**** BEGIN LOGGING AT Thu Dec 01 02:59:57 2022 Dec 01 07:44:12 I have a BBB that comes with Buster IOT in the eMMC Dec 01 07:44:25 Can I enable a desktop in that? Dec 01 07:44:41 i saw there are some scripts in the opt/scripts/tools/wm directory Dec 01 07:44:53 Can i use them to install it Dec 01 07:45:27 huh, never seen those scripts before Dec 01 07:46:14 looks like that's what their purpose is, but desktop environments are typically rather bloated and installing one on top of the IoT image probably doesn't fit in eMMC Dec 01 07:48:35 desktop environments also don't run particularly well on a beaglebone since it uses an industrial SoC with very limited graphics capabilities (intended for simple touchscreen interfaces, not for use as a desktop) Dec 01 07:50:19 sorry thats what i need to do Dec 01 07:51:04 i am planning to run node red on it and a simple ui using node-red-ui-builder Dec 01 07:51:33 and use a lcd touchscreen cape to display that ui Dec 01 07:52:06 basically what i need is to run a webbrowser in kiosk mode and start that when the board boots Dec 01 07:52:06 sounds like you don't actually need a desktop environment.... although it also sounds like you intend to run a web browser, which is even worse :P Dec 01 07:52:33 what is your suggestion? Dec 01 07:54:05 I mean, there's a great variety of approaches to build UIs, but any that require running a web browser on a bbb would not be at the top of my priority list :P Dec 01 07:54:20 modern browsers are very cpu- and memory-intensive Dec 01 07:55:02 I thought of a browser ui because i am thinking for using node-red for the automation logic Dec 01 07:55:48 I've never used node-red and am not very familiar with it Dec 01 07:56:05 I mean, you're free to try of course, I've never actually tried running a browser on a BBB myself Dec 01 07:56:27 what would you do Dec 01 07:56:39 does chrome nowadays even fit in 512 MB of ram? ;P Dec 01 07:57:05 my use case it this its a controller for a greenhouse a set of sensors and actuators are conneted via rs485 bus Dec 01 07:57:15 I've not done any gui programming in a very long time.... it would probably depend on what sort of gui Dec 01 07:57:50 the only gui project on the BBB I've been involved in (although I didn't do any of the actual gui programming) used qt5 directly on the framebufer (no x11) Dec 01 07:59:51 there are bbb images available with a desktop environment, e.g. the buster lxqt snapshot from https://forum.beagleboard.org/t/debian-10-x-buster-monthly-snapshots/31203/1 or the bullseye lxde snapshot from https://forum.beagleboard.org/t/debian-11-x-bullseye-monthly-snapshots/31280/1 Dec 01 08:00:11 bullseye xfce I mean Dec 01 08:00:52 having said that, it sounds like you don't really need any desktop environment, just x11 and a web browser, so a more minimalistic setup is probably possible Dec 01 08:06:50 I wonder if surf is more lightweight than chrome.... probably not since it's still webkit-based Dec 01 08:07:13 it does have a kiosk thingy package though, at least on debian bullseye: https://manpages.debian.org/bullseye/surf-display/surf-display.1.en.html Dec 01 08:07:20 https://forum.beagleboard.org/t/chromium-slow-on-beaglebone-black/29380/14 Dec 01 08:07:26 looks like chromium is out Dec 01 08:07:47 I am insterested in the framebuffer approach Dec 01 08:07:54 yeah any browser-based solution is likely going to be slow as hell Dec 01 08:07:57 but qt is out because of licensing issues Dec 01 08:08:11 maybe i can use GTK Dec 01 08:10:06 dunno if gtk supports running directly on the framebuffer.... and ideally you'd want something that supports drm/kms (which supports double-buffering) rather than only the legacy fbdev (which doesn't)... a lot of older framebuffer stuff only supports the legacy fbdev Dec 01 08:10:35 can you give me some resources to learn these stuff Dec 01 08:10:59 about framebuffer Dec 01 08:11:30 note that running a simple gui program on x11 is probably fine, it's just desktop environments and browsers that are really heavyweight Dec 01 08:11:40 (although using x11 will obviously still add overhead) Dec 01 08:13:06 I wish I had some good stuff to link to, but like I said I haven't done gui-development in ages... it's been many years since I last