Subject: [E3-hacking] Running an IRC bot on the E3

From: Jamie Powell <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 6 Aug 2008 07:32:49 -0700 (PDT)

Hi, 
I'm something of a Linux newbie so be generous. :)
I'm running busybox on my E3 as per the wiki and I also have a Pegasus USB Ethernet adapter working with a static IP on my LAN.

Can anyone tell me:
- What is the command to auto-configure the E3's IP address via dhcp?
- Can I turn off the E3's LCD screen and just enter commands via telnet?
- How can I compile and run Energymech (an IRC bot)?
- How can I run dircproxy (a caching IRC proxy server)?

In the case of dircproxy, I already transferred an ARM binary to the E3 via wget, chmod 777 and tried to run it, but I just got a 'permission denied' error.

Would be grateful for any info. 
Thanks :)

---

From: "Matt Callow" <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 7 Aug 2008 09:46:45 +1000

> Hi,
Hi
> I'm running busybox on my E3 as per the wiki and I also have a Pegasus USB
> Ethernet adapter working with a static IP on my LAN.
>
> Can anyone tell me:

You will need to run a dhcp client. Depending on the busybox
configuration, it may be built in (It's been a while since I booted by
E3).
Try:
udhcpc -i <INTERFACE>
where <INTERFACE> is the name of your ethernet interface (probably usb0 or eth0)

If that doesn't work, try:
busybox udhcpc -i <INTERFACE>

> - Can I turn off the E3's LCD screen and just enter commands via telnet?

Not sure if you can turn off the LCD, but you can probably turn off
the backlight. Not too sure how though.
If you run a telnet daemon (again, this may be already compiled into
busybox), or better still sshd (dropbear) on the E3, then you should
be able to log in via telnet/ssh

> - How can I compile and run Energymech (an IRC bot)?

You will need to set up a cross-compile environment. I used
scratchbox, but others on this list have used openembedded

> - How can I run dircproxy (a caching IRC proxy server)?

Again, you will need to set up a cross-compile environment
>
> In the case of dircproxy, I already transferred an ARM binary to the E3 via
> wget, chmod 777 and tried to run it, but I just got a 'permission denied'
> error.

This could be because the binary is for the wrong ARM architecture or,
more likely, it was built using libc rather than uClibc.

> Would be grateful for any info.

Hope that's of some help.

Matt

---

From: "Deli Geng \(David\)" <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 7 Aug 2008 08:00:28 +0100

Sorry for hijacking this thread. I just wonder if there is any chance to
convert the E3 into a video conference station? If so, what software do I
need to install on E3? Many thanks, David

-----Original Message-----
From: [email-masked] [mailto:[email-masked]] On
Behalf Of Matt Callow
Sent: 07 August 2008 00:47
To: [email-masked]
Subject: Re: [E3-hacking] Running an IRC bot on the E3

Hi

You will need to run a dhcp client. Depending on the busybox
configuration, it may be built in (It's been a while since I booted by
E3).
Try:
udhcpc -i <INTERFACE>
where <INTERFACE> is the name of your ethernet interface (probably usb0 or
eth0)

Matt

_______________________________________________
e3-hacking mailing list
[email-masked]
http://www.earth.li/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/e3-hacking

---

From: Jasmine Strong <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat, 9 Aug 2008 00:27:13 -0700

Sadly the E3's a bit underpowered for that kind of thing.  You could  
try Ekiga but it'll be really slow.

-J.

On 7 Aug 2008, at 00:00, Deli Geng (David) wrote:

>> In the case of dircproxy, I already transferred an ARM binary to  
>> the E3
> via

---

From: Don Alexander <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat, 09 Aug 2008 11:09:34 +0100

>> need to install on E3? Many thanks, David

Does make one wonder the original purpose of selling the E3 as a video
phone. Surely if it was good enough to send video over phone lines it
must have enough juice to do (albeit slow) video over internet? Would be
interesting to see what could be achieved.

Speaking of getting sidetracked, has anyone thought of porting any of
the Open Embedded stuff over to the E3. Could spur on some much needed
development in this area methinks.

Just a thought....

-- 
==

Don Alexander

E3 Development & tweaking ;)

RooSoft Ltd

---

From: Ralph Corderoy <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat, 09 Aug 2008 14:05:16 +0100

Hi,

Don Alexander wrote:
> must have enough juice to do (albeit slow) video over internet? Would
> be interesting to see what could be achieved.

Perhaps the former was possible with hardware assistance by one of the
ICs that's not used under Linux?  I've a hazy memory of what the E3 has.

> development in this area methinks.

Or perhaps http://www.angstrom-distribution.org/ instead of OE.  BTW,
does anyone have an opinion on the TI OMAP-based BeagleBoard for USD149?

    http://elinux.org/BeagleBoard
    http://beagleboard.org/

You get just the board at that price, but it still looks quite neat.

