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Operating Systems Upgrades Hardware Linux

BeagleBone Black Ships With New Linux 3.8 Kernel 64

DeviceGuru writes "BeagleBoard.org has begun shipping its faster, cheaper BeagleBone Black SBC with a new Linux 3.8 kernel, supporting Device Tree technology for more streamlined ARM development. The $45 BeagleBone Black runs Linux or Android on a 1GHz TI Sitara AM3359 SOC, doubles the RAM to 512MB of its predecessor, and adds a micro-HDMI port. The updated kernel gives the BeagleBone Black access to a new Direct Rendering Manager (DRM) display driver architecture, as well as full support for the Device Tree data structure introduced to streamline ARM development in Linux 3.7. The project was hesitant to move up to such a recent kernel, but decided it was time to bite the bullet and support the Device Tree. By doing the hard work of switching to Device Tree now, BeagleBoard.org and its developer community can save a lot of configuration and maintenance headaches down the line, says BeagleBoard.org co-founder Jason Kridner. Fortunately, a modified 3.2 kernel 'coming soon' should provide the necessary bridge from the old cape driver architecture to the new one."
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BeagleBone Black Ships With New Linux 3.8 Kernel

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  • by Microlith ( 54737 ) on Friday May 24, 2013 @07:03PM (#43818061)

    The updated kernel gives the BeagleBone Black access to a new Direct Rendering Manager (DRM) display driver architecture

    Shame about that PowerVR GPU, I don't see it ever actually being able to take advantage of the newer display architecture. I do like the move towards Device Tree. If it gains traction it might actually be possible to treat ARM boards more like x86 boards, rather than needing the board-specific kernels we have to deal with now.

    • Re:PowerVR (Score:4, Interesting)

      by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 24, 2013 @08:00PM (#43818393)

      Shame about that PowerVR GPU, I don't see it ever actually being able to take advantage of the newer display architecture. I do like the move towards Device Tree.

      For $50 Cubieboard [cubieboard.org] has similar specs but comes with a mail400 gpu instead.

      Features
              Allwinner A10 SOC
              96 pin extended interface
              Built-in IR receiver
              SATA supported
              Supports 2.4GHz wireless keyboard and mouse

      Specifications
              CPU: 1G ARM cortex-A8 processor, NEON, VFPv3, 256KB L2 cache
              GPU: Mali400, OpenGL ES GPU
              Memory: 1GB DDR3 @480MHz
              Video output: HDMI 1080p Output
              Network: 10/100M Ethernet
              Internal storage4GB NAND Flash
              IO ports: 2 USB Host, 1 micro SD slot, 1 SATA, 1 ir
              Extended interfaces: 96 extend pin including I2C, SPI, RGB/LVDS, CSI/TS, FM-IN, ADC, CVBS, VGA, SPDIF-OUT, R-TP
              Supports systems: Running Android, Ubuntu and other Linux distributions

    • I was thinking shame about that single core processor. Single-core ARM boards are so last year now.

  • You know that the content industry has got its hooks sunk in too far when even the linux kernel starts shipping with DRM~~~
  • MINIX3 support [minix3.org] coming soon, I hope! Minix is booting on the BeagleBoard-xM, so supporting the BeagleBone Black should not be too much of an issue.

  • I miss Beagle Bros (Score:4, Interesting)

    by jfdavis668 ( 1414919 ) on Friday May 24, 2013 @07:19PM (#43818139)
    Every time I see news about this, I keep thinking it says Beagle Bros. I miss their great software and funny documentation.
  • by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 24, 2013 @09:14PM (#43818793)

    I have been playing with the BBB for the last 2 weeks and I must say my first impressions are this is awesome but do be prepared to go through some beginning growing pains with 3.8 kernel. Nevertheless, getting opencv working and tracking is always fun

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=no2l0OuCSIE&list=UUbFdHnmLyG10884-MPgSDoA&index=1 [youtube.com]

    It is going to be a bit before the community grows but to help you get started we are trying to get tutorials up as fast as possible...
    http://www.phys-x.org/rbots/index.php?option=com_content&view=category&id=46:beaglebone-black&layout=blog&Itemid=81&layout=default [phys-x.org]

    • I have been playing with the BBB for the last 2 weeks and I must say my first impressions are this is awesome ......

      Yes for a $45 computer it is quite the thing.
      I cannot tell if the Raspberry-Pi or the Beaglebone Black is best but all I can say is that I am sure glad I live in the future. The teaching community has already done a lot on the R-Pi but the BBB has a head start in the hardware add on world. Fun... stuff.

      I am very pleased with the software on the BBB. Both are slow compared to this laptop but hey for $35/$45 they are both astounding.

  • Linux OR Android? (Score:4, Informative)

    by dreamchaser ( 49529 ) on Friday May 24, 2013 @09:39PM (#43818887) Homepage Journal

    Android is Linux. I get sick of people writing that they are two different things. Yes, the userspace is different, but it Linux is a kernel and Android uses it. Android is every bit as much Linux as is the more familiar GNU/Linux distros.

    • by dbc ( 135354 )

      Has Android started sending acceptable patches up stream then? Or are they still on an unmergeable fork? (Not a troll, I simply don't follow Android that closely any more.)

      • Re: (Score:2, Informative)

        by Anonymous Coward

        Yes, actually they do send patches upstream now.

        Wikipedia says: "The merge will be complete starting with Kernel 3.8, Google has opened a public code repository that contains their experimental work to re-base Android off Kernel 3.8."

    • Who cares? Just you and Stallman really. If you talk to any non-FOSS nerd Linux is that operating system that runs on the PC, and Android is that operating system that runs on a phone. It's completely disingenuous to get your panties in a knot and start listing every possible different users space. It's also confusing to say it will run any userspace on top of the Linux kernel, which may or may not mean that you can get Android running on the thing.

    • by CoolGopher ( 142933 ) on Saturday May 25, 2013 @01:00AM (#43819625)

      Yeah if only people would write GNU/Linux... wait, most distros aren't purely made up of a Linux kernel and GNU tools. Um, SomewhatGNU/Linux? NotJustGNU/Linux? OpenAndOrFreeSource/Linux? But what about whichever distro is using the FreeBSD kernel but the same userland as their Linux-based version? FreeBSD isn't just a kernel, it's an entire OS, so what would that be then? NotJustGNU/FreeBSDKernel?

      I don't know about the rest of you, but I think saying "Linux" and "Android" is about as clear as it's going to get. To non-geeks it conveys the necessary distinction, and geeks already know (and debate) the distinction. Context is a wonderful thing after all.

  • Max resolution: 1280 x 1024 @75Hz
    Useless for desktop use or as a media player.

  • I've been looking at these development boards for a while, and they often seem to lag behind when it comes to the kernel. What's holding them back?

    Do the kernels differ significantly from upstream, or is it the binary blobs, or something else? Considering BBB, for example, what's stopping me or someone else from just building a 3.9 kernel with the correct config for ARMv8?

  • by Anonymous Coward

    While TI is feeding all the stuff to mainline, it would be nice to have to original beaglebone also working on a newer kernel. All my attempts with 3.9 failed unfortunatly as the ethernet was not working properly. And i still needed tons of patches to get this thing to boot with 3.9. Haven't tried 3.10 yet.

    Any updated info for this obsolete page?
    http://processors.wiki.ti.com/index.php/Sitara_Linux_Upstream_Status

    I hope they won't do the same error with the black version and also sticking to this 3.8 version

  • We mostly used embedded Windows on the Beagle XM.

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