Tido

For me SBC named "something pi" is clearly targeted for Raspberry Pi audience, especially for people that are buying a new toy to play with for a week and forget about it later.
For these people news like "something-else pi" now supports kernel 4.4 doesn't mean anything,
while "something-else pi" version 2 is released, now with 4 cores instead of 2 (2 GB RAM instead of 1, 64 bit instead of 32 or something similar) would cause a reaction like "shut up and take my money  ".
 
Raspberry Pi isn't perfect, for example there aren't public datasheets for BCM2835/BCM2836, and most of software support, I believe, is still done by the community. I wouldn't call it "stable for years" either. But compared to some boards discussed here in "Free" forum section, it's still great.

The board was probably designed in a Broadcomm lab and their PR department fabricated this romantic story with "inventor", "fundation", "sweet fruit" ... to generate more sales.   

@Tido
Just to clarify.
Raspberry Pi came into this world as a new concept, a (relatively cheap) single-board computer that has GPIO, SPI, I2C and other interfaces to be used somewhere where Arduino won't be enough, and at the same time it can run Linux distribution with a lightweight desktop environment and hardware video acceleration. They worked hard to get software support for the community and now community is working for them.
Link I provided just shows that community is not all-powerful and issues like this probably would be resolved much quicker with support from Broadcom.
 
Now market is saturated with all kinds of SBCs, Raspberry Pi is still a major player here, and other companies that want to get profit sometimes use "dirty" tricks like not spending money on software support or naming their brand similar to another.
 
TL;DR Raspberry Pi probably wouldn't fly without software support, but companies that are trying to get a piece of this market now may decide to spare some money on this.

As I have already mentioned in this Tread the BCM53125 comes with:
Two additional Gigabit ports for glueless connection to CPU, WLAN, Cable, or DSL chipsets
 
Picture from EBV

 
 
Possible data flows (via VLAN, minimal IPtables/NAT like in my manual ?):
 
R1 HDD /SDcard to local
local to R1 HDD /SDcard
 
R1 HDD /SDcard to internet port
internet port to R1 HDD /SDcard
 
local PC to internet port (doesn't need to be internet, can be another PC)
internet port to local PC
 
local PC to local PC
8 possible ways to go or did I misunderstand?
 
This way we would basically understand what with the current driver is capable, WiFi has anyway a lower through put.

https://github.com/igorpecovnik/lib/tree/master/scripts/update-motd.d
 
I also did some rework based on those ideas. Battery info is also included, but need further testing. One full charge / discharge cycle is needed for auto calibration.
 
- info that is not needed is hidden: if no updates available, if there is only one user logged, if there is no temperature readings, ....
- each info has it's own configurable red point
 
Not included anywhere ... yet. Only testing.

Ok so first a big thanks to Igor for the work he has put into armbian, started using this build when it was still posted on Igor's site
 
anyway i wanted more information out of the motd and here is what i came up with this is running on my cubietruck with the latest kernel 
_ ___| |_ ___ _ __ __ _ __ _ ___ / __| __/ _ \| '__/ _` |/ _` |/ _ \ \__ \ || (_) | | | (_| | (_| | __/ |___/\__\___/|_| \__,_|\__, |\___| |___/ Welcome to Ubuntu 14.04.3 LTS (4.3.3-sunxi). System information as of: Mon Jan 11 21:34:35 EET 2016 System load: 0.14 Memory usage: 97.5% Local users: 0 Swap usage: 0.0% IP address: 888.888.88.8 Uptime: up 6 days, 19 hours, 50 minutes Usage of root/: 8% of 16G HDD temp: 43°C Usage of storage/: 26% of 443G Board temp: 47°C 0 updates to install. 0 are security updates. Last login: Mon Jan 11 07:50:37 2016 from 888.888.88.888 root@storage:~# this should work with both debian and ubuntu versions but has some hard coded values at least for the sensor temp in the cubietruck 
 
upload everything from the archive to the /etc/ folder, make the files inside executable (chmod +x) - the files are taken from https://nickcharlton.net/posts/debian-ubuntu-dynamic-motd.htmlbut 10-sysinfo was updated with more information
 
finally disable default motd by editing the bash.bashrc files (remove/delete) this lines
if [ -f /etc/bash.bashrc.custom ]; then . /etc/bash.bashrc.custom fi   after this with every new login you should see the new motd
 
update-motd.d.zip

Hi
 
Back in February '15 I have started to write an instruction about the setup of a BPi-R1 (Router).
In the threads of the Forum, the information is scattered and it takes so much time for each to get along.
So I thought such a document would help to become not only faster, but to achieve a better result as well, as you can faster spend time with the device and tweak it.
My know how is getting better, but things are still missing.
If you like to help the 'community' with your know how, please leave comments in the document if you find errors or you find something missing.
 
