• Trialing the Pi 400.

    From Doug Laidlaw@2:250/1 to All on Sun Jan 2 16:18:18 2022
    A Happy New Year to all.

    My usual PC has been giving me one problem after another over the last
    few days. BIOS setup problems. had to reinstall Windows 10. one of
    the distros I was looking at installed its bootloader on the second HD
    instead of the first, causing all kinds of confusion. As soon as I put
    the covers back on, it thought up a new fault. The latest is that
    something triggers a repeated line of figures every so often,
    independently of the OS.

    With so little achieved, I am considering using the Pi 400 exclusively.
    It won't run Windows, but that is about its only limitation. My Pi 3B
    is now sitting on my desk, headless, running BOINC. There is a bug in
    BOINC that even the developers can't fix, so putting it on its own
    machine isolates it and prevents it from slowing everything down to a crawl.

    --- MBSE BBS v1.0.7.22 (GNU/Linux-x86_64)
    * Origin: Aioe.org NNTP Server (2:250/1@fidonet)
  • From Vincent Coen@2:250/1 to Doug Laidlaw on Sun Jan 2 21:23:25 2022
    Hello Doug!

    Sunday January 02 2022 16:18, Doug Laidlaw wrote to All:

    A Happy New Year to all.

    Same to your self.


    My usual PC has been giving me one problem after another over the last
    few days. BIOS setup problems. had to reinstall Windows 10. one
    of the distros I was looking at installed its bootloader on the second
    HD instead of the first, causing all kinds of confusion. As soon as I
    put the covers back on, it thought up a new fault. The latest is that
    something triggers a repeated line of figures every so often,
    independently of the OS.

    With so little achieved, I am considering using the Pi 400
    exclusively. It won't run Windows, but that is about its only
    limitation. My Pi 3B is now sitting on my desk, headless, running
    BOINC. There is a bug in BOINC that even the developers can't fix, so putting it on its own machine isolates it and prevents it from slowing everything down to a crawl.


    The Pi WILL run Windows you just have to get the correct ARM version.


    Vincent


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  • From David W. Hodgins@2:250/1 to All on Sun Jan 2 19:31:49 2022
    On Sun, 02 Jan 2022 11:18:18 -0500, Doug Laidlaw <laidlaws@hotkey.net.au> wrote:

    A Happy New Year to all.

    My usual PC has been giving me one problem after another over the last
    few days. BIOS setup problems. had to reinstall Windows 10. one of
    the distros I was looking at installed its bootloader on the second HD instead of the first, causing all kinds of confusion. As soon as I put
    the covers back on, it thought up a new fault. The latest is that
    something triggers a repeated line of figures every so often,
    independently of the OS.

    With so little achieved, I am considering using the Pi 400 exclusively.
    It won't run Windows, but that is about its only limitation. My Pi 3B
    is now sitting on my desk, headless, running BOINC. There is a bug in
    BOINC that even the developers can't fix, so putting it on its own
    machine isolates it and prevents it from slowing everything down to a crawl.

    I have an rpi 4b running Mageia 8 with http://mirrors.kernel.org/mageia/distrib/8/aarch64/install/images/Mageia-8-rpi-aarch64-plasma5.img.gz
    extracted to an sdcard.

    It works better than I expected in terms of cpu capacity. The sdcard is slow for
    disk intensive operations. The rpi 4b does not have a real time clock, so the time at startup is wrong and requires a workaround to get the time correct before
    the desktop starts. Sound over hdmi is not working. The sound over hdmi does work
    using Raspberry Pi OS, so it's not a hardware problem. There is some software such
    as virtualbox that is not available for the aarch64 architecture.

    With the kde plasma desktop running gkrellm, konversation, konsole, and some widgets ...
    $ free -m
    total used free shared buff/cache available
    Mem: 3831 1050 1195 32 1584 2559
    Swap: 6696 0 6696

    I like it for a second system, but not for my primary system due to the sound problem.

    Regards, Dave Hodgins

    --- MBSE BBS v1.0.7.22 (GNU/Linux-x86_64)
    * Origin: A noiseless patient Spider (2:250/1@fidonet)
  • From Doug Laidlaw@2:250/1 to All on Mon Jan 3 09:25:00 2022
    On 3/1/22 06:31, David W. Hodgins wrote:
    On Sun, 02 Jan 2022 11:18:18 -0500, Doug Laidlaw
    <laidlaws@hotkey.net.au> wrote:

    A Happy New Year to all.

