(old)Puppy Linux Discussion Forum

Hi Berry,

good explanation at your blog about hardware setup and excellent link about polyfuses. Although it's not my experience.

Since one or two days after I got my Pi, I use a seperate PS for the board and an active hub (4x 500mA, switchable, cheap one, ~13€) which I allways connected first, before I swich on the board. Since about one week I use partitions of my connected usb hd for sap6, instead of the 2nd partition and swap of the sd card. Works flawlessly.

After your post, I did some measurements.

If board has no power , but connected usb hub has power, I have no voltage on the board, not before and not behind the polyfuses. OK, there could be a peak (which I can't measure) when I swich on the power of the hub, but I tested whith my keyboard dongle instead of the hub and at both polyfuses I have nearly the same voltage drop if the dongle is connected (~109mV and ~115mV). I think that a difference of 0.006V is tolerance. So I guess, that it's save for me, but I'll measure from time to time to be sure.

Maybe of interest, the board is feeded with ~0.5V by a connected HDMI cable.

Thanks for the explanation and the link,

Rolf

OK changed config.txt
and modprobed
also set hdmi from suggestions previously posted

You need to set hdmi_drive=2 in the config.txt and then on boot modprobe snd_bcm2835

aplay is giving me crackle (sound of sorts in terms of duration and I can recognize the sound is being played) from command line
So sound to HDMI is possible but not on Barrys hardware?
I removed the mini speakers from the headphone socket.
And also had to do a reboot, when I set the hdmi 3 1(not quite right something like that) it turned off the sound (I could see this from the tray icon)

Mick has mentioned that we are not trying to get the ALSA driver to work?
Which driver are we trying to get working? Sound through HDMI has to be the first step? Also if you get a woof SLR that might well be better than ye olde but stable Debian . . .

Barry you can put in your config.txt to test your hardware
http://www.jtek.cz/?p=62

Your difficulties might be your powered USB hub. Only difference in set up I can think of.

I spent two days thinking I had faulty RPi hardware.
I hope it is not that . . .

in
/root/Startup

I put the following sound.sh
It may not be barks (more like a throttled wasp)
but it tests sound and plays through HDMI

Hi Lobster,

one of the first things I did, was selecting snd_bcm2835 in menu->System->Puppy boot configuration(maybe in other words)->Click here to add another module and move snd_bcm2835 from the left to the right side. Now it's loaded at every boot .

To change from analog to HDMI or vice versa, I've build two scripts, one with amixer cset numid=3 1 and one with amixer cset numid=3 2. Both I placed on the desktop. Now I can change sound by just one click. It works.

With analog, sometimes i can hear some scratches, maybe 1 per min., more or less. With all players I've tested. Gxine, gnome mplayer and Mick's playmusic. Maybe other running processes are disturbing? Just a feeling because I get a lot of more "scratches" when I select e.g. another window with the cursor.

Sound via HDMI seems to be more stable to me, although it doesn't sound so good (TV speaker vs. hifi ).

About speaker tray icon: for me it's allways muted, no matter what I select.

Btw., similar to the network icon, which shows allways active.

~Rolf

Edit: you should take a bigger file for testing . Using aplay with 2barks.wav, I can't decide is it 1bark or a big "scratch" .

Thanks rolf,

I was finding that using a USB hub (unpowered) but with just the keyboard connected was giving me auto repeat again.
I am not going to get a powered hub unless essential.

I am not very keen on using the headphone socket . . . but may try that.

It seems to me extraordinary that with the same motherboard but different peripherals we are still having hardware problems.

Anyway back in x86-Slacko-Puppy for now.

Puppy
Penguin Power

Hi,
I am trying to update the package database in PPM. It's giving a lot of syntax errors: "Unexpected '(' in ..."
Am I doing something wrong?
mark

Loster wrote:I was finding that using a USB hub (unpowered) but with just the keyboard connected was giving me auto repeat again.

Sometimes I have the same problem (including missing keys), your'e not alone .

I am not going to get a powered hub unless essential.

At least if you want to connect other parts like sticks or hds, I would strongly recommend to buy one.
Example:
My power supply (IIRC 1.2A) provides 4.86V, measured between tp1 and tp2 on the board. That's OK. If I connect only my wireless dongle for keyboard (no hub and nothing else), it gets only 4.74V (measured after the polyfuse). Not much. Maybe it's OK, maybe not.

It seems to me extraordinary that with the same motherboard but different peripherals we are still having hardware problems.

One explanation, different peripheral sucks different power. For me a good reason.
But that's my explanation. I'm not sure, reality takes care about what I think

~Rolf

antiloquax wrote:I am trying to update the package database in PPM. It's giving a lot of syntax errors: "Unexpected '(' in ..."