Cheers,

Ralph.

---

From: Jonathan McDowell <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat, 9 Aug 2008 15:21:41 +0100

On Sat, Aug 09, 2008 at 11:09:34AM +0100, Don Alexander wrote:
> >> Sorry for hijacking this thread. I just wonder if there is any
> >> chance to convert the E3 into a video conference station? If so,
> >> what software  do I need to install on E3?

The DSP half of the OMAP is used for the codec stuff I believe. Assuming
you can write the appropriate DSP code I can't see why it shouldn't be
capable of acting as an IP video phone.

Of course we still haven't got full duplex sound working with the
handset, which is a major stumbling block. I'd meant to play with the
evilness of talking to it over the modem chip some more; I'd had success
with half duplex and wondered if upping the baud rate might allow full
duplex.

> development in this area methinks.

On my todo list (which never gets any smaller) I have looking at
updating to recent u-boot; checking latest kernels compile and updating
to the latest OpenEmbedded (probably using EABI). Or maybe Emdebian, but
I think it's a bit big to install to the internal flash still.

J.

-- 
  It's more than good enough so I  |  .''`.  Debian GNU/Linux Developer
          ain't switch'n.          | : :' :  Happy to accept PGP signed
                                   | `. `'   or encrypted mail - RSA +
                                   |   `-    DSA keys on the keyservers.

---

From: Don Alexander <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat, 09 Aug 2008 17:01:50 +0100

> You get just the board at that price, but it still looks quite neat.

Yeah that is kinda what I meant. I have been playing around Angstrom on
my Pocket PC and thought the whole bitbake monotone thing was quite
easy. It occured to me that if the architecture is basically supported
all that is needed is to port a few drivers across and put it out there
for other developers to fill in the blanks.

Of course I am probably massively over simplifying things but it is
probably not my imagination that I seem to be seeing more and more
embedded devices running Linux of all sorts of flavours.

Just a thought...

Cheers,

-- 
==

Don Alexander

RooSoft Ltd

---

From: Jasmine Strong <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat, 9 Aug 2008 10:38:25 -0700

> does anyone have an opinion on the TI OMAP-based BeagleBoard for  

Was playing with one of these yesterday.  The Cortex-A8 is a serious  
speed demon.
At least fifteen times faster than the OMAP in the E3.

-J.

---

From: Matt Evans <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat, 9 Aug 2008 18:30:49 +0100

Dear Ralph,

Hello!  Hope you are well, it's been a while since we last emailed and  
I hope everything's tootling along nicely for you.  I saw your message  
on the E3 list,

On 9 Aug 2008, at 14:05, Ralph Corderoy wrote:

> BTW,

... and I thought I'd mention that I've just picked one up this week  
-- I had originally ordered it from Digi-Key to the USA (with the view  
to picking it up there at some point) but they noticed I had a UK  
billing address, phoned up and declared they'd changed their minds and  
they DO ship to the UK now.  (It was originally marked as export  
restricted!)  So, they sent it via UPS courier to me for a total of  
£82+VAT (which works out about £10 more than the dollar price  
including $5 shipping to 'somewhere in the US').  Not too bad, I  
thought.

Anyway - the board is very cute and clearly hugely powerful.  I note  
that TI have actually released some free compilers for their C64+ DSP  
core in it, too, but even ignoring that the ARM Cortex-A8 is a super  
chip.  I have literally just received the board and consequently have  
only had an evening to play with it (almost got it booting from my  
dodgy CF card, the demo rootfs then trashes my ext2 partition -- but I  
figure as long as there's a working kernel I'm alright).

Of course it was an impulse buy and I don't actually have a use for it  
yet, but I figure something will occur... :D  (MythTV/DVB MPEG2 player  
for upstairs over WiFi, or playstation emulator or something?) :)

All the best,

Matt

---

From: Jasmine Strong <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat, 9 Aug 2008 10:47:57 -0700

> for upstairs over WiFi, or playstation emulator or something?) :)

I was planning to use one as a desktop PC.  Given that all I ever seem
to do on my desktop machine is play video, read email and surf web,
there's very little I couldn't do on a Cortex-A8 at less than one watt,
that I can do on this Mac at a couple of hundred...

-J.

---

From: David Given <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat, 09 Aug 2008 19:35:51 +0100

On Sat, 2008-08-09 at 10:47 -0700, Jasmine Strong wrote:
[...]
> that I can do on this Mac at a couple of hundred...

A while back my desktop PC blew up and I had to use my Asus eee as a
desktop replacement. Plugged into my 19" monitor and full-sized keyboard
it was surprisingly usable --- and completely, *totally* silent. I am
now hooked on computers with no moving parts.

