<p>Well I want to try something a little more generic and up to date. That installer is still based on Ubuntu 10.04. Ideally I would prefer Debian, then I can just install XBMC from repo. IIRC it has already been packaged for ARM in Debian, but I might be confused.</p>
<p>In any case, that would be very nice if someone could help me get any installer on an SD card. I realize this is probably a bad time tho. I can leave it til new year.</p>
<div class="gmail_quote">On 2012-12-14 12:52 PM, "William Weaver" <<a href="mailto:williamdweaver-Re5JQEeQqe8AvxtiuMwx3w@public.gmane.org">williamdweaver-Re5JQEeQqe8AvxtiuMwx3w@public.gmane.org</a>> wrote:<br type="attribution"><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">
<div>With that in mind it looks like SolidRun has a few prebuilts with XBMC that you can give a shot.</div><div> </div><div><a href="http://www.solid-run.com/mw/index.php/XBMC_on_CuBox" target="_blank">http://www.solid-run.com/mw/index.php/XBMC_on_CuBox</a></div>
<div> </div><div>It may be a good place to get started. You can flash this get it up and running and see if it meets your needs, if not can it and reflash.</div><div> </div><div>If flashing is an issue I'm certain someone will be willing to flash the card for you. I live in the down town core and if you took the drive/subway to grab it I would, though you may be able to find someone closer.</div>
<div> </div><div>Will</div><div class="gmail_extra"><br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Fri, Dec 14, 2012 at 12:35 PM, Thomas Milne <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:thomas.bruce.milne-Re5JQEeQqe8AvxtiuMwx3w@public.gmane.org" target="_blank">thomas.bruce.milne-Re5JQEeQqe8AvxtiuMwx3w@public.gmane.org</a>></span> wrote:<br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex"><div><p><br>
On 2012-12-14 11:56 AM, "D. Hugh Redelmeier" <<a href="mailto:hugh-pmF8o41NoarQT0dZR+AlfA@public.gmane.org" target="_blank">hugh-pmF8o41NoarQT0dZR+AlfA@public.gmane.org</a>> wrote:<br>
><br>
> | From: Thomas Milne <<a href="mailto:thomas.bruce.milne-Re5JQEeQqe8@public.gmane.orgm" target="_blank">thomas.bruce.milne-Re5JQEeQqe8AvxtiuMwx3w@public.gmane.org</a>><br>
><br>
> | I am currently without a computer since they all died at once and I am<br>
> | jobless.<br>
> |<br>
> | So I am using my Cubox to do basic stuff, but running Ubuntu 10 it is very<br>
> | slow.<br>
><br>
> If I remember correctly, Lennart is a local expert on the Cubox.<br>
><br>
><br>
> There is no "Ubuntu 10". There is 10.04 LTS and 10.10, but those are<br>
> distinct.</p>
</div><p>Sorry, you're right. Just being lazy since I have to type e-mails on my cell phone telephone :-)</p><div>
<p>> What is it slow doing? Why?</p>
</div><p>The worst part is web browsing. It is unbearable. Now that is likely in large part because of limited memory, but surely it would at least be more useable if I could get better use of the ARM processor with newer Linux version. My understanding is that the Ubuntu on there now does slow software emulation of hardware operations. </p>
<div>
<p>> As far as I know, the major thing that *might* get sped up in another<br>
> distro is floating point. Most programs don't care about FP<br>
> performance, but a few care a lot -- do you run any of those?</p>
</div><p>Basically I was hoping for a couple of basic functions: web browsing and media player, primarily with XBMC. As it is, the Cubox works very well just moving files around on network and running Transmission.</p><div>
<p>> My perception is that these little devices are sometimes slow because:<br>
><br>
> - the memory interface is narrower than a PC's so memory bandwidth is<br>
> bad</p>
</div><p>Ya, not expecting to run Firefox with like 50 tabs open.</p><div>
<p>> - 1 ARM MIP < 1 x86 MIP for modern x86 implementations<br>
><br>
> - most I/O is funneled through USB 2.x (example: ethernet on<br>
> RaspberryPI) (example: all disk I/O)<br>
><br>
> - I think that SD cards (except perhaps the fastest) are slower than<br>
> hard drives even if USB isn't the bottleneck<br>
><br>
> - video drivers are crap since there are no high-performance open source<br>
> video drivers for any ARM display subsystem yet<br>
><br>
> - not enough RAM (new desktops start at 4G; most ARM systems stop at<br>
> 1G)<br>
><br>
> | Will this 3.7 kernel mean that Linux will now run on Cubox with normal<br>
> | install? I know Debian won't have the 3.7 kernel for a while.<br>
><br>
> Who knows. It is a future direction so it may not be embraced by old<br>
> products. Too many embedded systems are "fire and forget" by their<br>
> producers. I don't have any knowledge of the Cubox folks intention.<br>
> You could ask them.<br>
><br>
> | And since I do not have a Linux desktop I can't do any of the tricks<br>
> | to get a newer Linux on Cubox.<br>
><br>
> Surely we can help there.<br>
><br>
> Where are you? What does it involve/require (time, equipment,<br>
> expertise, risks)?</p>
</div><p>Well I'm fairly experienced with Linux in general but not a professional. I can install it myself, but I'm not sure how to go about that as all instructions I read say I need another Linux computer besides Cubox :-/</p>
<p>I suppose ideally I would buy a good SD card and some kind soul would help me load some bootable install routine on it. </p>
<p>I am in south etobicoke but I have a vehicle.</p>
<p>Apologies for terrible line wrap/quoting on my phone.</p><div><div>
<p>> --<br>
> The Toronto Linux Users Group. Meetings: <a href="http://gtalug.org/" target="_blank">http://gtalug.org/</a><br>
> TLUG requests: Linux topics, No HTML, wrap text below 80 columns<br>
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</p>
</div></div></blockquote></div><br></div>
</blockquote></div>