I don't get what the Raspberry Pi is for. The Transformer is a lot faster and already runs Linux, you could just install Ubuntu/Debian in a chroot and use that instead of sshing to the Raspberry Pi.
The Ultimate Mobile Computer: Connecting an Asus Transformer and a Raspberry Pi
31–39 of 39 posts
Re: The Ultimate Mobile Computer: Connecting an Asus Transformer and a Raspberry Pi
#32Earlier quoted context omitted.
Writing, compiling, and executing Java and Haskell code can't be done (easily, at least) on the Transformer Prime, so he's just exploiting the batter life (along with it's inexpensiveness, and effortless syncing) of the Transformer and using it as a mobile access point to his pi where he can code.
The question is really: Why an RPi, specifically, instead of, e.g., your macbook or any other desktop-class hardware you have at home? When thinking of a development machine, the first thing that comes to mind is pretty much NOT an RPi. In fact, for my own RPi development, it is more efficient to develop under Linux (possibly run in a VM), and cross-compile to ARM than it is to compile on the RPi directly.
1) Always available (MacBook may not be open and charged) 2) Energy efficient 3) No variable cost (as opposed to EC2 or Linode) 4) Very powerful when headless (Linux is better than OS X here)
It's not the most powerful backend but that wasn't really the point of this project. The point was that for $35 I added a dedicated Linux backend to my already awesome Transformer tablet.
Re: The Ultimate Mobile Computer: Connecting an Asus Transformer and a Raspberry Pi
#33different people already mentioned it: Why do you need a pi!? you can changeroot or ssh into any arm linux distro from android, it even flatout replace it. Did I miss something important?
Re: The Ultimate Mobile Computer: Connecting an Asus Transformer and a Raspberry Pi
#34This is kind of a newbie question... but how does one develop java code through SSH? I thought SSH was run through terminal command line. ie. all text. I can understand coding in vim with python or ruby through the command line. I'm not sure how its done with languages that need an IDE? like java
Re: The Ultimate Mobile Computer: Connecting an Asus Transformer and a Raspberry Pi
#35Earlier quoted context omitted.
Thought I would chime in, because I've had a fair amount of experience with this and it's basically a battleground... if you try just once to install a reasonable Linux on your android transformer, you might get the wrong idea and believe that Android Linux is just not usable. My favorite configuration on my TF-101 is TeamEOS nightly builds with a separate partition for Ubuntu Precise which I run without X11. The par…
tl;dr #2 Yes you can, install Linux on your Android I started with Linux Installer STANDARD (Galoula) It worked, but only for a short time (random freezes) Debian Kit (Sven-Ola) worked great I outgrew it, eventually picked Linux Deploy (Anton Sk.) All of these are a great choice, none of them will get you ARMHF binaries by magic, unless I missed some feature changes. ARMEL is fine though.
you then mentioned some are a great choice... could you explain to me how you rate this developing experience?
I can see how being able to dish out some code anywhere would be useful, but I hoped to be able to do serious development/have it as my main work tool, even if the environment was a bit limited/lacking...as the advantages could surpass the issues (my Dell XPS Notebook already lasts only 1hr without being plugged! 1 year old only... )
Re: The Ultimate Mobile Computer: Connecting an Asus Transformer and a Raspberry Pi
#36Earlier quoted context omitted.
tl;dr #2 Yes you can, install Linux on your Android I started with Linux Installer STANDARD (Galoula) It worked, but only for a short time (random freezes) Debian Kit (Sven-Ola) worked great I outgrew it, eventually picked Linux Deploy (Anton Sk.) All of these are a great choice, none of them will get you ARMHF binaries by magic, unless I missed some feature changes. ARMEL is fine though.
from what you said I got the impression this sort of setup is way unfit for development... wouldn't MySql, Apache means plenty of other development environment tools would be out too(postgreSQL, other web servers come to mind, browser...)? you then mentioned some are a great choice... could you explain to me how you rate this developing experience? I can see how being able to dish out some code anywhere would be usef…
There are plenty of software out there that do not depend on Apache or MySQL. Postgres too. (I tested postgres, it also does not work.) There is nothing stopping you from using a sqlite database and they are very advanced nowadays, although if your goal is to use Go (ARM port) with SQLite, you will probably find as I did that it's not tested and not working. But the system sqlite library and client in Debian/Ubuntu is not at fault. Many Android apps (android java) depend on sqlite databases and they are IMHO the new ubiquitous data store here.
You need to re-evaluate your expectations for this platform. The shell should be a means to an end. I am thinking always, do I have a way to accomplish this task that does not involve running a shell yet? The end of all development on Android should probably be an APK, with buttons and ready to take your orders by touch, no heavy requirement of memorized shell commands. The platform is not meant to run a shell, and the shell should not be a part of your end-user product. That said, nothing stopping you... Android Terminal Emulator is a quality, finished product. I use the shell every day to ssh somewhere else and access screen or tmux. After a while I find that there are not many "standard linux" processes that I want to use on Android, past the phase of testing for "does it work at all?" level of compliance.
