Headunit (Linux/Windows CarPC frontend) + initial screenshots

**Tomas-** · 09-16-2004, 11:33 AM

Woho, got it working!!!

I downloaded the source for QT and then copied in the missing source to /usr/lib/qt/src

**hijinks21** · 09-16-2004, 01:02 PM

yay!

**NoPistonPC** · 09-21-2004, 08:55 PM

Version 0.3 of headunit is out! You can download it from the links on the first page of this thread or from the sourceforge page (http://sourceforge.net/projects/headunit).

Audio, Video, and DVD should now work (and hopefully be fairly stable).

Bring on the bug reports!

Unless someone convinces me otherwise, I will work on external apps and GPS next.

BTW, how's the distro work coming?

**kuo** · 09-22-2004, 01:01 AM

installed the win32 version. initially msvcr70.dll was missing. i found it in my office program folders and dropped a copy into the headunit directory. music and video seem to work great. dvd does not show video for me. only sound. i have powerdvd and the dvd works fine in that but no video in headunit.

**momanz** · 09-22-2004, 01:28 AM

Hey NoPistonPc,

Glad to see you're continuing the effort. I just downloaded and compiled the latest version (linux) and I must say it's an improvement over the first one I looked at. Button presses are much more responsive and the time to switch between songs seems like it has gone down. I haven't had time to take a close look at things yet, but I have noticed that the feedback on the playlist display (time, title, volume) are all broken. The buttons work, songs play, but the player status says "stop," no song title is displayed and the time is 0:00. The volume indicator does not report any volume changes although the volume does change when volume the buttons are pressed. I'll see if I can get a more detailed list of bugs in the next couple of days.

Thanks for all the great work.

-momanz

**NoPistonPC** · 09-22-2004, 03:29 PM

kuo and momanz, thanks for the feedback. I'll get right on fixing these bugs...

BTW, I've started to play around with creating a distro. Here are my thoughts so far:

I initially started with creating an LFS-based distro but then decided to move to Gentoo. LFS is great way to learn about the inner workings of Linux, but it takes a lot longer to get LFS up and running, and package maintenance is a pain in the ***. Therefore, I decided to go with Gentoo. Currently, I'm playing with USE flags and removing directories like /usr/portage and all unnecessary packages to reduce the size. I'll let you know how small it is as soon as I'm done.

**bpierce815** · 09-22-2004, 04:12 PM

Great to see the updates. I am still working on a distribution. I too have given up on LFS, which set me back a couple of weeks(Way too time consuming). I'm looking at a slackware install now. I believe that I should have an image for EPIAM 1000 Nemiah boards in a few days. It looks like the install is going to take up about 100MB. But I know that there will be libraries installed that are not needed. Initially there will just be an image and a howto using Knoppix to place the image on your HD. Keep working on the interface. It is the most exciting one for linux that I have seen yet.

Thanks,
Ben

**NoPistonPC** · 09-22-2004, 06:03 PM

Ben,

If you are actively working on a distro, then I'm going to leave it to you so that we don't repeat the same work. HeadUnit works in a framebuffer so we don't need to include X11. However, if the user wants to run GPS software (like iGuidance or Destinator), then X11 is required since we will require Wine. I suggest we make a non-GPS and a GPS version of the distro. The non-GPS version would be framebuffer based, and the GPS version would be X11 based.

Here are some thoughts I had for how the distro would work:

1) Files in the distro CD image:

Base linux packages: glibc, bash, busybox, etc. NOTE: I highly recommend that you use busybox since it includes almost all the shell commands that you would ever need and it is EXTREMLY lightweight. You can even compile out the commands that you don't need.

Framebuffer version packages:
fbdev, qt-embedded, fbxine, freetype, plus other dependencies

X11 version packages:
Nano-X (small footprint replacement for a full X-server: http://www.microwindows.org/), qt, xine, wine

Kernel versions:
VIA EPIA (C3)
VIA EPIA (C3 Nehemiah)
VIA EPIA P4
Athlon
P4
etc...

Optional loadable modules (one for each kernel version):
alsa sound cards
d-link radio
touchscreen
xmradio
pcmcia
network drivers
other device drivers

2) Operation of distro CD:

1. When the user boots with the CD, the CD loads its generic kernel that works on any processor, and mounts all attached drives.
2. It asks the user to create/select the boot, install and swap partitions. Alternatively, it offers the user an option to choose the drive and let the installer create its own partitions.
3. It asks the user what version of the kernel to use (this should match the processor on their CarPC)
4. It asks the user what optional kernel modules it should install (or it lets him install all of them)
5. It asks the user if they want to do a framebuffer-only install, an X11-only install, or both.
6. It then copies over the base image, the correct kernel version, the correct kernel modules, and the correct remaining packages specific to the type of install the user selected (framebuffer and/or X11)
7. It runs scripts to configure all the /etc files correctly and setup grub to boot the correct kernel and boot partition.
8. It runs scripts to configure the network correctly.
9. It offers the option to run a GPS software installer (wine will be included on the install CD, so the GPS installer will run in wine)
10. Boot the CarPC.

Just one possible way for how it could work...

Let me know how you were planning to do it.

**jbors** · 09-22-2004, 06:27 PM

Guys,
Just wanted to warn you about going straight to the FB. It is slow. Extremelly slow. Especially on EPIAs as C3 is slow by itself. I did those tests back in Jan and PyCar was not able to render stuff fast enough( I'm not even talking about movies rendering ). HU may have different technique, but you'd better do testing first.

**NoPistonPC** · 09-23-2004, 01:23 AM

jbors, i'm actually glad you mentioned the problems with FB. I was considering scrapping FB as well and going with a very lightweight X setup (like nano-X plus fluxbox). This makes my decision easier.