Google Docs 
 
Thank you in advance - for your support
 
Cheers
Tido

@wildcat.
 
Just wanted to update on this.  Using the untouched image for Armbian Debian Jessie - Vanilla, on my Lamoba-R1 (with only an apt-get update and an apt-get dist-upgrad) - I was able to get solid, stable WIFI.
 
I was originally testing it in an environment with 20 neighbors stepping on the channels, but when I took it to where it will be used - there is no interference.  It was streaming 2 HD TV's and running speed tests at once, and delivering data as fast as my ISP allows - which is as good as I could hope for.
 
So I've got to report that the build is working well.  My glitch now is that the board appears to lock up at night.  LED is on in the morning, ethernet lights are flickering, but no response from a ping or SSH.  Not sure if one of the cron tasks is doing it, or what but will be experimenting with that.

Currently you cannot purchase the WiTi board, in the forum I read about issues with WiFi, some say a heatsink would help, max speed 20m.
Looks like they suffer similiar problems, like we do. Although I think they have access to the schematic
 
 
FireWRT from Firefly
I found while reading about WiTi, they have opened all documents, incl. BOM, CAD, schematics, housing.
 
I think both projects suffer on something - to many components.
i.e. TK wants fast SATA, Ethernet and maybe USB3.0, but no WiFi
i.e. Tido wants SATA, Ethernet and WiFi
 
So the PCB may fit all, but not all compontents have to be placed = different Versions of the board to keep the price and troubleshooting low(er).

It's exact depth - only wider.
 
LEDs works fine.
 
Add: Sorry for quality. Have only some cheap compact around.

A first short comment to your drawing, I come back later with more.
 
The WLAN Chip RTL8192 is as far as I know connected via USB2 to A20, means your Plan-A is wrong, Plan-B is partially right, I guess.

There is a search box on top, change the search section to: Forums
 
Then enter your search term, like: raspberry
 
I've done that for you:
http://forum.armbian.com/index.php/topic/483-support-of-raspberry-pi/?hl=raspberry

I have applied the patches / adapted the fix provided by openwrt for lamobo-r1
 
when zador suggested I use iperf3 to test local/internet (playing with the TCP window as well)
I realized:
- iperf3 results from lamobo-r1 to other (well know network linux) local machine is giving 850 Mbits/s for RX 450 Mbits/s for TX (with 10MB tcp window!) => it matches the statement from openwrt lamobo-r1 (so the fix is working, the bandwidth is CPU limited by the "too many interrupts" as well as TX issues with GMAC)
- iperf3 results from lamobo-r1 to the internet (Max 500Mbit/s down 200 MBits/s up) are RX/450 Mbits/s TX/220 Mbits/s (which is "OK" for my Fiber Internet contract)
- any local machine (my linux PC [former "router"], my Windows7, my odroidXU4), going through the lamobo-r1 is limited to RX/230Mbits TX/210Mbit/s
 
I tought of tkaiser saying the  B53125 has only on GMAC  A20 SoC has only one GMAC link to the B53125 (it would need 2 GMAC one "in" one "out" = at least 2 Gbit/s) to handle traffic in/out
 
so when the lamobo-r1 transfer data from one host to another (I limited my test to local network/Internet), it is doing RX from local/TX to internet (vice versa, handling IRQ for RX and IRQ for TX on the same cpu/thread even when changing this config having 2 cpu/thread available)
=> the limiting factor is TX to the internet / CPU handling the too many IRQ
 
ok, my conclusions are flowed, I would need to do transfer local/local through lamobo-r1 to have a more reliable statement, as I have not studied the impact of IPtables/NAT/etc.
 
so doing A20/GMAC in/out at the same time is limitation, my empiric idea is it cut the A20/GMAC bandwidth par 2 at best
(ok it is flowed)
 
NOTE: I am still hoping for a tech fix to reduce the number of IRQ

Well, even if this board is just a prototype. The place where the HDD should be is crowded with parts !
 
Beside, I was thinking how to easy attach the HDD about 1,5mm above the PCB, but with a SATA connector.
This way the HDD would far less heat up the components on the PCB.
I cannot imagne that the chinese by itself will come up with smarter boards and cheap in price.
 
My guess is, we would have to design mockups how it should look like and make this available to them, then
they would copy it. Maybe with even some basic Chip suggestion.

Thank you Wildcat_paris - but I chat with TK already a couple of months - I know he is not perfect.