Does the A8 have an FPU? The literature I've found is a bit evasive,
using phrases like 'floating point capable' but linking to the DSP. Is
it powerful enough to decode video without using the DSP? Is there any
useful open source software that can use the DSP for doing that sort of
thing?

Also, it's a bit of a shame the Beagleboard doesn't have any onboard
ethernet and a bit more memory (128MB is definitely pushing it) or it'd
be an fantastic replacement for my home server (currently an elderly
Shuttle that runs rather warm and loud)...

-- 
┌─── ｄｇ＠ｃｏｗｌａｒｋ．ｃｏｍ ───── http://www.cowlark.com ─────
│ 
│ "Information wants to be free, but my mail client does not want to be
│ chock-full of herbal pot alternative spam." --- Sant Lupus on Slashdot

---

From: Jasmine Strong <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat, 9 Aug 2008 12:19:07 -0700

On 9 Aug 2008, at 11:35, David Given wrote:
> using phrases like 'floating point capable' but linking to the DSP.

The A8 implementation in OMAP3430 has the VFP (actually, it has the  
Cortex
VFP, which is better than the ARM11 VFP).  So yes.  It also has Neon,  
I think-
which is sort of SSE3-like.

> Is it powerful enough to decode video without using the DSP?

Yes.

> Is there any

Not sure.  Probably not (yet ;-) )

> ethernet

Well, you *do* have USB2... but gigabit ethernet would have been nice.

> and a bit more memory (128MB is definitely pushing it) or it'd

I agree-  especially as the OMAP3 EMIFF (or whatever they call it now)
supports 1 Gbyte DDR DRAMs...

-J.

---

From: en4rab <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat, 9 Aug 2008 12:54:43 -0700 (PDT)

Along time ago I looked to see if linux could use the DSP in the OMAP processors, I did find a framework that allows acces to the DSP under linux which is integrated into the OMAP linux tree, however I am not a coder and totally lost when it comes to DSP's so I have no idea how good/bad it is.
It looks like you would also have to roll your own DSP tasks unless somebody else has written a DSP task that does what you want.
You can find more information about it here:
http://dspgateway.sourceforge.net/pub/index.php

---

From: Jasmine Strong <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun, 10 Aug 2008 00:12:48 -0700

Does not support the 3430, so won't work on Beagle, but does support  
the elderly OMAP in E3.

-J.

On 9 Aug 2008, at 12:54, en4rab wrote:

> Along time ago I looked to see if linux could use the DSP in the  
> OMAP processors, I did find a framework that allows acces to the DSP  
> under linux which is integrated into the OMAP linux tree, however I  
> am not a coder and totally lost when it comes to DSP's so I have no  
> idea how good/bad it is.
> It looks like you would also have to roll your own DSP tasks unless  
> somebody else has written a DSP task that does what you want.

---

From: Ralph Corderoy <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun, 10 Aug 2008 10:14:17 +0100

Hi,

Matt Evans wrote:
> I had originally ordered it from Digi-Key to the USA (with the view

No, not too bad.  I found
http://search.digikey.com/scripts/DkSearch/dksus.dll?Detail?name=296-23428-ND
which seems to match at GBP81.95.

Jasmine Strong wrote:
> > Of course it was an impulse buy and I don't actually have a use for
> > it yet, but I figure something will occur... :D  (MythTV/DVB MPEG2
> > player for upstairs over WiFi, or playstation emulator or
> > something?) :)
> 
> there's very little I couldn't do on a Cortex-A8 at less than one
> watt, that I can do on this Mac at a couple of hundred...

This would also be my main interest.  Kind of like a Koolu.
http://koolu.com/Koolu-WE-Appliance/Works-Everywhere-Appliance.html

Cheers,

Ralph.

---

From: Matt Evans <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun, 10 Aug 2008 13:27:39 +0100

Hola Jasmine,

On 9 Aug 2008, at 18:47, Jasmine Strong wrote:

>> it
> watt,

...but then I'd need another for the 'draw a mandelbrot zoomy about'  
picture frame... and another for the DVB stuff... and.. and.. ;D

It is a fabulous idea though -- I don't remember the name of the  
product but a year or so ago there was a portable PPC linux-based  
pocket-sized computer, the idea being you would carry around your  
personal desktop workstation in your pocket (instead of just a USB  
stick) and plug in anywhere you liked, with your own familiar  
desktop.  The size of the BB (post-it size) and the fact it'll easily  
power from USB & be a USB networky gadget out of the box is ideal.

Maybe I should make machined travel cases for it! ;)

Cheers,

Matt

---

From: Matt Evans <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun, 10 Aug 2008 13:31:19 +0100

> supports 1 Gbyte DDR DRAMs...

Handy with a scalpel and microscope?  You could always upgrade the  
package-on-package device =D  (CPU is on the bottom...)

Matt