LinuxICE - In Car Entertainment Distro - Page 2

spuzzdawg · 02-04-2007, 09:24 AM

could you change the spelling of distrobution to distribution on the web page?

Eubey · 02-04-2007, 12:44 PM

haha yeah as you can see, im not the greatest speller in the world.

kev000 · 03-14-2007, 09:38 AM

For those of you interested in trying out an early alpha of the Linux ICE car PC distro, you can download the torrent here.

keep in mind the focus of this alpha is to test automatic deployment of touchscreen drivers and the perfection of our build system.

LagunaICE · 03-15-2007, 12:41 PM

well somehow it only boots to initial menu on my VMware6. Later it just hangs after selecting any of the options.

kev000 · 03-15-2007, 02:49 PM

Where exactly does it hang at? Try burning it and running it from the cd.

can anyone else confirm this?

Gortok · 03-15-2007, 09:42 PM

ARRRRGH...
I'm still waiting for some of my hardware. I promise I'll be sending in feedback once I can run this.
I still like the idea.

Would it be possible to create a version to run from USB flash drive?

vizzdoom · 03-16-2007, 07:52 AM

exacly

kev000 · 03-16-2007, 12:43 PM

Right now, the recommended install method is to use the live-cd, setup your touchscreen, and then install it to your usb flash drive. As of now, you'll probably want at least a gig for the system+extra stuff+swap.

kev000 · 03-16-2007, 07:32 PM

Quote:

well somehow it only boots to initial menu on my VMware6. Later it just hangs after selecting any of the options.

My brother has it working under vmware workstation 5.5. In theory it should still work in 6...

ElNotto · 03-17-2007, 11:45 PM

It boots with only a couple of problems on my setup (Toshiba Satellite Pro 4600 Laptop and Lilliput EBY701 monitor):

- X was not starting and was giving me errors about "No devices detected" and "No screens found." To fix this I had to do an apt-get install xserver-xorg-video-trident and then dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xorg

- Touchscreen upon first starting X works but X and Y axis are swapped. After running calibrator and restarting X, touchscreen is either not responsive at all, or just jumps the cursor to one corner of the screen upon touching the screen anywhere. Unplugging and re-plugging USB cable does not help.

Hope this feedback helps. I'm happy to try any troubleshooting suggestions.

kev000 · 03-18-2007, 01:05 PM

Quote:

It boots with only a couple of problems on my setup (Toshiba Satellite Pro 4600 Laptop and Lilliput EBY701 monitor):

- X was not starting and was giving me errors about "No devices detected" and "No screens found." To fix this I had to do an apt-get install xserver-xorg-video-trident and then dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xorg

- Touchscreen upon first starting X works but X and Y axis are swapped. After running calibrator and restarting X, touchscreen is either not responsive at all, or just jumps the cursor to one corner of the screen upon touching the screen anywhere. Unplugging and re-plugging USB cable does not help.

Hope this feedback helps. I'm happy to try any troubleshooting suggestions.

In the touchscreen section in xorg.conf change:

Code:

#Option "SwapXY" "1"

to

Code:

Option "SwapXY" "1"

Next release I'll put a switch in the calibrator so you can force the swapXY. I'm not sure if this will work. If it doesn't try a "option" "rotate" "cw" or a "option" "rotate" "ccw". Let me know which one works.

As for your video driver, we removed the less common video drivers to save some space (less common meaning non-via/ ati/ nvidia). Maybe we should make the space sacrifice and keep more drivers in to be more compatible.

ElNotto · 03-18-2007, 05:07 PM

What I needed was the "option" "rotate" "ccw", Thanks!

It also seems that the calibrator isn't giving me useful min and max values. When I run the program it gives me values near 1000, give or take, although the min values are lower than the max values by 60 or so. I find that if I make the min and max values respectively 100 and 2000 it is almost usable. This laptop does have a built in joystick-mouse (no synaptics touchpad) if that makes any difference.

stonestatue · 03-19-2007, 01:15 AM

Nevermind the spoiled pricks that feel the need to comment if something isn't perfect. You know how the old cliche goes: You get what you pay for.

<praise>Anyways, I think it's great that someone is taking the time to create an entire operating system dedicated to the in car entertainment environment. It's people like you that maintain the integrity of this forum. And I think I speak for most of us when I say we truly appreciate it.</praise>

What kinds of stuff can we expect Linux ICE to do? Does it have all the functions like MP3 playability, GPS, cell phone integration, etc and the front end embedded into it, or are those extra downloads?

PS: Are you looking for some people to help you with your web development?
My rates are reasonable (free).

stonestatue · 03-19-2007, 01:33 AM

PSS: I don't know much about Linux, but I do know that I want to start using Linux and eventually phase out the use of Windows all together, except when only absolutely necessary.

I am going to install Fedora Core 6 on my second computer to learn how it works and get a feel for Linux. When Fedora Core and Linux ICE are lined up for comparison, why choose one over the other for in car use? I assume that Linux Ice is tailored to make it ideal for a carputer, but I am not exactly sure how. I'm not trying to cause your distro to compete with another, I simply wish to know the apples and oranges of Fedora Core vs. Linux ICE.

What things could Linux Ice do that Fedora Core couldn't that make it a better suited distro for a carputer?

kev000 · 03-19-2007, 05:29 PM

Quote:

I am going to install Fedora Core 6 on my second computer to learn how it works and get a feel for Linux. When Fedora Core and Linux ICE are lined up for comparison, why choose one over the other for in car use? I assume that Linux Ice is tailored to make it ideal for a carputer, but I am not exactly sure how. I'm not trying to cause your distro to compete with another, I simply wish to know the apples and oranges of Fedora Core vs. Linux ICE.

The main goals of Linux ICE are to provide a car PC friendly distribution. We wanted to make a distro that made all the things that troubled car PC users easier. Things like touchscreen integration and providing a minimalistic environment that is flexible enough for almost anyone are a must have for a car PC operating system. We are basically building a distro with all of the things that car PC users will need and want. Things like:
-built in touchscreen support
-built in suspend2 (faster and more efficient hibernate/resume)
-the excellent hardware support of the ubuntu linux distro (Linux ICE is based on ubuntu)
-integrated frontend (with mp3, ogg, flac, and numerous other codec support)
-gps apps
-bluetooth phone support (there are great individuals working on it, we hope to be able to include it in Linux ICE when it is ready).

The advantage of Linux ICE over something like Fedora is that Linux ICE comes with everything that car PC need out of the box. Linux ICE is also less bloated (a single install cd compared to numerous cds for FC6) which makes for easier installation on a CF disk drive. The tools for customizing ubuntu are very handy also. It would take several hours (if not a whole day) to build a fedora distro from source. Using tools like reconstructor, we can make a liveCD in a fraction of the time. This makes development easier and faster (can you imagine having compiled a whole distro overnight and then realizing that you installed something incorrectly?).

More details about what we are doing can be found on the Linux ICE homepage and in the forums.