sep '16

special circumstances compel me to forward this to the arm-netbook list as (with a little explanation) i believe it's relevant. below is a message from a friend of mine whom i've known for ten years, who has helped me out enormously. although the message below reminds me hilariously of much of the spam / advertising that i receive (and instantly delete or flag), it's only because i phoned her up to find out what it's about that i felt it would be important to (a) tell people that i'll be participating (as part of the campaign ongoing reporting) but also tell people about it so that if they also feel it's something they'd be interested in they can also join in. in speaking with sarah she said that she's collaborating with a couple of other people she's met recently, to work on a new course, teaching and coaching people to collaborate wisely and with integrity to fulfil specific far-reaching goals. now, as many people in software libre collaborate together, and they respect the principles of the four freedoms, and their work has far-reaching strategic consequences, it *should* resonate very strongly... but in 20+ years of working with free software i can honestly say that i know of absolutely few software libre developers who have actually *declared* - publicly - an intent to go to *workshops* to improve their effectiveness! i know of several charters (debian, apache, devuan are developing one, parabola are working on one) but i don't know *anyone* who's gone, "hmmm, i have absolutely no clue how to run a successful group collaboration, i have no idea what works well... let's go to a workshop to find out!" that i include myself in that is something i find to be hilarious. so. anyway. yes. i'll be attending this workshop. please don't tell dr stallman that i'll be installing proprietary (non-free) software to participate. there are international dial-in numbers to join in (voice-only, obviously). if it resonates at all with anyone here, feel free to sign up at your own responsibility and see what it's about. l. ------ A Little Understood Fact About Purpose <http://sarahmccrum.us5.list-manage.com/track/click?u=9a87be132b86a04f9be84e…> <http://sarahmccrum.us5.list-manage.com/track/click?u=9a87be132b86a04f9be84e…>Where can you find your purpose? Is it a mission you’re supposed to complete? Is it finding the right job? Is it following your passion? Suppose you don’t feel passionate about anything? Or you’re not doing quite the right job? Or you have no idea of your mission, even if you feel there is one out there somewhere for you? What are you supposed to do then? You can wait, but for how long? You can try really hard to find it, but do you even know where to look? You can ask someone else, but how much do they really know about you? And then you feel off track, or that vague sense that you’re supposed to be doing something else, but you don’t know what it is. You’re on a search for purpose. The ironic thing is that the more you search for purpose outside of yourself the more elusive it becomes. I was working with someone who had a very demanding job. She felt uneasy about the fact that she wasn’t doing her purpose, but had decided she’d have to wait until she retired because she needed the money and didn’t want to give up her job. When I questioned her more deeply about what her purpose was, she said she wanted to experience inner peace and share that with other people. It seemed to me that her highly demanding workplace was the perfect environment for her to develop inner peace. And her role included responsibility for the wellbeing of the entire office, so she was surrounded by opportunities to share any peace she could experience. This is so often the case. When you’re looking for the right time or opportunity to do your purpose you’re looking in the wrong place. Your true purpose is always something you can do right now. Whether you’re fundamentally about love, freedom, wisdom, peace, joy, potential, creativity or something else, these are all qualities you can take with you to the best and worst job. You can practise them whether you have a passion or not. The interesting thing is that the more peace, joy or freedom you experience the better jobs you find, the more passionate you become and the more you discover your mission. So it all adds up in the end. I*’m running a free online workshop about purpose this weekend on Sunday at 9am (Pacific time) which is 5pm (UK time). You can sign up for it **here.* <http://sarahmccrum.us5.list-manage.com/track/click?u=9a87be132b86a04f9be84e…> *Sarah McCrum Speaker, trainer, mentor*

1 0

ESD protection
by Vincent Legoll 01 Sep '16

01 Sep '16

Hello, I just wanted to raise awareness of problems potentially linked to lack of ESD protection on some boards. I'm no EE, and my electronics background is near zero, so I cannot asses if EOMA68 boards (CPU & docks) are affected or not... You can have a look at this report: http://www.orangepi.org/orangepibbsen/forum.php?mod=viewthread&tid=644&extr… WDYT ? -- Vincent Legoll

