Category: Ubuntu

re-learning lessons forgotten about the raspberry pi 4

whbeebe

Just as I’d dusted off my old nVidia Xavier NX SBC, I also pulled out a number of my Raspberry Pi 4s and tried to power them back up. When they were first introduced, I purchase one each of the 1GB, 2GB, 4GB and 8GB Raspberry Pi 4s. I also picked up the official Raspberry Pi USB-C Power Supply. I had to use that model because the original USB-C connector had been incorrectly implemented (see https://hackaday.com/2019/07/16/exploring-the-raspberry-pi-4-usb-c-issue-in-depth/ ). Note I only purchased one, as this would come back to bite me much later.

Over time the 1GB went into a retro-game emulator, while the 2GB went into a small monitoring system that still runs to this day. The 4GB version was dropped into a Flirc case and then put on the shelf where I eventually forgot about it, while the 8GB version was used as a more complete development system in an Argon ONE V2 case. I also have a collection of older Raspberry Pi SBCs, from the 2 to the 3B+.

When I pulled out the 4GB version and attempted to power it back up with Raspbian OS, it refused to come up into its graphical desktop. At first I thought it was due to a corrupted microSDXC card, so I reflashed it with the latest Raspbian OS. That didn’t work, so I tried out Ubuntu’s 23.04 released for the Raspberry Pi. That got a lot further, but when I rebooted after initial installation and setup, it refused to come up either. In spite of having a collection of current wall warts that power everything else in my home lab, I began to suspect that I was having an Issue with USB-C on that Raspberry Pi. I ordered two new supplies from Amazon, the original Raspberry Pi wall wart for $10, and a second with a switch built into its cable for $12. When they arrived I was able to install Ubuntu and cleanly finish using both supplies.

The desktop is running at 2560 x 1440 on an LG 27GL850 monitor (an Amazon Black Friday sale special). I’ve done as little tweaking as possible to the installation, preferring to leave it stock as much as possible. The notable exception is the installation of the Papyrus Icon package. I have that everywhere.

With the second power supply I’ve managed to resurrect a number of my old Raspberry Pi SBCs, with the intention of dropping them into sealed cases and then placing them around as embedded systems. They’ll be headless so they won’t need the desktop, which will considerably reduce the OS memory footprint.

I’m impressed with how well the latest Ubuntu release works on the Raspberry Pi 4. It has advanced mightily from the early releases that I found were incredibly sluggish and resource hungry. If you’ve got a Raspberry Pi 4 4GB or 8GB, then Ubuntu 23.04 and later is worth your consideration. This installation was performant enough for me to write this post using Firefox 116.0.3.

Oh, one other thing. Snap is still on this installation, but I removed Firefox as a snap and installed it as a DEB package because the snap version was at 111, while the DEB version was up-to-date with were Firefox runs everywhere else.

Links

what browser should i use on linux?

fixing the visual studio code problem on jetson xavier nx

whbeebe

tl;dr — Visual Studio Code versions beyond 1.59.x will not work on the Jetson Xavier NX software stack which includes Ubuntu 20.04 for Armv8/Arch64. If you want working Visual Studio Code then install version 1.59.1.

In the last post I was lamenting not having a working Visual Studio code. I knew it had worked before the update because I had used it and had written of my success in the past. As it turns out I’ve outfitted the NX with a Western Digital Black 250GB NVME M.2 SSD. That’s were I stash files I don’t want to use when I trash the boot drive, which like the Raspberry Pi, is on an micro SDXC card. Sure enough I found an old Visual Studio deb file, version 1.50. I installed that and Visual Studio worked. I did a bit of installation shuffle between old VSCode releases and discovered that any version for arm64 greater than or equal to 1.60 would not work. Thus I found and installed 1.59.1 and called it a day. I have no time to waste on trying to fix this, nor do I feel the need to finger point.

In order to keep VSCode from yelling about an update, go to File | Preferences | Settings and search for Update: Mode. On the drop down menu select none. Then restart VSCode.

To keep apt from updating it when it’s run, at a prompt type sudo apt-mark hold code and press return. The next time apt is run it’ll show an update for VSCode, but it won’t install it.

I’ve now decided to repurpose the NX to something more useful, such as an environmental monitor and house hold assistant. I don’t know what I’ll use in the future, but it won’t be nVidia. Reports are appearing that nVidia is pouring all its resources into its AI products, and they’re charging top dollar for everything. I checked to see what the official price for a Jetson Orin Nano Developer kit was, and it’s $500. Back when I purchased my Xavier NX, I also purchased the then-available Nano Developer kits, and they were $100 each. There’s a reason I’ve been following and using RISC-V based microcontrollers, and that because everyone is now working on versions that can do AI/ML workloads. I’ll keep working with what I’ve already got because it’s in hand and I don’t want to waste it and let it lie idle. But whether its their AI products or their graphic cards, nVidia is out to pull every dollar it can get away with out of folks wallets. I’m tired of the too-high prices, and I’m done with nVidia.