
Show HN: Raspberry Pi Laptop - potomak
http://raspberry.io/projects/view/raspberry-pi-laptop/
======
zdw
I have the same/similar hardware.

It auto-powers on when the HDMI is connected. There's not a good way to get it
to power off without just unplugging it.

You get roughly 3-4 hours of battery life.

The Raspberry Pi is woefully underpowered compared to modern PC's in terms of
CPU performance. I'd put it in the same class as say middling Pentium III. The
GPU is decent for a phone, if all you're doing is 2D/video stuff.

Some of the keyboard docks have a UK layout, which actually matches the
default layout loaded by the Pi.

There's nothing that ties this to the Pi specifically - you could easily do
the same with something like this quad-A9 board and get radically better
performance (at the cost of battery life):
[http://www.hardkernel.com/renewal_2011/products/prdt_info.ph...](http://www.hardkernel.com/renewal_2011/products/prdt_info.php?g_code=G135341370451)

~~~
hdevalence
> The GPU is decent for a phone, if all you're doing is 2D/video stuff.

The lack of CPU power wouldn't be such a big issue, since the real computing
power of the Pi is in the GPU anyways, except that you can't actually do
anything else with the GPU, because you need to use Broadcom's driver blob.

As a side note, I think it's pretty disappointing to have an "educational",
"open" computer that blocks you from actually using all the hardware.

[1]: <http://www.raspberrypi.org/archives/2221#comment-34981>

~~~
Lerc
It is a bit disappointing, but they have taken the pragmatic view, that it is
better to have what they have delivered than nothing at all.

I would really like to see what the full capabilities of the chip are. The GPU
seems to implement almost the full GLES driver itself. As I recall, it iss
compiling the shaders GPU side. That's some considerable general purpose
computing hidden behind the wall.

~~~
hermanhermitage
There are two major programmable parts to the GPU - the Videocore CPU (VPU)
and the shader processors (QPU).

The VPU is dual core with a 16 way SIMD integer unit with a 64x64 byte vector
register file, and 32 register 32 bit scalar register file. Its accessible
now, for instance see:
[https://github.com/hermanhermitage/videocoreiv/wiki/VideoCor...](https://github.com/hermanhermitage/videocoreiv/wiki/VideoCore-
IV-Kernels-under-Linux)

There are a few people targeting compilers and assemblers at the VPU. I think
vbcc will probably come first, but I'm aware of people hacking on gcc and
llvm.

I generate all assembly from emit() calls in C, but I may publish a better
assembler soon.

The QPU work is not so advanced, but we actually have had a handle on the QPU
instruction format for a while now, but we need more hands on deck to expose
it in the open. There is also a challenge of hooking into the blob and
dispatching QPU fragments. I would hope we have something working by the Q3.

See
[https://github.com/hermanhermitage/videocoreiv/wiki/VideoCor...](https://github.com/hermanhermitage/videocoreiv/wiki/VideoCore-
IV-3d-Graphics-Pipeline) for some preliminary background.

The QPU instructions have 3 VLIW style slots - <fp-add; fp-mul; signal>. I'll
push a qpu.arch when I get some time back on the raspberrypi.

------
smtddr
This is actually a very good idea.

I already have one of those $100 Android netbooks[1] you can get from
Alibaba.com, but it's Android[2]. I would pay $200 for an ultra-lightweight
Raspberry Pi netbook that was in the same netbook shell as my android netbook.
In fact, I've been looking everywhere for some steps to installing
RaspberryPi(or any linux) onto my Android netbook.

1\. [http://dx.com/p/v712-10-lcd-android-4-0-netbook-w-wi-fi-
rj45...](http://dx.com/p/v712-10-lcd-android-4-0-netbook-w-wi-fi-rj45-camera-
hdmi-sd-slot-black-189164)

2.Not that I don't like Android, I have 2 legit android devices that I use
daily; Kindlefire with SimpleCM9 and the Samsung GalaxyPlayer50(not the
phone). Just that, a hacked-together Android netbook isn't the best
experience... but it's very lightweight and battery-life is like an iPad or
better. After installing Chrome/Firefox and Google Keep(or evernote), it's at
least good enough to take into meetings... and netflix works on it. But
beware! It's headphone jack isn't stereo; you only get sound in the left-ear!
Go buy mono-headphones.

~~~
Nursie
>> I would pay $200 for an ultra-lightweight Raspberry Pi netbook

ARM Chromebook. Much more powerful than Pi. Can run Ubuntu and other linuxes.
Much sleeker than the thing in your link.

~~~
Pxtl
Honestly, I think Google should be looking at ditching Chrome and making it
into a skin on Android. They've over-fragmented their own market by having so
many different platforms.

~~~
bduerst
Google doesn't control Android anymore, plus Chrome has always been a more web
and media based OS.

