Libre Computer Board AML-S905X-CC and TC

[PDP-8]

With an eye towards putting TinyCore on it, I picked this up:

Libre Computer Board AML-S905X-CC.  (1 or 2 gb - I got the 2gb version)

I won't do a rehash of reviews on it, but just share some experiences with it.  You can see more at libre.computer if you wish.  It isn't vaporware, so I got it at the usual online places, along with a pi heatsink for good measure, and some other sundry items.

Right - two images are available one from Armbian and a "preview release" seemingly centering around Ubuntu Xenial.  Get the latest one, although it seems devs are putting some final touches on it and awaiting further developments upstream.   Heh, the preview image is a 2gb image which about 99% I don't need. TC spoiled me.   So I ran with that:

Code: [Select]

libre@libre-computer:~$ uname -a
Linux libre-computer 4.14.11-g18ced7f2-dirty #7 SMP PREEMPT Sat Jan 6 00:30:53 EST 2018 aarch64 aarch64 aarch64 GNU/Linux

Basically this preview release uses default username of Libre and password of computer

To get to the point, I'm not interested in heavy 4k video amusements and the like, but what I AM interested in is:

1) Compiled and installed busybox from source.  Check!
2) Got aterm from the repos.  Check!
3) Even better, got urxvt.  Check!
4) Got Dillo browser up and running.  Dillo and fltk.  Check!

Right - so the board does everything I need to now.  But it is screaming out for Tinycore!  Dev's - wink-wink, nudge nudge.

Power consumption is just fine, although some videos and pictures show some MONSTER heatsink on it.  While it doesn't get screaming hot with my usage, I just put on a spare RPI heatsink for good engineering practice.  Fit perfectly.  I think the monster heatsink is um, overkill for pics.

Anyway, while I'm not super interested in the classic splatter-disk install of XFCE-4 and touches of Ubuntu, I do appreciate the hard work that devs put into making it run well.

But imagine if TC / piCore / Dcore was on this!!   Wish I knew what I was doing to make that happen, but I'm stuck in end-user land for now with a compile here and there....

[PDP-8]

Just a quick note - both the "preview image" and the Armbian image are dealing with a proper shutdown.  Right now the system eventually just reboots when you try to shutdown, and everyone is working on it.  I just pull the plug when all the indicator leds go out, except for the red power led of course....

ARMBIAN - much smaller image at around 600mb.  Crossed fingers and did the usual Debian sudo apt-get update / upgrade / dist-upgrade and came up with this:

Code: [Select]

tester@lepotato:~$ uname -a
Linux lepotato 4.14.2-meson64 #8 SMP PREEMPT Fri Nov 24 19:43:01 CET 2017 aarch64 aarch64 aarch64 GNU/Linux
This seems a bit smoother and much faster than the other preview-image.  Interestingly enough, the Armbian image uses outline-shaded window drags, something that might work better with my existing 64 bit TC that uses fbdev....

BUT the whole point was possible future TC/Pi/Dcore usage.

Compiled latest stable Busybox 1.27.2 from source, even though a much older version is in the repos..
Dillo and FLTK work just fine, along with rxvt too.

Right, so awaiting the proper shutdown fix, might pick up an optional eMMC module.

I think this might be a board worthy of Tinycore / piCore / Dcore!

[PDP-8]

Seems like the only way to do a clean shutdown is from the terminal, not the gui:

Code: [Select]

sudo halt
All other cli shutdown commands seem to result in a reboot - only halt works.  Red led stays lit even though the board is not running.  At least there is a way to stop cleanly.

Suspect devs are waiting for the other shoe to drop with the next Debian / Ubuntu release to support video accelleration and emmc boot support.  I preferred using the latest ARMbian image for this LePotato.

Running the ARM Cortex A53, means that it isn't susceptible to meltdown or spectre, just like the RPI's.  Maybe I'll do my banking on this one.

https://developer.arm.com/support/security-update

When I get smarter, I *gotta* run some version of TC on it!

[gadget42]

was going to start a *new* thread in 'other architectures' but after poking around a bit just decided to use it to bump this *mature* pre-existing-thread[imagine-grinning-yellow-happy-face-here]

'Hello World, I am ARM'.

part one:
https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2022/09/a-history-of-arm-part-1-building-the-first-chip/

part two:
https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2022/11/a-history-of-arm-part-2-everything-starts-to-come-together/

part three:
(ars says "next month"...stay tuned!)

bonus links:
https://www.computinghistory.org.uk/det/5440/First-ARM-Processor-Powered-Up/
https://www.computinghistory.org.uk/det/6615/Sophie-Wilson/

another link:
https://hub.libre.computer/t/best-os-to-get-up-and-running-with-aml-s905x-cc/250

20221123-0142am-cdt-usa-modified-added additional link regarding aml-s905x-cc/250