A Few Quick Qns

[le4thab]

Hey all.

My name is James.Nice to meet you all.

I have a few questions i would appreciate some help with.

I have the intention of buying one model B board when they start sales.

I would hope to use this as a mini pc hooked up to my bedroom tv primaraly to download movies and other media aswel as web browsing.

This would make the ps3 just a games console because the model b has hdmi for video and audio and also a separate 3.5mm jack for audio which would be perfect for 2.1 gaming chair.

Qns,

1 Is there a maximum size of external HDD that the RPi would support via a powered usb hub?

2 Can anyone recommend a budget wireless kb and mouse set that works well with linux?(doesnt need any bells and whistles jus bog standard no frills lol)

3 Same as above but with a usb wifi adaptor?

I am a little too eagar and would like to pre purchace these items so i will be ready to roll as soon as i have the RPi lol

Just like to say a big thank you to the RPi team for such an awesome product and hope to have one in my hands very soon.

James

[Benedict White]

le4thab said:


Hey all.

My name is James.Nice to meet you all.

I have a few questions i would appreciate some help with.

I have the intention of buying one model B board when they start sales.

I would hope to use this as a mini pc hooked up to my bedroom tv primaraly to download movies and other media aswel as web browsing.

This would make the ps3 just a games console because the model b has hdmi for video and audio and also a separate 3.5mm jack for audio which would be perfect for 2.1 gaming chair.

Qns,

1 Is there a maximum size of external HDD that the RPi would support via a powered usb hub?


No, but there may be issues over file sizes over 4GB I believe as that is a limit of 32 bit Linux.


2 Can anyone recommend a budget wireless kb and mouse set that works well with linux?(doesnt need any bells and whistles jus bog standard no frills lol)


It's a keyboard and mouse... standard device wireless or not.



3 Same as above but with a usb wifi adaptor?


That's a bit more tricky. It would have to have a "mainlined" Linux driver.


I am a little too eagar and would like to pre purchace these items so i will be ready to roll as soon as i have the RPi lol

Just like to say a big thank you to the RPi team for such an awesome product and hope to have one in my hands very soon.

James


You do know the RaspberryPi will run Linux. It's not the same as Windows in terms of "user experience" and most for profit games makers don't write games for it?

[le4thab]

thank you for your reply.

yes i do understand this.

i have  little experiance with pc's in general but a little more with linux but is still very little.

i have been playing with Debian with the nokia N900 for a few days but it is all new to me.

i have lots of time on my hands at the moment so hopefully it is something i can build upon(from an understanding and new skills perspective)

James

[Benedict White]

le4thab said:


thank you for your reply.

yes i do understand this.

i have  little experiance with pc's in general but a little more with linux but is still very little.

i have been playing with Debian with the nokia N900 for a few days but it is all new to me.

i have lots of time on my hands at the moment so hopefully it is something i can build upon(from an understanding and new skills perspective)

James


OK, good luck!

[mobeyduck]

1) Powered via a usb hub would be a 2,5" drive those are still limited to 1TB, i don't know if 3TB or more drives are supported by Linux.

3) wifi usb sticks are available everywhere but i dont know of a wifi keyboard if there are any it wont be budget.

2) Logitech is a good brand that has some nice keyboards i like the look of Mk320 (check local store/on-line-price-checker here Logitech costs €10 more)

Mabey, for your purpose, this fits better K400  starts @ €30.

ooh i forgot linux and drivers... logitech isnt really good at those

[le4thab]

haha sorry i meant a bluetooth kb mouse not wifi.that is my fault for the confusion and not planning out exactly what i would like to say.

sorry

James

[le4thab]

Benedict White said:


le4thab said:


thank you for your reply.

yes i do understand this.

i have  little experiance with pc's in general but a little more with linux but is still very little.

i have been playing with Debian with the nokia N900 for a few days but it is all new to me.

i have lots of time on my hands at the moment so hopefully it is something i can build upon(from an understanding and new skills perspective)

James


OK, good luck!


thank you very much!

