Some personal stuff - and prototypes building!

[DougOnEarth]

The main reason I ask is because I just want to get one so that I can then get the upgrade for the CPU/GPU that will come for the unit hopefully at some point.

I love the design and everything about this product except for the fact that the CPU/GPU will be very much outdated compared to the competition.

I have a GPD WIN 2 now and that is great but it is missing a lot of features I want like:

1. Awesome D-PAD
2. Backlit keyboard
3. Dual SD card slots (although the M.2 SSD is nice at 512GB in my unit)
4. Small form factor
5. Community and support
6. Build and quality
7. EvilDragon

Thanks.

 

[Silent-Hunter]

I'm not sure how outdated it's going to actually feel when you use it. You might be pleasantly surprised! Based on the videos I've seen, it can do a lot.

EDIT: And it's not like I don't think there should be an upgrade, there definitely should be.

 

[docbroke]

lot of features I want like:
...
7. EvilDragon
...

EvilDragon doesn't ship with pyra

 

[Djoga'Ro]

EvilDragon doesn't ship with pyra

But the community does? OMG, I need a bigger appartment... nah, a village!

 

[ClockworkCoder]

But the community does? OMG, I need a bigger appartment... nah, a village!

Don't worry, we're virtual so a virtual village would suffice

 

[EvilDragon]

Software is currently also my main concern, it will certainly not be polished when we ship. It's almost impossible to get good developers these days.

CE testing has already been done, so no holdup there.
Yes, it's basically just waiting for the case, ship to developers, start the mass production.

It won't happen overnight but it should be this year, yes.

 

[ClockworkCoder]

. It's almost impossible to get good developers these days

I can code, although I have next to zero experience with the low level stuff. Hoping I may be of some help when I receive my Pyra with some of the front-end stuff if I can.

 

[crazyhorse]

From reading the pyra kernel list, it feels like an awfully long time since anyone found anything that required a revision (the last one being the charge limiting resistor, which I recall was found a good few months ago now, just ED didn't have any new prototypes to build back then). Perhaps more eyes will result in a few issues that require new CPU modifications, but I don't anticipate many of them, if any at all. The CPU boards as of now can run pyra os basically idle indefinitely, and have been able to run web browser and things since over a year as I recall.

I think its about getting the os to integrate with the hardware.

 

[WizardStan]

I think its about getting the os to integrate with the hardware.

That's what levi was saying: it's basically done, there's nothing obvious left to integrate: the wifi works, the screen works, the sound works, the RAM works, the SD cards work, the battery charging works, even the cell modem works (just pining for some high quality user interface); everything works. Might discover some issues once units are out in the wild but those are just bugs that need fixing, perfectly normal in an operating system.
[doublepost=1553600074,1553599762][/doublepost]

Has he been negative about it since he joined last year? His behaviour hasn't stood out to me like that thus far, but I'll be keeping an eye out for it now.

Nah, I've noticed it too; he's been negative and sarcastic since post #1. Check it out, post #3 straight up called EvilDragon incompetent. He seemingly joined for no reason other than to complain about the project.
I just ignore him.

 

[Swordfish II]

Has hardware acceleration been fixed?

 

[TrashyMG]

It depends on what you consider fixed... 3D acceleration works, Rotation works... At the same time, not so much. Unless I've missed anything over the past few months. Seems like everyone who wants to tackle the issue disappears after some time.

 

[Djoga'Ro]

Seems like everyone who wants to tackle the issue disappears after some time.

Some Japanese vengeful spirit, you say?

 

[Silent-Hunter]

It depends on what you consider fixed... 3D acceleration works, Rotation works... At the same time, not so much. Unless I've missed anything over the past few months. Seems like everyone who wants to tackle the issue disappears after some time.

I was under the inpression it was fixed, but only in an older kernel, like 4.9.something.

 

[TrashyMG]

I was under the inpression it was fixed, but only in an older kernel, like 4.9.something.

From what I understand it just needs to be re compiled for a newer kernel, no one has bothered as the underlying issue of it conflicting with the rotation still exists.

 

[EvilDragon]

Rotation works and 3D works, even with current kernels, AFAIK.
But both together don't work, as rotation is implemented in a way that prevents the 3D from working
zmatt knows how to fix it and wanted to do this... but it seems he doesn't have much time.

 

[darkcpc]

Software is currently also my main concern, it will certainly not be polished when we ship. It's almost impossible to get good developers these days.

It won't happen overnight but it should be this year, yes.

What kind of devs do you mean in particular, low level kernal devs or emulator devs etc?

 

[TrashyMG]

low level kernal devs

^^ that.

Emulators, native software ports and such can be done by our already good base of software developers when the actual device is working properly. Kernel development takes a good understanding of the hardware and hard to come by.

 

[levi]

In terms of getting 3D and rotation working together, 3D at least is a kernel module, so I'd count that as pretty low level, and presumably TI/OMAP specific for the tiler rotation. But having emulator and other software devs on board who actually want to use this stuff might not hurt in motivating lower level developers to get something that works.

 

[NOP]

Maybe some non kernel dev wants to learn kernel and OMAP5 stuff and can pick up the task.
But then this person needs at least a devboard a lot of spare time and motivation, which is highly unlikely any body both has.

So lets wait for zmatt then.

Whats the percentage of developers on this board?
Besides from kernel stuff, finding devs for the other bits ans pieces should be easier.

 

[aTc]

What kind of devs do you mean in particular, low level kernal devs or emulator devs etc?

Other than lowlevel kernel stuff, we also need devs for the support apps, like having a nice non-zenity based first-run-wizard, automated hardware testing, and various gui applications to change pyra specific settings.

There's also a lot of non-kernel lowlevel stuff to be done though.
Just because the kernel driver works, doesn't mean a piece of hardware is automagically fully configured to be usable from the desktop.