O2 Joggler Forum

Just a post to validate some stuff with the Openframe 1.0 device. Decided today to give the Openframe 1.0 device a new name.

I will refer to it from now on as the "Joggler II" device. (maybe too calling the Openframe 2.0 device the "Joggler III" device instead.)

Guessing a search in the near future for a Joggler II device will land that person to this forum.

Note that one of the "features" is the included ZIF cable PATA port clip.

That said I have been using SSD PATA port 16Gb cards now for over a year with the Jogglers doing my "stuff".

I am only booting XP though with Seabios on these setups.

All of the Jogglers / Openframe 1.0 devices that I have online today all do include a 16Gb SSD card. Some 15 of these today; kind of my "stock" build. Some are running with the original EFI boot and others with the Seabios boot (XP). All have been up now for over a year. More than half now are also running via POE connectivity to a POE switch which works well for me.

The experiment involves the use of XBMC. I do have a 2Gb XBMC setup running on the 2Gb MMC inside of the Openpeak 2.0 device.

It is using Buzz's original Ubuntu build and my tweaked XBMC build. It works fine but I keep running out of space. That and I have also moved the database stuff over to a mysql db on my LAN.

Today's experiment will be:

1 - Using the Openpeak 1.0 device with the included pata port connector, DECT chip and Zigbee chip.
2 - will start with Buzz's Ubuntu build (will test large and small) on the 16Gb SSD card
3 - will also wipe out the MMC build if I can such that the Openframe only looks at the SSD card for booting
4 - With a 16Gb build on an SSD you will also be able to hopefully multiOS boot into Android and XP and Ubuntu as there should be enough space on the SSD for all three OS's.

I am writing all of this "stuff" before I actually test. Next though would be to include the DECT chip and Zigbee drives into the base Ubuntu build for use for "other stuff". What the heck; might as well take advantage of the devices on the Openframe 1.0 device.

Writing here my step by step:

1 - install a 16Gb SSD card inside of the Openframe 1.0 putting it on top of the USB Wireless stick. It should fit just fine.
A - Checking the SSD card connected it via a ZIF cable to a USB to ZIF to SSD card set up. You can format the card with windows or with linux GParted. I did it in windows because I have a windows setup nearby. I will take pictures.
B - shortcut - copying my working Ubuntu USB image (Buzz's Ubuntu build) to the SSD drive first as I keep playing with it and its sort of tweaked right now. Skipping pictures. Copied the image in wintel and checking it with GParted on a Linux box.

For kicks and before checking the SSD on another Linux box booted up via the USB to ZIF to SSD drive in Buzz's Ubuntu and it booted up just fine on the Joggler 2. I am looking to take apart the Joggler 2 only once for installation of this SSD drive.

Using GParted resized the linux swap partition to double or so and the EXT4 partition to using the rest of the SSD drive.

Linux boot remains at 61 Mb, Swap (fat fingered) at 734Mb and Linux root at 14.49 Gb.

Decided just now to dual boot all of my laptops and netbooks to wintel and linux.

C - Install the ZIF / SSD card inside of the Joggler 2. Note length of ZIF cable and position of SSD card.
Testing first by connecting the SSD card and booting with Buzz's build. I see it just fine. No boot though right now.

root@joggler:/dev/disk# ls
by-id by-label by-path by-uuid
root@joggler:/dev/disk# cd by-id
root@joggler:/dev/disk/by-id# ls
ata-SanDisk_pSSD_16GB_ANZ062509013740 scsi-SATA_SanDisk_pSSD_16_ANZ062509013740
ata-SanDisk_pSSD_16GB_ANZ062509013740-part1 scsi-SATA_SanDisk_pSSD_16_ANZ062509013740-part1
ata-SanDisk_pSSD_16GB_ANZ062509013740-part2 scsi-SATA_SanDisk_pSSD_16_ANZ062509013740-part2
ata-SanDisk_pSSD_16GB_ANZ062509013740-part3 scsi-SATA_SanDisk_pSSD_16_ANZ062509013740-part3
root@joggler:/dev/disk/by-id#

Changed the MMC boot partition to non boot. I then edited the SSD boot partition stuff. Booted fine. SSHing see this:

00:1f.1 IDE interface: Intel Corporation System Controller Hub (SCH Poulsbo) IDE Controller (rev 07)

root@joggler:~# df -l
Filesystem 1K-blocks Used Available Use% Mounted on
/dev/sda3 14957568 2878752 12078816 20% /
udev 246928 12 246916 1% /dev
tmpfs 100896 784 100112 1% /run
none 5120 0 5120 0% /run/lock
none 252240 236 252004 1% /run/shm

/dev/sda3 on / type ext4 (rw,noatime,errors=remount-ro)
proc on /proc type proc (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev)
sysfs on /sys type sysfs (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev)
none on /sys/fs/fuse/connections type fusectl (rw)
none on /sys/kernel/debug type debugfs (rw)
none on /sys/kernel/security type securityfs (rw)
udev on /dev type devtmpfs (rw,mode=0755)
devpts on /dev/pts type devpts (rw,noexec,nosuid,gid=5,mode=0620)
tmpfs on /run type tmpfs (rw,noexec,nosuid,size=10%,mode=0755)
none on /run/lock type tmpfs (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev,size=5242880)
none on /run/shm type tmpfs (rw,nosuid,nodev)
gvfs-fuse-daemon on /home/joggler/.gvfs type fuse.gvfs-fuse-daemon (rw,nosuid,nodev,user=joggler)

root@joggler:~# fdisk -l

Disk /dev/sda: 16.4 GB, 16391208960 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 1992 cylinders, total 32014080 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x0004941d

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 2048 126975 62464 e W95 FAT16 (LBA)
/dev/sda2 126976 1630207 751616 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda3 1630208 32012287 15191040 83 Linux

Disk /dev/mmcblk0: 1028 MB, 1028128768 bytes
4 heads, 16 sectors/track, 31376 cylinders, total 2008064 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x000dba57

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/mmcblk0p1 16 125055 62520 ef EFI (FAT-12/16/32)
/dev/mmcblk0p2 125056 625151 250048 83 Linux
/dev/mmcblk0p3 625152 1125247 250048 83 Linux
/dev/mmcblk0p4 1125248 2008063 441408 83 Linux

remote gui see this: Bricked it while playing some more with the original MMC boot partition. Looks to have a "special" boot EFI chip on it.

Instead put in a seabios flash boot chip and will boot into xp and edit the MMC first partition such that I have the joggler EFI boot files on there and the original EFI boot files.

My mistake here was assuming that the boot efi flash looked at whatever to boot and not initially the MMC boot partition.

Update -
Booted up XP with seabios. I installed a partition manager and editor. I copied over the Jogger boot partition files keeping the subdirectory with the Verizon boot files. I swapped out the flash chip with the original Verizon one and was able to boot back into the Ubuntu on the SSD drive. That said though I am still a bit messed up because its looking at the USB stick before it boots up the SSD drive.

Day #2
Seems to be booting normal from the SSD drive when the USB stick errors out or I change the USB boot stick to another port on the USB hub. It is much faster running Ubuntu when it does boot up from the SSD drive. Reviewing the MMC boot partition EFI configuration I do not see that it requires any changes. I have a backup of the entire MMC device such that today I will write the O2 stuff on to it to see if that changes anything. Relating to the XP / Seabios configurations I currently have running; boots up every time. Last setup was done by using an XP CD rom disk off of the USB port writing the OS to the SSD card.

Might try first writing the small Ubuntu build on to the 1Gb MMC to see what happens.

Update - few hours later

Updated firmware with last base build for O2. Tested it to work fine. Next booted Ubuntu via USB. Booted fine. I rewrote the SSD card with Ubuntu build. Tested it to boot via the SSD to USB connection. Worked. Moved the connection over to the PATA port. It didn't boot. Plugged in the USB stick Ubuntu to a different port on USB hub. Errored out while looking for a USB connection while booting then it went to the SSD card and booted fine. I can replicate this by just moving the USB Ubuntu build to a different USB port. Response times on the SSD card Ubuntu are very quick; IE: updates and menus and graphics in general.