2 1

EOMA68 Power Specifications
by Joseph Honold 31 Aug '16

31 Aug '16

I'm reading the eoma spec at elinux and there is limited information regarding the power requirements. It states "*a maximum of 3.5 watts should be respected" and "**Type II Cards should not exceed an average of 3.5 watts power consumption" and "*must adjust accordingly and stick within the 4 watt heat dissipation budget". Is there a minimum requirement for supply current that must be available to the cpu card from a housing/device/socket for compatibility with multiple cpu cards (3.5 or 4 watts)? What is the A20 cpu card power consumption (average/peak)?

5 12

3D on a 100% Libre Laptop
by David Philipe Gil 30 Aug '16

30 Aug '16

What do you think is needed to get 3D Acceleration on a 100% Libre ARM laptop

2 1

Re: [Arm-netbook] Keyboard
by Raphaël Mélotte 30 Aug '16

30 Aug '16

Ok, I understand it a bit better now. Thank you :-) I'm starting to realize I have been using laptops for years and I know nothing about how they works. 2016-08-29 21:52 GMT+02:00 Luke Kenneth Casson Leighton <lkcl(a)lkcl.net>: > --- > crowd-funded eco-conscious hardware: https://www.crowdsupply.com/eoma68 > > > On Mon, Aug 29, 2016 at 8:15 PM, Raphaël Mélotte > <raphael.melotte(a)gmail.com> wrote: > > Of course ! I forgot the touchpad actually had an lcd. It will be so > great > > to be able to have some of those displayed right below the keyboard ! :-) > > I just saw the power button that's connected to the STM32F072 when > looking > > for something else. > > If I got it right, PCB1 receives the CPU card and powers PCB2 > > nope. PCB3 powers PCB2, which (through the STM32F) controls the > Battery / Power IC on PCB3, through which power to PCB1 is controlled. > > yes it literally has to be that complex because EOMA68 power is > "OTG-like" i.e. may be *TWO-WAY*. so the STM32F072 is responsible for > monitoring (through I2C in communication with the Battery / Power IC) > what is going on, also receives notification about power provision > from the EOMA68 Computer Card, and makes decisions whether to put the > Power IC into "OTG Host" or "OTG Client" power modes. > > look up the datasheet on the bq24193 for details. > > > which contains > > the STM32F072. Does that mean that a CPU card have to be plugged in in > order > > for the STM32F072 to be powered ? > > incorrect. the STM32F072 is powered continuously it can never be > powered off (short of opening up the laptop case and physically > disconnecting the battery). > > l. >

2 1

Keyboard
by Vincent Legoll 29 Aug '16

29 Aug '16

Hello, First, congrats on the campaign success ! I tried searching the ML archives & rhombus site, but couldn't find it. Is the laptop's keyboard only option the Keyboard: Chicony P/N MP-03756GB-5287. Or can a backlit one be substitued easily? I.e. No other HW redesign... Or maybe the laptop case can be modified to allow placement of a few leds around the screen that would get light on the keyboard. I had this on an old T42p and it was better than nothing. That would make the laptop better suited to night use. Wdyt? -- Vincent Legoll

7 22

RGB/TTL interface
by Louis Pearson 28 Aug '16

28 Aug '16

I have been trying to figure out how exactly the RGB interface that the eoma-68 standard supplies works. Or, in other words, what you would need to be able to connect it to a screen. The info that I have managed to find makes me think this would connect directly to a LCD or TTF screen's ribbon cable. Is there a description of what is provided with this interface somewhere?