This is not RTFM this would have been: I have written many notes inside the  sunxi-temp-daemon.sh
So the information is spread somewhere between this thread and the .sh  - and you do not mention this in the first posting here.
This is the reason that I wrote a user manual - because the information in the forum is scattered and it is not useful.
 
 
For SATA HDD 
In case you receive no HDD temperature, make sure you have necessary software installed:
apt-get install hddtemp smartmontools
do a reboot not to waste time, just in case
Then perform:  sudo update-smart-drivedb if you receive an error message, update this line:

nano /usr/sbin/update-smart-drivedb SRCEXPR='http://sourceforge.net/p/smartmontools/code/HEAD/tree/$location/smartmontools/drivedb.h?format=raw'  Then try again:  sudo update-smart-drivedb
Restart the the RPi-Monitor and test it:
service rpimonitor stop pkill -f '/bin/bash /usr/share/rpimonitor/scripts/sunxi-temp-daemon.sh' nohup /usr/share/rpimonitor/scripts/sunxi-temp-daemon.sh & service rpimonitor start  
Does it work - finished,   if not:
smartctl -a /dev/sda  (look for temperature value) hddtemp --debug /dev/sda hddtemp -n /dev/sda fix it for yourself, read here this worked for me   
I hope this is of any help for you

Thank you Wildcat_paris - but I chat with TK already a couple of months - I know he is not perfect.

This is not RTFM this would have been: I have written many notes inside the  sunxi-temp-daemon.sh
So the information is spread somewhere between this thread and the .sh  - and you do not mention this in the first posting here.
This is the reason that I wrote a user manual - because the information in the forum is scattered and it is not useful.
 
 
For SATA HDD 
In case you receive no HDD temperature, make sure you have necessary software installed:
apt-get install hddtemp smartmontools
do a reboot not to waste time, just in case
Then perform:  sudo update-smart-drivedb if you receive an error message, update this line:

nano /usr/sbin/update-smart-drivedb SRCEXPR='http://sourceforge.net/p/smartmontools/code/HEAD/tree/$location/smartmontools/drivedb.h?format=raw'  Then try again:  sudo update-smart-drivedb
Restart the the RPi-Monitor and test it:
service rpimonitor stop pkill -f '/bin/bash /usr/share/rpimonitor/scripts/sunxi-temp-daemon.sh' nohup /usr/share/rpimonitor/scripts/sunxi-temp-daemon.sh & service rpimonitor start  
Does it work - finished,   if not:
smartctl -a /dev/sda  (look for temperature value) hddtemp --debug /dev/sda hddtemp -n /dev/sda fix it for yourself, read here this worked for me   
I hope this is of any help for you

US$ 99.- =  WITHOUT: case, power supply, antennas, Wi-Fi cards and cooler. 
 
= totally useless

The BCM53125 delivers the most comprehensive technologies required by top tier service providers for gateway applications.
Protocols such as IEEE 802.1Q-based VLAN with 4K entries, port-based VLAN, VLAN double tagging (Q-in-Q), and VLAN translation are fully supported.
 
Two additional Gigabit ports for glueless connection to CPU, WLAN, Cable, or DSL chipsets
 
In the key-features there is a block diagram.
 
BCM53124/5: STARFIGHTER2 FEATURES
in the PDF on page: 8, 9 and 20
 
http://community.broadcom.com/community/ethernet-switch- Cannot use free email service email addresses to register
 
 
If this helps in this discussion

I sent again an Email to SinoVoip /Foxconn asking for schematics.
So the BCM53125 ist capable, but I guess the A20 does not come with 2 ports for GBit :-(
I read on the link above, that documentation is available once you have registered for the Broadcom community.
 
If we can decrease the time, where in case of reboot the device is unsecure - it would be better than now.
 
The power issue got solved in March '15 - I will not talk about, you and I know more than enough about it.
 
 
 
I disagree, simply for the fact that it has not this all-in-one approach of the R1.
The idea is great and had I people around me who can design PCB and know how to choose the right hardware - it would be easy to build an R2.
 
Solid-run nor Turris do solve that issue of the all-in-one. Router, NAS, Cloud, Mediaplyer and with your software not from QNAP, Netgear, Zyxel, Synology.
You can get a HP ProLiant MicroServer Gen8  G1610T  but it is power hungry, big and kind of noisy beside the far higher price.
 
So all we tinkerer want, is to get the best out of the R1 and have fun that it works, right?

Hi 
 
I am a bit confused.
You start with: CHIP's power design and AXP209, then you switch to AXP206 and ending with a quote about the Pine64.
 
I don't understand whether you changed devices (C.H.I.P / Pine64) somewhere in between or what you want to express. Can you edit your posting, maybe?

