André's Blog

So… I have been playing around with my BeagleBoard again. Yes…. I got an exam tomorrow, but I got so bored while studying I had to do something else.

Well… I undusted the thing yesterday, and continued today. And of course, this didn’t go completely without trouble. A few issues I ran into yesterday, well… this little puppy is rather picky about the partitioning of it’s SDCARD.

So… my BeagleBoard…. last time, I ran the ARM port of Debian, which is compiled for armv4t, meaning… it’s not very fast. One time I started installing Ubuntu but never finished it. To be honest, Ubuntu isn’t my favourite distro.

Since ArchLinux has an ARM port nowadays too, and the BeagleBoard belongs to the supported models, I decided to give it a try. Take a look at http://archlinuxarm.org/platforms/armv7/beagleboard

Like I mentioned, the puppy is picky about the contents of the SDCARD. I was aware of the MLO to be the first file copied to the FAT paritition, but it appears even pickier then that. The instructions on the ArchLinuxARM site didn’t get it working. Other sites mention it should be a FAT32 in stead of a FAT16 partition… well… just that isn’t enough either…

I’ve downloaded the files mentioned on the ArchLinuxARM site, and in the BeagleBoard bootloader tarball I found a script for preparing the SDCARD. But even this script was giving me trouble. I am not really sure what went wrong, but the script made the parititons correctly but failed at formatting them. Even manually trying to format them failed. I had to eject the SDCARD from my laptop, and insert it again, before I was able to make the file systems. However, after copying the files from the bootloader tarball, I got some more response from the BeagleBoard.

However, there was still some content in the NAND from my previous unfinished attempt to run Ubuntu, which tried to boot, but failed. The BeagleBoard didn’t respond to the serial console, just output, not accepting input. But appearently this is related to my desktop machine, as it works fine with a USB serial port on my laptop.

So after instructing u-boot to erase the NAND, the boot loader ran the boot script stored on the SDCARD.

So, now I mention the boot script. Well… it had to be compiled with mkimage, which I had to compile from the u-boot sources.

So…. there we go….. booting ArchLinux on my BeagleBoard. As I mentioned last year, I was experiencing USB issues… which I initially blaimed as a kernel issue, as this was suggested by various sites in the days. That’s why I also wanted to try Ubuntu…. but later turned out this was caused by a noisy 1.7 Volt line, confusing the USB controller. As suggested by a site, I have mentioned earlier in this blog, I mounted an extra capacitor….

Time to see the results, right? Well…. connecting a bus powered USB hub to OTG port… REBOOT!!! the duck!!! well… the OTG port isn’t able to deliver enough power, so that could be the issue. Connecting Self powered hub to the normal USB port… well… it worked for a bit and went down. And I really mean a bit. Like… it got initialised during boot, all devices found, but even before the boot process was finished it died again. Seems like the problems gotten worse in stead of better… Well… I am not sure if the suggested capacity is correct… I mean… 10 µF… I think it should rather have been something like 10 nF. Oh well…. when connecting the self-powered hub to the OTG port, results seem much better… USB has been functioning properly for a while now.

But another thing that is still giving me issues, I don’t get it to play back sound. Some sites mention ALSA is broken and I should use OSS, but there is OSS but there appears to be ALSA. Even though it appears to be playing back, I hear no sound. Besides… I had to add myself to the audio group else I had to access to the device.

Well… the system is running… that’s what I can tell you…. Perhaps I will be able to use it as mp3 player later on, we’ll see about that.

Video… well… this port is an optimised build, which includes hard floating point, and that binary blob of a driver us compiled using soft floating point, which makes it incompatible. Hooray for binary blobs…. so that means no hardware acceleration for video.

I never made that VGA adaptor for the BeagleBoard, so I have no clue if it will work. In theory it should work… I mean… a simple D-A converter, how hard can it be? As the digital signals are, well, just the same as VGA signals, just not converted. Well… this is not completely true, as I might have to adjust the timing a little bit, but that shouldn’t be too hard either…. but yeah…. installing ArchLinux on a BeagleBoard shouldn’t be that hard either, and look at all the little issues that appeared.

The DVI issue remains the same, the native resolution of my only monitor with DVI in is not supported at a refresh rate high enough for my monitor to accept. The BeagleBoard can only output it at 57 Hz, and my monitor is rather strict about this, and it won’t accept anything below 60. But I’ve discussed that issue before.

Well… and all my other monitors are CRT, so using them would require the VGA adapter as I suggested above, and discussed before in this blog.

On the other news… last tuesday during the SHoBo, I was asked if I were interessed in a Raspberri Pi. This is an ARM machine for only £22. I mean…. a machine capable of runnng GNU Linux for only £22. Sounds like a good deal to me. It’s video accelerator is capable of decoding H.264 in Full HD 1080p. I mean… the BeagleBoard can only output 720p. Allthough I am afraid the drivers will be again a binary blob. I mean… it is a Broadcom SoC after all… Compared to the BeagleBoard…. This Broadcom is only an ARMv6, while the TI on the Beagle is an ARMv7. But… what will this mean in practice…. well… it’s not even sure when the RP will start shipping, but the plans were to order some at Stack.

The year 2011 has come to an end, and 2012 is about to begin. Time to look back at the past year. What has 2011 meant to me? It has been a positive year, I have been feeling much better then I did in 2010. I realise I skipped my review of 2010 last year, simply because I wasn’t feeling well enough to write it.

