RPi3B ... new mb for lappy ... what to do? ...

[Demonperformer]

It is clear that getting the laptop working with linux is going to be much easier than the tablet. OK, that is the way I will go at first.
Unfortunately, there is no means of adding a second drive, although using a USB stick is definitely an option. I certainly see the logic in getting it set up and then not messing it about with unnecessary updates. I will get a spare USB stick rather than try to use one that is already being used.
Thanks.

[Demonperformer]

That was weird ... and disturbing.

No sooner had I posted my previous (from the tablet) when the website disappeared. Tried to reconnect and got the message: "Explorer.exe Element not found". I will try it again next time I connect, but am about to go out so don't have time now. Maybe I will soon not be able to use the tablet on windows either!

[Gina]

Yes, running Linux from a USB stick is perfectly possible but your program settings are not saved on shutdown.  It is designed only for testing, not full use.  It's a good way to see if the hardware will support what you want to do but without storage, it's difficult to do anything.  Whether it may be possible to use another drive, I don't know, but I don't think it is as the idea is for testing without touching the HD etc. and risking corruption.  There are other systems other than a Live CD/SD/USB though where you run a standard installation of Linux.

A relatively cheap option might be to use an RPi as a standard computer.  For control you can add mouse, keyboard and monitor/TV or add a touch screen and make it into a tablet effectively.  This is something I think I'll try.  It makes for a very basic machine of course, fairly slow and with just 1GB of main memory.  HD is a micro SD card of up to 128GB capacity (I think though it might be 256GB).  Mind you, when I say slow, I have had an RPi 3B running Linux Mint with wireless trackball and keyboard plus a 19" television set as monitor connected by HDMI and that works faster than my rather old Windows 7 desktop.

[Demonperformer]

O round objects! [who is Round and to what does he object?]. I thought that, if you boot from your usb stick (having made the appropriate changes to the bios boot routine), the computer regarded that as your c: drive and would save all the settings, etc there. Another plan bites the dust.

Space is limited inside, and setting up the mount for testing anywhere near the TV (to use as a monitor) would require major reorganisation. And, although I don't mind spending some money to produce this system, but I see no fun in purchasing a screen that will have no use once the system is up-and-running.

No, by hook or by crook I am going to need to have a "controller" computer running linux to run the system "live", so that is the way to go.

In the absence of the option to us the USB stick option, I would appear to have five options:

(1) Add linux to my current laptop as a second OS and run it as a dual machine
(2) Struggle with the conversion of my linx tablet to linux, using the link I provided previously
(3) Purchase a new (2nd-hand) laptop that I can run as a dedicated linux machine (certainly available locally at <£100)
(4) Find/purchase another tablet that is already running linux
(5) I wonder if my old toshiba laptop would be suitable?  

The cheapest (and least potentially destructive) option would be (5) [and it would bring this thread nicely full-circle]. The problem would be its limited memory (which cannot be increased). It would only need to run the linux OS, Kstars & Ekos, together with one of my old USB wireless dongles - if they will run on USB1 (I have a USB2 card "plugged in", but, from what I remember, it was never particularly reliable - which would rather defeat the object of the entire exercise). I will need to do some investigation, but I am out all morning, so this that will have to wait until later.

Thanks.

BTW: when I rebooted the tablet, IE did magically reappear ... phew!

[Demonperformer]

It looks as if (5) is off the table. Ubuntumate requires a minimum of 1GB RAM, with 2GB recommended. My toshiba has the maximum 512MB. So unless any other form of Linux will run on a very small amount of memory (not forgetting I need 60MB for Kstars and an unspecified amount for Ekos) then it ain't gonna work.

[Demonperformer]

Oooo .... now this looks interesting.

Here are the specs of the toshiba, and it is just capable of running #5 in the list. I'm not sure what PAE support is (required for #4), but the other three definitely look doable and #1 coming in at 16MB sounds remarkable. Going to have to do some more reading around these, but it is not beyond the realms of possibility that I could use one of these to practice on with the toshiba, even if I decided eventually to go for something more robust on my main laptop.

Another thought that occurs to me ... Would there be any reason why my "controller" machine could not be another RPi (with the appropriate I/O devices)? Less than £50 for the machine, USB keyboard & mouse for less than £10, but the fly in the ointment is the £55 pricetag for the touch screen. But if something like this were to be available for the UK market, we would be talking less than £75 total. Something else for me to think about.

