X86 Exagear Emulation • Android Gaming • Meta Package Installation Year Two Issue #14 Feb 2015 ODROIDMagazine DockerDocker OS Spotlight: Deploying ready-to-use Ubuntu Studio containers for running complex system environments • Interfacing ODROID-C1 with 16 Channel Relay Play with the Weather Board • ODROID-C1 Minimal Install • Device Configuration for Android Development • Remote Desktop using Guacamole What we stand for. We strive to symbolize the edge of technology, future, youth, humanity, and engineering. Our philosophy is based on Developers. And our efforts to keep close relationships with developers around the world. For that, you can always count on having the quality and sophistication that is the hallmark of our products. Simple, modern and distinctive. So you can have the best to accomplish everything you can dream of. We are now shipping the ODROID U3 devices to EU countries! Come and visit our online store to shop! Address: Max-Pollin-Straße 1 85104 Pförring Germany Telephone & Fax phone : +49 (0) 8403 / 920-920 email : [email protected] Our ODROID products can be found at http://bit.ly/1tXPXwe EDITORIAL ow that ODROID Magazine is in its second year, we’ve ex- panded into several social networks in order to make it Neasier for you to ask questions, suggest topics, send article submissions, and be notified whenever the latest issue has been posted. Check out our Google+ page at http://bit.ly/1D7ds9u, our Reddit forum at http://bit. ly/1DyClsP, and our Hardkernel subforum at http://bit.ly/1E66Tm6. If you’ve been following the recent Docker trends, you’ll be excited to find out about some of the pre-built Docker images available for the ODROID, detailed in the second part of our Docker series that began last month. For those who want to try x86 emulation, Tobias presents an overview of an application called Exagear, which allows many Windows applications to run on ARM architecture, includ- ing Skype. Venkat brings us the technical details for installing Guacamole, which enables remote desktop viewing from a browser, and Nanik contin- ues his Android Development series with a look into device configuration. For those interested in setting up a weather station, the ODROID Weather Board (http://bit.ly/1wtPdgP) makes a perfect addon, and Jussi had some fun by remotely monitoring meteorological conditions with it. Tinkering en- thusiasts will enjoy the feature on connecting a 16-channel relay to the C1, and and musicians and artists can learn more about Ubuntu Studio, which is free to download and install on any Ubuntu distribution, providing lots of open-source media tools for creating and producing art, videos and music. Android and mobile gaming has become very popular in recent years, and Bru- no continues to present his favorite games for the ODROID, including Plants Vs. Zombies 2, Fish out of Water, and Pew Pew. If you have a favorite game that you’d like to see reviewed, create a post on the ODROID Magazine subfo- rum or make a note on our Google+ page, and we may feature it in an upcoming issue! ODROID Magazine, published monthly at http://magazine.odroid.com, is your source for all things ODROIDian. Hard Kernel, Ltd. • 704 Anyang K-Center, Gwanyang, Dongan, Anyang, Gyeonggi, South Korea, 431-815 Makers of the ODROID family of quad-core development boards and the world’s first ARM big.LITTLE architecture based single board computer. Join the ODROID community with members from over 135 countries, at http://forum.odroid.com, and explore the new technologies offered by Hardkernel at http://www.hardkernel.com. ODROID MAGAZINE 3 STAFF ODROIDMagazine Rob Roy, Bo Bruno Doiche, Chief Editor Lechnowsky, Senior Editor Art Editor I’m a computer programmer living I am President of Re- Made a pact with and working in San spectech, Inc., a tech- the fianceé to sweep Francisco, CA, design- nology consultancy in Uki- the floor everyday, so he got himself a ing and building web applications ah, CA, USA that I founded in 2001. Roomba. for local clients on my network From my background in electronics cluster of ODROIDs. My primary and computer programming, I manage languages are jQuery, Angular JS a team of technologists, plus develop and HTML5/CSS3. I also develop custom solutions for companies rang- pre-built operating systems, custom ing from small businesses to worldwide kernels and optimized applications corporations. ODROIDs are one of for the ODROID platform based the weapons in my arsenal for tack- on Hardkernel’s official releases, for ling these projects. My favorite devel- which I have won several Monthly opment languages are Rebol and Red, Forum Awards. I use my ODROIDs both of which run fabulously on ARM- for a variety of purposes, including based systems like the ODROID-U3. media center, web server, applica- Regarding hobbies, if you need some, tion