Linux Blimp

Postman is a software which you can use to test REST APIs. Postman has an easy to use graphical user interface. It also has many helpful features to help you with testing your REST API. Postman is available for Windows, Mac and Linux. Postman is also available as a Chrome plugin. So, you can use Postman inside your Google Chrome browser. Postman has a free version and paid versions. You can do almost everything with the free version. I will use the free version in this article.

Source

For those who love their arcade-style racing games Yorg is actually quite amusing. The developers just release Yorg 0.10 and it’s quite an improvement.

This fresh release includes a new track, a new rear camera view, user interface improvements, the ability to register for online play directly in the game, a better driving model and updated translations.

Naturally, it also has a dose of bug fixes included along with a new trailer:

The online multiplayer could use some big improvements. Especially since it allowed me to make an account with no password—woops. On top of that, the system to actually make an online match isn’t great. Myself and Samsai tried it and it’s extremely unclear and didn’t seem to actually work.

You invite someone from the online list (icons appear when you hover over someone’s name) and they’re supposed to get a notification to join a match. Samsai didn’t get my invite and it got stuck claiming we were both in a game. We logged out and back in, this time Samsai invited me which worked. Then, after picking a car and Samsai started the game it completely froze for me and Samsai got a black screen. Sadly, they’ve got a bit of work to do to actually make online play be clear in how it works and actually work properly.

At least singleplayer works okay…

Check it out on the official site or use itch.io with their client to keep it easily up to date.

Source

Have you ever had one of those moments, when you’re rummaging through your spare parts heap, and have a rather bizarre project idea that you can’t quite get out of your head? You know, the ones that have no clear use, but simply demand to be born, of glass and steel and silicon?

This time, the stubborn idea in question was sort of like a solar-rechargeable LED throwie, but instead of a blinking light, it has a fully cloud-accessible embedded Linux server in the form of a Raspberry Pi 3 Model B+. Your choice of embedded Linux board should work — I just happen to have a lot of these due to a shipping error.

There were two main challenges here: First, it would have to combine the smallest practical combination of solar panel, power supply, and battery that could run the Raspberry Pi. Second, we’ll need to remotely activate and access the Pi regardless of where it is, as well as be able to connect it to WiFi without direct physical access. In this article we’ll be dealing with the first set of problems — stay tuned for the rest.

One time I stuck a bunch together to make a ‘Dyson Lampshade’, which is of course a Dyson Sphere rendered less large, less spherical, and more absurd.

Sipping on Solar

I approached the first challenge from the standpoint that the Raspberry Pi doesn’t need to be on all that often. An ESP8266 (Wemos D1 Mini) running NodeMCU can provide battery management, and receive commands over MQTT to activate it, while staying in deep sleep mode most of the time. This consumes very little power, allowing a small 5 volt solar module to trickle-charge a lithium battery large enough to power the server for a few hours of run time.

The solar modules are worth a quick mention. They are the LR0GC02 (PDF) from Sharp, designed to trickle charge a variety of mobile electronics. Unlike a lot of modules out there, they are both extremely well encapsulated and very thin (about 1mm). They also come with detailed specifications. A single 300mW module is enough for this project, but I used three in parallel during development to speed up various tests. This tiny solar power module would also have been an interesting choice.

Managing the power from these modules is where things get a little hairy. We have a 4-5V power source charging a lithium cell that has a nominal output voltage of 3.7V. Then we have an ESP8266 module, which runs at 3.3V but can accept higher through an integrated linear regulator, as long as you watch the dropout voltage. Finally, we need a 5V output that can be easily toggled to power the Raspberry Pi. Also it would be nice to have a 12V line for future expansion.

Magnificence of Modern Modules

Thankfully that all sounds worse than it actually is, and there are some very common modules that will sort this out for us:

From left to right: A USB lithium cell charger, a DC-DC boost converter, and a DC-DC buck converter. They cost about a US dollar each, which was great value!

