> > Recently i bought a very nice tablet with the following specifications: > > > > Chipset : InfoTMIC IMAPX210 ARM11 > > Speed : 1000 MHz > > Memory : 512 MB > > Storage : 4 GB. > > Expansion : MicroSD™ expandable up to 64 GB total (2 x 32 GB) > > I may be wrong but iirc, imapx210 is yet an other cheap cinese arm SoC > with *no* support in mainline kernel. This means that you may be able to > use a chroot or you can try booting debian armel with the kernel > provided on the system but not use a full debian armel (kernel+userspace > and maybe uboot). Expect also some troubles if it requires proprietary > drivers to work. > I can't say more as the way to do it and troubles you'll get into are > system specifics.
Hi Arnaud, I'm new to the ARM and GNU/Linux world and would love to learn more about the issues you mention. Any good links? At the moment i'm working on a (my) FreedomBox, for this i have upgraded my QNAP TS119 NAS with Debian GNU/Linux. Works like a charm! > > I think the hardware of this tablet can also be used as a server or > > desktop computer. The tablet is mass produced and very cheap (i got mine > > for 149 euro). Maybe we can order only the circuit board and build a > > nice Debian GNU/Linux ARM computer around it? > > For that price, to make a server, I would rather buy a loco board or any > other development board rather than relying on hardware with a SoC > without manual and support in mainline kernel. For desktop, things may > be more complicated as most gpu on arm SoC are relying on proprietary > drivers for 2d/3d. These boards are not mass produced which makes them relatively expensive. Hardware that is not mass produced has some other issues, namely availability and vendor lock-in (At the moment the FreedomBox Foundation is using hardware from GlobalScale Technologies for their prototype development. Things are not going smooth...) I think it must be possible to buy an android motherboard for just a fraction of the price that i paid for my tablet. Why is relying on hardware with a SoC such a bad idea? If the SoC is popular it will not go out of production for a long time. A motherboard without a SoC can replace any IO chip with an undocumented chip for which there is no driver. B.T.W. I fully agree that a SoC for which there is no manual/documentation or one that comes with an NDA is unacceptable. Friendly greetings Rob van der Hoeven http://freedomboxblog.nl -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [email protected] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [email protected] Archive: http://lists.debian.org/[email protected]