You're welcome .
I've asked this question yesterday, but still no answer .

~Rolf

Edit: If you don't break the process, you can use PPM as before, but I don't know if it's updated or not.

In updating the package database in PPM, I have also been getting the "syntax errors: 'Unexpected "("" reported by antiloquax and rhadon.

I was able to update the ppm - it took nearly two hours but is rather flaky in alpha2. Try and hang on for alpha3 when there should be improvements from Barry.

Lobster wrote:I was able to update the ppm - it took nearly two hours but is rather flaky in alpha2. Try and hang on for alpha3 when there should be improvements from Barry.

Yes, it seems to have worked. I am part-way through compiling Python. The tk bits seem to have been found this time

I have Python 3.14 working, with tk (so I have IDLE).
Next ... pygame.
mark

I'm pleased with how fast Puppy boots.
It seems to run a bit slower than Arch though. It took a long time to compile Python ....

Edit
Building pygame. Hope to have a pet for you to try soon.

Edit 2
Pygame is installed. No time to test tonight, so I won't share the pet yet. Also I am going to attach a couple of pics. A Python calculator I am working on and a little game that should be in the next MagPi.
mark

Hi
Thank you 01micko and BarryK for pointing out that when writing the image to the sdhc I should only use sdb and not sdb1. I had spent hours on this problem. With this error corrected the process worked a treat. I can now boot my raspberry pi board and I am impressed with how good it is at such an early stage in its development. Thank you.

peterw

It seems to run a bit slower than Arch though.

Yes that is Debian. Solid but older.
Congratulations on your Python efforts.

I have a feeling that sound works in Python and RacyPy?

In another month or two, buying multiple motherboards will be possible. Leaving a Rpi to compile for a day or two will not be so much of an issue. In fact Sickgut already seems keen on the idea of a server farm of Rpi's. Sounds good.

Hopefully today or tomorrow Barry will release Alpha3 of Puppi Sap which with the devx will have Python support as well as the potential of the Woof build system for Puppi SLR.

My xcowsay promo script is progressing nicely. May be able to turn it into a Puppi intro/tutorial. I hope sneaky Linux, Icyos and other reviewers have Rpi's on standby.

The great thing is being able to develop script on x86 (I am in an Alpha x86) and then move to the still unstable but rapidly evolving ARM architecture.

Woof. Woof


Puppy
Breaking the Linux mold

Yes, sound on Arch is working. I will investigate the sound issues when I next boot up into SAP.
mark

Lobster wrote:I was able to update the ppm - it took nearly two hours but is rather flaky in alpha2. Try and hang on for alpha3 when there should be improvements from Barry.

I have released alpha3, but didn't get around to looking at the PPM. That is high on the to-do list.

Though, there was a file named 'find_cat' that was missing from alpha2, that the PPM uses when creating the Puppy standard database files. So, maybe the problem has fixed itself.

Here it is, Squeezed Arm Puppy alpha3:

http://bkhome.org/blog/?viewDetailed=02899

alpha3, pwallpaper is segfaulting, don't know why. (was for me in alpha 2 too, don't know about alpha one)

I am working on a simple alternative, I wrote awhile ago, but it doesn't work ootb on the Pi, so I'm going to fix it, also add the code for screen cropping calling "background_reshape"

More in a bit...

-

In other news.. my slr based on armed slack has stalled. I can build a distro ok but still get a kernel panic, unless I link /bin/init to busybox (yes wrong I know!) then it starts to boot but not all commands seem to work. For example it goes into an endless loop trying to find mingetty. I don't think the main filesystem is mounting properly as the work arounds for cross build don't run either. I'm using the July 7 filesystem.

-

EDIT

I got sws (simple wall setter) working but there is a catch. The first time it runs you get a rox pinpoard error , a reboot seems to fix it. After reboot I tested all wallpapers in the /usr/share/backround dir and an added one, changed back and forth. I don't know if rebooting before trying to change the wallpaper will fix it. If not then i guess this will be no good.

Widescreen cropping was as easy as inserting a few lines of code from Nathan's wallpaper setter. Works too.

Anyway, it's here if you want to try it. Usual warnings apply. (try at own risk, etc)

The Python 3.1.4 and Pygame that I compiled seems to be working well. I will upload the pet for someone to test in a bit.

The sound problems are going to be awkward. Can anyone give me an idiot's guide to the story so far? I don't seem to have alsa working.
mark

Edit
Downloading Alpha3.

Edit
Here's a link to my Python and Pygame pet. You'll need tcl, tck, sdl, sdl-image, sdl-mixer and sdl-ttf.
mark
Python Arm pet
This isn't quite right yet, the Python and Tk stuff works, but not the Pygame. I'll get back when I have fixed it.