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The $8 Linux Computer

thelittleengineerthatcould.blogspot.com

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Re: The $8 Linux Computer

#161

Post by teleforce »

moffkalast wrote: post #123
stolk wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

OP here...it got a little better with a patched picoprobe. I wrote up part 2 here: http://thelittleengineerthatcould.blogspot.com/2022/12/the-8... But yeah, not plug-n-play. I still have to find out how to get network or SD-Card.

it is quite interesting that it actually has an sdcard slot but doesn't use it as a boot device? Like wtf? With only 128 MB of flash what kind of OS can one even fit on that... Nothing about this board makes any sense lol.

Stay tuned, according to the Bouffalo Lab BL808 SoC datasheet (page 90) series numbering system that the board is based on, they will probably have more RAM and ROM capacity in the later versions of the SoC:

https://github.com/bouffalolab/bl_docs/blob/main/BL808_DS/en...

Re: The $8 Linux Computer

#162

Post by jesprenj »

monocasa wrote: post #133
guerrilla wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ok fair enough, Linux can't run normally without an MMU. It kind of defeats the purpose of using a UNIX, but yes, you get all the Linux drivers and the UNIX API for free.

You still have processes and mutual protection between them and the kernel with no-MMU, they just get less options about where they can mmap(2) and you have to vfork(2) instead of fork(2). Otherwise it feels like a pretty standard Linux.

What about interprocess protection? Do permissions make sense on nommu, can a process edit another's RAM?

Re: The $8 Linux Computer

#163

Post by monocasa »

jesprenj wrote: post #162
monocasa wrote: post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You still have processes and mutual protection between them and the kernel with no-MMU, they just get less options about where they can mmap(2) and you have to vfork(2) instead of fork(2). Otherwise it feels like a pretty standard Linux.

What about interprocess protection? Do permissions make sense on nommu, can a process edit another's RAM?

Yes, processes are protected from eachother.

Re: The $8 Linux Computer

#164

Post by hungryforcodes »

stolk wrote: post #113
kamranjon wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I just bought one of these esp32 boards with risc-v chip off adafruit a couple days ago: https://www.adafruit.com/product/5337 I think they are positioned to be the new low-cost esp32 variant.

Yes, but those are microcontrollers. This is a computer on a chip with mmu, and three cores, 64MB ram.

The NanoPi Duo has 4 cores and 512MB of RAM which is super usable. Includes WiFi etc. I'm not sure why RISC-V is such a draw here, considering the boards limitations.

Re: The $8 Linux Computer

#165

Post by nsteel »

bmitc wrote: post #146
monocasa wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've heard a rumor too that the rpi foundation is having a legal spat about that part with Broadcom right now too. Broadcom is pissed that their chips they were using as a tax right off are being sold for profit. That's why you can get RP2040 boards like the Pico no problem; they don't contain Broadcom IP blocks.

Ahh, that's interesting. I have been wondering why their newest product and design was the most (and only) readily available one.

The difference in availability is certainly related to Brcm's involvement but that could just as easily be Brcm's capacity problem, rather than a spat for which there's no official word on (and it makes no difference to consumers anyway).

Re: The $8 Linux Computer

#166

Post by psychphysic »

Klasiaster wrote: post #108
psychphysic wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes u-boot. I think Debian, Ubuntu, fedora and OpenSuse are preparing images. FreeBSD possibly too (I think at Tier 2 level/no binary updates). I am hoping it gets first class support from some distro! Definitely don't want to rely on starfive support.

Well, that was the UEFI part of the question: With UEFI you don't need special images built, you can use the generic arm64 image and it will boot as long as things are in the mainline Linux kernel.

VisionFive2 is RISCV based but I take your point!
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