Streamlining Meteohub HW support

[admin]

Over the last 7 years a lot of new HW platforms came and vanished again. In order to reduce SW maintenance efforts future Meteohub releases will be tested and being committed to work for the following level "A" platforms only:

• Raspberry PI
• SheevaPlug
• ALIX.1D/3D2/3D3

The compile chains will also continue to make new updates for these level "B" platforms, but no longer in focus of testing and development

• NSLU2
• DC01
• iConnect
• DreamPlug
• eboxes
• fitPC

No more updates will be available for

• MiniX (as my last working device quited operation a few months ago)

I know, that you will not be too happy, when you have a MiniX or one of the level "B" platform devices. But sooner or later cutting off some of the older devices is inevitable. I am sorry for any inconvenience this might bring to you.

As the Raspberry PI is dirt cheap, changing over to it from the level "B" platforms is a low hanging fruit. Activation keys can be migrated for free, so I am not taking any financial benefit in suggesting you to move over.

[YJB]

Hi Boris,

Makes perfect sense to me, as the number of platforms was becoming a bit worry some from a support perspective.

To ease the pain for the affected users, it might be an idea to create a write up on how to move data from one platform to another, ie transitioning guide. Personally I don't need it, but I can imagine that there are some users who are not that much into Linux.

Last question: What about VM installs, can I assume that they will follow the "official" X86 platform and stay "Level A"?

Thanks,

Ysbrand

[netsigi]

Yes, i think this was a good decision. Especially when we watched the market in past times.
But be aware, that this is a commitment to the lifecycle of A Platforms too.
For example ALIX is still available, but supply will decrease as APU is the powerful successor.

[Napajedlaci.cz]

I'm certainly not against it. I myself went from SheevaPlug on Raspberry PI, which can be bought very cheaply. On more with Raspberry PI can really do anything. Add cooler, buy a webcam, support for multiple USB devices, HDMI output.
I will definitely be very grateful if it would be better to support Raspberry PI

[netsigi]

Sorry for quoting myself:

For example ALIX is still available, but supply will decrease as APU is the powerful successor.

My Alixes are simply too slow now. I had to split the Stations and use now two licenses.
I am more than ready to migrate to APU. The only showstopper is the lack of a contemporary kernel.
And for the Alix "A" Platform successor APU this means SMP (2cores) and 64bit. It costs only a few € more than Alix.

Boris: Just to be clear about your work queue and priorities: Maybe a little more marketing and information would be a good idea.
For myself it would be ok to pay some € of engineering or donate some hardware.

[admin]

I have a APU here... but lots of other things on the table.

[admin]

There is now a Meteohub 5.0 Image for RPI in the download section, that supports Model B and B+.
As model B has SD card support (instead of Micro SD card with model B+) you have better chances
to find reliabale storage media. SLC SD cards are close to zero available in mirco SD form factor.
So recommendation goes to the model B.

[Napajedlaci.cz]

I'll check and update status "Checking for update" and takes 2 hours have high-speed Internet, so that the error will not be downloading.

[admin]

works fine here. Did you click "refresh" from time to time to see if status has changed?

[Napajedlaci.cz]

I wait 1 day (10x refresh) and .....Checking for update .... now is OK. (edit 13:45h)

[netsigi]

I have a APU here... but lots of other things on the table.

This could help: https://github.com/ssinyagin/pcengines-apu-debian-cd ...

[admin]

yes... great hint...

[netsigi]

Over the last 7 years a lot of new HW platforms came and vanished again. In order to reduce SW maintenance efforts future Meteohub releases will be tested and being committed to work for the following level "A" platforms only:

• Raspberry PI
• SheevaPlug
• ALIX.1D/3D2/3D3

With the risk of annoy Boris: Alix is still on Etch. Support ended 02/10, successor Lenny's support ended 02/12. Since we know that with the success of RPI and the power boost of RPI2, Meteohub does run on actual Debian. You should work since the streamlinig anouncement (10 Months ago) on the ALIX-Platform. APU Wheezy 64bit kind of "Pro" Version seems to be hopeless. Normally i prefer OpenSource in any way. Meteohub seemed to be something to make an exception of this rule. Unfortunately the one and only developer has his own dynamics for decisions. For example: RPI was longtime "not suitable" for Meteohub (see Forum). Suddenly it was worth the effort. Now it is sooo important to disregard older customers.

Yes, everybody is free to migrate to WeeWX or whatever. But that is not the first intention when you buy software.

[admin]

My answer might not please you, but while I still think that the storage interface is the
weak point of the RPI solutions, I have a significant demand from new customers to support
RPI and now RPI2. I think that it is obvious, that I use the most recent Raspbian distros around
when doing a fresh port to these new platforms (as I did years ago with ALIX).

Bringing out new distros for ALIX replacing the aged Etch Debian distro will not
change much for the average user. The ones keen to install additional things are not
pleased to have a fairly outdated Debian underneath, I can understand that. But is it worth
the effort to do a newer Debian port for ALIX just because it would be somehow nice?
As said, there will no real benefit for the most users. I doubt that this argument changes
your things looking at it. Many Linux users feel some kind of an unwritten right to
always get updates to the most recent distros/kernels, just because they are used to it.
They will not demand that from their years old print server, web cam etc, but in their view
Meteohub has to follow these rules because they can login via ssh and therefore don't see
it as an appliance, which it is meant to be.

Unfortunately, rolling out new distros drives significant effort on my side and I have to
prioritize where to invest my time. By supporting the RPI I don't think that I "disregard" older
customers. I did spent time to fix a smtp problem on the ALIX platform during the last weeks,
in order to keep ALIX users happy. Therefore, I am a bit surprised getting such harsh comments
out of nothing.

[rune]

Where does this leave those running meteohub on virtualbox? Would be nice to have an updated OS.