I have to thank Joshua Phelps for what he meant to me in 2010. He was a light in the darkness, a sign there are still good people in this world, in a time I gave up on humanity. We’ve helped each other a lot…. 13 may 2010… that was the day I confessed my feelings for him. Yeah… we were madly in love with each other, but we never had a relationship. Josh and me, the way I used to describe us, no relationship, just love, pure love. And even though situations have changed, Josh is still one of my best friends. True love never ends.

The people you meet on the path of life, some of them walk with you just a little while, some just show you a direction to go, and then their task is complete, others stay with you all your life. Some people are with you for years, and only then it becomes clear why.

In may I wrote three posts in my blog called “Trust, freedom and Love”, in which I talked about what love means to me, and perhaps these posts explain what I meant by no relationship, just love.

Another series of posts in my blog in the past year was “Life”. Note, this is not about my life, but about life means in a broader view. Perhaps I could also mention a topic I wrote a few posts about in 2010, vegetarians, which comes down to asking the question if the life of an animal has more value then the life of a plant. I wish to respect plant and animal life equally, and therefore I am not a vegetarian. (but I do eat vegetarian food frequently)

I am mentioning vegetarians again, since in 2011 I have made new friend and acquaintances who are vegetarian, and so that’s why I am mentioning the topic again.

Spring 2011… the revolution began in the Arabic world. It was soon called the Arabic Spring, and various alternative news sources predicted an European Summer. Summer came, and nothing happened. But when it ended, the Occupy Wall Street started. And soon the Occupy movement speak through the world.

And so the Occupy movement arrived in my country. The 15th of October I went to the Hague, where I went to the demonstration with Bianca. It was amazing. It was like the moment I had been waiting for all my life. Some childhood memories came back too, as a kid on the primary school, I knew I would be part of the, what I used to call, the resistance.

That afternoon in the Hague, when the group of protesters was at “het plein” (The Hague’s main Square)… we were lying on the square in a group hug. People we never met before, just like that. Amazing. Things like that give me back hope. Hope for humanity. Things like love still exist. And new friends… yeah… I am glad to have met Maikel there.

One week later, Occupy Amsterdam. Oh, it felt like magic again. But whenever I am in Amsterdam, that city, it has a certain feeling. But… sitting in that tent, looking through the door, seeing people hoops dancing, behind them, tents… behind the tents, high building, and then the lights of the fair. That combination, it was like magic. It has been an honour to be there. To be part of it.

In my own City, Eindhoven. The Occupy movement hadn’t arrived yet. I started poking around on the Internet, but since I don’t come from this city, I didn’t know many people around here who would be interested in starting an occupation. But soon people started gathering on facebook, and the first meeting was planned…. and the 5th of november, Occupy Eindhoven was a fact. I am offering Occupy Eindhoven some space on my server to host the website and email. I have been interviewed by a local tv station (Oproep Brabant) and I am mentioned in the local newspaper (Eindhovens Dagblad) 

I must say, Occupy Eindhoven feels different. It’s not that magical as Amsterdam. Perhaps because it’s smaller? Perhaps because I am more involved, while in Amsterdam I was a visitor. But I also must say I’ve made some awesome friends, also here in Eindhoven.

Occupy Eindhoven started at the Clausplein. We got an extention for our permit once, but then we were forced to move to a different location. Oh, I miss the Clausplein. It was like my home. Yeah…. in the first weeks I slept there. But now on the new location, I am not present as often as I used to on the old location. Of couse, studying is taking up more time now, but still… 

And now, my message, my message for Occupy, my message for the new year, and the future in general. It’s my believe people have forgotten to care about each other. People care about possessions, about power and money. But what really matters is people. Love is the key to a better feature. To truly care about each other, to give to those in need, and expect nothing in return. Nothing but love and kindness. You never know when the roles will be reversed.

To both The Hague and Amsterdam, I had a Free Hugs sign with me. On the afternoon before Christmas, I took part of the free hugs event here in Eindhoven. I was looking for a picture of me taken during the event, but I can’t find it, unfortunately.

So, I wish you all lots of love, peace and happiness in 2012!

My dear blog readers, I love you all!

Well… as I mentioned before, a while back I has some issues with my dedicated server, that it kept rebooting. Well… it stopped doing so, and was running stable for a while, right? In the meantime, I hadn’t heard a word from OVH, not a single word. So yesterday night, when I was at stack I decided to log in, and transfer a few files. I was going to ask for some backup storage space to make a full backup of that server and re-install it, just to exclude software related issues. Keep in mind 13 December 2010, the server rebooted twice at night, for no apparent reason. I had contacted OVH about this and they said it wasn’t their doing.

Well… so yesterday night, I was logging in. I hadn’t noticed it rebooted anymore, and I thought it was stable. Good, so I ssh to the server, and it prompts me to enter my password, right? That’s what you expect to happen. So I enter my password, and nothing happens anymore. The server was down again. What the fuck. I think here we go again…. but the server didn’t come back up…. tried to connect to it a few times yesterday night.

So, today, I check my email. And what does it say…

U heeft zojuist Ingeschreven voor een dedicated server bij OVH en wij danken u voor het vertrouwen dat u in ons stelt.
U vind bijgevoegd de verbindingsinstellingen voor uw server

“Thank you for signing up” what the fuck. So… it seems they just installed a blank image on there. All my data is GONE. foetsie! weg! moved to /dev/null

First, they don’t give a reasonable reply to my support question, and then they just WIPE the server. I don’t call this a good customer service, or is that just me?