Waiting for the BeagleV

Linux has been open source but the hardware it has run on has been proprietary until recently. RISC-V changes that with open source hardware that allows open source to grow. ARM on computers has been a disappointment because it never went much beyond the Raspberry Pi. I had the original Pinebook from China for about a year until it quit working. Also trying to order anything from China has not gone well. I now have a Chinese Pinebook Pro on loan to me from A+ Computers in Olympia but it mostly only runs Manjaro and is a disappointment as well. Now I’m waiting for the BeagleV which is made in the USA and will be ready to ship around September 2021. I think this combination of open source hardware plus open source Ubuntu XFCE will take us into a new age of computers.

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Cool. What are you hoping to use such hardware for?

Looks like they extended early access and you may be able to get one now.

Until now Linux has been open source but the hardware is not. RISC-V is open source hardware which completes the revolution. I plan to wait until around Sep 2021 to make a final decision on which RISC-V board to buy and expect RISC-V computers to be standard soon. Joel

Because of changes we may not have Ubuntu running on a risc-v development board until late 2021 or early 2022. Also I have had no luck in getting risc-v Ubuntu to run on Qemu. However when we get it running it will have a huge impact on the computer industry, see https://www.zdnet.com/article/risc-v-ceo-the-biggest-opportunity-to-change-computing-since-the-1980s . Joel

@Joel I have a co-worker who is heavily involved with QEMU, and is a maintainer of some alternative architectures for Debian. I’ll get you two connected up.

Newegg has a $33.96 sale on the SparkFun RED-V Redboard through Oct 31, 2021 at [SparkFun RED-V RedBoard - SiFive SoC Development Board - Newegg.com . I would really like to get Xubuntu or Linux Mint running on it but apparently they are still in the Hello World stage. Anyone interested in taking this on? Thanks, Joel

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I saw a new Risc-V board pop up: https://www.clockworkpi.com/product-page/devterm-kit-r01

I have the original Clockwork GameShell, and enjoy it a lot.

  1. When will we have a RISC-V Board that is past the Hello World stage and can run Ubuntu or better yet Linux Mint? 2. Will we have a RISC-V Board or motherboard that runs RISC-V Vroom? 3. When will we have a RISC-V computer motherboard that can run in a standard desktop computer case?

Thanks, Joel

Hi: I’m still waiting for an affordable RISC-V board that I can buy in the US and runs a decent, user friendly Linux Mint XFCE or Xubuntu. I would really like to show it off at a live LFNW!

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