I'm honestly surprised that Google hasn't partnered with a TV manufacturer to
have the chrome OS installed out of the box.

~~~
Pxtl
They bet on GoogleTV for that (and have apparently quietly abandoned that).

------
georgemcbay
I've got two of these Lapdocks, I bought them for $50 back when they first
started being liquidated. I currently use one as the display for a BeagleBone
Black for some project I'm working on.

This setup isn't really anything new, people were running this sort of thing a
year ago, and there are lots of variations of it including embedding TV-HDMI-
stick systems (like the RK3188) directly into the case hinge of the lapdock so
you have something more like a standard laptop.

In any case, I highly recommend picking up the lapdock if you can find one for
a good price. I'm not sure I'd pay close to $100 for one, but for $50 they
were a great deal. They make great displays for Linux ARM SoC projects. If you
actually want an ARM based laptop for general purpose laptop stuff, the
Samsung ARM Chromebook already mentioned in this thread is a better all-around
solution for not much more money.

------
polshaw
The raspberry pi is absolutely not the cool thing about this set up[1]. The
cool thing is that in 12 months you can switch out your SOC for a better one.

1\. The pi is good because it has a large community and GPIO pins, it's a
terrible choice for a 'PC' device today-- it's pretty much the weakest CPU you
can get in the ARM/SOC world, with an out of date instruction set (v6 vs v7).
You'd be much better off going with a beaglebone black or MK802, at the low
end, with a world of more powerful options.

~~~
TazeTSchnitzel
I have a budget (£99) Android phone from Samsung, non-contract (pay as you
go/"pre-paid"). It has an 800MHz processor and web browsing on it is great. I
have a Raspberry Pi, it has a 700MHz processor. The web browsing experience
with more than one tab is awful. It can barely handle 2.

------
yebyen
My boss told me about this on Friday. Looks cool. He's ordered the parts from
E-bay. I have a Pi, and I'm using it to learn to teach breaking and fixing
Debian.

(So far I've learned that ARMv7 is supported by debian armhf, and ARMv6 is the
hardfloat support offered by the Pi. And that this difference is so important,
that somewhere deep in the Perl modules of Debconf, is a breaking change that
apt can't resolve for itself when you upgrade raspbian to plain debian armhf.)

Check out this coolness:

    
    
      pi@raspberrypi ~ $ /usr/share/debconf/frontend              
      Illegal instruction

~~~
yebyen
I really was looking for help with this, I spent some time delving into the
perl modules and tracing the errors, I came up onto some collection of Debconf
modules that just did not seem to have a central "source" of the problem, just
a lot of co-dependent requires and I could not trace back to find what needed
repair.

It's somewhere there, in /usr/share/debconf/frontend. If I knew what package
had problems, I could fix it with `dpkg` or even `ar -x`, since Apt-Get really
wants Debconf and friends to work in order to do its job... but as-is, I can't
even install any version of dash from the correct repositories without bombing
out in post-install, and I feel really lucky to even have a shell to attempt a
fix, at this point.

If anyone has a Pi and they're comfortable breaking it (to see for yourself,
or to help me figure it out), change your apt-sources to like this:

    
    
      deb http://ftp.debian.org/debian wheezy main
    

If you are on raspbian and your arch is armhf, proceeding through `apt-get
update && apt-get -uy dist-upgrade` will almost totally hose your system.
Reboot, log in, have a keyboard and mouse for the next part.

Network/interfaces will be broken so you'll need those, because you just
ruined /bin/ip, it will segfault. Keep a copy of the old iproute package from
raspbian, or be sure you know how to use ifconfig and route to get back online
so you can download another one, since dhclient will also be hosed. It either
segfaults or depends on /bin/ip.)

The only way to come back from this I've found is re-flashing the original
raspbian image. I can't do it because my SD card does not read in my laptop /
I'm stubborn and convinced that it can still be fixed.

You will not be able to install any packages that have Debconf post-install
hooks, b/c illegal instruction in perl, some depended module. That's the part
I can't figure out.

A lot of other things will be broken until you revert libc6 and libstdc++6 to
the version provided by raspbian. At this point,

    
    
      dpkg --get-selections|cut -f 1
    

and

    
    
      apt-get --reinstall install
    

are your best friends. But it won't fix everything. It needs Debconf to be
intact for some things to complete.

~~~
yebyen
I figured it out. I needed this to tip me off:

    
    
      dpkg --get-selections|cut -f 1|xargs sudo apt-get --reinstall install -ud 2>&1 \
      |grep 'it cannot be downloaded'|awk '{print $3}'
    

Some packages were not being downgraded because apt-get won't downgrade them
without explicit directions on what version to download, even if it's the only
version in pool for your target.

I needed either libalgorithm-diff-xs-perl, libpthread-stubs0, or libtext-
charwidth-perl, and after that, only menu was the last remaining Segmentation
fault. Extracting the package manually and replacing /usr/bin/update-menus
enabled me to reinstall the remaining packages without errors from debconf and
friends.