@KH Goh  I suggest you send a sample to tkaiser - so he can try, but I must warn you: He is brutally honest. So you better attach a heat sink to it before you send it   
 
ROTFL, I just watch the movie on Kickass Krissy the marketing chick has most probably no clue what she is talking about on sec. 0:45 - but she is sweet,
so who cares   
I wonder if Kai Kreuzer (german) knows WTF he is talking about - this is nor Intel or AMD and of course his openHAB will never need to use 4k Video.

Hi Tido,

I strongly recommend learning iptables over Smoothwall. It's a more transferable skill (you'll always find iptables on a system whereas smoothwall might not be available on a system you're working on).

I've only just recently learnt IPTables myself. My notes are here:
http://nevsramblings.blogspot.co.nz/2015/12/notes-about-iptables.html

 

The only feature that's interesting on the Raspberry Pi is that one can use the VPU correctly now (after a few years). We use RPi B+ as IP camera (even when the CPU core is clocked with just 200 MHz the VPU is able to provide a 1080p@30 fps h.264 encoded video stream) or for digital signage, often combined. In the meantime also lightweight distros exist like http://dietpi.com
 
For everything else the RPi is always the worst choice due to its one single USB 2.0 connection to the outside.
 
Supporting the RPi would mean Armbian either focuses on a completely new use case (desktop stuff -- VPU) or on a completely new user base (clueless people).

Another small update regarding the M3:
 
In SinoVoip's current 'official' forum (time will tell how long it takes until they abandon this and start over with the next one like they did already before) the same question regarding the M3 will be asked again and again "How can i boot from SATA?!". Even via PM again and again. Only by people who aren't willing to accept the only possible answer "You can't. Banana Pi M3 has no SATA".
 
It's that simple: the M3 has no SATA port. Just one single USB port is used to connect all externally available USB ports and a very slow USB-to-SATA bridge through an internal USB hub. It's really that limited. So the question could've be "How can I boot from USB?" instead. And the only valid answer to that is: "Why would you? Are you insane?"
 
Every M3 comes with 8 GB eMMC that is at least twice as fast as the crappy GL830 USB-to-SATA bridge. Storing the rootfs on USB this way means slowing things unnecessarily down. On the M3 your best bet is to boot from eMMC since this is the fastest storage option you have. This is different to other incompatible SBCs that are also called "Banana Pi" that lack eMMC and where you might benefit from the rootfs stored on USB or even SATA (M1). But on the M3 the approach to boot from USB especially using the ultra-slow onboard USB-to-SATA bridge is simply moronic.
 
Next thing: Since it is not SATA but only USB you can never rely on something like 'root=/dev/sda1' since a connected USB thumb drive might be /dev/sda on the next reboot and your rootfs will never be touched since being now /dev/sdb1. To escape from that you've to use partition UUIDs instead. I documented the whole stuff already where it belongs to and won't repeat it here again to prevent uneducated users from doing harm to their installations (again: Booting from USB on the M3 is adopting a strategy suited for different SBCs wrongly).
 
The best strategy to deal with the M3's 'SATA port' is to ignore it. Performance of a connected disk is unnecessarily low (especially writes -- see above) and using the SATA-power connector to power a disk means risking sudden power-offs more often than necessary since the M3 is prone to running in undervoltage/undercurrent situations. It's strongly recommended to turn off every power savings if you try to use a HDD this way since when your M3 is busy and disk spin-up leads to another 1A peak current needed then it's time to pick your solder iron to bypass the crappy micro USB connector unfortunately being used for DC-IN.
 
BTW: I updated my RPi-Monitor template for Banana Pi M3 or let's better say A83T/AXP813 to be able to also monitor the 'cooling states': http://linux-sunxi.org/User:Tkaiser#Preliminary_RPi-Monitor_template_for_A83T
 
If you've installed RPi-Monitor already, it's enough to stop it, then do as root
cd /etc/rpimonitor/ && wget -O - http://kaiser-edv.de/downloads/RPi-Monitor-for-A83T.tgz | tar xzf - restart RPi-Monitor, and you're already done (of course you should do this in a two-step process and check the MD5 checksum ef7220daadad5726b32b0d2270d4bffd first)

Hi
 
Back in February '15 I have started to write an instruction about the setup of a BPi-R1 (Router).
In the threads of the Forum, the information is scattered and it takes so much time for each to get along.
So I thought such a document would help to become not only faster, but to achieve a better result as well, as you can faster spend time with the device and tweak it.
My know how is getting better, but things are still missing.
If you like to help the 'community' with your know how, please leave comments in the document if you find errors or you find something missing.
 
Google Docs 
 
Thank you in advance - for your support
 
Cheers
Tido