If I remove the USB hub and try to boot it appears to hang in "EFI flippant mode" not knowing where to boot from and not going to original firmware on MMC flash. I am thinking it is seeing the build on the SSD but just doesn't know how to boot it. Playing now with the grub.cfg file on the EFI boot partition to see if that matters.

I added FS2: to all of the EFI files and it always booted from the USB stick with no errors. I took off the FS2: and I could get it to error and boot up from the SSD in a similiar fashion to when you have a bad USB boot stick and it defaults to the internal MMC boot. I am thinking that the SSD is looked at first from the boot EFI flash maybe? I also changed FS0:boot to FS0:grub which didn't change anything. I was able to boot the last time into the SSD and removed the USB stick and will leave it be for the time being; its really fast and I am able to update and add applications quickly.

So it appears that maybe the PATA drive is actually the first drive and the MMC is the 2nd drive?

Update - 13th September, 2013

Buzz suggested copying over the Ubuntu EFI bootloader stuff over to the MMC partition which I did. Here is the step by step.

1 - Boot into the Buzz's Ubuntu build already installed on the SSD drive. The build I installed is actually older. Most current is:
Ubuntu 12.04 LTS (Precise) (Joggler Image v1.4 - 09/04/2013) (I may update the the current SSD build).

2 - mount both the MMC boot Ubuntu EFI partition and the Ubuntu SSD boot EFI partition.

3 - Personally here I created a subdirectory on the MMC boot partition (you don't really need to do this) called oldboot

4 - copied over all of the files on said partition to sub directory.

5 - copied over all of the files from the mounted MMC EFI boot partition over to the SSD EFI boot partition.

6 - result is that the SSD card now boots up fine.

Here are the changes to the files. I did change/edit some in the EFI grub boot partition.

I do currently have the Joggler II apart and in piece. I will take pictures of the installation of the SSD card inside leaving the USB wireless stick in place. The tricky part is to fold the zif cable such that it attaches to the zif clip and is folded up to the middle of the motherboard then folded again to the left of the motherboard. The cable is flexible but you can break it if you are not careful.

The results here are that you now can have a Joggler 2 with a built in SSD card which you can boot whatever OS you want and go beyond the 1Gb built in MMC. Personally here went to 16 Gb. You can go higher though as the cards are all similiarly sized.

Some stuff that can be done now.

You can create a link on the Ubuntu build to copy back the files in the EFI boot partition such that the original OS boots; then create a link on the original OS such that the EFI boot become an Ubuntu boot partition giving you the option of booting to either Ubuntu or original OS.

Thinking both XBMC and Squeezeplayer are on the Ubuntu build such that you can run these directly from the Ubuntu build if you want or even create just a 16Gb XBMC booting Joggler 2 device.

A side note here. I have purchased a number of small footprint wireless antennas with small coaxial smc type connections. I have been testing these on another small footprint device (Almond). They are tiny but bigger than the little antennas inside of the Joggler. (high gain little wireless antennas where two / smc connections could be installed and would fit nicely on the back of the Joggler 2 device). I purchased a few different styles of these for some $2 to $3 each.

Update -
Updated the included XBMC with the MythTV PVR addon. Runs faster off the SSD than the MMC.

mkdir source
cd source
git clone git://github.com/fetzerch/xbmc-pvr-addons.git
cd xbmc-pvr-addons
./bootstrap
./configure --enable-addons-with-dependencies
make clean zip

cp addons/pvr.mythtv.cmyth-linux-x86_64.zip $HOME

Update 14th of September, 2013

I let it update itself yesterday which was some 300 plus updates. That said I never did get around to assembling the case. Not wanting to "leave well enough alone" I went to setting up XBMC to a nightly build trying to get the live TV functioning. I should have left it alone.

That said I am at a working Joggler II which now has a bootable 16Gb SSD drive. It is much faster than both the Joggler and the Openframe 7.0 running off of the 2 Gb internal memory MMC.

I did edit the grub.cfg again on the MMC EFI boot partition. I made the following changes such that it would boot from any USB stick and or the SSD.

My original change was pointing to the linux boot partition via the use of the actual device.

Modded it such that its more generic.

