BIFFERBOARD

This is a fantastic little board, affordable (35 pounds) , very light and compact. it has only 150Mhz processor but it is the price to pay for a minimum  power consumption size and cheap price.

Here are the specifications.

150MHz CPU, Intel 486SX instruction set, MMU.
1 watt power consumption (200mA @5v)
68mm x 28mm x 21mm (weight 28g)
32MB SDRAM/8MB Flash
OHCI/EHCI USB 2.0
10/100 ethernet
Serial console 115200 baud (can be used as 2 GPIO)
4-pin JTAG (can be used as GPIO)
2 permanent GPIO (1 LED, 1 button)

To buy it: http://bifferos.bizhat.com/
Wiki: http://sites.google.com/site/bifferboard/
Group: http://groups.google.com/group/bifferboard



It tooks me a lot of time to build the Debian Distro with the header and all the features and tuning I wanted.
I am now running Debian Squeeze on a Linux 2.6.32.2 kernel.
Basically all the modules are enabled and a wide range of USB devices are  recognised and will work out of the box (bluetooth dongle, Serial ftdi, several Webcams, wifi adapters, USB audio,....).
I used Stuart Hopkins' Debian kernel/rootfs build and installation scripts :

http://www.linux-depot.com/?p=projects&s=bifferboard


(note 1: the .debs links are broken in the rootfs scripts, so you need to compile your own .debs and update the script links)
(note 2: for the 2.6.32.2 kernel build you need to add the relevant config files and patches, you can download them from the Bifferboard repository)

I also collected many good infos from Graham blog below:

http://www.sunspot.co.uk/Projects/Bifferboard/biff_index.html


You can download my Kernel image and Debian rootfs with the header from the links below:

https://docs.google.com/leaf?id=0B6rYc4n12uHTMGViYTcyOGItMDkyZi00YTdiLTljNTEtMjBjMWU3YTNhZDAy&hl=en_US

To install :


Untar the files (all the files are compressed in one folder)

1- flash the kernel.
python bb_upload8.py /dev/ttyUSB0  image_name


2- format your usb disk
mkfs.ext3 /dev/sdx1 (change x with the letter of your usb disk)
tune2fs -c 0 -i 0  /dev/sdx1


3-copy the rootfs folder content to the usb disk

Login = root, Password = root

Notes:

STARTUP SCRIPT:

I added a startup script (clovis_startup.sh) in /etc/init.d (to start the gpio, I2c, wlan,..)

If you modifiy it then type the following at a console line:
update-rc.d -f  clovis_startup.sh remove
update-rc.d -f clovis_startup.sh defaults

BOOT TIME:

between 40s and 1min 20 (depending if you leave or note Lighttpd, i2c, gpio, alsa...)

BUTTON GPIO  to reset WLAN (2 s) or Poweroff (5 s)
Script to add in /etc/rc.local as:    /home/gpio/button2.sh &
(start it with ./rc.local once)
#!/bin/sh
#button2.sh
#Script to add in /etc/rc.local as:    /home/gpio/button2.sh &
#(start it with ./rc.local once)
echo 15 > /sys/class/gpio/unexport #flikker the red led 2 times
echo 15 > /sys/class/gpio/export
echo 16 > /sys/class/gpio/unexport
echo 16 > /sys/class/gpio/export
echo out > /sys/class/gpio/gpio16/direction
echo 1 > /sys/class/gpio/gpio16/value
while : ; do
BUTTON1=`cat /sys/class/gpio/gpio15/value`
if [ "$BUTTON1" = "0" ]; then
   sleep 3
BUTTON2=`cat /sys/class/gpio/gpio15/value`
   if [ "$BUTTON2" = "1" ]; then
echo !!WLAN REBOOT!! > /tmp/lcd4linux.fifo #print !!WLAN REBOOT!! on the lcd screen
echo 0 > /sys/class/gpio/gpio16/value
sleep 1
echo 1 > /sys/class/gpio/gpio16/value

/sbin/ifdown wlan2
/sbin/ifup wlan2

echo wlan rebooted > /tmp/lcd4linux.fifo #print "wlan rebooted" on the lcd screen

   else
echo !!POWEROFF!! > /tmp/lcd4linux.fifo
echo 1 > /sys/class/gpio/gpio16/value
/sbin/poweroff
   fi
fi
sleep 1
done
exit 0