Raspberry PI PIXEL on old laptop

Installed the raspberry PI os PIXEL on an old laptop

https://www.raspberrypi.org/blog/pixel-pc-mac/

laptop:

old acer aspire one:

• atom N570 cpu, 4 core 1.66GHz
• intel graphics
• 1 G ram
• 250 MB HD
• 1000x600 screen
• wifi

almost the same specs as a Raspberry PI 3!

initially works fine, except BATTERY DIES, even when lid closed!

solution:
install the laptop components of debian to manage power properly:

sudo apt install laptop-mode-tools

then run the control utility (as root)

sudo /usr/sbin/lmt-config-gui

so far working well ...

MythTV on Fedora still rolls along, now in HD OTA

notes since the regular cable went away;

needed to switch to an external antenna.

Able to use the same external DVR box.
(has gone EOL, and been replaced by a newer version, but the old version still is supported by linux, and has firmware available)

one minor change needed to the setup.
(Suspect since still running on ancient AMD processor)

Some HD channel's sound was choppy, so increased caching setting, and that worked!

note:
of course HD is much larger, the expected 4x size increase means closer monitoring of disk space.

(have not upgraded to a 14TB !! disk yet, but looking at them ;)

kivy : fedora 20 netbook graphics update required

Installing Kivy for some python development/fun with Android and my old netbook;


remember, the netbook is an old
Acer Aspire one D257 , with 1 gig ram and Intel(R) Atom(TM) CPU N570

I think the netbook is less powerful than most high end Android phones these days!


I found there is a repo that is slightly newer than the online doc (which lists Fedora_18)


Kivy Launcher works great on android, but the netbook, recently updated to Fedora 20 gave the error:

Fatal Python error: (pygame parachute) Segmentation Fault

oh no!

but this is not uncommon, since is listed early in the FAQ for kivy.

but then no details on how to update Fedora!

that took a bit of looking around;  I am running the non standard LXDE spin; so did not have all tools installed;

finally found the link to the Intel graphics driver site:

https://01.org/linuxgraphics/downloads

installed the drivers using the graphical installer for 1.0.6 for 32bit,  rebooted, and now am running.

now can type on netbook and use editors and then send the result to the android device to test!

p.s.
my other machine, running Fedora 20 64 bit 8 gig ram, AMD graphics, did not require any updates, it runs fine out of box.

linux/Raspberry pi SD card compatibility

annoying fact:

Linux on my old netbook only works with some SD cards.

much to my surprise, it seems that some SD cards are not compatible.

for the longest time I assumed it was the kernel and drivers I was using, but then I switched to another brand, and it worked perfectly....

so general advice;  have a variety of different vendor SD cards available when you are trying out the linux support.

a different SD card may work perfectly, on the same setup.

(using Fedora on Acer aspire one D257)

found the same true with the raspberry pi board, could not get it to boot with some SD cards, and others work fine.

MythTV and old WII, via WIIMC

http://www.wiimc.org/

Have connected our Fedora MythTV to the WII Multimedia player, installed on the Homebrew Channel

WIIMC does not see the MythTV as a server, so connecting to the mythtv machine as a fileserver to access the video files directly.

two modes currently: FTP and SMB

Notes:

1) annoying fact:  vsftpd does not follow symlinks;  so my rename/make symlink script does not work, have to access the files directly, if using the default fedora vsftpd server.

2) smb share does see the symlinks, but does not play, still working on this.

TODO:  Create some sort of web interface... still need to research, on this one.

MythTV Android Frontend BETA

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.mythtv

recently installed MythTV Android Frontend from the  Google Play Store .

Working great.

Client is a 2012 Nexus 7, with VLC player as the video client

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.videolan.vlc.betav7neon

Notes:
for internal network tests, have default settings.

Landscape mode, is a bit cramped on the program listing.  On my current setup, I can only see two shows in the show list;  Seems to be setup to use portrait mode, and then flip to landscape when playing the video.

No problems with Fedora

All quiet here, recently.

Why?

Things "just work"

Recently been running Fedora 18 linux, recently upgraded to Fedora 20.

Was running Fedora 18, 32 bit + PAE, switched to Fedora 20, x64.

Been using for homework, MythTV, Office VPN, Old machine VM.