I am creating this separate thread following the discussion here:
https://globalmeteornetwork.groups.io/g/main/topic/raspberry_pi_availability/89563281?p=,,,50,0,0,0::recentpostdate/sticky,,,50,2,0,89563281,previd%3D1676787337332151034,nextid%3D1674617652721897951&previd=1676787337332151034&nextid=1674617652721897951

This is to describe and further discuss widely available, ~ 100 EUR Raspberry PI4 alternative featuring 6-core RK3399-T chipset and Mali T860MP4 GPU, 4GB RAM:
https://wiki.radxa.com/Rock4/4cplus
The mechanical design is very similar to Pi4, so most of the Pi4 cases, sinks and other accessories can be used without modification.

The native RMS Raspbian image can't be used here, therefore after proof-of-concept run, I have created the Rockpi4 image for further use (link below).
RMS runs fine, apparently quicker than on Pi4, as meteor detector thread gets 2 more cores to do the job.
As a start, latest stable debian based Armbian image has been used, featuring 5.15 kernel, lightdm and xfce4. To enable power manager etc., I have added some more overlays to the kernel.
The image is configured to run as headless, using X0tigervnc as VNC server in both virtual and physical monitor modes.
SSH and Samba are preconfigured.
No Anydesk, no Teamviewer, no RealVNC, as they do not support generic arm64 platforms, only on Raspberry. If anybody succeeds to run them, I can add them later on, if even needed.
All passwords used for root, pi, samba: "rmsarmbian"

Instructions:
- download, unpack, and flash the image by BalenaEtcher from: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Baq1LMmviQdHqUkab0Tl5swkmKuBFR4u/view?usp=sharing
- let the Rockpi a few minutes to show the desktop on the display. The root partition will be automatically expanded.
- When the terminal window with the RMS_FirstRun appears, open a separate terminal window and type: "sudo armbian-config"
- configure your network and timezone, namely the Wifi and ethernet (as default, eth0 is in DHCP client mode), then close the armbian-config window
- follow instructions from the RMS_FirstRun script to generate the openssh keys, update RMS, and modify your .config, reboot if needed.
- RMS will start

Let me know if anything goes wrong.

Milan

Excellent, I have a Rockpi that has yet to find a task, I will give this a go!

I can confirm that RMS runs on other ARM architectures. I'm running it on an Intel x5-Z8350 arm-based minipc:

Welcome to Armbian 22.11.4 Jammy with Linux 5.15.89-x86

mark@auroracam:~ $ grep "model name" /proc/cpuinfo | head -1
model name      : Intel(R) Atom(TM) x5-Z8350  CPU @ 1.44GHz

mark@auroracam:~ $ grep MemTotal /proc/meminfo
MemTotal:        1958104 kB

mark@auroracam:~ $ getconf _NPROCESSORS_ONLN
4

I can run one instance on this machine, any more and frames get dropped. This machine was quite difficult to boot into Armbian as the SD card slot is dead and it only has 32GB internal storage. I bought it for another purpose but when the SD card reader died, i had to repurpose it.

On Sun, Feb 19, 2023 at 10:15 AM, Milan Kalina wrote:

I just tested it on 4c plus.

That's the one I have :-)

Thanks Milan,

I have installed your image onto my ROCK 4C+, all looks good and ShowLiveSteam is displaying the feed from the camera. Next step is test it live on a starry night.

Cheers,

Alex.

Apologies, I've been so busy with various projects, and the weather here has been mostly cloudy since mid-February, so I was distracted and didn't go live with my ROCK 4C+.

It caught the 'numpy bug' the other day. I had a quick chat with Milan, I installed numpy 1.23.5 and RMS StartCapture was happy again. It's ready to go and it will run RMS live tonight.

 

Alex.

My UK001H has been running for a long time on a Pi4. Yesterday I swapped computers, so that UK001H is now running on the ROCK 4C+ (Milan's RMS image and my .config and platepar. from the Pi4 UK001H. I have other plans for this Pi4).

Poor weather again, but it captured throughout the night and created the various summary files. All looks good, so I've sent the ROCK 4C+ SSH file to Denis for authorisation on the server.

The only problem was a "NO SUDO PRIVILEDGES TO INSTALL DEPENDENCIES..." message when it ran the iStream code, then it failed to create the timelapse video. On checking, ffmpeg was missing, so I ran

sudo apt-get install ffmpeg

and I successfully ran Utils.GenerateTimelapse. The iStream code should now be OK.

Alex.

Milan advised me to copy the attached file into /etc/sudoers.d
This gave a clean run of the IstraStream code.
The ROCK 4C+ is now mapped to my Windows laptop via Samba.

Overcast sky last night, as usual, but tonight's forecast is most promising, when it should see some stars and produce a full set of data.

Alex.

For those who run this little PC - Teamviewer 64-bit is now available from the Teamviewer download page.
The install on my Rock went smoothly with no surprises, allowing outside connection via their cloud.
BTW Anydesk still insists on the 32-bit version, therefore loosing significant segment of users.

I stopped using Teamviewer due to their unreasonable approach to licensing. The amount they charge once you have more than five devices is just absurd. 

BTW I'm pretty sure you can run 32-bit apps on a 64-bit OS. 

That's true in the Intel/AMD "proper-PC" world, if you add
the i386 platform in addition to the amd64 platform.
Not sure this works with the Rpi platforms. I think the
CPUs may be too different between 32 and 64 bit.

--
Horst Meyerdierks
hme42@... https://www.chiandh.eu

I wasn't aware of that. Thanks for the info.

I do have a non-Raspberry ARM-64 hardware running Armbian 23.02.2 (based on an Intel x5-Z8350). x11vnc runs fine on it and I can remotely connect with RealVNC's client without issues. x11vnc is the free (and supported) nonproprietary solution for VNC server on Linux. Admittedly this is arm-64 hardware.

I tried to install Anydesk on my 64bit RaspberryPi 400, and it seemed to install ok, but wouldn't run.

I wasn't aware of that. Thanks for the info.

I do have a non-Raspberry ARM-64 hardware running Armbian 23.02.2 (based on an Intel x5-Z8350). x11vnc runs fine on it and I can remotely connect with RealVNC's client without issues. x11vnc is the free (and supported) nonproprietary solution for VNC server on Linux. Admittedly this is arm-64 hardware.

On 28/05/2023 12:53, Milan Kalina wrote:

Not correct.

Some 32-bit armhf packages like Anydesk and RealVNC rely on the proprietary HW and libraries from Raspberry Pi Ltd.

Therefore, they run on the 64-bit OS, but only Raspberry HW.

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