| 06:57 | jnettlet | rabeeh, What version of Android are you shipping on the Cubox-i? |
| 07:39 | Coburn | I honestly don't think Android is the best idea for CuBox |
| 07:40 | Coburn | I mean, sure, it's a nice idea, but the OUYA and other things are likely to get scooped up before CuBox gets a chance to prove it's a contender |
| 07:41 | Coburn | Besides, if you're doing Android for a device, you ought to have a git so people can take the source code and adapt it into custom ROMs (ie. CyanogenMod, etc) |
| 07:42 | Coburn | And the android version needs to be regularly updated. Not sure if rabeeh has the time or staff to keep updates on Android |
| 07:42 | Coburn | For example, CuBox at the moment has Froyo... and then it's dead |
| 07:42 | Coburn | Froyo is 2.2... That's obsolete |
| 07:43 | Coburn | The version numbers now are 4.2 |
| 07:44 | Coburn | So, while rabeeh might think Android is a good option for his CuBox iSeries, unless he's got the capacity to keep his CuBox Android port updated, then he might be biting more off than he can chew |
| 07:46 | Coburn | Besides, I prefer running a native Linux and using it as a portable little device where I can sit on the couch, watch a video, browse something using Firefox and maybe answer the business email |
| 07:46 | Coburn | Android to me... well... unless it's got a "TV" UI (like the failed Google TV), meh |
| 07:46 | jnettlet | did I miss something? My ISP is failing majorly this morning |
| 07:47 | Coburn | Nothing much, jnettlet, just me throwing my thoughts out there |
| 07:47 | Coburn | let me pastebin |
| 07:47 | jnettlet | thanks |
| 07:47 | Coburn | jnettlet: http://tty1.co/?7c2057815c3f76ab#Vn1Nj//yt4EBPqFaKjUdZKq7jGPP74nMlaH3l3t4h/E= |
| 07:48 | Coburn | SHA256 encrypted pastebins, yay |
| 07:48 | Coburn | Basically, unless the i-Series CuBoxes have a android dev team for it, I think it's going to be a bad idea for rabeeh himself |
| 07:50 | jnettlet | Well isn't this ideally where community should help? It is funny because this same discussion is taking place for OLPC. Android has been requested for the XO-4 which brought the discussion up. |
| 07:50 | Coburn | Well, for the community to help |
| 07:50 | Coburn | We'd need the android source of the port that runs on the CuBox iSeries |
| 07:50 | jnettlet | What it comes down to is right now Android has the app developer momentum. If you want the newest app/service you need Android/IOS |
| 07:51 | Coburn | Basically, if SolidRun provides a recent Android version (Jelly bean) on the iSeries and has it on a git somewhere, then people can fork it |
| 07:51 | Coburn | So if rabeeh says "Solidrun no longer supports Android on X Y Z devices" |
| 07:52 | Coburn | then the community can backport the newer versions of android to the no-longer-supported devices |
| 07:53 | jnettlet | well...kind of. The big problem with Android is the need for new binary drivers. |
| 07:53 | Coburn | Yeah |
| 07:53 | Coburn | And how do you get them? |
| 07:53 | Coburn | 1) Code your own |
| 07:53 | Coburn | or |
| 07:53 | Coburn | 2) Find a device that uses that driver and port it accross |
| 07:53 | jnettlet | Well I am trying to make my way through Vivante channels to convince them to provide public binary tarballs like nvidia does |
| 07:54 | Coburn | jnettlet: the same guys that do galcore.ko ? |
| 07:54 | jnettlet | Coburn, yep |
| 07:55 | jnettlet | We have their graphics chip in XO 1.75 XO 4 Cubox and Cubox-i |
| 07:55 | Coburn | There was someone who was working on a "free" driver that had no binaries |
| 07:55 | Coburn | forget who it was |
| 07:55 | jnettlet | yep wumpus is |
| 07:56 | Coburn | The problem is, if you use binary drivers, you're waiting for the manufacturers to update the drivers and if you need a fast update cycle, you can't afford to wait for the GPU devs to sit around and update the driver every once in a blue moon |
| 07:57 | Coburn | the "free" one looks promising, if it does what the binary one does but better, then I'll use it |
| 07:58 | Coburn | The problem is |
| 07:58 | Coburn | Samsung doesn't update their Mali unless they really need to |
| 07:58 | Coburn | I think there's a sunxi port that is an unofficial fork of the Mali source |
| 07:59 | Coburn | I don't want the CuBox to be stuck on a kernel driver where acceleration is not available becuase the video driver isn't compatible with 3.x |