development, workstation, and I’d be happy to give you some of mine gaming console. You can check out as I have too many. That would help my 100GB collection of ODROID me to have more time to spend with my software, prebuilt kernels and OS wonderful wife of 23 years and my four images at http://bit.ly/1fsaXQs. beautiful children. Nicole Scott, James Manuel Art Editor LeFevour, Adamuz, Art Editor Spanish I’m a Digital Strat- Editor egist and Trans- I am a Digital Me- media Producer dia Specialist who is I am 31 years old specializing in online also enjoying freelance and live in Seville, optimization and inbound market- work in social network marketing and Spain, and was born in Granada. I ing strategies, social media directing, website administration. The more I am married to a wonderful woman and media production for print, web, learn about ODROID capabilities the and have a child. A few years ago I video, and film. Managing multiple more excited I am to try new things I’m worked as a computer technician and accounts with agencies and filmmak- learning about. Being a transplant to programmer, but my current job is ers, from Analytics and Adwords to San Diego from the Midwest, I am still related to quality management and video editing and DVD authoring. I quite enamored with many aspects that information technology: ISO 9001, own an ODROID-U3 which I use I think most West Coast people take for ISO 27001, and ISO 20000. I am to run a sandbox web server, live in granted. I live with my lovely wife and passionate about computer science, the California Bay Area, and enjoy our adorable pet rabbit; the latter keeps especially microcomputers such as the hiking, camping and playing music. my books and computer equipment in ODROID and Raspberry Pi. I love Visit my web page at http://www.ni- constant peril, the former consoles me experimenting with these computers. colecscott.com. when said peril manifests. My wife says I’m crazy because I just think of ODROIDs! My other great hobby is mountain biking, and I oc- casionally participate in semi-profes- sional competitions. ODROID MAGAZINE 4 INDEX EXAGEAR X86 EMULATION - 6 ANDROID GAMING: PEW PEW - 9 META PACKAGE MANAGEMENT - 10 ANDROID GAMIING: FISH OUT OF WATER - 11 REMOTE DESKTOP - 12 OS SPOTLIGHT: UBUNTU STUDIO - 15 ANDROID GAMING: PLANTS VS. ZOMBIES - 18 WEATHER BOARD - 19 ANDROID DEVELOPMENT - 29 CI MINIMAL INSTALL - 32 ODROID MAGAZINE ON GOOGLE+ - 35 RELAY - 36 ODROID FORUMS- 40 DOCKER - 41 DEBIAN VS. UBUNTU- 48 MEET AN ODROIDIAN - 49 ODROID MAGAZINE 5 X86 EMULATION X86 EMULATION A LOOK INTO EXAGEAR by Tobias Schaaf ltechs ExaGear desktop is a virtual machine that imple- ments a software-based x86 Linux container on ARM Eand allows you to run Intel x86 applications directly. It is like QEMU but 4.5 times faster. You can even run Windows applications on your ARM device if you install Wine. When ExaGear was first announced, I had doubts about its capabili- ties, and never thought I would actually use it. However, when I installed it a short time ago, I was actually surprised, and want to share my experience and results with x86 emulation on ARM devices using ExaGear. Overview ExaGear is not free, and a license must be purchased from Eltechs at http://bit.ly/YbPqc5. ExaGear comes with install- able Debian packages and a stripped-down Ubuntu 12.04 x86 image. The package should work on all Debian-based systems such as the official Ubuntu 14.04 images from HardKernel, as Exagear runs x86 applications on ARM devices, including the ODROID family well as any Debian image, such as my ODROID GameStation Turbo image. OpenGL. This means that not all functions are supported, ExaGear works by running x86 applications on your ARM- and the graphics are rather slow. based ODROID board using the kernel and drivers coming For example, you can install Steam on the ODROID, but from your board. It seems to simply translate x86 function you can’t run it, since some functions are missing and it won’t calls into ARM equivalents, and for this purpose, it is rather start. Any applications that requires fancy graphics won’t run, efficient. and the same applies to Windows applications. Although you can run many Windows x86 applications, those that use heavy What can you do DirectX components like 3D games won’t work, or will be very Since ExaGear comes with a minimal Ubuntu 12.04 im- slow, and actually will make your ODROID run very hot. age, you can install and (theoretically) run any program that is compatible with Ubuntu 12.04, which gives a wide range of Real examples applications. Basically everything that’s in the Ubuntu reposi- With all that said, you might wonder, what is ExaGear tory can be installed, including applications that come from good for and what can you expect? Check out Figure 1 for Ubuntu partners, like Zentyal and Steam.