Just ordered the CM4 lite variant with the LTE. I have been browsing the forum and doing my homework and have noticed some issues with the hardware. Bad modem boards and blemishes to the paint. Have these issues been fixed yet?
Also noticed we seem to have more than just the just the ClockworkOS distribution running stable.
It seems the keyboard runs on a custom but open source driver. Is this correct and is going to be patched into most distributions in the future?
My personal use for the device is for privacy. I wanted a device I didn’t have to worry about privacy issues and can be used anonymously. I really don’t trust either Google or Apple at this point. Any suggestions for additional security such as storage encryption appreciated Thanks.
PS. Going to be doing some retro gaming also!
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There aren’t any ClockworkPi staff active on this forum, so we can only give you speculation about their manufacturing process. My kit came in great condition, aside from some gaps in the silver paint on the back which I consider acceptable. YMMV. If a board doesn’t work or is missing components, email alex@clockworkpi.com for support and he’ll sort it out.
As impressed as I am with the uConsole hardware, I’m convinced that ClockworkPi is not a software company — the OS they provide is outdated and has quirks.
Thankfully the community has ported Debian Bookworm, Arch Linux and PostmarketOS to the device. PostmarketOS is admittedly a bit of an odd duck, as a distro built on top of Alpine Linux, but it’s from a project dedicated to providing long term support to devices and I’ve found it to be quite solid running swaywm. Users have posted guides on encrypting the root partition, which I would expect to work on Debian based systems.
Do you have any specifics about your privacy concerns? To a certain extent there never really was anonymity on the internet. In order to view a website or access a file, a server needs to send you packets and you should assume that what the server does is logged. Firefox and DuckDuckGo are at least not going to sell your data to brokers. If you’re, say, a journalist concerned about a repressive or vindictive government, you could use TOR, but that’s about as inconvenient as using TOR.
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I plan on using tor. With everything going on and the more that comes out the more I feel the need for privacy. Nothing illegal or anything but I feel we have lost our right to free speech.
I am also getting that itch for some hacking and having some new interesting hardware to play with is exciting. It’s been years since I have run a Linux system so this seems like a fun cool way to get back into it.
I was wanting to hear from people who received their kits lately to see if the problems have gotten resolved.
Thanks for the info on the distros now maintained for it. Sounds promising.
Lastly. I am kind of confused about the A-04 and A-06 compute boards. I can’t seem to find anything about them outside of this site. Who makes them?
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Not sure what that’s supposed to mean. Anyway.
The A-06 is a board developed by ClockworkPi around a Rockchip RK3399 SoC. On paper it’s slightly faster than a CM4 and the A-04 (another Rockchip SoC) is a little slower, but the difference is fairly negligible. The Raspberry Pi boards to be more widely supported and ClockworkPi seems to have stopped making the A-04.
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Thanks for the info. I suspected they were made by Clockwork. For retro gaming the A-06 is the best. Someone did a comparison on all 3 and came to the conclusion that the CM4 is a bit under powered for some more demanding emulation while the A-06 can handle more advanced system emulation. Not a big deal and probably the price difference isn’t worth it.
I’ve only tested one but in my experience the CM4 handles 8 and 16 bit systems flawlessly, plays N64 and PSX well, and can handle quite a bit of PSP and Dreamcast. YMMV.
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Good to hear. Although it’s not my primary reason to get one it is nice to know I can leave my miyoo mini at home when I have the Uconsole with me!