sd image and more

[le4thab]

hey all

James here would like a some info if possible.

i do not have real usage of a pc only "smartphones".

one of these "smarphones" is a nokia n900

that will run a debian image.i assume that this will be ok

to write the newest debian image to an sd (dd using xterm)?

which brings me to my next question,

the RPi runs a arm11 cup clocked at 700mhz and the n900 runs a arm a8 clocked

al 600mhz but this is overclockable upto 1.1ghz with no voltage change and with only

passive cooling (is a mobile phone afterall)

is it safe to assume then that the RPi will run at about 1ghz without issue?

i look forward to hearing from you all.

James

[mahjongg]

Your n900 assumptions do not apply to the R-PI, The distribution used has no relevance  on overclocking, and the Arm A8 is a very different beast than the 600MHz ARMv6 used in the R-PI.

Nevertheless there is some room to overclock, and there are voltage settings (that when used void the warranty of the R-PI) see config.txt discussions elesewhere on the forum.

But overclocking is limited to 100MHz or so, nowhere near the 500 MHz extra to reach the 1100MHz you are taking about.

[le4thab]

thanks for the reply.i understand this,i hope there is more room than 100mhz lol.do you have an opinion on the writing of the image using the n900?

[mahjongg]

If its a full debian running on your n900, I don't know why not!

There were some problems when using a windows program, because it did not detect (and remove) non windows partitions before flashing the image to the SD-card. but DD should work fine, you could use gparted to see if the card is really empty before flashing it, but it doesn't seem to be necessary when using DD.

[le4thab]

yes it is a full install with gimp icewasel and synaptic ect

[mahjongg]

Nice! A portable Linux PC!

I remember handling its predecessor the n810 during a CeBit visit (an electronics fair in Hannover germany) a couple of year ago.

You should feel right at home when using a R-PI.

[le4thab]

yeah very cool little device and can be used very similar to the RPi with usb host mode to connect mouse and keyboard and it supports tv out via (supplies) 3.5mm to rca cable.

shame that the lil bugger has given up the ghose and gives me an error of all telephony functions disabled lol but is still usable as a (small) internet tablet lol

[asb]

If you search the forums, you'll see that Dom has reported running his Pi at 1Ghz for an extended period (overvolting as well as just bumping up the processor frequency is required).

[abishur]

mahjongg said:


If its a full debian running on your n900, I don't know why not!

There were some problems when using a windows program, because it did not detect (and remove) non windows partitions before flashing the image to the SD-card. but DD should work fine, you could use gparted to see if the card is really empty before flashing it, but it doesn't seem to be necessary when using DD.



To be fair, that issue only involves an SD card that has already had the image put onto it   If you're setting up a fresh SD card for the first time then it will work fine

[Joe Schmoe]

Note that this sort of thing ("Oh, it works - but it only works once - then you have to use tool <X> in some weird way in order to fix it...") is precisely why I don't think it does anyone any favors to encourage "Windows-think" when doing this task (writing to the SD card).

And, to be clear, it is not that I think Windows users are stupid (like you, I'm a long time Windows user and for most things, it has to be conceded that it works better and more reliably than anything else.  That's not because of any inherent superiority of Windows; it is simply a fact of its being the most widely used and hence the best debugged).  What I am saying is that for this sort of low-level task (writing a complicated Linux image to a raw SD card), you have to think low-level.  And Windows encourages (pretty much forces) you to ignore the low-level.

As an aside, the Mac is a funny thing these days.  Classically, it was always the case that the Mac was more "Don't think about it - just run your apps" than Windows is/was.  In fact, compared to the Mac, a Windows PC is very "hands on".  But now that Mac is really Unix, the Mac is a funny combination of "very high level" and Unix-y "low level".  A strange beast...

[Chris.Rowland]

I don't see this issue with not being able to overwrite an existing SD card image at all, and I spent some time yesterday evening trying it.

Use Win32DiskImager to put an image on a SD card - it's there.

Use Win32DiskImager to put a different image there - and the new one is there.

It Just Works. Win32DiskImager does what it's supposed to do.

This is with Win 7 64 bits and a built in SD card reader. It's an Acer laptop, nothing exotic.

Could there be some other reason why people report seeing this?