Installing Linux on a Kodlix Z83-V

I picked up this cheap little box to act as my mail and feed reader. Installing Linux was pretty straightforward, getting the internal (sdio) wifi connected was less so. Here's a brief step by step for others that might like to get set up. Do be warned that there's an issue with the audio that I haven't gotten around to fixing so if you want to set up a media centre stick with the bundled windows 10. Also you will need a LAN connection to get the wireless working.

Pick a distro. 

I decided on Ubuntu Mate 17.10 which is in final beta but would be more likely to have a kernel module for the internal wifi. You can grab it at https://ubuntu-mate.org/download/ 

Any other lightweight distro might do you but as we're going to be using the Ubuntu broadcom kernel source package I would recommend going with Lubuntu or Xubuntu to have a better chance of success

Back up Windows 10

The PC ships with Windows 10 and if you make a mistake you won't be able to get it back without a backup disk. https://support.microsoft.com/en-ie/help/4026852/windows-create-a-recovery-drive

Create a bootable USB 

While Windows 10 backs itself up it's time to create a bootable USB stick to install Linux from. I recommend https://etcher.io/  , it's simple and cross-platform.

Boot to USB

Remove the Windows 10 backup usb stick and swap in the Linux stick. Restart the pc and keep hitting the 'delete' key ( not backspace). You should eventually get into the BOIS where you'll be able to select boot options. Put the USB key higher than the Windows bootloader and then save and exit.

Install Linux

If you need help with installation check out the guide for the distro you're installing. You can choose to resize the windows 10 partition and have a dual boot or wipe it. If you go for a dual boot you'll need to alter the boot options in the bois to boot to Ubuntu first or hold shift when pressing restart from Windows 10 to get to the boot menu to pick Ubuntu ( Come back Windows 7, we miss you!)

Get Wifi working
The first thing you'll notice is that lspci doesn't show any wifi adapters, that's because what we're dealing with is an SDIO wifi/bluetooth hybrid. You can actually change chipsets in the bois but stick to the default AP6234.

• Connect the PC to an ethernet cable
• sudo apt-get update
• sudo apt-get upgrade
• sudo apt-get dist-upgrade
• sudo apt-get remove broadcom-sta-common broadcom-sta-source firmware-b43*
• sudo apt-get install bcmwl-kernel-source 

• Edit /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist-bcm43.conf and comment out the brcmfmac line by placing a # at the beginning. You'll need to sudo edit the file to have write permission
• sudo modprobe brcmfmac 
• This probably won't work. If you type dmesg you'll see something like thisbrcmfmac mmc1:0001:1: Direct firmware load for brcm/brcmfmac43340-sdio.txt failed with error -2
• If you have a file starting with nvram* in /sys/firmware/efi/efivars/ then copy that file to /lib/firmware/brcm/ and rename it brcmfmac43340-sdio.txt
• If you don't have an nvram file you can create brcmfmac43340-sdio.txt and copy my file below into it (I didn't have the file myself and found this on a forum ost which I've since lost )
• sudo modprobe brcmfmac
• You should be able to see and connect to wifi, however there's one more small step if you copied my file below.
• iwconfig - Copy the MAC address from iwconfig into the macaddr field in your brcmfmac43340-sdio.txt file ( it's 02:0A:F7:2A:3B:4C below )
• Reboot and enjoy your wifi