The first stage is a USB lithium cell charging module. These accept the ~5 V output from our solar panels, and will safely charge a lithium cell. The output of the module is whatever the battery voltage is.

Next in line, I added a DC-DC boost converter module set to output 12V. These modules are better than 90% efficient, accept a range of voltages, and will output a fixed voltage that is set by a trimpot. The 12V output is connected to the linear regulator on the ESP8266. This way, even if the battery voltage drops below around 3.7V, it will continue to function. This is critical as the ESP8266 monitors the battery and switches the server on and off. If we were to connect its linear regulator directly to the battery output, it would shut down due to power loss while there was still quite a bit of usable power in the system. We do lose a bit of efficiency here, but the ESP8266 is off most of the time, so I can tolerate that.

The 12V output is then fed into a DC-DC buck converter to drop the voltage down to 5V for the Raspberry Pi. It’s important to use a buck converter with an enable pin, so we can control the output state using the ESP8266 later on. Otherwise you’ll need to add a MOSFET or similar to control the power output.

Responsible Battery Management

At this point, we have all the voltage levels we need, and charge control circuitry to prevent our battery from engaging in spontaneous unplanned combustion. However, when lithium cells are discharged too far, they cannot be safely charged again. We need to monitor the battery and prevent it from rendering itself into an unusual paperweight.

The solution is quite straightforward: the ESP8266 has an analog to digital converter. It can only accept up to 3.3V, and our battery can supply more than this, so I used a couple of 100kΩ resistors set up as a voltage divider to drop the voltage – we don’t exactly need high precision here.

To start our control program, I set a timer to run the ESP8266 for 11 seconds before sleeping for 10 minutes, this is plenty of time for the chip to check for commands online. Then, if the battery voltage is below 3.4 volts, it will immediately sleep for 16 minutes instead.

function checkvolt()
x = adc.read(0)
print (x)
if x < 528 then
print(“low battery, sleeping longer”)
node.dsleep(960000000)
end
end

checkvolt()

function sleeping()
node.dsleep(600000000)
end

tmr.alarm(0,11000,0,sleeping)

Some rough calculations suggest that the module will consume an average of around 1.5 mA normally, and around 0.2mA if the battery is low. In reality there will be some current consumed by all the parts even while the system sleeps. I’m told that the sun shines at least once every month or so (I’ll check at some point), and the battery should not have trouble maintaining charge. In any case, if the former assumption is wrong, I have bigger problems to deal with.

Regulating the Voltage Regulator

Finally, we need to be able to control the output of 5V from the last voltage regulator. While I purchased a module that had an ‘enable’ pin available, there was no documentation as to how it worked, and the exact chip used in my module was unclear. Looking at datasheets for a few ICs from different DC-DC converters, it looked like it was probably an active-high enable pin that was pulled up with a resistor on the module.

I tried pulling it back down with a 50kΩ resistor, and the voltage output dropped to zero. Supplying 3.3 volts from one of the GPIO pins of the ESP8266 triggered the enable pin, and it output 5V again.

I discharged the battery a little, then left it running in the sun for an hour – it recharged a bit as expected, prompting the requisite maniacal laughter. Power stages… complete!

Where’s the Linux?

It’s small, it’s solar powered, but other than lounging about in the sun, it doesn’t really do anything yet. Most computing hardware requires software and obviously this is no exception — so how do we make this into a lean, green, Linux machine?

In the next article, we’ll cover how to control this system via MQTT, set up remote configuration (for example if I need to change my WiFi password), and set up a reverse-SSH tunnel so we can connect to the Raspberry Pi without having to reconfigure our network to accommodate it.

The irony that my servers now get more sun than I do is not lost on me. I live near the equator though, and sunbathing for extended periods is an activity reserved for tourists – one that they normally learn to avoid pretty quickly!

Source

Bitnami CMS Made Simple Stack is a free and multiplatform software project that has been especially designed to simplify the deployment of the CMS Made Simple content management system, as well as of its runtime dependencies, on desktop computers and laptops.

What is CMS Made Simple?

