Fit PC

Official

• http://www.fit-pc.com
• Fit PC2 Specifications
• SBC Fit PC2 Specifications
• User Manual (pdf)
• wiki support
• Developer resources
• SBC Reference Guide

Specs

• My box is a fit-PC2 Rev 1.21, the first revision of fit-PC2
• Intel Atom Z530 1.6GHz
• 1GB DDR2-533 on-board
• Video: Intel GMA500, DVI Digital output up to 1920 x 1200 through HDMI connector (but no sound through HDMI)
• Phoenix BIOS
• 1000 BaseT ethernet and 802.11g
• 160 Gb Harddrive with Ubuntu
• 6 USB2
• IR receiver
• 6W at low CPU load, 8W at full CPU load, <1W at standby

Tips & tricks

BIOS

Latest firmware here
From linux:
Unmount completely your USB stick to be used for flashing fit-pc2, here let's say the USB stick is under /dev/sdb
You may consider backuping your USB content up to the size of the .img to be written on it first, then:

dd if=128MBDOS.img of=/dev/sdb
eject /dev/sdb

Manually unplug & replug the USB stick

cp xxxxx.ROM /media/0000-0001

Unmount and use the stick to flash the fit-pc2

Once in the BIOS you may consider activating the CPU virtual extensions (vtx)

Initial login

fit / 111111
sudo

If you don't want to re-type fit password with sudo, edit /etc/sudoers:

%sudo ALL=NOPASSWD: ALL

The uncommented line must move to the end to get priority
Then

adduser fit sudo

This will work on next login (as usual when you add yourself to a group)

Video

On my TV, 1900x1080 output with default rate was not working, I had to force rate 60Hz:
Temporarely for testing:

xrandr --output default --mode 1900x1080 --rate 60

Permanently:

System > Preferences > Display > 1900x1080 / 60

Video Acceleration API

For rendering video, it's better to use the hardware acceleration provided by the GMA500 through the VAAPI.
The box comes with a vaapi-enabled version of mplayer

• VLC and VAAPI, not tested

fit@ubuntu-fitpc2:~$ vainfo
libva: libva version 0.31.0-sds4
libva: va_getDriverName() returns 0
libva: Trying to open /usr/lib/va/drivers/iegd_drv_video.so
Intel(r) Embedded Graphics Driver 10.2 Build 1450
libva: va_openDriver() returns 0
vainfo: VA API version: 0.31
vainfo: Driver version: Intel(r) Embedded Graphics Driver 10.2 Build 1450
vainfo: Supported profile and entrypoints
      VAProfileMPEG2Main              :	VAEntrypointVLD
      VAProfileMPEG4Simple            :	VAEntrypointVLD
      VAProfileMPEG4AdvancedSimple    :	VAEntrypointVLD
      VAProfileH264Baseline           :	VAEntrypointVLD
      VAProfileH264Main               :	VAEntrypointVLD
      VAProfileH264High               :	VAEntrypointVLD
      VAProfileVC1Simple              :	VAEntrypointVLD
      VAProfileVC1Simple              :	VAEntrypointMoComp
      VAProfileVC1Main                :	VAEntrypointVLD
      VAProfileVC1Main                :	VAEntrypointMoComp
      VAProfileVC1Advanced            :	VAEntrypointVLD
      VAProfileVC1Advanced            :	VAEntrypointMoComp

Ubuntu

Don't forget to change your feeds if you don't want the US ones.

aptitude update

Then upgrade all packages
Change timezone:

dpkg-reconfigure tzdata

You may consider installing also java, openssh, synergy,...
Synergy is a great way to control the box hooked to your TV from your laptop!

Compulab provides Ubuntu repositories, e.g. the one for Karmic, providing specific:

• kernel
• libva, providing the VA API
• mplayer with VA API support
• Poulsbo video output for Xorg server

Wi-Fi on Ubuntu

First time you type in your Wi-Fi credentials it will prompt for a keyring password. Don't do it if you want the box to be able to start & connect to the network automatically!
If you did so, see here:

rm -rf ~/.gnome2/keyrings/*
reboot

To use the box more or less headless you might want it to connect to the Wi-Fi before running a X session for user fit.
Remove network-manager and network-manager-gnome
Edit /etc/network/interfaces and add

allow-hotplug wlan0
auto wlan0
iface wlan0 inet dhcp
    wpa-ssid ....
    wpa-psk ....

Multicast

In this example the wired eth0 is hooked to a multicast-aware network (IPTV)

Prepare for multicast:
Comment the following lines in /etc/sysctl.d/10-network-security.conf :

#net.ipv4.conf.default.rp_filter=1
#net.ipv4.conf.all.rp_filter=1

In some situations people need also to add this for their own IPTV network:

net.ipv4.icmp_echo_ignore_broadcasts=0
net.ipv4.conf.eth0.force_igmp_version=2

Edit /etc/network/interfaces and add

allow-hotplug eth0
auto eth0
iface eth0 inet static
    address 0.0.0.0
    up route add -net 224.0.0.0 netmask 240.0.0.0

IR support

See IR support in Ubuntu

fit@ubuntu-fitpc2:~$ lsusb
Bus 004 Device 002: ID 03eb:21fe Atmel Corp. 

This is in fact similar to IR receiver IgorPlug-USB

aptitude install lirc

=> choose Igor Cesko USB IR Receiver

/etc/init.d/lirc stop

To get a list of keynames (needed for next step):

irrecord --list-namespace|less

To program your remote:

irrecord -d /dev/lirc0 -f /etc/lirc/myremote.conf
cp /etc/lirc/myremote.conf /etc/lirc/lircd.conf
/etc/init.d/lirc start

To test (press some keys on the remote):

irw

To map applications on Ubuntu, see here, not tried

Debian

Now I abandoned the idea to use it as mediacenter and I'm using it as server for BackupPc.

Installation

Simply booting on a Debian 6.0 netinst ISO "burned" on a USB HDD.
We needed to install a i686 image but actually images are now multiarch i686/x64, and multi-install-support ISO/USB so that's really easy.

Wi-Fi

We need also the Ralink firmware for the RaLink RT3090 Wireless 802.11n interface:

• add contrib/non-free to sources.list
• apt-get update
• apt-get install firmware-ralink

According to some boot messages, we need also a Realtek firmware for the Ethernet card:

• apt-get install firmware-realtek

This is probably optional as I used... the Ethernet interface to install those packages

Video

As it's meant to be a headless box I don't care but if you need some nice video perfs, see this Debian wiki page, Intel drivers are available here