did anything with graphics on a beaglebone Dec 01 08:13:24 thanks anyway Dec 01 08:13:53 I come from an enterprise software background and I have only used linux for web service hosting Dec 01 08:14:23 I can probably use python for this ? Dec 01 08:14:45 do you know any high level frameworks that i can use like node red Dec 01 08:15:21 I mostly just know how the low-level machinery works, and it was my job to setup an environment that allowed a qt5 app running on the framebuffer, but I didn't do any of the actual app development and I have no experience whatsoever with other frameworks Dec 01 08:15:54 In node red I can use a GUI tool to define the automation logic simmilar to how you program a PLC Dec 01 08:16:27 its easier than writing custom code Dec 01 08:16:49 you could probably still use that and have a gui that just talks to node-red? Dec 01 08:16:54 like I said I don't really know anything about node-red Dec 01 08:17:08 node is a bit heavy too Dec 01 08:17:13 not a huge fan of node Dec 01 08:18:06 yeah it's not super lightweight, nor am I a huge fan of it, but we do use it on the bbb ourselves Dec 01 08:18:48 yeah with node-red it would be super easy for the automation engineers to change the logic Dec 01 08:19:01 it runs okay, it's mostly startup that's slow because all of the modules that need to get loaded and parsed at startup Dec 01 08:19:18 I will look into integrating node-red to a seperate gui process Dec 01 08:19:19 and of course if you install anything with npm you get half a million packages in your node_modules for free :P Dec 01 08:19:30 oh yeah Dec 01 08:19:53 buster iot image is more than 3 GB i think Dec 01 08:19:57 ( https://www.monkeyuser.com/2017/npm-delivery/ ) Dec 01 08:20:10 i should probably start with the console image Dec 01 08:20:19 then add only the nescessary stuff Dec 01 08:20:51 I thought it was smaller than that? but yeah if you're comfortable with debian then starting with a buster console (or better, bullseye minimal) image is generally better Dec 01 08:20:54 nice cartoon Dec 01 08:21:28 do you know how to build a custom image Dec 01 08:21:48 we just build a master image from a template system Dec 01 08:21:50 using this Dec 01 08:21:52 https://github.com/beagleboard/image-builder Dec 01 08:22:04 never used it myself, sorry Dec 01 08:22:24 what do you use Dec 01 08:22:34 i saw that TI has a SDK as well Dec 01 08:22:39 debian Dec 01 08:23:22 yeah TI uses yocto, but I prefer debian just because it's more familiar... it's nice having the same distro on all your systems Dec 01 08:23:46 I am fairly comfortable with linux but never built a custome os image Dec 01 08:23:57 is there any documentation for that Dec 01 08:24:36 dunno, that seems a really broad/vague subject. Dec 01 08:26:36 like I said we just have a system that's serving as master template and build an image from that (making sure to strip it of any device-specific files like ssh keys and the machine id) Dec 01 08:27:10 I'm not going to claim it's the best way of doing things, but it works Dec 01 08:38:35 ok Dec 01 08:38:46 looks like i have to do a lot of reading Dec 01 16:48:15 I purchased I Kulp K32 A/B with Beagle Board Black with FPP loaded (I think). Here is where I am at. Dec 01 16:48:16 I did test the board in the test mode and worked fine. Took the Beagle off of the Kulp board to do the WIFI programming and ever since that programming I am unable to connect to the board. No OLED or power to the Beagle Board. My computer is a Macbook Pro 2017. The WIFI does show up but unable to connect with the IP address so..... hmmm. so I am Dec 01 16:48:16 stuck. Dec 01 18:11:34 I purchased I Kulp K32 A/B with Beagle Board Black with FPP loaded (I think). Here is where I am at. Dec 01 18:11:34 I did test the board in the test mode and worked fine. Took the Beagle off of the Kulp board to do the WIFI programming and ever since that programming I am unable to connect to the board. No OLED or power to the Beagle Board. My computer is a Mac Book Pro 2017. The WIFI does show up but unable to connect with the IP address so..... hmmm. so I am Dec 01 18:11:35 stuck. Not sure on how this chat works but want to learn and get my BBB up and running. **** ENDING LOGGING AT Fri Dec 02 02:59:56 2022