Cubox

[rabeeh]

True. Nothing to port in means of development; just trying it out.

For the previous questions -
CPU spec
----------
0. dual issue processor (means can execute up to two instructions in a cycle), with 512KB L2 cache.
1. ARMv7 instruction set with thumb-2
2. VFPv3-d16 floating point
3. iwmmxt vector unit (no Neon).

Code that runs on Tegra-2 will run on CuBox. For codec parts like ffmpeg, rebuild is recommended adding --with-iwmmxt to accelerate via vector unit.

Binary Drivers
----------------
Binary drivers are GPU and Video engine only. Everything else (including Xorg driver) are open source.

GPU - GPU implements openGL|ES 2.0, it's quite capable, please search for the 'Solid-Run Cubox XBMC' on Youtube which is a lab preview (XBMC heavily uses GPU shaders for rendering XBMC).

Video engine drivers are three parts -
a. Lower part which access hardware, IRQ etc.. is part of the kernel and is GPL
b. Userspace library (libvmeta.so) is a binary driver. it's EABI but compiled for softfp abi. I'll ask Marvell for hardfp replacement. Any recommendations fro cross-compiler?
c. Gstreamer wrappers for libvmeta.so are all provided in open source.

Shipping
----------
We will start shipping end of December 2011. We have limited amount of machines, and to be honest we were overwhelmed by the positive response from the different communities.

[WarheadsSE]

For our compiling we use Distcc combined with CrossTools (ct-ng) to compile remotely, distributed, but link locally.

[kmihelich]

The binary being softfp looks to be the only issue for us then. Unfortunately I don't have a pre-built hardfloat toolchain to reference for them. Looking into CodeSourcery, which has been acquired by Mentor Graphics and is just called Sourcery now, it doesn't look like they produce a hard toolchain. Unless others have a suggestion, mine is to build a cross compiler in the same way we do using crosstool-ng. I maintain instructions on building it and provide the current configuration for the application under the Developers section on the main site.

If it is available from Marvell, I would be willing to sign an NDA in order to get source access to build the requisite binaries for distribution. I know this option is a long shot but it would alleviate them of the responsibility and hassle to get things built the way we would need them.

[pepedog]

I think I found the mobile kit

[germano]

Hello,
I've just installed Arch on my shiny new CuBox, using the trimslice image and the boot files of the stock CuBox Ubuntu image; it's very easy, and I'm detailing the process in the wiki. At a first glance, the console seems to work, I haven't tested the graphical environment. There are a couple of small issues, though; when I'm finished with the wiki I'll post them here and see if someone can help me...

Bye,

Germano

[pepedog]

I tried and failed last night, boot off USB stick. One guy has got his disto that way, but he put kernel and boot scr on mmc, and rootfs on sda. Plus I don't have micro b USB lead (yet)
Will look forward to seeing what you did.

[germano]

I've used a new 16Gb class 10 micro-SD. Seems pretty straightforward, done it two times now (using the trimslice image)... Take notice, I've only installed the console, not the graphical environment.

See http://www.solid-run.com/mw/index.php/Archlinux_on_CuBox for details.

[pepedog]

If you copy /var/lib/modules from original, it helps too.
No real time clock, set date and install openntpd.
killall syslog-ng (will explain further down)
Stop trimslice kernel causing update problems, backup /boot/uImage, pacman -R kernel26-trimslice kernel26-headers-trimslice nvidia-trimslice, now restore backup /boot/uImage
kernel suffers from accept4 problem, install udev-oxnas quick

Now X
Copy /usr/lib/xorg/modules/drivers/dovefb_drv.so from original
pacman -S xf86-video-fbdev lxde xorg-xinit dbus
xinit /usr/bin/lxsession
and lxde starts

Sound
pacman -S alsa-plugins alsa-utils alsaplayer
# aplay -L
null
Discard all samples (playback) or generate zero samples (capture)
default:CARD=mvi2s1
mv_i2s1,
Default Audio Device
I cant test sound, not on monitor

pacman -S chromium-dev
does not run as root

# cat /proc/cpu
cpu/ cpuinfo
[root@alarmcubox ~]# cat /proc/cpuinfo
Processor : Marvell PJ4 v7 Processor-wmmx rev 5 (v7l)
BogoMIPS : 794.62
Features : swp half thumb fastmult vfp edsp iwmmxt thumbee
CPU implementer : 0x56
CPU architecture: 7
CPU variant : 0x0
CPU part : 0x581
CPU revision : 5
Hardware : SolidRun CuBox Platform
Revision : 0000
Serial : 0000000000000000

[germano]

Pepedog, you're the man I was struggling with udev and coming to the same conclusions.

I'll try it ASAP. Do you want to update the wiki yourself, so proper merit is given to you? If not, I'll try to do it as I go on.

Germano

[pepedog]

I just edited above.
No, you go ahead with the wiki, and take all credits