| 08:01 | Coburn | Hmm, Vivante sounds interesting |
| 08:01 | Coburn | Just looking at their site |
| 08:01 | Coburn | Whatever the case, I'm all for android on the CuBox iSeries as long as: |
| 08:01 | Coburn | 1) Regular device update cycles, not stuck on a version for over X months |
| 08:02 | Coburn | well... |
| 08:02 | Coburn | that's all their is on the list actually |
| 08:02 | Coburn | I don't want to be stuck on Android 4.2 when there's 5.0 already out there, that's all. |
| 08:03 | Coburn | As for the GPU stuff, good luck, jnettlet_, I'm sure you'll succeed |
| 08:03 | jnettlet_ | But this is an Android problem in general, not just a Cubox-i issue. Look at what just when down with AOSP and the most recent Qualcom drivers. |
| 08:05 | Coburn | what happened there? |
| 08:07 | jnettlet_ | The maintainer of AOSP, JBQ left after the new Nexus 7 was released and Google released the latest code drop but without all the latest binaries to support the new hardware |
| 08:08 | Coburn | wait |
| 08:08 | Coburn | Nexus 7... I thought that was nVidia powered? |
| 08:09 | frilled | The 2012 model was. |
| 08:09 | frilled | 2013 ain't |
| 08:10 | jnettlet_ | That was the Nexus 7 2012, the 2013 has a Snapdragon S4 Pro |
| 08:10 | jnettlet_ | So that has an Adreno GPU in it |
| 08:10 | Coburn | ah, and that's the same chipset that the Galaxy S 4 (a certain variant) and the HTC One uses, no? |
| 08:11 | jnettlet_ | They use next-gen. Snapdragon 600 |
| 08:12 | jnettlet_ | but all Qualcomm |
| 08:12 | Coburn | ok |
| 08:12 | Coburn | And I thought Adreno was something to do with ATI/AMD? |
| 08:14 | jnettlet_ | the Adreno was originally the Imageon chipset from ATI, then AMD. Qualcom bought it out from them in 2008 I believe and now develop it under the adreno brand |
| 08:14 | Coburn | ok |
| 08:14 | jnettlet_ | yep just checked wikipedia my memory serves me correct :-) |
| 08:15 | jnettlet_ | ha never noticed that adreno is an anagram of radeon |
| 08:15 | jnettlet_ | thanks wikipedia |
| 08:15 | Coburn | heh |
| 08:16 | Coburn | well, the more you know :P |
| 08:16 | Coburn | anyway, maybe if Vivante won't budge, maybe we could take the free driver and roll that into the android kernel |
| 08:16 | Coburn | so the free driver is used |
| 08:16 | Coburn | although, not sure how well 3D would work on that |
| 08:16 | wumpus | the kernel driver is the same for the free driver |
| 08:16 | wumpus | at the moment |
| 08:17 | wumpus | as it's already GPL anyway |
| 08:30 | wumpus | 3d rendering already works well with etnaviv, we've tried with q1-q3, rtcw and other games. There is a rendering bug here and there in some games but everything looks playable |
| 08:31 | wumpus | see https://blog.visucore.com/2013/8/28/current-state-of-etnaviv-driver |
| 08:51 | Coburn | can it do minecraft, wumpus ? :P |
| 08:52 | Coburn | I'd buy a CuBox for that :P |
| 08:55 | steev | jnettlet_: also, imx5 is Imageon |
| 08:55 | steev | though they just called it "amd graphics" |
| 08:55 | jnettlet_ | steev, oh interesting. I didn't know that. |
| 08:55 | wumpus | gpu-wise, I suppose it isn't a problem, but maybe on cubox-i, I think the cpu part (java) is too heavy for the normal cubox |
| 08:56 | steev | i'm curious about heat with the new cubox... that's a small case for a quad core |
| 08:56 | steev | i've got a utilite and a sabresd sitting here, both have a tendency to get a bit warm |
| 08:56 | jnettlet_ | wumpus, nope it shouldn't be. We will find out because if I get Android running on the XO I will also get it going on the Cubox. |
| 08:57 | jnettlet_ | I am merging all my Marvell kernel support into a single Linaro 3.10-lks kernel branch that also has Android support |
| 08:57 | steev | utilite is the only box i can recall that actually does something with the serial and revision numbers in cpuinfo on ARM |
| 08:57 | wumpus | true, dalvik is quite lighter than java |
| 08:57 | Coburn | I remember I tried getting Minecraft running, it just wouldn't do 3D |
| 08:57 | Coburn | The 3D thread would bomb out |
| 08:57 | Coburn | but it would do the login forms and stuff |
| 08:58 | jnettlet_ | The older Vivante drivers are really bad. v4 is much better, but still a little rough |
| 08:58 | wumpus | well the thing with open source drivers is that if they bomb out it's at least debuggable |
| 09:00 | jnettlet_ | true true |
| 15:07 | jnettlet | rabeeh, does the Cubox-i have a powered eSata port? |