    My usual PC has been giving me one problem after another over the last
    few days.  BIOS setup problems.   had to reinstall Windows 10.  one of >> the distros I was looking at installed its bootloader on the second HD
    instead of the first, causing all kinds of confusion.  As soon as I put
    the covers back on, it thought up a new fault.  The latest is that
    something triggers a repeated line of figures every so often,
    independently of the OS.

    With so little achieved, I am considering using the Pi 400 exclusively.
    It won't run Windows, but that is about its only limitation.  My Pi 3B
    is now sitting on my desk, headless, running BOINC.  There is a bug in
    BOINC that even the developers can't fix, so putting it on its own
    machine isolates it and prevents it from slowing everything down to a
    crawl.

    I have an rpi 4b running Mageia 8 with http://mirrors.kernel.org/mageia/distrib/8/aarch64/install/images/Mageia-8-rpi-aarch64-plasma5.img.gz

    extracted to an sdcard.

    It works better than I expected in terms of cpu capacity. The sdcard is
    slow for
    disk intensive operations. The rpi 4b does not have a real time clock,
    so the
    time at startup is wrong and requires a workaround to get the time
    correct before
    the desktop starts. Sound over hdmi is not working. The sound over hdmi
    does work
    using Raspberry Pi OS, so it's not a hardware problem. There is some software such
    as virtualbox that is not available for the aarch64 architecture.

    Regards, Dave Hodgins

    I had trouble getting a complete OS for the Pi together. Sound over
    HDMI is not supported by my monitor; it has a separate 3 mm audio jack.
    I had a couple of USB speakers lying around. They work well, and volume
    can be controlled with the keyboard. I am still running off the mini
    sdcard. According to the reviews, a 2 inch sd card works a lot better
    on the Pi 4, but on the 400, it would have to be external.

    Interest in RISC CPUs is growing. The Microsoft Surface runs a RISC OS,
    and others have got Windows 10 and 11 running on the Pi 4/400.


    --- MBSE BBS v1.0.7.22 (GNU/Linux-x86_64)
    * Origin: Aioe.org NNTP Server (2:250/1@fidonet)
  • From Doug Laidlaw@2:250/1 to All on Mon Jan 3 09:47:03 2022
    On 3/1/22 08:23, Vincent Coen wrote:
    Hello Doug!

    Sunday January 02 2022 16:18, Doug Laidlaw wrote to All:

    > A Happy New Year to all.

    Same to your self.


    > My usual PC has been giving me one problem after another over the last
    > few days. BIOS setup problems. had to reinstall Windows 10. one
    > of the distros I was looking at installed its bootloader on the second
    > HD instead of the first, causing all kinds of confusion. As soon as I
    > put the covers back on, it thought up a new fault. The latest is that
    > something triggers a repeated line of figures every so often,
    > independently of the OS.

    > With so little achieved, I am considering using the Pi 400
    > exclusively. It won't run Windows, but that is about its only
    > limitation. My Pi 3B is now sitting on my desk, headless, running
    > BOINC. There is a bug in BOINC that even the developers can't fix, so
    > putting it on its own machine isolates it and prevents it from slowing
    > everything down to a crawl.


    The Pi WILL run Windows you just have to get the correct ARM version.


    Vincent


    Thanks, Vincent. The Pi4 has indeed made great strides. Since the
    Surface runs ARM, the software must be around, but I still can't connect
    an external drive. I found a tutorial on the Web, and everything
    installed as it should, but the boot sequence is set in the EEPROM. For
    that to work, a user mwanting to run the second option must make sure
    that the input for the first option is unplugged.

    As it stood, I could have Kodi or Raspbian, but there was no way to
    install both side-by-side. I discovered PINN on SourceForge. It is an alternative to NOOBS, and allows one to install multiple OS'es.

    --- MBSE BBS v1.0.7.22 (GNU/Linux-x86_64)
    * Origin: Aioe.org NNTP Server (2:250/1@fidonet)
  • From Vincent Coen@2:250/1 to Doug Laidlaw on Mon Jan 3 16:47:20 2022
    Hello Doug!

    Monday January 03 2022 09:47, Doug Laidlaw wrote to All:

    The Pi WILL run Windows you just have to get the correct ARM
    version.


    Vincent



    Thanks, Vincent. The Pi4 has indeed made great strides. Since the
    Surface runs ARM, the software must be around, but I still can't
    connect an external drive. I found a tutorial on the Web, and
    everything installed as it should, but the boot sequence is set in the EEPROM. For that to work, a user mwanting to run the second option
    must make sure that the input for the first option is unplugged.

    IT works for the 3B+ as that is what I have and as far as I know the 4 does PROVIDING you have upgraded the firmware.


