Linux STB... How hard can it be?
#16
(2014-06-18, 09:03)j1nx Wrote: On the contrary. Still a LOT of people are working on the Amlogic boxes.

You have me;
https://github.com/J1nx-Hackable-Gadgets
You have Corey;
https://github.com/CoreTech-Development
And Stane1983
https://github.com/Stane1983
(I believe this three are the most important ones, but as I am one of them, my oppinion might be biased Tongue )

These three have for instance bumped the whole system started by Pivos towards software versions from this era. (buildroot/packages/kernel/compilers). And still a lot is going on on Bitbucket kernelwise. (3.10.x for Meson6 + Meson8). But as stated above, Amlogic is not as open as Freescale, so we have to be carefull and ask them and wait for them to upload new snapshots of their git server onto their http download server (http://openlinux.amlogic.com:8000/download/), before stuff get's released.

At the moment we try to merge all work into one united branch;
https://github.com/CoreTech-Development/...united_aml

From the above work, all other releases have been derived;
http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=192034
http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=180446
Including the one on the Pivos forums mentioned by you;
http://www.pivosforums.com/viewtopic.php?f=25&t=4518
(Although I must admit, where we pull in mainline XBMC and patch accordingly at buildtime, Hydra is still patching the older Pivos xbmc branch)


None of us even reach to the same expert level of Scott, but we manage and are getting a long way. Meson3 might soon have the new 3.0.x kernel, Meson6 and 8 the 3.10.x kernel. (A little bird told me linux with XBMC on the Meson8 flies...)

OK glad to be correct.

My impression was that stable linux builds were restricted to M1/M3 and that while MX (M6) was being worked on it was not yet stable.

What's situation with S802 (M8)? Sounds like it might be much further along than I assumed, as I'd seen reports about linux kernels etc being released by Amlogic, but I seem to remember a dev (might even have been you at some point in the past) saying it can take up to 2 years to get linux to run stable on Amlogic SoC's, which is why Pivos and TLBB released products based on what was older hardware at the time.

I'd seen those threads you linked but just assumed they were individual user efforts, but glad to know that there's developer work and co-operation behind them.
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#17
Quote:Have you thought about something like this?
http://www.aliexpress.com/item/IVB-platf...36998.html

$114usd and its a proper x86 cpu.
Without RAM or SSD, but there are similar offerings with and without those requisites all over aliexpress. I have one of them and since I bought it maybe 6 months ago the deals are even better, you wouldn't need any more for an xbmc box.
If I have helped you or increased your knowledge, click the 'thumbs up' button to give thanks :) (People with less than 20 posts won't see the "thumbs up" button.)
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#18
(2014-06-18, 10:48)jjd-uk Wrote: OK glad to be correct.

My impression was that stable linux builds were restricted to M1/M3 and that while MX (M6) was being worked on it was not yet stable.
At this point M1, M3 and M6 are all build upon the same code. They have different overlays, kernels en use a different cross-compiler. (M1/3 still armel, although if you don't care about VPN support you can use Linaro 2012.4 instaid of CodeSourcery2010Q1) You can checkout the unified_aml branch and just;

make <def_config>
make

At this point, the following devices are supported.

G18REF/MX2REF (mx_linux_g18-mx2_defconfig)

G18REF/MX2REF --NewMTD-- (mx_linux_g18-mx2_newmtd_defconfig)

STVMX (G02REF) (mx_linux_stvmx_defconfig)

JYNXM6 (G02REF) (mx_linux_jynxm6_defconfig)

JYNXM3 (STVMC)

JYNXM1 (STVM3)

XIOSM3 (STVMC) (mx_linux_xiosm3_defconfig)

XIOSM1 (STVM3) (mx_linux_xiosm1_defconfig)

GO2REFDONGLE (mx_linux_g02refDongle_defconfig)

ATV106 (mx_linux_atv106_defconfig)

TLBB-V1/V1.1 (m3_linux_tlbb-m3_defconfig)

TLBB-V2 (m6_linux_tlbb-m6_defconfig) (Not released yet)

(2014-06-18, 10:48)jjd-uk Wrote: What's situation with S802 (M8)? Sounds like it might be much further along than I assumed, as I'd seen reports about linux kernels etc being released by Amlogic, but I seem to remember a dev (might even have been you at some point in the past) saying it can take up to 2 years to get linux to run stable on Amlogic SoC's, which is why Pivos and TLBB released products based on what was older hardware at the time.

