GCompris?
16 posts
Could GCompris work on the raspberry pi?
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- Joined: Thu Sep 01, 2011 6:52 am
If someone compiled it for the ARM11, yes.
Rule #1: If a human tries to argue with a logical device like a computer, the device always wins.
Rule #2: A big bucket of water, window, or hammer can nullify Rule #1.
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- Joined: Wed Aug 31, 2011 9:11 am
You should take a look at the FAQs page ;)
Dear forum: Play nice 
This is as far as I got with trying out gCompris - this page, then it sort of stopped doing anything. No idea why. Probably some odd X stuff somewhere.


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OK, got it working a lot better. All features appears to work, it's a bit slow but usable - not accelerated I don't think. If it uses OpenGL ES or OpenVG then that can certainly speed up, otherwise a bit of effort involved in making it run faster.
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Brilliant - if you can get it to a speed that doesn't chug too much, would you mind bunging it on an SD card for Eben with Stellarium? We can show them off next week in Oxford.
Not for nothing...but getting programs like Gcompris, TuxMath, TuxPaint to work on this device will do more for education than you can imagine. By far, the biggest opportunity to impact lives lies in focusing on intellectual development of kids between ages 2 and 5. Believe it or not, most kids from socio-economically depressed areas have already "lost" by the time they start school at age 6. If we can change that - turn it on its head - we can truly change the world.
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Thanks for the suggestions, I'll try out TuxMath and TuxPaint when I get the chance.
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Thanks.
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Thanks.
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I know there are a few messages about GCompris, so picked one almost at random to post this...
My 5 year old is playing very well on this software running with the new Raspbian distribution. It is a little slower than I'd like and falls over occasionally, but she likes it a lot.
So far she has practiced:
reading
addition / subtraction
pattern recognition (sort of)
mouse and keyboard skills
(accepting computers sometimes fall over... -Important skill for modern /windows/ life)
and probably a few others.
She keeps asking to use it, so it must be quite good. Only wish the graphics were a bit slicker, though iti doesn't help when I vnc in to play in python!
My 5 year old is playing very well on this software running with the new Raspbian distribution. It is a little slower than I'd like and falls over occasionally, but she likes it a lot.
So far she has practiced:
reading
addition / subtraction
pattern recognition (sort of)
mouse and keyboard skills
(accepting computers sometimes fall over... -Important skill for modern /windows/ life)
and probably a few others.
She keeps asking to use it, so it must be quite good. Only wish the graphics were a bit slicker, though iti doesn't help when I vnc in to play in python!
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- Joined: Thu Jan 12, 2012 2:32 pm
MarkA wrote:I know there are a few messages about GCompris, so picked one almost at random to post this...
My 5 year old is playing very well on this software running with the new Raspbian distribution. It is a little slower than I'd like and falls over occasionally, but she likes it a lot.
So far she has practiced:
reading
addition / subtraction
pattern recognition (sort of)
mouse and keyboard skills
(accepting computers sometimes fall over... -Important skill for modern /windows/ life)
and probably a few others.
She keeps asking to use it, so it must be quite good. Only wish the graphics were a bit slicker, though iti doesn't help when I vnc in to play in python!
Maybe it will work better with 512 mb ram, in which case the update would be worth it,
Paul
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- Location: Devon
Hi.
I've tried GCompris on both 256MB and 512MB RPi and unfortunately it runs slow on both.
A vmstat shows that CPU usage goes well above 60% every time the mouse is moved. See this commented "vmstat 1" output on http://pastebin.com/7rbvYCVX. Also context switching gets very high when GCompris is loaded (doesn't matter if idle or playing). The SD card is not the culprit because IO wait is 0%.
IMO GCompris is not useable on stock RPi. Same goes for Childsplay. I should try with the official overclocking procedure and report back.
Paolo
I've tried GCompris on both 256MB and 512MB RPi and unfortunately it runs slow on both.
A vmstat shows that CPU usage goes well above 60% every time the mouse is moved. See this commented "vmstat 1" output on http://pastebin.com/7rbvYCVX. Also context switching gets very high when GCompris is loaded (doesn't matter if idle or playing). The SD card is not the culprit because IO wait is 0%.
IMO GCompris is not useable on stock RPi. Same goes for Childsplay. I should try with the official overclocking procedure and report back.
Paolo
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- Joined: Fri Oct 26, 2012 9:03 am
Maybe there is some sort of optimum settings to grab as much memory / resources as possible to run these applications, e.g removing ssh-server if its not needed, etc, (or rather stopping it starting up)
However I think to get this right we would have to disclose if we have the 512 or 256 mb model, that way it helps others.
Back in the days of EMM386.exe and himem.sys it sometimes took a great deal of time to optimize a DOS system to run things, but it was possible.
Paul
However I think to get this right we would have to disclose if we have the 512 or 256 mb model, that way it helps others.
Back in the days of EMM386.exe and himem.sys it sometimes took a great deal of time to optimize a DOS system to run things, but it was possible.
Paul
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- Joined: Thu Jan 12, 2012 10:45 pm
- Location: Devon
Hum, tried with a 512 MB Pi too, Turbo mode with various RAM/Video split and never got to a point where I found it "usable" -at least to the point I could present it to my son's school-.
I am not a specialist (so feel free to comment!), but going to gcompris dev site (http://gcompris.net/-Development-), it appears based on goocanvas, itself based on cairo lib for graphics (http://www.cairographics.org/)... so targetting X window system, which does not use graphic acceleration on the pi....
There is a pretty long discussion going on there viewtopic.php?f=63&t=4649&start=300
Seems some people are working to resolve it so there is hope!
I am not a specialist (so feel free to comment!), but going to gcompris dev site (http://gcompris.net/-Development-), it appears based on goocanvas, itself based on cairo lib for graphics (http://www.cairographics.org/)... so targetting X window system, which does not use graphic acceleration on the pi....
There is a pretty long discussion going on there viewtopic.php?f=63&t=4649&start=300
Seems some people are working to resolve it so there is hope!
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- Joined: Sun Nov 25, 2012 11:25 pm