    As it stood, I could have Kodi or Raspbian, but there was no way to
    install both side-by-side. I discovered PINN on SourceForge. It is
    an alternative to NOOBS, and allows one to install multiple OS'es.

    No the Raspberry system is totally different from any thing else I have
    used just take a look at the files in /boot.

    and no I have not taken a real hard look.


    Vincent


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  • From Doug Laidlaw@2:250/1 to All on Tue Jan 4 11:17:25 2022
    On 3/1/22 06:31, David W. Hodgins wrote:

    I have an rpi 4b running Mageia 8 with http://mirrors.kernel.org/mageia/distrib/8/aarch64/install/images/Mageia-8-rpi-aarch64-plasma5.img.gz

    extracted to an sdcard.

    It works better than I expected in terms of cpu capacity. The sdcard is
    slow for
    disk intensive operations.

    Thanks for the link, David. I was able to download the file and install
    it with Etcher (isodumper won't recognize archives.) When I try to boot
    it, it goes into an endless loop, with a variety of startup screens in
    black, red, yellow and green. Manjaro doesn't do this.

    --- MBSE BBS v1.0.7.22 (GNU/Linux-x86_64)
    * Origin: Aioe.org NNTP Server (2:250/1@fidonet)
  • From William Unruh@2:250/1 to All on Tue Jan 4 19:31:49 2022
    On 2022-01-04, Doug Laidlaw <laidlaws@hotkey.net.au> wrote:
    On 3/1/22 06:31, David W. Hodgins wrote:

    I have an rpi 4b running Mageia 8 with
    http://mirrors.kernel.org/mageia/distrib/8/aarch64/install/images/Mageia-8-rpi-aarch64-plasma5.img.gz

    extracted to an sdcard.

    It works better than I expected in terms of cpu capacity. The sdcard is
    slow for
    disk intensive operations.

    Thanks for the link, David. I was able to download the file and install
    it with Etcher (isodumper won't recognize archives.) When I try to boot
    it, it goes into an endless loop, with a variety of startup screens in black, red, yellow and green. Manjaro doesn't do this.

    I believe what he meant is that first you have to uncompress the file
    gunzip Mageia-8-rpi-aarch64-plasma5.img.gz
    and then use dd to copy the .img file to your sdcard.
    This is not an archive. it is a compressed image file.


    --- MBSE BBS v1.0.7.22 (GNU/Linux-x86_64)
    * Origin: A noiseless patient Spider (2:250/1@fidonet)
  • From Doug Laidlaw@2:250/1 to All on Wed Jan 5 20:50:35 2022
    On 4/1/22 03:47, Vincent Coen wrote:
    No the Raspberry system is totally different from any thing else I have
    used just take a look at the files in /boot.

    I just looked at the filesystem of Manjaro's release for the Pi. Its
    boot partition is very similar to what you saw on the Pi itself, so I
    guess that much of it is required by the RISC-type filesystem. A post
    says that the Pi4 now has firmware to run Grub2 and UEFI, but the
    tutorials recommend using a different bootloader for multiboot, e.g. berryboot, which seems to offer the widest choice of OS. A method with berryboot is described at

    https://raspberrytips.com > raspberry-pi-dual-boot

    I did find a comprehensive discussion of all the available options, but
    there are plenty of similar articles.

    --- MBSE BBS v1.0.7.22 (GNU/Linux-x86_64)
    * Origin: Aioe.org NNTP Server (2:250/1@fidonet)
  • From William Unruh@2:250/1 to All on Thu Jan 6 00:01:02 2022
    Why would you want a dual boot? Just put Mageia onto a separate sim.


    On 2022-01-05, Doug Laidlaw <laidlaws@hotkey.net.au> wrote:
    On 4/1/22 03:47, Vincent Coen wrote:
    No the Raspberry system is totally different from any thing else I have
    used just take a look at the files in /boot.

    I just looked at the filesystem of Manjaro's release for the Pi. Its
    boot partition is very similar to what you saw on the Pi itself, so I
    guess that much of it is required by the RISC-type filesystem. A post
    says that the Pi4 now has firmware to run Grub2 and UEFI, but the
    tutorials recommend using a different bootloader for multiboot, e.g. berryboot, which seems to offer the widest choice of OS. A method with berryboot is described at

    https://raspberrytips.com > raspberry-pi-dual-boot

    I did find a comprehensive discussion of all the available options, but there are plenty of similar articles.

    --- MBSE BBS v1.0.7.22 (GNU/Linux-x86_64)
    * Origin: A noiseless patient Spider (2:250/1@fidonet)