I'll just step in here a moment to say something. The BBB's software has
rough edges. It is improving all of the time. Many people are tinkering
away behind the scenes, trying out different things, finding the rough
edges, talking about them, etc. I understand the frustration of anyone
that wants a working base to start from when creating their own projects.
I receive a great deal of mail from many beginnings that are running into
all sorts of issues, and I am either able to help them with their project
quickly or get them pointed towards the right place to talk about it. And
it isn't just me doing this sort of thing. The community has a variety of
people that are all tinkering with their own projects and are helping
others along the way. We just don't have a "formal" person to hold
accountable when things don't work.
I know that this isn't ideal, and I completely understand where you are
coming from. But, I guess that I just accept it for what it is, sigh, and
say "I guess I'm going to have to figure out some workaround for this silly
thing". Most people lack the experience to just dig in and fix things, and
that's OK. The kernel for the BBB is quite a patchwork of, well...
patches. It's a mess, really, especially in the 3.8 kernel. Little pieces
work here and there, things break and get fixed, etc. I think that you're
really going to see everything "working and working well" around the time
that the 3.13 kernel becomes the standard one for BBB. 3.12 is looking
good, anyway, though it still is missing a few bits here and there.
I remember when the BeagleBoard-xM changed from the 2.6 kernel and it
couldn't be clocked at 1 GHz anymore because the support wasn't in the
kernel. People complained. Oh boy, did they complain. There were
statements like "this is false advertising" and "they said it could do 1
GHz and they LIED", etc. But really, this is just the name of the game
when it comes to these hobbyist boards.
I am sorry that you are frustrated with the current state of the BBB's
kernel and OS choices, but it is always changing (and usually improving).
In the meantime, the more experienced hobbyists will keep ironing out the
kinks as best as we can, documenting what we find, and really putting a lot
of sweat and tears into beating the BBB into what we want it to be.
Personally, I do what I do because I am trying to provide good reference
platforms (BeagleSNES as a standalone appliance, Android with the 3.8
kernel for tablet prototypers, etc.) that other people can learn from or
use as a base for their own projects. Sometimes, I fix a minor thing and
pass it along to everyone else. Other times, I just do some investigation,
figure out what isn't quite right, and then pass that along to people like
Robert that are fiddling away on their own interests.
It is what it is. It isn't ideal and polished, but then again, some people
like me find that kind of interesting. I know it isn't for everyone,
though.
Andrew
On Wednesday, January 1, 2014 10:05:09 PM UTC-5, Terry Storm wrote:
>
> What is funny is that it still seems to be expected that everyone who buys
> a BBB should be required to have the capability to make it work correctly.
> Your argument is valid but still only for a small proportion of buyers.
> Think of all the people out there who have brought a BBB to maybe be a step
> up from their Arduino. They have never used linux etc, its a hell of a
> learning curve.
>
> It find it hard to believe that it should be expected that everyone who
> buys a BBB should have had at least (say) 5 years of linux experience
> before they even consider buying one. This is targeted at a wide range of
> users, which includes hobbyists who have never touch embedded development
> boards before. The price of the BBB is irrelevant. What is relevant is
> there are a ton of people stuck, and a bunch of experienced linux people
> who are capable of fixing issues and making the BBB work as they require,
> slagging of everyone else who is not capable and saying they shouldn't have
> purchased in the first place. Or that all these inexperienced users should
> harden up and take a concrete pill and figure it out themselves.
>
> Ridiculous.
>
> Swap places and see how far you get.
>
> Making GPIO do things, writing basic application code etc, basically
> turning a BBB into a glorified Arduino, no problem for most people and that
> is something that can easily be learnt. Rewriting kernels and drivers so
> supplied hardware even works, this is a problem for most people. Bringing
> up a discussion to talk about this, how this constitutes as whining or
> complaining, I don't know.
>
> This topic has gone way off topic anyway.
>
> End of the day we have great hardware, no one is complaining about that.
> End of the day we have crap supporting software and now it seems no
> official (paid) developers, and issues relating to kernels which most users
> are not capable of fixing or understanding themselves. This is what we are
> talking about.
>
> Terry.
>
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