Hi Stewart, On Sat, Aug 8, 2020 at 3:21 PM Stewart C. Russell via talk <talk@gtalug.org> wrote:
Hi Aruna -
Just covering some points that didn't quite match my experience. 4GB Raspberry Pi 4 good, 8 GB better, which it sounds like you've discovered.
Yes thanks to Scott and others :-)
How hot does the unit become ? Does it require an add on fan shim ? Or will work fine without one ?
You can definitely get by without one. I have the temperature-controlled Pimoroni Fan Shim in one, and it very rarely operates. It used to run a lot before the firmware update late last year, but these days I barely notice it.
Oh-kay but am gonna get a fan just to be on the safe side. I am paranoid when it comes to hardware.
How easy or difficult would it be to boot off an external hard disk as compared to the SD card that comes with the Pi ?
More difficult, but not that hard. Note that the Raspberry Pi is picky about SATA adapters. This one has a chipset that will give you pretty close to the maximum speed possible with the Raspberry Pi 4's slightly wiggly data path: STARTECH USB 3.0 to 2.5" SATA III Hard Drive Adapter Cable w/ UASP —
https://www.canadacomputers.com/product_info.php?cPath=5_1336_96&item_id=085674
I am curious when you say slightly wiggly data path ? How wiggly ?
This may all get radically simpler when UEFI for the Raspberry Pi becomes a stable thing, but that's a little way off yet.
I hate UEFI always gives me a hard time when I have to do a dual boot linux/Windows installation.
Any other things to watch out for and be aware of before I purchase ?
If you do buy the full kit including keyboard and mouse, the compact keyboard and mouse are surprisingly good (for my values of "good"). It also has the clever feature of a 3-port USB hub built into the keyboard, so you can plug in the mouse and only use one port - and still have a nearby port for USB stick use.
I was thinking of getting a USB extender hub with 4 ports or similar.
The full kit comes with 2x micro-hdmi to HDMI cables. Absurd numbers of Raspberry Pi 4s are selling as dual-monitor thin clients, but note there's only room for *micro* HDMI connectors: it's hard to bodge with adapters.
Alright noted with thanks.
You also said:
The hardest I will run that Pi will be when compiling the Linux Kernel and when making Video calls.
Ah. The Raspberry Pi kernel is *not quite* mainline yet. Building a new kernel will likely lose you useful things in the stock kernel, such as 3d graphics acceleration and video acceleration. You also (currently) lose that if you run a 64-bit kernel.
Oh no-no I meant compiling the Raspberry Pi kernel itself. I found some code here: https://github.com/raspberrypi Again just to teach myself and see if I can make it have a smaller footprint.
The stock Raspberry Pi OS image (formerly known as Raspbian: it's Debian-based) has the best user experience. Every other distro hasn't got as much user support. The Raspberry Pi Foundation has a very definite view of how their desktop should look, so if you've done lots of customization to their LXDE-based desktop, it *will* all get reverted at the next refresh of the UI. This happens roughly quarterly.
So is the quarterly refresh of the UI automatic ? or you are given the option to choose and say yes go ahead or uh-uh stick with my modified one ?
Also, video calls: I don't know of any of the major video call providers that support ARM and Raspberry Pi. Google Meet through Chromium, maybe. Anything that requires a binary (so Zoom, Skype) is right out. Going to ARM from x86 for the first time can be a bit of a blow: the number of systems that only work on x86 is annoyingly high.
Video calls are what I use to stress test a system. I did find some links about making video calls using the Pi: Video Calling on Raspberry Pi 3 <https://www.instructables.com/id/Video-Calling-on-Raspberry-Pi-3/> Working from home with your Pi <https://www.raspberrypi.org/blog/working-from-home-with-your-raspberry-pi/>Turn a Raspberry Pi, a Webcam and a TV into a video call ... <https://www.balena.io/blog/put-friends-and-loved-ones-on-the-big-screen-with-this-instant-video-call-project/>
The Raspberry Pi camera is also fixed focus and doesn't do audio. It's not useful for video calls.
Okay good to know again.
I don't know anyone well enough in the Edmonton area to help with installation, sorry.
No worries, you have been a big help. Thank you.
cheers, Stewart
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