Phytium-based ARM PC


I wonder: I want to use this also as a Youtube Cutting PC, i would use my Mixer to bring Sound from the Pyra, and my Speech to the Microphone In Port, so i could record Audio, and later put this together whit a Video and make some Cuttings, Paste Together, Rendering etc..
I would advise against recording audio separately to what recording video. That's what they do in the movies, and it's why they have to precede every shot with the clapperboard to get something that's visual and audio hearable to synchronise on. If you can record them together and put them out like that, I'd recommend sticking with that way of working.
 
Yes, I guess the only exception for what I wrote is where you prerecord some gameplay and want to talk about it, perhaps after rewatching what you've recorded to work out what to say. Then you might record an audio only stream and mix it with the edited game audio.
 
Well I think I will have to try a lot of things,
Normal Pyra Video can stay at one take, as long as I don’t need to edit something..
Issue is now that the whole 15 Minutes or more have to be ok, or I have to delete and make new ..
when I can cut and paste; I can make smaller takes, when they are fine, I could glue them together,
Per example: GTA on Switch, then stop, then GTA on Pyra, and then I could put them together…

If Kazam can record my Voice and the Game Audio the same time, and I only have to glue it together because I can’t show on Video 3 Hours of Field Work, than it would be fine …

And for the Real Live Unimog Projekt: I still need some time to mount the Unimog, so Take 1 is outside, than Cut and then Inside..

If y Audio of the allready existing Pyra Video was ok , then These don’t need to get changed..
 
Yes, I have no problem following your videos. The slightly weird things about your text here, mainly your Slightly weird Capitalisation, and your usual misspelling of with as 'whit' aren't really audible when listening.
 
I wonder: would Farming Simulator 2015 also work on the Phytian? The 2017 FS have a Port on the Switch.. , I will first try the 2013 I allready have, but if there is a Nice Unimog for 2015, whit the same features (you can open the windows, roof door, etc ) I would maybe have my Project more likely on 2015 , as this Version also got the forestry,..
 
I also wonder: What have i to look at when i buy a new USB Headset for the Pyhthian? Is it as Compatible as whit Mice and Keyboard, or will these Things be a bit divicult??
What are you using for a USB Headset? I could also try to use my JBL Headphones which have a Microphone and 3,5 ° Plug, but a real headset whit a good Microphone might be a better solution..

I had a Loghitech from my OLD Computer but this is also OLD..
 
To an extent you just have to suck it and see, but these days the USB subsystem in particular is so widely used that if it support a2dp and other standard USB codecs then it'll be fine. On big sites like amazon you can often see if something works in linux, but these days most peripherals on USB or PCI-e work out of the box.
 
Just found my old Headset; dosnt look that bad as I was expecting: the Earpads are intact; just the bar which gos over the had was a bit damaged, maybe a small animal ate a bit from the leather imitation ^^ , nothing a bit tape can’t fix .. maybe I have to get a better one but I can now see if this thing works in Debian, or maybe tomorrow evening whit the Pyra , as then it should work..
 
Just wantet to meantion: EvilDragon just send me a "Packet Chiped" Email, so might be in the next few days i need a lot of help ..
Like i wrote: First i want this thing to work as a Workstation, so i would be happy when i can use it on Saturday Evening for Youtube Watching, second i will set up Box 86..
By the Way: Is this a 32 or a 64 Bit System? So do i need Box 86 or Box 64 ?

Its just begun, but dont expect my Farming Sim Lets Play that early..
 
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Just wantet to meantion: EvilDragon just send me a "Packet Chiped" Email, so might be in the next few days i need a lot of help ..
Like i wrote: First i want this thing to work as a Workstation, so i would be happy when i can use it on Saturday Evening for Youtube Watching, second i will set up Box 86..
By the Way: Is this a 32 or a 64 Bit System? So do i need Box 86 or Box 64 ?

Its just begun, but dont expect my Farming Sim Lets Play that early..
It's a 64bits system. But with Debian OS family (Debian / Armbian / Ubuntu), you can use "multiarch" to have both 64bits and 32bits on the same system.
 
64 Bits make sense: Wasnt it so that you need that many Bits for the 16 gig RAM?

So if everything works, i just have to run Wine whit the Box86 Command and then Steam or GOG Galaxy from there? And when i then launch par exemple Farming Sim2013 its the same as when i launch a Steam Game from a Windows System?
 
If you follow the instruction in ptitseb's last post to his blog type thing, it seems you can make it automatically detect x86 programs and fire up box86 automatically, provided you're running systemd (and given you're running debian that's a given).
 
I will have the Pyra on my Desk until I got the Debian installed, so I can read in the Internet what to make ..
I think I will start my Farming Sim 2013 Unimog Project in March, but i will also Post Videos on other games I try ..
 