[mobeyduck]

Ah those do exist, but some of them are rare to find. with that i mean the real bluetooth ones that work on any bluetooth receiver there are some that only work on the provided receiver...

Well, looking at my favourite dutch pricewatch i only see 2 sets that use bluetooth but those start at €59..

BT mouses are around €20 and a BT keyboard €40-€50 and more, not really budget

I stumbled uppon this http://www.mythtv.org/wiki/Wir....._Keyboards some tested to work wireless keyboards.

[Benedict White]

mobeyduck said:


1) Powered via a usb hub would be a 2,5" drive those are still limited to 1TB, i don"t know if 3TB or more drives are supported by Linux.


EXT4 supports file sizes of 16TB, as as far as I know, disk size is not an issue. If you want the disk USB powered it would be 2.5", but if you power a 3.5" disk, you can have as large a disk as is available but can only access it at USB 2 speeds.


3) wifi usb sticks are available everywhere but i dont know of a wifi keyboard if there are any it wont be budget.


The question is, is there a Linux driver for the stick? You would need to check, and see what Arm Linux users use.


2) Logitech is a good brand that has some nice keyboards i like the look of Mk320 (check local store/on-line-price-checker here Logitech costs €10 more)

Mabey, for your purpose, this fits better K400  starts @ €30.

ooh i forgot linux and drivers... logitech isnt really good at those


You don't need drivers for keyboards or mice if you are not using the fancy keys.

[le4thab]

mobeyduck said:


Ah those do exist, but some of them are rare to find. with that i mean the real bluetooth ones that work on any bluetooth receiver there are some that only work on the provided receiver...

Well, looking at my favourite dutch pricewatch i only see 2 sets that use bluetooth but those start at €59..

BT mouses are around €20 and a BT keyboard €40-€50 and more, not really budget

I stumbled uppon this http://www.mythtv.org/wiki/Wir....._Keyboards some tested to work wireless keyboards.


thank you .

thats a very interesting idea,1 bt receiver for mouse and kb = less usb ports on powered hub.

this is something i am going to have to look into more.

i cane feel my budget growing by the second lol

[mobeyduck]

yea that's the trouble with projects like this it makes you want more and more

btw the wireless kb+mouse sets also use just 1 usb port BT has the benefit of connecting phones/headphones etc

[le4thab]

Benedict White said:


mobeyduck said:


1) Powered via a usb hub would be a 2,5" drive those are still limited to 1TB, i don"t know if 3TB or more drives are supported by Linux.


EXT4 supports file sizes of 16TB, as as far as I know, disk size is not an issue. If you want the disk USB powered it would be 2.5", but if you power a 3.5" disk, you can have as large a disk as is available but can only access it at USB 2 speeds.

speed shouldnt be a problem lol


3) wifi usb sticks are available everywhere but i dont know of a wifi keyboard if there are any it wont be budget.


The question is, is there a Linux driver for the stick? You would need to check, and see what Arm Linux users use.

i suppose if i have a problem with this i could use a belkin(no idea of model no) wireless router that has a linux firmware flashed on it


2) Logitech is a good brand that has some nice keyboards i like the look of Mk320 (check local store/on-line-price-checker here Logitech costs €10 more)

Mabey, for your purpose, this fits better K400  starts @ €30.

ooh i forgot linux and drivers... logitech isnt really good at those


You don't need drivers for keyboards or mice if you are not using the fancy keys.

that is good to know lol

can you tell im not a "tech guy" lol

[Benedict White]

le4thab said:




that is good to know lol

can you tell im not a "tech guy" lol



You will need to learn, at least a bit. That is a good thing.

[le4thab]

Benedict White said:


le4thab said:



that is good to know lol

can you tell im not a "tech guy" lol



You will need to learn, at least a bit. That is a good thing.


well i realy do hope i can lol it will be very fun

[jakjack1]

Im using a logiteck keyboard and mouse, Wireless, plug and play, runs on Linux with no issues.

If you go on ebay and search for Linux Wifi, you will get hundreds of Linux compatible Wifi sticks, I have one, The name i'm not sure of, but it works with linux.

External Hard drive i'm not so sure about, I plan on using Network storage personally.