I'd seen those threads you linked but just assumed they were individual user efforts, but glad to know that there's developer work and co-operation behind them.
The M8 code is mostly be worked on by Corey and Stanislav. Corey is working hard on the kernel site, Stane on the libamlplayer (But everybody that reads this, please; Do not jump on their neck with questions about, when when when).

To be honest, I have not yet fired up my own M8 dev boards. As I understand from them;

The new libamlplayer works on M1/M3/M6 and M8
The 3.10.x kernel works nicely, but has officially not yet been pushed to HTTP by Amlogic
M8 with latest buildroot and linux kernel is amazingly fast. (still some issues I believe with again, sound, but 2 years is maybe a bit over the top. But then again, you can than still debate the principle of the word "stable" Wink

I will very soon join them in being amazed about the M8 speed without bloated Android Wink
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#19
If there's issues with sound I guess it's far to early to know whether HBR audio might be possible? I've seen many mixed reports about HD audio support (passthrough) on M8, some suggest it's working on Android but nothing seems certain yet given the poor quality of the reviews.

At the moment only the i.MX6 seems to make HBR audio possible but it would be nice if there were alternatives.
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#20
^ On top of the list Wink
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#21
(2014-06-18, 09:16)teeedubb Wrote: Have you thought about something like this?
http://www.aliexpress.com/item/IVB-platf...36998.html

$114usd and its a proper x86 cpu.

It's a shame there not yet any Haswell based equivalents as IvyBridge graphics is a no..no if you want want proper 23.976Hz for movies, of course there's plenty of people as well for who this is not important so that could be a perfect low cost solution for them.
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#22
(2014-06-18, 11:07)j1nx Wrote: The 3.10.x kernel works nicely, but has officially not yet been pushed to HTTP by Amlogic

Correction;
http://openlinux.amlogic.com:8000/download/ARM/kernel/

I see new sources, hence the last from today. Quickly checked;

VERSION = 3
PATCHLEVEL = 10
SUBLEVEL = 33
EXTRAVERSION =
NAME = TOSSUG Baby Fish
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#23
(2014-06-18, 09:03)j1nx Wrote:
(2014-06-17, 14:23)jjd-uk Wrote: For linux on ARM then by far the best supported SoC at the moment is probably the i.MX6 as Freescale are open source friendly, however the i.MX6 tailored version of XBMC is still at beta status, for progress see http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=161793
Intel (followed close by AMD) x86 platforms are the only sure bet for Linux for hobbyist today, but if you insists on combining ARM and Linux then go for Freescale i.MX 6 series today.

I must agree. Freescale being an US company instead of a Chinese one, makes a hell of a difference.
Linaro group, the not-for-profit engineering consortium, and its members are the main driving force aimed at developing open source software and drivers for the ARM architecture.

Other than Intel for x86, Freescale and Texas Instruments belong to the core group of SoC manufacturing companies that as companies have truly embraced both Linux and the open source spirit.

AMD, Amlogic, and Broadcom are other companies have come along more lately and are beginning to more and more prioritize mainlining their code for upstream Linux kernel as well.

Very recently even a Chinese company like Allwinner Technology have also become an official member of the Linaro group, but we will have to wait and see if they keep their promises.
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#24
Another option for the OP is to get a used Boxee Box (Intel atom based box). In the US a used one is going on eBay for under $100 USD. You can root the Boxee and run XBMC Gotham 13.1 on it (even on the internal memory) and it runs fairly well. The Boxee also has much better hardware video decoding support as well as frame support for many more file formats than the cheap Android boxes.
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