3 15

Will EOMA68-A20 be sweatshop-free?
by Sam Pablo Kuper 27 Aug '16

27 Aug '16

Let me start by saying I realise that Luke (& undoubtedly others) have already put a *lot* of sweat into EOMA-68, and will likely be working some very long hours in the months ahead. I also realise that even with the tremendous success of the first CrowdSupply round, the volume of production is minuscule compared to Apple, Acer, Dell, etc, and hence also the risk of exploiting contracted workers will be lower - even if only because fewer workers will be assembling EOMA68 hardware. Nevertheless, low resource use; reusability; repairability; RYF compliance... these are necessary properties of an ethical computer, but not quite sufficient ones. Avoiding slavery, indentured labour, etc, and ensuring electronics supply chain workers are able to live decent lives, is surely an equally important part of building ethical computers. With that in mind, are there any plans for Rhombus Tech or other EOMA-68 producers/partners to work with organisations such as these? http://electronicswatch.org/en/ http://chinalaborwatch.org http://www.sacom.hk http://www.ilo.org/global/about-the-ilo/lang--en/index.htm I suppose that the ideal thing would be for some sort of ethical sourcing requirement to be written into the EOMA-68 standard ;) - spk

5 14

Wikipedia article
by Sam Pablo Kuper 27 Aug '16

27 Aug '16

Congratulations on exceeding the funding threshold! EOMA68 now has a stub-class article on the English Wikipedia. It could do with being expanded, with references to reliable sources as per Wikipedia policy. Probably Luke shouldn't do that, to avoid conflict of interest, but it would be great if others chipped in with the effort :) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EOMA68

7 14

WonderMedia SoCs
by Dima Krasner 27 Aug '16

27 Aug '16

Hi everyone, I'm Dima (more info about me at dimakrasner.com) and I'm new here, so ... hi. For years I've been following the ARM scene, since I'm very interested in libre hardware projects. Chinese ARM netbooks with WonerMedia chips (8850, 8880, etc') are very common in sites like AliExpress and Ebay and they're pretty darn cheap. Performance, RAM amount limit and decoder performance should be reasonable, compared to other cheap ARM boards. I see the WM8950 has been evaluated, but the wiki doesn't say what's wrong with it. As far as I can tell it's yet another Mali-400 board. Upstream kernel has partial support for newer WonderMedia chips, but there is a small community at https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/vt8500-wm8505-linux-kernel and as far as I know older ones (like the 8650) should work to some degree with current upstream kernels, some rotten code floating around multiple kernel trees needs to be upstreamed (possibly, after refactoring) and there is an old, public U-boot fork, at least for the 8650. As far as I see, these are technical ecosystem issues that can be solved by a small group of volunteers with kernel, upstreaming and embedded development experience, even without any vendor support. Therefore, if the 8650 still under mass production, it could be an EOMA68 candidate. Although I understand while the A20 is preferred to WonderMedia chips (it makes life easier on the software front, probably more than any other non-x86 SoC), I wonder, what makes them unacceptable in RYF hardware? Is there any technical issue that I've missed? Cheers, Dima

2 1

99%
by Alexander .S.T. Ross 27 Aug '16

27 Aug '16

heh "we are the 99%" ...for now heh ;) Soon to be "We are the 101%+" :D Congratulations luke! Well done every one :D.

10 24

one hour left
by Nick Hardiman 26 Aug '16

26 Aug '16

One hour left, and the pledges keep on coming in. Congratulations to the crew who made all this possible. I know there are many good moral reasons for backing this project. ,The mail archive is full of excellent descriptions of the problems EOMA68 solves - security, e-waste, non-disclosure agreements, power consumption, and so on. I’ll say this successful campaign brings us a step closer towards a real free market for IT. The barrier to entry is so low all the electronic engineers out there can get busy making new products around these general purpose computers. Looking forward to a better - and cheaper - world of modular IT, Nick mail archive http://lists.phcomp.co.uk/pipermail/arm-netbook/

1 0

EOMA68 campaign: welcome to all the new members
by Luke Kenneth Casson Leighton 26 Aug '16

26 Aug '16

btw one thing, very important: welcome to everyone who's joined in the past 2 months! without you we wouldn't be here. feel free to introduce yourselves, say hello. l. --- crowd-funded eco-conscious hardware: https://www.crowdsupply.com/eoma68