\-- Sorry, spoiler, if anyone was following my awful example.

I definitely did not follow the shortest path thru this maze.

------
RossM
According to the footer this site is run by the PSF[0] - but I don't see any
mention of it elsewhere.

Worthy of note, this physical mobile app tester[1] looks awesome.

[0]: <http://www.python.org/psf/> [1]:
[http://raspberry.io/projects/view/touchy-the-mobile-
testing-...](http://raspberry.io/projects/view/touchy-the-mobile-testing-
robot/)

~~~
Zr40
It's mentioned on the About Raspberry IO page[2].

"The goal of Raspberry IO is to create, share, learn and teach the open-source
community about using Raspberry Pi with Python."

[2]: <http://raspberry.io/about-raspberry-io/>

------
DanBC
There are a bunch of people making portable pi systems.

This one is pretty easy. It's also weirdly expensive considering the power of
the machine you end up with. Ignoring the cost of the Pi - something like this
costing about $50 would be great. I guess you could scavenge parts together.
It's useful for some forums and very light web work. I don't know if that's
evidence of the web failing or succeeding - that a 750 MHz machine isn't
powerful enough for it.

Other people are being a little bit more adventurous. Here's one with a 3d
printed case ([http://blog.parts-people.com/2012/12/20/mobile-raspberry-
pi-...](http://blog.parts-people.com/2012/12/20/mobile-raspberry-pi-computer-
build-your-own-portable-rpi-to-go/)) It's not as sleek as, for example, an OQO
umpc but it's still pretty nice for something built at home.

This setup looks clunky, but the aim is to be powered off anything.
([http://www.instructables.com/id/Port-a-Raspberry-Pi-
Project/...](http://www.instructables.com/id/Port-a-Raspberry-Pi-
Project/#intro))

Odd form factors abound. (<http://www.skpang.co.uk/blog/archives/541>)
(fingerprints and dust would drive me bonkers with that clear acrylic!)

Here's a portable MAME system. This is interesting because of the limited
keyboard. ([http://blog.makezine.com/2013/01/22/portable-raspberry-pi-
ma...](http://blog.makezine.com/2013/01/22/portable-raspberry-pi-mame-
device/))

Having read through a bunch of these I wish they'd start to use sleeving when
they splice cables together. Little bits of heatshrink or hellerene tubing
makes all the difference to reliability and neatness.

It seems the RPi is fulfilling its role as an educational tinkerer's gadget.

------
lucb1e
Seeing the title I expected to see a powered-on laptop with an empty case save
for a small Raspberry Pi board inside...

------
iuguy
There's also this:

[http://thegreyhats.blogspot.co.uk/2013/03/so-i-have-two-
rasp...](http://thegreyhats.blogspot.co.uk/2013/03/so-i-have-two-raspberry-
pis-i-love-them.html)

And probably a few others around the Internet as well. Perhaps some
enterprising person could come up with a laptop into which you plug in a
raspberry pi?

------
wcfields
I did a similar write up in /r/raspberry_pi a while ago of what to buy and how
to setup:

[http://www.reddit.com/r/raspberry_pi/comments/1039qv/got_my_...](http://www.reddit.com/r/raspberry_pi/comments/1039qv/got_my_pi_lapdock_working_config_details_inside/)

------
quackerhacker
The Atrix, too bad. Like polshaw said, I agree that the Pi is the weakness in
the set up. It's like taking a honda engine and putting it in a BMW. I thought
the Atrix and the accessories were awesome, just wasn't a fan of the low specs
and Android.

I do have hope though for Ubuntu's mobile offering...wait that runs on an
Atrix too, lol.

------
jareds
What type of battery life would you get assuming no gui and not using HDMI?
Now that there is an Arch immage for the pi with Emacspeak I've considered
building something like this to take notes at meetings to avoid having to haul
my work laptop around.

~~~
wcfields
It gets around 4-5 hours. You have to have ___some_ __HDMI signal or else the
Lapdock auto-powers off.

------
andyhmltn
Off topic: I can see quite a few misspellings of quite :p

------
fsiefken
what is the maximum portable battery life that can be gained from this system,
how long does the monitor run in low power mode? I'd like to know if you could
beat the Samsung 3 Chromebook with this (6.5 hours) and get some work done in
perhaps 10 hours?

~~~
polshaw
I have the 'lapdock' used here; with a phone (the original use case) IIRC it
was quoted for 9 hours.. and that must have included powering the phone too,
because it would keep the phone battery full. So, possible, i think.

~~~
fsiefken
Wow, that's impressive. How is the typing on it, is there a keyboard, is it
smaller or the similar to current netbook keyboards? So if you could connect a
Nexus 4 phone to it with hdmi, hack Linux on that phone you'd have a netbook
comparable in performance to the current atom netbooks and a bit slower then
the Samsung 303 chromebook.