manfid=0x2d0

prodid=0x0653

vendid=0x14e4

devid=0x4386

boardtype=0x0653

boardrev=0x1203

boardnum=22

macaddr=02:0A:F7:2A:3B:4C

sromrev=3

boardflags=0x0090201

xtalfreq=37400

nocrc=1

ag0=255

aa2g=1

aa5g=1

ccode=ALL

pa0itssit=0x20

pa0b0=6747

pa0b1=-808

pa0b2=-178

tssifloor2g=69

rssismf2g=0xf

rssismc2g=0x8

rssisav2g=0x1

cckPwrOffset=3

rssismf5g=0xf

rssismc5g=0x7

rssisav5g=0x3

pa1lob0=5659

pa1lob1=-693

pa1lob2=-178

tssifloor5gl=93

pa1b0=5172

pa1b1=-671

pa1b2=-212

tssifloor5gm=77

pa1hib0=5320

pa1hib1=-663

pa1hib2=-179

tssifloor5gh=74

rxpo5g=0

maxp2ga0=0x4E

cck2gpo=0x0000

ofdm2gpo=0x42000000

mcs2gpo0=0x2222

mcs2gpo1=0x7662

maxp5ga0=0x46

maxp5gla0=0x46

maxp5gha0=0x46

ofdm5gpo=0x52222222

ofdm5glpo=0x52222222

ofdm5ghpo=0x52222222

mcs5gpo0=0x0000

mcs5gpo1=0x8550

mcs5glpo0=0x0000

mcs5glpo1=0x8550

mcs5ghpo0=0x0000

mcs5ghpo1=0x8550

swctrlmap_2g=0x00080008,0x00100010,0x00080008,0x011010,0x11f

swctrlmap_5g=0x00020002,0x00040004,0x00020002,0x011010,0x2fe

gain=32

triso2g=8

triso5g=8

loflag=0

iqlocalidx5g=40

dlocalidx5g=70

iqcalidx5g=50

lpbckmode5g=1

txiqlopapu5g=0

txiqlopapu2g=0

dlorange_lowlimit=5

txalpfbyp=1

txalpfpu=1

dacrate2xen=1

papden2g=1

papden5g=1

gain_settle_dly_2g=4

gain_settle_dly_5g=4

noise_cal_po_2g=-1

noise_cal_po_40_2g=-1

noise_cal_high_gain_2g=73

noise_cal_nf_substract_val_2g=346

noise_cal_po_5g=-1

noise_cal_po_40_5g=-1

noise_cal_high_gain_5g=73

noise_cal_nf_substract_val_5g=346

cckpapden=0

paparambwver=1

Completed Project - Arcade Cabinet

My brother turned 30 last year and I felt like making something a bit special. After looking around for a few weeks I decided to try and make an arcade cabinet. I was pretty confident I'd be able to deal with the electronics but I had never attempted to build anything from wood. The plans are loosely based on a plan I purchased for this design from the geek pub. 

I wanted something comfortable for adults to play side-by-side and easy access to USB ports so I took the plan, learned how to use Sketchup and widened the plan to 28". I used 1/2" MDF instead of 3/4" to try and keep the weight down and added some cross beams to secure the monitor and reinforce the structure. I also added some supports underneath the widened control board. 

As this was my first attempt at something like this I bought cheap arcade controls and a Xin-Mo dual arcade controller rather than spending a lot of money on expensive equipment that might end up rotting in a toolbox. For the USB hub I ordered a "naked" powered hub from a Pi supply website and cut the 5v line to avoid back-feeding power into the Raspberry Pi. For the software I used the Retropie distro

The first step was configuring the Pi with Retropie, wiring up the Xin-Mo controller and labelling all the buttons. There was a bit of Retropie hacking required to get both joysticks and my gamepads working nicely together.

After several days testing and setting up the various emulators for the arcade controls I disassembled the hardware again ( after labelling each pin carefully!) and prototyped several layout schemes for the controls . 

Not terrible for my first woodworking project but I got a bit carried away with the first set of control holes and had to patch it up with filler

Modesty blocks and gorilla glue were used to assemble the cabinet after I cut all the parts using a jigsaw. I had no idea how strong MDF was and the second-hand monitor I purchased for the cabinet was pretty heavy so decided to err on the side of caution and use as many blocks as I could fit. Due to not having a circular saw for cutting out the pieces I had to rely on the blocks to close some uneven gaps in preparation for filler.

Rough assembly with a dry-run on the wiring before painting. It doesn't look terrible in this photo but you can see the rough edges if you look closely. I decided to press on since I didn't have the time to start again.

The monitor sits into a panel cut to fit the large gap. The cut-out was the toughest part of the whole build but I used a router to cut out the bulk of the waste and gradually enlarged the hole until the monitor fit snugly. Trying to fit the top-heavy monitor into the slot resulted in a few near-misses and heart palpitations.

So it turns out a few coats of spray paint add to the thickness of something. Who'd have thought right? Another nerve-wracking evening was spent sanding the recess for the monitor and getting it back into place.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    Here's a shot of  the  usb hub mounted on the side of the cabinet. I had routed a slot during construction and then I mounted the hub it on some plywood with spare motherboard stand-offs and attached with hot glue and a bracket and used hot glue to ensure the internal cables wouldn't pop out during transport. The connections are to the pi ( data ), xin mo( power + data ) and input power.

The final internal fit. The monitor has built-in speakers and is supported by the front frame and the two cross-supports with long m4 bolts threaded into the VESA mount holes. I didn’t feel comfortable wiring a raw power source to something I built so I just used an extension cor as there’s more than enough current for the pi, hub and monitor

I ordered some plexiglass for the marquee, screen cover and control panel to finish it off. The screen cover is epoxied to the monitor mounting board and the sides painted over. The bezel around the monitor is just a piece of black card but it looks quite well considering.

I had wired up a light in the marquee but it washed out the logo and showed internal modesty block shadows so I pulled it out in the end.

All told the build took about 8 weeks of evening and weekend work ( 2 weeks ahead of the birthday deadline) and came out at somewhere around €200 for the hardware and electronics.

When I started this project last year I was pretty sure I'd end up with a mess of broken MDF and just end up falling back on the configured pi as a present. It's not perfect but it was definitely worth taking the chance at something outside my comfort zone.