1 0

Future case idea: tamper-resistant desktop like ORWL
by Sam Pablo Kuper 26 Aug '16

26 Aug '16

I'd love to be able to put an EOMA68 card into something like this, instead of the Intel Skylake boards currently offered: https://www.crowdsupply.com/design-shift/orwl I contacted Design Shift, the company behind ORWL, to ask if they would do a case-only offering on their CrowdSupply page, noting that it would potentially work well with EOMA68. I also asked them to provide the design files under a Free Cultural Works license such as GPLv3 :) They haven't responded yet, but I'll try to remember to update this thread if they do. Is anyone working on a tamper-evident enclosure for the EOMA68?

2 1

Getting started making new housings?
by Louis Pearson 26 Aug '16

26 Aug '16

Hello! I am a student going into college for Computer Engineering and I am super excited about the possibilities of this project! I have backed and will be receiving a Libre Tea Computer Card and a breakout board. I have worked with Arduinos a few times and know how to use them on a basic level, though formal electronics stuff (math, mostly) and electronic design are somewhat of a mystery to me. With that in mind, I would like to start working on a new housing for myself (kind of answering the call in the most recent update). I'm unsure of exactly where to begin though. I'd like to make a custom PCB and case (probably 3D printed). What I fell that I am missing is resources for starting to work with EOMA-68 devices. KiCad libraries, FreeCad models, etc. Where would I find this?

2 2

Why Free hardware fails
by Robert Wilkinson 26 Aug '16

26 Aug '16

Hello "Such problems are difficult to handle by themselves. But in addition, any production run has fixed costs that, as Len Leighton, who is currently fundraising for the EOMA68 laptop, explained to me in a private email, remain very much the same regardless of how many units are built. As a result, units in a small run are more expensive, and have a hard time matching the specifications of leading manufacturers. This is a serious problem because, while idealists will buy free hardware for ethical reasons, others potential users will not consider free hardware unless its specs are competitive with the proprietary hardware sold in computer stores." from http://www.linuxpromagazine.com/Online/Blogs/Off-the-Beat-Bruce-Byfield-s-B… Who is this Len person? Bob -- Civilization, as we know it, will end sometime this evening. See SYSNOTE tomorrow for more information.

4 8

question on Sugar OS
by Pete Link 26 Aug '16

26 Aug '16

I'm new here, so I have a newbie question ;-) The update on Sugar OS mentioned Fedora. So does that mean that Sugar OS will be obtainable if I get the Fedora computer card? Or is the plan to have a separate Sugar OS card offered in the future? I have two grand-daughters, and it would be cool to have each with their own Sugar card that they could store their stuff on. (I don't have any real experience with Sugar, but this would be a good opportunity to learn about it and use it.) Thanks. --pete link

2 1

EOMA68 future roadmap update
by Luke Kenneth Casson Leighton 26 Aug '16

26 Aug '16

https://www.crowdsupply.com/eoma68/micro-desktop/updates/product-roadmap one of the last i'll be doing before the end of the campaign, goes over the many ideas that people have contributed. l. --- crowd-funded eco-conscious hardware: https://www.crowdsupply.com/eoma68

3 3

another crowdsupply project - ORWL
by Luke Kenneth Casson Leighton 25 Aug '16

25 Aug '16

https://www.crowdsupply.com/design-shift/orwl looks totally cool --- crowd-funded eco-conscious hardware: https://www.crowdsupply.com/eoma68

3 3

need help! getting a bit overwhelmed on lists.oshwa.org
by Luke Kenneth Casson Leighton 25 Aug '16

25 Aug '16

http://lists.oshwa.org/pipermail/discuss/2016-August/001865.html very similarly minded people, unfortunately using the word "open source" in reference to what are clearly libre principles. if anyone has time i'd really appreciate some help... but also i think people here would genuinely appreciate the opportunity to debate, also there's people there from "open ecology" and many other areas. l. --- crowd-funded eco-conscious hardware: https://www.crowdsupply.com/eoma68

