SqueezePlay OS + XBMC on emmc...

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Hi..
I tried last SqueezePlay OS on internal flash and it is great thanks to roobarb!. Can't imagine that ubuntu can be so small, I installed XBMC 13.2 and have 300mb free, it is working, but slow I don't know if it's cause that SqueezePlay is running on background or that Video doesn't have hardware acceleration but CPU is always near 100%.
If somebody is interested in it and can help make it fully workable it would be great...

[roobarb!]

Maybe you'd be better off running one of BuZz's XBMC / Kodi builds? His gear has the hardware video acceleration on as well.

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His builds are good but to big for internal emmc, And I could run really good Kodi on your OS, if I could add hardware acceleration I wouldn't need anything else from it and will have 200-300mb for caching.... all plugins, video everything is working only slow.

I saw that there is also Ubuntu Base/Server 14.04 LTS it is ~400Mb will try it... But would like to install yours it's good to have SqueezePlay and xbmc on emmc

[pete]

I got it running a while ago and it worked OK for a bit. Filled up the 2Gb MMC in a few days though when I DB's the media on the NAS drives. I have it using Buzz's Ubuntu 14.04 build on a 16Gb SSD and an 8 Gb SSD. Runs fine.

The 8Gb SSD is USB stick. You can now purchase a 16 Gb SSD DOM which would probably work fine.

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did you run SqueezePlay OS or Ubuntu Base/Server 14.04 ?

[pete]

Just XBMC on the 2 GB MMC with Ubuntu Base/Server 14.04.

Base setups here use 16Gb SSD PATA drives which work well for me. Fit fine over the USB WLAN stick on the left of the Joggler.

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Ok, thanks, I will try Base version to see how it runs from emmc... I need to use usb for other things simply don't want to put hub...

[pete]

Note that the 2Gb mmc is only on the Openframe 2 (one with the speakers). That said I have one configured using the top camera USB connector for USB and it works fine.

If you feel like doing some hardware modes there are traces for a mini sd slot on the motherboard alone with a pata port.

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I ordered openframe 2, for now I'm playing with 1 it has 1Gb flash I already soldered PATA but never used it... why they don't have sata on board would be much better and easier

[pete]

The PATA works well with a ZIF 16/32 SSD.

You can purchase those very reasonably.

The flipped longer ZIF cables are very reasonable too. Thinking its around $1 USD for 5 of these.

You can order a long zif cable (flipped) and stick the SSD card over the wireless interface.

The 1 Gb MMC is too small to do much with it.

Thanks for the reference to the Openpeak 2's. I haven't seen these around in a while. Picked up a couple of those too just now.

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How many Jogglers you have

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I couldn't install XBMC on Ubuntu Base/Server 14.04 it doesn't contain xorg to much need to be installed. Can someone help me to install video driver with hardware acceleration on SqueezePlay OS ... ?

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Reading a little bit I understood that it is not so easy SqueezePlay OS has a newer kernel that doesn't support Intel EMGD drivers, so only way would be to make SqueezePlay OS with 3.2 kernel and Intel EMGD I don't have enough knowledge and skills to do this if somebody would help me with this it would be great...

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Can SqueezePlay OS kernel be replaced with Buzz Ubuntu one ?

[pete]

Here I run both the SqueezePlay and XBMC built into Buzz's Ubuntu 14.04 LTS build. You can autostart either software; I do and it works.

You can start or test this build on a 4 Gb fast USB stick. I went to using an 8 Gb SSD stick. The stick was a bit oversized such that I removed it from the plastic case and replaced the wireless stick inside of the Joggler with the original build. You can also just plug it into the side of the Joggler.

The tiny 1 Gb MMC built in to the Joggler does work great for use with PnP just fine. The 2Gb MMC built into the Openframe 7 also works fine but is a tiny bit small.

Personally here I went to a 16Gb SSD card connected to the PATA ZIF port on the Joggler motherboard. I used a flip longer cable folding it and putting the SSD (tiny thing) over the stock WLAN USB stick inside of the Joggler. I have 4 of these configured in said fashion and they are on 24/7 with no issues today. Mostly though have the Jogglers connected using the 1Gb NIC plus POE and these are also on 24/7 working fine.

The Openframe7 is a different but similiar animal. It has everthing the Joggler has plus more stuff. The combination WLAN / Bluetooth card in it is a mini PCIE card.

Note with the Openframe 7; you have to be careful as the EFI BIOS boot chip is soldered into place and not easy to fix if you mess it up.

The Joggler O2 is much more reslient with a replaceable EFI boot BIOS if you have two of them and do the hot swap chip thing. Hot swap meaning you change the chip while the Joggler O2 is on.

Play with it as it will be a learning experience for you. Be carefull and do baby steps.

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PATA is available with EFI fine, it can boot linux from it ?

[pete]

Yes and no.

The PATA port is in one EFI boot bios chip that a joggler forum user found. It is not standard.

That said I was able to put the Linux boot partition for the PATA drive on a 100Mb EFI boot partition.

[pete]

BTW the Openframe 2.0 devices on Ebay were not as pictured and not new; actually well used and appear to have been taken off lease or rental. I wrote to the seller about this today.

Follow up:

The seller claims he did not know. Odd that he would post new pictures and sell old. That said I told him to give me a discount or take them back paying for shipping (which will be his loss).

I got a discount which worked for me.

I am not sure where you are located. That said I would push for a very large discount if you are in the UK as the seller is not an honest Ebayer.

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I received brand new device with all stickers, I'm in Canada. I think we are speaking about 2 different sellers. Or maybe not, he decreased price now ...
Did you think of using DECT in linux ? And can you please give your grub config I wanted to see how you indicate booting from PATA.

[pete]

Same seller.

Requesting that he change the Ebay item description as it was invalid or change it to two devices and two Ebay postings; one used and one new. If he doesn't will file a formal complaint with Ebay about his selling tactics.

Did you think of using DECT in linux ?

I have never been able to get it to work with Ubuntu. That said the original base OS has a test directory and all of the drivers for it.

And can you please give your grub config I wanted to see how you indicate booting from PATA.

For Linux start with the EFI partition on a USB stick that points to the PATA drive.

You might be able to edit the EFI boot grub configuration on the MMC EFI boot partition with some sort of delay; then have it boot the PATA drive. I didn't try this. You have to be careful though with playing with the EFI MMC boot on the Openpeak 2 as it is soldered in place. If you brick it I don't think you could fix it.

All I tried was putting the EFI fat boot partition on the PATA drive with a different EFI boot partition.

Tested another EFI bios with the PATA boot stuff and it didn't work...I only did try it once last year sometime.

I have a couple of boxes that I set up last year some time in Ubuntu using them for Skype video conferencing; single purposed. They boot fine to the PATA SSD drives. I haven't looked at them. Will copy down the EFI boot partitions/EFI and grub stuff on them; zip them up and post here.

They are always on. Just don't pay attention.

I was originally looking for a small video/sound camera that would look nicely clipped on to the top Camera port of the Openpeak 2 device. I never did find anything I liked such that I went to just purchasing a Logitech conferencing camera and hand made a tiny USB port (well its just wires going to a USB end) for the Logitech camera. I did test the USB port over to a hub and more USB devices. Works great but funhy looking sticking straight up from the box. The Logitech camera mounts over the top of the Openpeak 2 hiding the wires a bit. It is a small footprint camera but looks a bit big on the top of the Openpeak 2.

For Windows write over the EFI bios with the Seabios.