Have a RIoTboard question?  Ask the expert, John McLellan

Hello John,

I hate to say this, but I have (temporarily??) given up on this board.  I had high hopes that it would work for my project but it's just not yet ready for prime time, at least not for Linux development.

Like a lot of people, I would normally enjoy working through these challenges, but my current project couldn't be delayed.  I needed something that I could use immediately, so I ordered a SAMA5D3Xplained from Newark/Element14 and had it up and running within 30 minutes after it arrived. Although it's Linux command line only, it is similar in size and similar in price -- and it works for my project. 

My goal here is not to take away anything from those of you who are working very hard and diligently to make the RiotBoard a viable product.  Your talents and skills far exceed mine.  With factory support and a little more time, I think you will overcome the present issues with the board.  I look forward to using mine for another project.

Ken

Ken Lanthorne wrote:

I hate to say this, but I have (temporarily??) given up on this board.  I had high hopes that it would work for my project but it's just not yet ready for prime time, at least not for Linux development.

I think it's unfortunate that the website implies good android and linux support. I can't comment on the Android side as I don't use it, however I agree that currently linux support is lacking.

so I ordered a SAMA5D3Xplained from Newark/Element14 and had it up and running within 30 minutes after it arrived.

A quick look at http://www.at91.com/linux4sam/bin/view/Linux4SAM , http://www.at91.com/windows4sam/bin/view/Windows4SAM/ & http://www.at91.com/android4sam/bin/view/Android4SAM/ shows that the Atmel people have put a fair bit of effort into supporting that board.

Although it's Linux command line only, it is similar in size and similar in price

Linux command line can be done today on RIoT, granted not as easily as just installing a pre-made image, and unlikely you could be running in 30mins.

Hardware wise, I think the RIoT is probably better. But as you've discovered, without the sort of effort Atmel is putting into linux, it's not easy.

With factory support and a little more time, I think you will overcome the present issues with the board. 

Not holding my breath on getting much support from the manufacturers (yes e14, this means YOU). The good thing is that the SoC itself is fairly decently supported, so there's only a couple of pieces of the puzzle left for us to do.

I'm hoping that u-Boot v2014.04 will be released tomorrow which will open the way for Eric Bénards RIoTboard patches to be merged. Once that's done I'll write up a u-boot howto, followed by details on how to build a kernel and rootfs.  Unfortunately even if I build an image that can be put on an SD card for people to test there seems to be no way to share it here as the attachemnt size limit is a tiny 50MB.

I hope you don't give up on the board completely as I don't think we're too far away from the point where a generic debian image can be created that'll put people with experience of RPi & BBB on reasonably familiar ground.

Hello Selsinork  (a great name, by the way)

Thanks for the response.  I guess others share my frustration.  You are correct - it definitely needs an easy-to-install SD image for those who like me don't have the time, resources or necessary skills to make it work.  At this time there are numerous alternatives available, so e14 needs to step up now or they could lose ground in this IoT "revolution".

It's obvious that a lot of work went into development on the RiotBoard.  I don't believe that they will allow it to die for lack of support.

Ken

Hello Selsinork  (a great name, by the way)

Thanks for the response.  I guess others share my frustration.  You are correct - it definitely needs an easy-to-install SD image for those who like me don't have the time, resources or necessary skills to make it work.  At this time there are numerous alternatives available, so e14 needs to step up now or they could lose ground in this IoT "revolution".

It's obvious that a lot of work went into development on the RiotBoard.  I don't believe that they will allow it to die for lack of support.

Ken

Ken Lanthorne wrote:

It's obvious that a lot of work went into development on the RiotBoard.  I don't believe that they will allow it to die for lack of support.

I'd like to hope they won't, however early on they were pushing it as an Android board and almost leaving linux as an afterthought.  I think it's fairly clear that there's a fair bit of interest in linux on the board from the recent posts.

The RIoTboard is actually based quite a lot on their earlier MarS Board http://www.element14.com/community/docs/DOC-55820?ICID=knode-sabre-space which being somewhat more expensive can probably be expected to be less visible/successful, especially when the name conflicts with a similar set of boards based on Allwinner/Rockchip SoCs. However, when you go looking there's nothing much in the way of visible activity for it,  here or elsewhere, beyond that doc. Same goes for the Sabre-Lite here on e14 - luckily the SL is a Freescale reference design and has some more active people working on it elsewhere.

Beginning to see a pattern?