10 18

Verifying firmware
by Raphaël Mélotte 25 Aug '16

25 Aug '16

Hello, First of all I have been following the crowdfunding and mailing list since the first of august (I have been using another email adress) and I have to say I really like every aspect of this project and I highly respect and admire the ideology that goes with the project. I haven't been able to pledge until now but I will make sure to do so as soon as I can and before the crowdfunding ends. I really want to test what an EOMA68 laptop would look and behave like, and I want to replace my tiny Raspberry pi server with another EOMA68 (I will also be willing to buy more powerful computer cards if they ever get created). Since the EOMA68 is entirely free, I was thinking that *theoretically* it should be possible to read and verify every firmware, and/or binaries present to run the chip (I don't really know how to call it so I will call it "microcode"). More and more people are worried about the microcodes that are run on our hardware and being able to verify what is actually running on our machine (when it boots for example) would be comforting. It seems to me that it's the first time the source code for every microcode in a computer will be available, since some projects tried to do so in the past, but never achieved to run 100% without proprietary code (purism, novena, ...). >From a security point of view, open source code is the best option since it allows to check if the code being run isn't malware. However, if I don't verify the code present on my machine, how will I know it is the same code as the source that was analyzed and that it is not malicious code ? That's why I'm asking if it would be possible to read the microcodes present on the chip, and check them against the online source codes (kind of a checksum ?). That way we would be able to know if the code had been tampered with, be it during shipping, after being infected by a malware that was somehow able to change the boot code or some firmware, an evil maid attack, etc. Just to be clear I'm not being paranoid to the point where I would suspect some bad guys inserting malware in my machine during shipping (I guess the country I live in is "libre" enough to not do that, but that's surely not the case for everyone everywhere in the world), and I will probably not try to verify every firmware on the chip, but since this is one of the first truly free system I was asking myself if it would be possible. Also maybe being able to do so easily would attract more people who are deeply focused on security and privacy and would be beneficial to the project. I also understand that as of today, checking every code on a system is more an utopia then a doable thing (you'd also have to check firmware from your keyboard, mouse, webcam, USB flash drive, and pretty much everything you connect to the main board) and may be pointless, but I'm also confident that in the future (maybe distant, maybe not) we will have to be able to do so if we want to keep our digital life private, as everything we do is more and more linked to the digital world, and malware techniques are becoming more and more creative (see for example BadUSB). I'm not a computer scientist and although I do my best to learn how software works, I don't understand everything about hardware and I may be missing some important point that makes my idea impossible to realize. That's why I'm asking it here since you know far more about it then me. Also please forgive my written expression: I'm doing my best to express my ideas clearly, but English isn't my native language and I sometimes don't know how to express myself to be best understood. Anyway, I sincerely hope this project becomes a great success, and that you will be able to make it grow even more. Kind regards, Raphaël Mélotte A Bioengineering student interested in computers

9 22

A20 computer card at 1.2GHz?
by Stefan Monnier 25 Aug '16

25 Aug '16

I see your crowdsupply page lists the SoC as having a dual core A7 running at 1.2GHz. Is that really true? All my A20-based boards seem to be limited to 960MHz. Stefan

2 1

$10K in 24 h ?
by Xavi Drudis Ferran 24 Aug '16

24 Aug '16

Sorry, I'm kind of confused. It's my memory failing me or this last 24 h the campaign got from less than $114000 to more than $124000 ? It was $100000 about 5 days ago ? Made $14000 in 4 days and $10000 in one ? Or am I reading it all wrong ? I mean at this acceleration it could even reach 150000$ by friday, couldn't it ?

3 3

Take responsibility for electronic-waste disposal : Nature News & Comment
by Alexander Ross 24 Aug '16

24 Aug '16

http://www.nature.com/news/take-responsibility-for-electronic-waste-dis posal-1.20345?WT.mc_id=TWT_NatureNews

2 2

2025

2024

2023

2022

2021

2020

2019

2018

2017

2016

2015

2014

2013

arm-netbook