CM4: Getting Started

[adcockm]

Ok, final results for this test. I went ahead and ran it again with the CPU set to 1.0GHz, and the same low power settings I used before. So the settings looked like this:

arm_freq=1000
arm_freq_min=200
core_freq_min=150
gpu_freq_min=150
h264_freq_min=150
isp_freq_min=150
v3d_freq_min=150
over_voltage=-2
over_voltage_min=-4
over_voltage_sdram=-1

It only managed to add another 5 minutes to the time. So I don’t think there’s much point in trying 800Mhz, since I imagine at most it would give another 5 minutes.

Seems like those low power settings I found on that other thread and used for both the 1.5GHz and 1.0GHz tests might be worth considering since they gave the biggest savings compared to the default. I’m sure they could probably be tweaked and improved, but I don’t really know what I’m doing so I’ll leave that to someone else!

You’re right though, it would be good to come up with a standard test that is easy to setup and run. I looked around and there are some CPU, memory, and GPU stress test packages like sysbench, stress-ng, and other things like this made for the Pi GitHub - nschloe/stressberry: Stress tests for the Raspberry Pi and cpu-burn Whats a good way to stress test the processor on my pi 4? Looking to test the cpu fan - Raspberry Pi Forums
A few others are mentioned here:
performance - How can I stress test my Raspberry Pi - Raspberry Pi Stack Exchange
But all of those are assuming you want to test for stability and also test to make sure the device isn’t overheating, so they are burst tests to max things out for 10 minutes or less and then stop. They aren’t really designed to run a battery down, and I’m not sure it would be wise to run them as long as necessary for that.

[adcockm]

To get back to the original thread about setting up CM4 OS… I have learned something about the printer issues I was having, and I think step 3 should be updated, @jan-peter.

Detailed ramblings are here:

CM4 8GB/32GB eMMC, official Bullseye image: error installing upgrade to devterm-thermal-printer

Ok, I got my printer working again, after using these commands to get information about what was installed: apt-cache policy devterm-thermal-printer apt-cache policy devterm-thermal-printer-cm4 apt-cache policy devterm-thermal-printer-cups In my case, after updating it only had …-printer and …-printer-cups installed. But …printer-cm4 was NOT installed. When I installed …printer-cm4, it removed …printer. But THAT caused printing to work again! So apparently with the CM4 based Devterm, we don’t…

But the upshot is, if I have ONLY:
devterm-thermal-printer-cm4
and
devterm-thermal-printer-cups
installed, then the printer works fine, both from CUPS and from command line echo control.

But if I have:
devterm-thermal-printer
installed, my printer breaks.

It seems like the initial update I did, and presumably anyone might do, uninstalled devterm-thermal-printer-cm4 and installed devterm-thermal-printer, which broke it. After manually removing devterm-thermal-printer and installing devterm-thermal-printer-cm4, the printer worked. And the update and upgrade I did afterward didn’t mess things up and kept only those printer packages.

So I think section 3 should be changed to:

sudo apt update
sudo apt remove devterm-thermal-printer -y
sudo apt install -y devterm-thermal-printer-cm4 
sudo reboot

I haven’t tested this on a clean install, but I don’t think devterm-thermal-printer-cups needs to be removed and reinstalled. It probably doesn’t hurt to keep that part though.

[adcockm]

Sadly, my wifi is still broken though. I’m not sure what caused that, but it was something taken with an update.

EDIT: I spoke too soon!

I realized I had removed the dtparam=ant2 line from config.txt before I started testing battery consumption. I added that back in, rebooted, and now wifi shows up and works fine! So that wifi antenna fix seems to be necessary.

I now have a working printer again and working wifi. And the cause of both problems seems to be unrelated, and easily fixed.

EDIT #2 (since the forum won’t let me post again):
Here’s another relevant post about the printer driver. I guess it was already known, but buried in the forum as a lot of useful I formation is. Anyhow, it confirms what I found above.

DevTerm OS CM4 image files

there is a bug in the os image Due to my neglect, both “devterm-thermal-printer” and “devterm-thermal-printer-cm4” coexisted in the system image of cm4, which is an incorrect approach. Although it seems that there are no usage problems, there are potential issues that exist. here is the way to fix if you met any printing problems: sudo apt update sudo apt remove devterm-thermal-printer devterm-thermal-printer-cm4 devterm-thermal-printer-cups -y sudo dpkg --purge devterm-thermal-printer-cups…

[natevw]

Assuming this guide is still otherwise up-to-date, perhaps these instructions should be updated with the newer v0.3e image mentioned at https://forum.clockworkpi.com/t/devterm-os-cm4-64bit-image-files/8786/11? (Unclear why the floppy disks page doesn’t get updated — are the 0.2 and 0.3 versions less “officially recommended” than the 0.1 version that’s still the link over there on the dl. page which is slightly easier to find?)

[natevw]

Also if it’s been vetted by other testers, @andypiper’s fan control suggestion here might be worth incorporating into the tips section? Fan not working on CM4 64bit version · Issue #40 · clockworkpi/DevTerm · GitHub

[ZechyW]

Is your external antenna connected directly to the mainboard, by any chance? I had it attached to the mainboard myself at first, and got terrible reception with the configuration fix until I attached it directly to the connector on the CM4 instead.