 

[Demonperformer]

Right, just downloaded coreinfo and off to try it on the toshiba.

[Gina]

See if either of these interest you.

5 Inch Touch Screen HDMI Monitor HD 800x480 TFT LCD Display for Raspberry Pi 2B B+ Raspberry Pi 3B

Sunfounder 7" HD 800*480 TFT LCD Screen Display HDMI Monitor for Raspberry Pi 3, 2 and RPi 1 Model B B+

[Demonperformer]

Thanks, Gina. I will add them to my "thought-mix".

Well, coreinfo did not work on the Toshiba because its spec is not high enough ... I guess that should tell me something!

[Demonperformer]

Ah, just found this page, which says "In XP, if you right click on My Computer and select Properties, the General tab will say Physical Address Extension at the bottom if PAE is enabled." Back in a mo ...

[Demonperformer]

Looks as if it doesn't (now there's a surprise *NOT*), so #4 appears to be out.

The article says that Linux lite is a good choice "if you are new to Linux and want to install Linux on your older hardware", which definitely fits me, but it is the "heaviest" of the five listed, and, checking the RAM on the toshiba, I actually only have 496MB listed, although it physically has two 256MB chips installed. So I'm not sure if that qualifies as the minimum 512 or not. The article lists some other articles on this OS, so I guess it is more reading before I decide ...

 

[Gina]

Yes, 496MB should mean you have 512MB installed.

[Hicks]

You could try installing Debian Jessie on that old laptop. Ensure you use a lightweight desktop manager though, avoid Gnome and KDE. XFCE is pretty lightweight yet still functional (it's an option near the end of the debian install process).

That will get you a pretty old version of kstars and ekos though, but should at least be sufficient to know if your laptop is able to run Linux/kstars/ekos and tbh other than a couple of bugs, it's quite a usable version.

If that works, then there's ways to get the newer kstars/ekos but the simplest is just wait til early next year when Stretch becomes the new stable and you can upgrade. Or, if you're willing to accept and troubleshoot issues, you can upgrade to testing or sid which will give you access to a newer kstars or the option to compile your own version.

[Demonperformer]

Thanks for that. I have had a look at this page, but I have not been able to find what the minimum requirements are. Still, I think I am approaching the point where I am going to have to start doing in order to get to grips with this. The problem I am having with all the reading I am doing is that everything on the web seems to assume that I have some basic understanding of Linux basics - which is a mistake. For example, the statement that one of the core components of the system is "a cpio archive of the file system" leaves me saying "huhh?".

What I have grasped is that its basic principle is modular - which says to me that I only need to install the bits that I need to install and that if the bits I already have installed do not contain one of the bits I need, I can go-find-install it and it will work with whatever bits I already have installed. And presumably, whether I start with Derbian Jessie or Tinycore or whatever, I can subsequently uninstall the bits that I don't need (not, I guess, that there would be many of those in Tinycore!), so my system can be completely tailored to my requirements and wherever I start, I will end up with an identical system. Like!

Thanks.

[Demonperformer]

A couple of essentials ... one piece of good news and one not so good ...

My WIFI dongle is a "sitecom 300N X3", which has "standard compliance 802.11 b/g/n draft 2.0".  This page would appear to be the answer to getting that to work on Linux. That's the good news.

The not so good news is that there appears to be no Linux support for polemaster (here). It is solely down to polemaster that I have started using my EQ mount with any sort of efficiency, having never had any sort of success with PA using any other method. OK, I can use a dual-boot machine and run Windows/Polemaster at the start of the session and then reboot into Linux, but that is an irritation. The question of Linux support has been raised at least twice this year on the QHYCCD boards, but neither one received any sort of response from the company .

[Gina]

Yes, PoleMaster could be a problem though it may run under WINE.  OTOH I think I've read that KStars/Ekos will do PA and you/we may be able to use the PoleMaster camera with an INDI driver.  I'm still looking into all this.
 

1 hour ago, Demonperformer said:

Thanks for that. I have had a look at this page, but I have not been able to find what the minimum requirements are. Still, I think I am approaching the point where I am going to have to start doing in order to get to grips with this. The problem I am having with all the reading I am doing is that everything on the web seems to assume that I have some basic understanding of Linux basics - which is a mistake. For example, the statement that one of the core components of the system is "a cpio archive of the file system" leaves me saying "huhh?".