Doesn't the pythium come wth Debian pre-installed? Just a matter then of doing an apt get update then and apt get upgrade before you do anything more complicated which might expose more of an attack surface.
 
I don’t know, my last state was that it’s only got the bios, and you have to put your own Linux on, it was only some recommended OSes on the Product Page, but who knows? I will see what happen when I push the On Off Button, If nothing happens I can still power off, and put my USB Stick whit the Debian ARM Image in..
 
Hi,

first some words (more a warinng): I'm not a "Forum-Guy". So don't expect too much future engagement here...

I received my Phytium today. So this is some kind of "product review". I'm typing this text on the Pythium running debian stable/bullseye.

1. The Hardware

For a prototype the build quality is (at IMHO) very good, everything "fits". The shipped PSU is useless without a travel adapter, the AC plug is a chinese "Type A". Well, since it is 12v, you can use another one as long as it provides enough power (>=5A). I use a 12v powerbrick from an ITX-PC.

After powering on, you are greeted by two very tiny but loud fans. They obviously don't reach "hairblower" levels but you don't want to use that thing in a silent (or near silent) environment. After booting up, the fans get louder as the CPU and GPU heat up. I can hear the tiny squaller from two rooms away... So I opened it up and disconnected the two fans. Pro: the firmware does not check or care whether the fans are running. Of course this is no solution for the long run. So I connected a standard 120mm fan to the CPU connector and placed it on top of the PC. No problems, even at full CPU/GPU load for ad hour or so. The fan runs at 1200RPM, which is clearly noticable but bearable. Of course the device is open, so a new/modified top would be needed for the case.

A warning, I removed the tiny fans to provide better airflow from the 120mm fan. If you do it *BE CAREFULL*: the GPU heatsink has very sharp edges, I did notice after I cut my finger. To remove the plastic topping of the GPU you need to remove the GPU heatsink and replace the thermal pad with thermal paste if it breaks (which it most likely will).

The PC did not cooperate with my LG 1440p monitor (boot: ok, after loading amdgpu: blank screen) but it does work with two different 1080p monitors (LG/Samsung).

The device idles at ~18-20W, at full GPU+CPU Load it maxes out at ~45W.

2. The Software

The PC gets delivered with Ubuntu Kylin 20.04 pre-installed. There is a default user "ubuntu" but no mention of the password. The password is simply "1". It took some tries, but hey the simplest variant is often tried an last...

Ubuntu Kylin is variant tailored for the chinese market. It runs mainly on Ubuntu 20.04 with the Kylin repos/modifications installed. Those add features and modify some parts of the UI to better suit the chinese target market/audience. Apart from that the PC runs a custom kernel, that has some special support for the Phytium CPU/SoC which are not available in the upstream/vanilla kernel (e.g. hw-sensors support, GPIO support, integrated audio, ...). The onboard LAN might be part of that special hardware the patched Kernel supports. The vendor says LAN uses an Qualcom AR8035, but this is just PHY chip. So it seems the MAC-Interface is part of the non-upstreamed devices. This kernel is completely outdated (4.19.90) and should not be used. Luckily none of the non-upstreamed device drivers are needed for normal usage, but you need to use some USB LAN/WiFi-Adapter (included; only Fast-Ethernet 10/100).

You can reconfigure Kylin to be used in western countries, but I decided to not bother with that. To preserve the original state I removed the provided SSD and replaced it with a Crucial/Micron NVME SSD. The new SSD was detected without problems. The debian installation (Bullseye netboot image) worked without major problems. At the end the installer tried to reboot/poweroff and failed (blank screen). A power cycle was required. After rebooting the system bootet into the UEFI shell and not debian. It seems the installer did not succeed to add an boot entry to the UEFI. Luckily you can enter the UEFI setup and view/edit/delete existing and even create new entries. Be sure not to accidently remove the entries for Firmware Update/etc. So I removed all existing boot entries, that pointed to the SSD(s) and added an entry pointing to the grub efi boot loader (grubaa64.efi), saved, rebootet and the newly installed debian booted fine (you have to install the AMD GPU firmware manually by adding the non-free repositories and "apt install firmware-amd-graphics").

Once installed, the system is perfectly usable. You can watch 1080p60 Youtube videos with Firefox and do something else without any signs of slow down. You can even compile something on four cpu cores while watching a video and doing some work. Just like you would want to on a desktop. The performance of the CPU/GPU is more than sufficient for most day to day workloads.

So, for now, that's all folks.
 
Oh, I forgot to mention. Once installed the system even boots headless with the GPU removed. It saves around 3-5W. Since the system supports up to 64GB (2x32GB DDR4 SO-DIMMS) it could theoretically be used as an headless server. Whether you would want to do that, is another question.
 
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Thanks for your product review.

I will replace the system with bullseye, hope i can manage the UEFI part, never done before.

Thomas
 
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