So, what's the actual state of the software?


Xcl4m4t10n

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Hello nice people:

Hope this stuff isn't being discussed on any other topic. After reading the last notaz's notes (XD) I am a little afraid about the base software of the Pyra, Is anybody hard-working on it with the same conditions as Nikolaus on the hardware?
 
Obviously the actual identity of the person working on the OS has to be kept secret, but I can give you a clue:

"He lives at the bottom of a long winding staircase, in a tree, and he's not happy".

Hope that helps.

D.

 
 
Can't believe that you lot think I'm talking about Totoro. Really. Does nobody pay attention to any of the avatars we use on this board anymore?

D.
 
 
Hello nice people:

Hope this stuff isn't being discussed on any other topic. After reading the last notaz's notes (XD) I am a little afraid about the base software of the Pyra, Is anybody hard-working on it with the same conditions as Nikolaus on the hardware?

The above interesting notes about the state of the developers themselves aside...

The state of the base software for the Pyra sounds better than I had thought they would be at by this stage.  There has been a lot of work done to get the primary hardware working with an OS on the dev board.  Still, there are quite a few pieces to that puzzle that cannot even be created until there are prototypes in the hands of developers.  Audio, wireless, 3D, nubs, LCD &/Vs HDMI, HDMI audio, WiFi, Bluetooth, USB OTG - they all have to be tested, software written, software tweaked, and potentially even hardware tweaked.  Hopefully the hardware will be good, but it is a real and quite likely possibility that the prototype hardware will need to be tweaked in some way.

Prototypes are expensive and likely tedious to build.  By selling a few prototypes and a few dummy boards with pre-pre-order reservations, ED should now have additional funds to help finance the prototypes.

Don't panic - the state of the software is 'Good' and 'Normal' for this stage in the hardware development.  The only strange thing about it is that you're hearing about it at all.  Most companies hide their prototype stages behind very large steel doors.
 
 
Prototypes will run a Debian, so let's say that's something big from the start from a software point of view.

Another thing I see as positive with having an early unit, is the excitement provoked by each new feature added.
 
Well, most of the hardware does BASICALLY work (as Nikolaus needed to make it work to test it), but there's not yet an easy way to use it.

* Nubs: Work. They use the same userspace and settings as in the Pandora, but there's not yet an UI implemented to set it up.
* LEDs: Will work from userspace as well, but no UI implemented.
* Wifi / Bluetooth: Should work out of the box as soon as the drivers are in the kernel.
* 3G/4G/LTE/GPS: Works from the command line (and with AT commands), but again, a proper UI is missing.
* HDMI out: Basically works. But the graphics system isn't finished yet (DRM vs. omapfb), so you can't use HDMI out at the same time as the LCD right now. Also, no audio yet with HDMI out.
* Audio: Analog output works fine.
* LCD: Right now, it's being started using a script. That works, but a proper driver should be written. Rotation also works, but no sync yet, so you have tearing with fast movements.
* Graphics: 3D driver not yet hacked in, 2D is fast (with fbturbo) or slow (with drm). In the end, we probably want to use a mixture of both (as 3D should work easier with the drm driver and stuff like xrandr works as well).
* SD-Cards, USB-Ports, etc: Should already work without any issues.
* Sensors: They spit out data, but there's no proper UI for them yet :)
* Powersaving: Nothing there yet. The SoC should powersave itself, but there's no UI yet for switching on / off the hardware you don't need to save some more power.
* Touchscreen: Works, but not yet the virtual two-finger-scrolling.
* Battery charging: The charger can work independently from the OS (so it works), but no functions are yet in the OS to control the charging (increase charging speed, etc.).

So most of the hardware drivers are there and working but are missing an UI (which can even be simply python UIs, etc., as most of these things work using the userspace)
Some hardware stuff is not yet included in the OS, as tearing fix for the rotator chip, powersaving, HDMI audio, 3D driver.

The OS itself is Debian ARM, so there's a huge repository with stuff :)
 
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