Update - 2

Taking pictures today. The ZIF cable is a bit short but better than the longer ZIF cable. One issue to post as an FYI. You have to be careful with the small ZIF clip. Installation. Note that this is not really an invasive endeavor as no soldering is required and you don't need to remove the motherboard; basically all you need to do is open the case, install the ZIF and SSD card and close the case.

1 - Use a flipped ZIF cable some maybe 30 cm long.
2 - pin side up on the Joggler two
3 - slide the ZIF cable in and do not force the plastic clip. If it does come out of place you have to put it back correctly oriented.
4 - The SSD side of the ZIF cable has the pins down; blue side up.
5 - Fold the ZIF cable a few CM towards the edge of the case; but not over the screw hole . You can then put a piece of tape over the fold if you like.
6 - Best to fold the ZIF cable at an angle towards the wireless card. The ZIF cable is very "foldable" and will not break.
7 - Easiest to insert the ZIF cable on both ends; then do your folding.
8 - I personally put the SSD card in a plastic sleeve.
9 - Placing the SSD card over the wireless card is a bit of a tight fit but the case does close fine and there is no distortion of the LCD backlight screen.

Easiest to just do a DD to the SSD from the original image while booting using the USB stick. OR you can write the image in windows to the SSd device using a USB to SSD device. Either way works. Note too that you can write PnPIII to to the 16GB or greater original based and tweaked O2 image that "was" on the 1Gb built in flash. Same for the Squeezebox and XBMC images such that there is no more worry about writing to flash disk and the speed differences are very nice. For XP you can also keep the EFI boot and use the 16Gb SSD or write the Seabios boot to the boot EFI flash and use regular windows with openframe drivers.

BTW got a bit carried away last night and into the morning. Not so much closing up the case but rather doing the make and build of XBMC which was kind of slow and a sort of a fruitless endeavor. That said it works fine at SD and 720 but locks up and freezes up XBMC and the Ubuntu build at 1080.

Update - 15th of September, 2013

Redid the XBMC installation and also installed the MthTV client.

That said tested the 1080HD streaming from the NAS and Live 1080 HD streaming. Both are working fine on the Joggler2. Not jittery at all.

Note though all of this is using the Gb NIC on the Joggler2 and not the wireless USB stick in it.

Today installed Asterisk and a couple of softphone applications on it. These should work fine with the built in speaker and microphone.

Next steps though are to get the DECT chip stuff working such that I can integrate the DECT Openpeak telephony stuff.

nice. sorry for lack of feedback from me - just been really busy with other projects. appreciate your progress reports though.

Nice work Pete, lovely to see your still playing with the jogglers

Nice to see you Dan!

Yup moved on now to the Joggler 2 and Joggler 3.

That said my home is literally full of Jogglers and still a bunch running your original stuff in XP (and now W8).

Literally (no bs) driving wife nuts as there are Jogglers in every room in this sandbox home right now.

Lol, yeah, the different hardware really intrigues me, not had any time lately to do any joggling whatsoever!! will get the joggler out again soon and se what else I can come up with I think

Yup shifting over the OS to an internally running PATA ZIF SSD changes things a bit.

I mean I was already doing that with the O2 Joggler; but soldering a ZIF clip to the motherboard was not such an easy DIY for most folks purchasing the O2 Joggler (Joggler 1).

The Joggler II already includes this feature on the motherboard; plus some other stuff (DECT, secondary audio (with microphone), Zigbee chip).

I have now seen the built in realtek network interface issue; similiar to the Joggler (and related to windows) on other computers with built in cmos/clocks. (IE: an Asus computer that I put together for my sister-in-law recently). I gave up dealing with it on the PC and just disabled the internal NIC and installed a PCiE NIC card; and now its working just great.

I compounded the issue by direct wiring cloned USB 1.0 Asix chipped (looked like an Asix but wasn't). I have recently switched these over to tiny Asix 2.0 USB NICs and performance relating to networking and OS is totally way better in XP.

Just a reminder here to backup stuff when playing.

I have been adding "everything" but the kitchen sink to Buzz's Ubuntu build. That and I test something then add more to the build. Doing it so fast now I forget to back up my builds (guess that is me being in a rush).