What I have grasped is that its basic principle is modular - which says to me that I only need to install the bits that I need to install and that if the bits I already have installed do not contain one of the bits I need, I can go-find-install it and it will work with whatever bits I already have installed. And presumably, whether I start with Derbian Jessie or Tinycore or whatever, I can subsequently uninstall the bits that I don't need (not, I guess, that there would be many of those in Tinycore!), so my system can be completely tailored to my requirements and wherever I start, I will end up with an identical system. Like!

Thanks.

That is correct

[Demonperformer]

Thanks for that confirmation, Gina.

I may be a bit of an anachronism, in that my first exploit into computer programming was teaching myself to write programs in Assembler in a text editor, and I have had to be dragged kicking and screaming into every attempt to make it "simpler" since then. I have therefore found myself in familiar territory in the series of articles I have discovered this morning on the CLI. At last, something to which I can relate! As such, I must admit that I am sorely tempted to have a go with Tinycore. I know that that would ineveitably be a VERY steep learning curve, but the idea of starting with the bare minimum and just adding what I need, when I need it, appeals to me. I would probably get a working system much faster with one of the other, bigger packages, but if I were to consider the time and effort required to find/remove all the bits that I do not need, I don't know that the overall time/effort would be that much more - but would I learn as much about Linux?

I think I basically need to decide whether it is the journey or the destination that is most important to me.

[Demonperformer]

49 minutes ago, Gina said:

Yes, PoleMaster could be a problem though it may run under WINE.

Introducing wine into my imaging sessions ... I definitely approve of that idea

[Demonperformer]

This tutorial seems to be quite good. I have only gone through the first couple of tutorials, but they don't seem to make any great assumptions on the part of the reader. It does very much relate to their system, which is understandable, but the basics will no doubt be transferrable. Back to it ...

[Demonperformer]

On 10/10/2016 at 06:30, Demonperformer said:

Orders placed ... no going back now!

First bit has arrived ... that would be the cat6 cable ...

While waiting for the rest, am reading this. I am now very much thinking 'Tinycore' and get what extras I need. If it proves to be too difficult for me, I can always go to one of the bigger installations later.

[Demonperformer]

Next bit has arrived ... the RPi+case+psu+ ... well, it should have been a "16GB Micro SD card with NOOBS Pre-loaded" (web page). However, as can be seen from the attached picture, the card sent is a full-size SD card (32mm*24mm), not a micro sd card (15mm*11mm). Obviously, their "order checking" leaves a little to be desired. It wouldn't matter so much, if it were possible to use the larger card in the pi, but it isn't.

Email sent to them ... will keep advised on how it goes!

 

[Gina]

I get most of my stuff from Amazon UK - very reliable I find   I get other stuff from ebay - less critical stuff.  Are you sure there isn't a micro SD card inside the adapter?

[Demonperformer]

Yes, Amazon was my original thought. But when I realized I could save £1.20 by going to farnell, I thought "why not?". Now I know. We'll see how good they are at sorting it out.

You did panic me for a moment then, but no, there is no card inside the adapter.

Thanks.

BTW, before anyone thinks I am blaming the member who suggested I check out farnell, I am not. The decision to go with them was mine and mine alone.

[Gina]

Strange that there should be a Raspberry Pi emblem on it if it isn't the adapter plus micro SD card - I bought one that looks exactly like yours but it had a micro SD card in the end opposite the contacts.  Farnell are a very respectable firm - I have often bought things from them and never had any problem.  Their service is superb - goods usually arrive next day after ordering as long as you order reasonably early.  RS Components is another source of things you can't get elsewhere.

[Demonperformer]

It certainly is a R Pi. I've just had it out again and this time I removed it from its case and checked underneath, where the slot for the MSD card is (by the white bit at the top of my previous photo). All I can say is that there is no Micro SD card, but there is a normal-sized SD card, of which I can find no mention on their webpage and can think of no reason why they would send one anyway as it doesn't fit. It is almost as if someone opened the box, removed the micro card and replaced it with an SD - but why on earth would anyone do that? I have no other explanation.

Anyway, pleased to hear that you have always found them to be very good - bodes well for this being sorted pronto. When push comes to shove, I find that most firms will be reasonable, especially over something small. The cost of replacement would be trivial compared to the bad publicity - I'm even prepared to send back the wrong card, which they can then (presumably) resell.

I have checked my email, but no response yet (it's been less than 5 hours, so not complaining about that). I will give them until the weekend and, if I have heard nothing by then, will phone and ask to be put through to their complaints department ... that will usually focus someone's attention.

Thanks.