[Arm-netbook] Good netbook based on Cortex-A9

[Gordan Bobic]

On 07/30/2012 02:34 PM, freebirds at fastmail.fm wrote:
> I have one more requirement: preinstalled Linux on the SSD hard drive
> or on an external SD card as an option to buy. I don't want to trouble
> shoot for weeks, post numerous threads asking for help or pay a
> computer geek who never even heard of ARM to install Linux. Reading the
> threads here on people's woes installing Linux on AllWinner A10 who
> have more technical expertise than me makes me not even want to try
> installing Linux.
>
> I have spent weeks researching whether there are tutorials on installing
> Linux on ARM and MIPS devices: In yesterday's post, I complained about
> lack of Linux for  the new MIPS device (iPPea TV) and the Novo Paladium
> tablet. Lack of Debian or Fedora for the VIA 8650 netbook I am
> returning.

This is a very common source of frustration, borne purely out of lack of 
any standards on the ARM and MIPS devices. On x86 we have  BIOS that 
handles all the low level stuff, and everything is made to the same 
standards. No such thing on embedded systems.

There are a number of different boot loaders, and almost all SoCs 
require custom specific kernels. Not only that but a large number of 
SoCs haven't got mainlined kernel support because they are all build as 
one offs with kernel support bodgedly hacked together in a rush in ways 
that would never withstand mainlining scrutiny, but worse than that, a 
lot of SoCs seem to be treated as throwaway designs. By the time the 
kernel support was mainlined they would probably no longer be 
interesting for implementation because they would be replaced by other, 
more modern SoCs in mainstream devices within a year. Frankly, given how 
long EOMA with A10 has been discussed, I'm amazed A10 hasn't been 
ditched by the wayside by everyone already like all the things that were 
replaced by the A10 have been.

> Unfortunately, Android took the market share away from Linux. Tablets
> took the market share away from netbooks. The only preinstalled netbooks
> with Linux are old models: Genesi, Hercules, Yeeloong and Letux 400 at
> http://www.handheld-linux.com/wiki.php?page=Letux%20400. Golden
> Delicious is charging approximately $100 more for this old MIPS seven
> inch netbook because it is preinstalled with Debian Lenny than Chinese
> sellers selling the netbook with windows or android. Yes, I would pay
> $100 more for a netbook with preinstalled Linux. However, 128 MB RAM is
> insufficient for the packages I need to download. I don't know whether
> updating Lenny to Wheezy, installing packages and updating the packages
> will brick the Letux 400 and Yeeloong.

128MB of RAM is beyond ridiculous. It is obvious that these were 
designed to be childrens' toys rather than real usable machines. But 
considering they can be had for £30 on eBay, it is at least comparable 
to the Raspberry Pi in terms of what you get (at least they come with a 
screen and keyboard for the same price as the Pi).

> Raspberry pis are preinstalled with Fedora.

I thought they come bare without even the SD card. But images of most 
Linux distros are available for download, including Fedora, RedSleeve, 
Debian, Ubuntu, etc. Somebody even wasted their time rebuilding Debian 
for the armv6hl to squeeze every last % of performance out of it (and we 
really are talking single figure % points here on most tasks).

> SD cards with preinstalled
> Ubuntu are for sale for the beagleboard. SD cards with preinstalled
> Debian Wheezy are for sale for the dreamplug. I open to Fedora, Debian
> or Ubuntu. My preference is in that order. First, Fedora, second Debian
> and third Ubuntu.

No need to buy a pre-installed SD card - might as well download the 
image and burn it to the card yourself. That way you at least get the 
choice to buy a half decent SD card (almost all SD card have quite 
appalling performance, and even the very best ones only barely reach the 
performance of a 7200rpm hard disk).

> It is important to this project to educate consumers why they should pay
> extra to purchase a Linux open hardware device. Golden Delicious
> advertised their Linux netbook as: "So it can be used either as a simple
> Web Surfing or E-Mailing system insusceptible to virueses and trojan
> horses."  http://www.handheld-linux.com/wiki.php?page=Letux%20400. For
> two decades, people paid extra for Apple devices because of less
> malware.

I disagree on that last point. People pay extra for apple because of the 
shiny appearance and the prestigious status symbol badge. With the 
exception of the new MacBook Pro (mainly due to it's amazing screen), 
Apple machines don't have that much going for them other than the brand 
name.

> Malware is not the biggest threat. If we acted more like Richard
> Stallman, educating people of the privacy
> violations of cloud and skype for example, consumers would have
> knowledge of why they need open source hardware and Linux. In
> yesterday's thread, I discussed that Google, Apple, Microsoft and
> Skyhook are transmitting their consumers' geolocation and the MAC
> address of all near wifi devices including routers, desktop pcs,
> tablets, laptops and smartphones. Only Luke commented on my thread.

I've yet to see any actual evidence that this is exploitable by 3rd 
parties. I am reasonably sure that only the AP locations are being fed 
back to the base by devices. But if all MAC addresses were being fed 
back and used for location, then I guess you could (though not anywhere 
nearly in realtime) query the _rough_ location of a device with known 
MAC address by reporting back that you are near it, and see what the 
database says your location is. I would be interested in seeing any 
evidence that such a hack is actually exploitable. I rather doubt it.

Also remember that with most wireless (and wired) device you can spoof 
your MAC address (just pick one out of the air and use it for that 
session, then generate a different one for the next session).

> It
> is not just apps that transmit the device ID and IP address. It is the
> manufacturers of the OS and Skyhook that are transmitting and reselling
> this information. Who ever volunteers to conduct PR for this laptop and
> the webpage describing this laptop should advertise this laptop as
> partially circumventing privacy violations. Partially because there is
> no option to disable TrustZone and Mobicore.

I thought the notion of abuse of those extensions has already been put 
to rest...

> How far do nearby wifi devices need to be to have their MAC address
> transmitted? None of the articles disclose the distance. At least as far
> as bluetooth. We discussed earlier this month how far bluetooth can be
> detected. Bluetooth can be detected much further.

But it doesn't matter considering you can generate yourself a new random 
MAC address every time you go to establish a connection.

> In summary, without advertising (educating) the benefits of switching to
> Linux on a small ARM device and making it easy for newbies to use Linux
> by preinstalling Linux, there is little incentive to research and pay
> extra for such a device.

If you are being hacked via the power bar your computers are plugged 
into, the OS on your machine probably doesn't matter too much... Power 
bar monitoring hacks to establish keystrokes on a PS2 keyboard via power 
fluctuations have already been established. But if somebody has broken 
into your house to replace your power bar with a dodgy one, you should 
probably put priority on securing your house against intruders, rather 
than your computers which they can just steal ana analyze in peace 
afterwards once they get in.

Gordan