When you think about using apache/database, think about uptime requirements for those packages. On half of the environments I tested, the system could not stay up reliably past an average of 20 process forks in the chroot. I had to kill my entire chroot and start again. You can imagine this made apt-get completely unusable. Still, try enough times, you get the software that you needed installed. These processes don't throw away their work just because they are stopped or killed. This was the problem I experienced on Galoula's installer, and it did not occur with Debian Kit or Linux Deploy. YMMV.
These (androids) are systems that are meant to be running on wireless networks, without public IPs, and powered by batteries. If your process is going to cry when your battery runs out and the socket it's listening on closes, or if a cron job fails to fire on time, it should be deployed on a real server. Take Android out of the picture. You can get a "plain linux" system by using OLiFE installer, with no Android. Now the hardware will do what you want. It's just not Android.
But if you want to preserve the Android userland experience, and just gain access to compilers, Linux Deploy or Debian Kit are perfectly suited to what you want to do. There is nothing stopping you from connecting to a MySQL server that's hosted remotely, or pushing to a git repository. You can apt-get install libmysqlclient-dev all day. All of that stuff works. SYSV IPC is responsible for a very small subset of what we Linux guys take home / really need for development.
I would recommend against AOKP on the transformer (and cyanogen, and basically everything but stock or EOS roms) because they all seem to reboot themselves for no reason with an unacceptable frequency, and they all have "the sound bug" where you may have to reboot it yourself just to get an app to play a sound after some length of uptime / some event I don't quite understand happens. EOS has been completely free of these bugs in my experience. I only reboot when I'm feeling frisky.
BUT AOKP does not have the SYSV IPC bug. So if you are just playing, and you want to have debs that require IPC, that is your platform. Still require batteries, still other criticisms apply.
Re: The Ultimate Mobile Computer: Connecting an Asus Transformer and a Raspberry Pi
#37different people already mentioned it: Why do you need a pi!? you can changeroot or ssh into any arm linux distro from android, it even flatout replace it. Did I miss something important?
This is not easy on the Jelly Bean Transformer Pad, and I have heard it greatly compromises battery life.
In chroot'ed mode, I do not find that my battery life is any less outstanding than without the chroot.
It's not easy to support dual boot, and I would not be surprised to find out that booting into Linux directly would compromise your battery life. But I would be equally unsurprised to find out that it does not. It matters mostly that you need to have a properly configured kernel.
Not sure if it's possible to share one kernel between android and non-android. But I'm fairly certain that the bits that make booting into regular linux impossible are not the ones that control longevity and battery life. (A little bit fairly certain, anyway.)
Re: The Ultimate Mobile Computer: Connecting an Asus Transformer and a Raspberry Pi
#38Macbook pro is a no-go; the battery life is dropping fast. And it's not old. My Macbook 13 inch is better but also going down. Even with a new battery it's just too short lived... I have a Hypermac battery and that's definitely the best buy for mobile mac use. It is really great, but they cost way too much (imho). I really the way these machines 'feel', but battery life is more important for me.
When I am in a cramped space or need a lot of time and need all my development stuff (even Java), I use my Pandora which works like charm. For a bit less power and same form factor I also still use my Zaurus C860 which works fine and runs things like Haskell fine. It's just not that easy to do some Crash when bored/relaxing.
Pandora has over 10 hours battery life for me and I can swap batteries in no time (so 20 hours). Disadvantage; it's extremely small and low res. I would recommend and buy one any time.
Transformer prime (TF700) and Pandora are really great; both very portable systems and just work on the Pandora (full linux install with SSH/VNC/X).
I think, if it could install Linux, the Nexus 10 with a keyboard would be great solution. The resolution is insane and only for that I will get it. With a bit of hacking it seems like a fantastic 'monitor extension with a brain'.
Re: The Ultimate Mobile Computer: Connecting an Asus Transformer and a Raspberry Pi
#39I have a Nexus 7 with a bluetooth keyboard, I rooted it and installed Debian. I can SSH into it and pretty much do anything I want (I use ConnectBot or Terminal IDE). I have installed Vim, PHP5 Cli, MySQL and also PHPUnit. For testing sites locally in a browser, I have installed KSWeb. I also use an RDP client to access the LXDE desktop on Debian. Is there really a need to SSH into an RPi when one can have a setup li…
What kind of keyboard are you using? I also have a Nexus 7, but it's hard to find any decent keyboard. Does it hold the tablet, or do you have to support it yourself?