[OSGeo-Discuss] Revisiting the Raspberry Pi -- new developments

Thu Jun 18 23:08:37 PDT 2020

Hi,

Thank you for the update, adding OSGeoLive list in CC.

On 6/13/20 1:31 AM, Jim Callahan wrote:
> Back in mid-2012 there was some discussion about whether a Raspberry Pi
> could be used for OSGeo Live. Thanks  to Moore's Law, Broadcom and the
> Raspberry Pi foundation (and Canonical) there has been some progress in the
> eight years since the discussion in 2012; so it may be time to revisit the
> issue.
>
> Hello all,
>> I've been asked whether OSGeo-Live would run on Raspberry Pi, to be used
>> as a teaching device. A Raspberry Pi is a $25 credit card size computer.
>> It runs Debian and only has 256 Meg of RAM. http://www.raspberrypi.org
>> I've CCed the OSGeo-Live email list, as I expect there will be many on
>> the list with an interest, and probably a few opinions too.
>> The challenge will be the size of RAM. Up to version 5.0, we ran
>> OSGeo-Live with 512 Meg of RAM, but with version 5.5 we discovered that
>> some of the Java applications required more RAM, and we recommend at
>> least 768 Meg RAM, and preferably 1 Gig.
>> The problem will be all the java based applications, which are RAM
>> intensive.
>
> 1. RAM -- The Raspberry Pi 4 has  a choice of 2, 4 or 8 GB of RAM
> https://www.raspberrypi.org/products/raspberry-pi-4-model-b/
>
> 2. 64 bit -- Historically, Raspbian OS, the default operating system for
> the Raspberry PI has been 32 bit. Recently, the Raspberry Pi Foundation has
> announced a 64 bit version to be known as "Raspberry Pi OS".
>
> "Raspberry Pi OS (64 bit) beta test version
> Quote
> Thu May 28, 2020 6:29 am
>
> [b]This is a beta test of the Raspberry Pi OS (64 bit)[/b]
>
> We still recommend the 32 bit operating system for all Pis at this time,
> although have decided it is now time to begin the move toward a 64bit OS.
> For the moment this is a 'beta' program, the OS is in heavy flux and its
> functionality is likely to change significantly over the next few months.
>
> Note, the 64bit OS is only install-able on the Pi 3 and Pi 4 devices"
> https://www.raspberrypi.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=275370
>
> 4. Lubuntu -- OSGeo Live is built on the Lubuntu flavor of Ubuntu. Both
> Raspberry Pi OS and Ubuntu are downstream of  Debian, so in effect they
> are cousins (not direct descendents of each other). Ubuntu Server has been
> ported to the Raspberry  Pi and Step #5 of installing Ubuntu Server is
> "selecting a desktop" and fortunately  Lubuntu is one of the choices!
>
> sudo apt install lubuntu-desktop
>
> https://ubuntu.com/tutorials/how-to-install-ubuntu-on-your-raspberry-pi#5-install-a-desktop
>
>
> 5. Disk storage space -- By default, the Raspberry PI 3 and 4 use micro SD
> cards. SD cards can easily  hold 32 GB and newer standards allow multiple
> terabytes. In addition, a USB 3 port can be used to add an external drive.
>
> By default, Raspberry Pi boots up and stores all of its programs on a
>> microSD memory card, which has a maximum theoretical bandwidth of 50 MBps
>> on the Raspberry Pi 4 and just 25 MBps on prior models. Using an external
>> SSD as your main storage drive could speed things up significantly, but up
>> until just recently, you couldn't boot the Pi 4 off a USB device. However,
>> new beta-level firmware lets you do just that.
>>
>> In our real-life tests of a Raspberry Pi 4 with SSD last year we got
>> impressive performance with sequential transfer rates as high as 140 MB /
>> 208 MBps for reading and writing. You can also use a standard USB flash
>> drive, though we found the performance worse than a microSD card on many
>> tasks.
>
> https://www.tomshardware.com/how-to/boot-raspberry-pi-4-usb
>
>   6. OpenGL -- the Broadcom hardware supports OpenGL,  but it is not
> implemented on all operating systems.
>
> The GPU bundled with Raspberry Pi 4 is a VideoCore VI capable of OpenGL ES
>> 3.2, a significant step above the VideoCore IV present in Raspberry Pi 3
>> which could only do OpenGL ES 2.0. Despite the fact that both GPU models
>> belong in Broadcom’s VideoCore family, they have quite significant
>> architectural differences, so we also have two separate OpenGL driver
>> implementations. Unfortunately, as you may have guessed, this also means
>> that driver work on one GPU won’t be directly useful for the other, and
>> that any new feature development that we do for the Raspberry Pi 4 driver
>> stack won’t naturally transport to Raspberry Pi 3.
> https://www.raspberrypi.org/blog/vc4-and-v3d-opengl-drivers-for-raspberry-pi-an-update/
>
>
>   Ubuntu 19.10 64bit V3D OpenGL driver for Raspberry Pi 4
>> Quote
>> Wed Jan 08, 2020 3:01 pm
>> Hi, I am using the latest Ubuntu 19.10.1 64bit which contains mesa 19.2
>> package. How can I activate the latest v3d video driver in my system to get
>> graphic acceleration in 3d games and applications? I tried writing
>> dtoverlay=vc4-fkms-v3d in my /boot/firmware/config.txt, but could not load
>> the lxqt desktop. Black screen only
> https://www.raspberrypi.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=261426
>
> So, a number of technological factors are converging to make a Raspberry Pi
> 4 version of OSGeo Live possible either  on Ubuntu Server/Lubuntu desktop
> 20.04 LTS or if not by the 20.10 version sometime after October 2020.
>
> So, if it might be possible,  would it  be worth anybody's time to do this?
> Is there a need or use case for OSGeo  Live on a Raspberry Pi 4?
> or would it just be a useless one off stunt requiring immense, but futile
> effort?
>
> The 2020 U.S. Census begins release of data in April 2021. So, that might
> generate more interest in GIS in the U.S.,  but what  about the  rest of
> the world? Are there projects or programs where a Raspberry Pi 4 running
> Lubuntu with OSGeo Live might be useful?
>
> Jim Callahan
> CEO & Data Scientist
> Callahan Data Science LLC
> Orlando, FL
>
>
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-- 
Angelos Tzotsos, PhD
President
Open Source Geospatial Foundation
http://users.ntua.gr/tzotsos

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