CMS Made Simple is a free, open source, fast and web-based application designed from the ground up to act as a powerful CMS (Content Management System) software that allows users to easily manage the contents of their current websites.

Installing Bitnami CMS Made Simple Stack

Bitnami provides native installers for the CMS Made Simple application, which work on the GNU/Linux, Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X operating systems, supporting both 32-bit and 64-bit hardware architectures.

To install CMS Made Simple on your personal computer, you will have to download the package that corresponds to your computer’s hardware architecture, run it and follow the instructions displayed on the screen.

Run CMS Made Simple in the cloud

Thanks to Bitnami, users will be able to run the CMS Made Simple application in the cloud with their own hosting platform or by using the pre-built cloud images for the Windows Azure and Amazon cloud hosting platforms.

Virtualize CMS Made Simple on VirtualBox or VMware

In addition to running CMS Made Simple in the cloud or installing it on your personal computer, you can also run it on top of a VMware ESX, ESXi and Oracle VirtualBox virtualization software. The virtual appliance is based on the latest LTS (Long Term Support) release of the Ubuntu Linux operating system.

The Bitnami CMS Made Simple Module and Docker container

Besides the Bitnami CMS Made Simple Stack product reviewed here, users can also download an all-in-one installer that greatly simplifies the installation of CMS Made Simple on Bitnami’s LAMP, WAMP and MAMP stacks. A CMS Made Simple Docker container will also be available for download on the project’s homepage.

Source

News briefs for November 2, 2018.

Creative Commons is working with Flickr and SmugMug, Flickr’s parent
company, to protect the Commons following
Flickr’s recent announcement that it will
be limiting free accounts to 1,000 images.
Ryan Merkley, Creative Commons CEO, writes, “We want to ensure that
when users share their works that they are available online in
perpetuity and that they have a great experience.” But he also admits
that “the business models that have powered the web for so long are
fundamentally broken. Storage and bandwidth for hundreds of millions
(if not billions) of photos is very expensive. We’ve all benefited
from Flickr’s services for so long, and I’m hopeful we will
find a way forward together.”

The Open Source Initiative announces a $200,000 donation from Handshake, “the largest single donation in organizational
history”. Patrick Masson, the OSI’s general manager, says “Handshake’s
funding will allow us to extend the reach and impact of our Working
Groups and Incubator Projects, many which were established to confront
the growing efforts to manipulate open source through ‘fauxpen source
software’ and ‘open-washing’.”

Intel’s Open-Source Technology Center (OTC) has adopted the Contributor
Covenant for all of its open-source projects. Phoronix
reports that it chose the Contributor Covenant because
“it’s well written and represented, provides a clear expression of
expectations, and represents open-source best practices.” You can read
the Contributor Covenant here.

Valve’s digital card game Artifact is scheduled to be released
November 28th with Linux support. According to Gaming
on Linux, the new game will also have a built-in tournament
feature. See the official Artifact site for more details.

Facebook recently announced it’s open-sourcing a new suite of Linux
kernel components and related tools “that address critical fleet
management issues. These include resource control, resource
utilization, workload isolation, load balancing, measuring, monitoring,
and much more”. According to the Facebook blog post, “the kernel
components and tools included in this release can be adapted to solve a
virtually limitless number of production problems.”

Source

[Posted November 1, 2018 by jake]

Introducing Zink, an OpenGL implementation on top of Vulkan (Collabora blog)

[Development] Posted Nov 1, 2018 17:55 UTC (Thu) by jake

Over at the Collabora blog, Erik Faye-Lund writes about Zink, which is an effort to create an OpenGL driver on top of Vulkan that he has been working on with Dave Airlie. “One problem is that OpenGL is a big API with a lot of legacy stuff that has accumulated since its initial release in 1992. OpenGL is well-established as a requirement for applications and desktop compositors.

But since the very successful release of Vulkan, we now have two main-stream APIs for essentially the same hardware functionality.