[Prometheus]

Benedict White said:

No, but there may be issues over file sizes over 4GB I believe as that is a limit of 32 bit Linux.
Pardon my asking, but are you sure about that?

It's just, I've ripped much of my DVD collection on 32-bit x86 Linux, and haven't run into any issues. Even the smallest discs are 4.4GB.

[jamesh]

4GB limit is a FAT32 limitation, not a Linux limit. Use EXT3/4 and you'll have no problems. Although the disk won't be able to be read on windows machines.

Oh, and you should be using H264 for your DVD encodes - I was getting files size of about 4GB for MP4 rips, which dropped to 1-2GB using H264 - much better compression.

[Prometheus]

JamesH said:


4GB limit is a FAT32 limitation, not a Linux limit. Use EXT3/4 and you'll have no problems. Although the disk won't be able to be read on windows machines.


That's what I thought.


Oh, and you should be using H264 for your DVD encodes - I was getting files size of about 4GB for MP4 rips, which dropped to 1-2GB using H264 - much better compression.


Encodes? I was just talking about a couple of DVDs that I made plain disc images of (this was before HandBrake had a GUI on Linux; Fear not, my ripping is much more sensible now ), as they were the biggest files on my HDD that I could find when I wrote my post. I really need to reorganise my files a bit...

[kkolev]

What I"ve recently purchased and am still waiting to arrive – http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/ws/e.....AQ:GB:1123 – the customer support has been quite good, sending a follow up email to ask me if I"ve received it yet.

23 quid, keyboard and touchpad, includes usb-bluetooth receiver. The size of a remote control, touchpad can rotate 90 degrees. If that thing works ok (especially the BT dongle on a raspi), that"s gonna be the best HTPC addition I"ve done.

[Benedict White]

Prometheus said:


Benedict White said:


No, but there may be issues over file sizes over 4GB I believe as that is a limit of 32 bit Linux.


Pardon my asking, but are you sure about that?

It's just, I've ripped much of my DVD collection on 32-bit x86 Linux, and haven't run into any issues. Even the smallest discs are 4.4GB.


No, I checked and posted the file size limits of EXT4 which is 16TB. It depends on what file system you choose. I doubt someone would choose a limited one for main external storage on a large disk.

[nichobb]

JamesH said:


4GB limit is a FAT32 limitation, not a Linux limit. Use EXT3/4 and you"ll have no problems. Although the disk won"t be able to be read on windows machines.



Well you can install drivers on a windows machine to access EXT3/4, useful if sharing content between devices and FAT32 not suitable (age has advantage of compatibility). I think I used below without issue:
http://www.ext2fsd.com/

[jamesh]

Prometheus said:


JamesH said:


4GB limit is a FAT32 limitation, not a Linux limit. Use EXT3/4 and you'll have no problems. Although the disk won't be able to be read on windows machines.


That's what I thought.


Oh, and you should be using H264 for your DVD encodes - I was getting files size of about 4GB for MP4 rips, which dropped to 1-2GB using H264 - much better compression.


Encodes? I was just talking about a couple of DVDs that I made plain disc images of (this was before HandBrake had a GUI on Linux; Fear not, my ripping is much more sensible now ), as they were the biggest files on my HDD that I could find when I wrote my post. I really need to reorganise my files a bit...


I'm quite impressed with Handbrake. Much better than DVD::Rip which I used before.

[le4thab]

i dont think the storage not being seen on a windows pc will be much of a problem to me.i just thought there would be an issue with the size of the hdd that the os would see.

do you think i will see any issues watchins say movies off the hdd with the usb 2 speeds?

[Benedict White]

le4thab said:


i dont think the storage not being seen on a windows pc will be much of a problem to me.i just thought there would be an issue with the size of the hdd that the os would see.

do you think i will see any issues watchins say movies off the hdd with the usb 2 speeds?


No idea, not tried it. Stick a movie on a usb 2 stick and try it.

[mightygoose]

while not directly irrelevant, me and my dad both use logitech mk320 wireless keyboard+mice. they are really nice. very happy with them for the price.