It’s not looking like neither OpenGL nor Vulkan is going away, and the software-world is now hard at work implementing Vulkan support everywhere, which is great. But this leads to complexity. So my hope is that we can simplify things here, by only require things like desktop compositors to support one API down the road. We’re not there yet, though; not all hardware has a Vulkan-driver, and some older hardware can’t even support it. But at some point in the not too far future, we’ll probably get there.

This means there might be a future where OpenGL’s role could purely be one of legacy application compatibility. Perhaps Zink can help making that future a bit closer?”

Source

 

Crazy Taxi used to be an arcade game found in most arcades and restaurants near the racing games. Now you can race around the silly town picking up customers. Smash cars, jump rivers, drive through obects on the sidewalk and find hidden routes to your passengers destination.

Follow my step-by-step guide on installing, configuring and optimizing Crazy Taxi in Linux with PlayOnLinux.

Note: This guide applies to the Steam version of Crazy Taxi. Other versions may require additional steps.Tips & Specs:
To learn more about PlayOnLinux and Wine configuration, see the online manual: PlayOnLinux Explained

Mint 18.3 64-bit

PlayOnLinux: 4.2.12
Wine: 3.0

Wine Installation
Click Tools

Select “Manage Wine Versions”

Look for the Wine Version: 3.0

Select it
Click the arrow pointing to the right

Click Next

Downloading Wine

Extracting

Downloading Gecko

Installed

Wine 3.0 is installed and you can close this window

Downloading Steam
Go To: http://www.steampowered.com

Click Install Steam

Do not click “Install Steam Now”

It will automatically install Linux Steam
Select Windows Steam instead
click “Windows” under the green button

Navigate to your desktop

Click Save

PlayOnLinux Setup
Launch PlayOnLinux

Click Install

Click “install a non-listed program”

Click Next

Select “Install a program in a new virtual drive”

Click Next

Name your virtual drive: crazytaxi

No spaces
Click Next

Check all three options:

 

• Use another version of Wine
• Configure Wine
• Install some libraries

Click Next

Select Wine 3.0

Click Next

Select “32 bits windows installation”

Click Next

Configure WineApplications Tab
Windows Version: Windows 7

Click Apply

Graphics Tab
Check: Automatically capture the mouse in full-screen windows

Click Ok

PlayOnLinux Packages (Libraries, Components, DLL’s)

Check the following libraries:

 

• POL_Install_corefonts
• POL_Install_d3dx9
• POL_Install_tahoma
• POL_Install_vcrun2010

Click Next

Note: All packages will automatically download and installInstalling Steam
Click Browse

Navigate to your desktop

Select: SteamSetup.exe
Click Open

Click Next

Click Next

Check: I accept the license…

Click Next

Click Next

Click Next

Click Install

Click Finish

Updating Steam

Click the “X” to close Steam login

PlayOnLinux Shortcut
Select Steam.exe

Click Next

Name your shortcut: Crazy Taxi

Click Next

Select “I don’t want to make another shortcut”

Click Next

PlayOnLinux Configure
Back to PlayOnLinux

Click Configure

General Tab
Wine Version: 3.0

Arguments: -no-dwrite
This fixes any missing font problems

Note: Click the + to download other versions of Wine. Click the down-arrow to select other versions of wineDisplay Tab
Video Memory Size: Select the size of Memory your video card/chip uses

Close Configure

Steam Server Error
Before launching Steam you will get a Server Error for every game

Navigate to your game’s wineprefix:

Full Path:

Code:

/home/username/.PlayOnLinux/wineprefix/alienbreed3/drive_c/Program Files/Steam/config/
Open config.vdf with a text editor

Copy this code below

Code:

“CS” “valve511.steamcontent.com;valve530.steamcontent.com;valve548.steamcontent.com;valve539.steamcontent.com;valve519.steamcontent.com;valve555.steamcontent.com;valve504.steamcontent.com;valve529.steamcontent.com;valve558.steamcontent.com;valve500.steamcontent.com;valve561.steamcontent.com;valve532.steamcontent.com;valve540.steamcontent.com;valve502.steamcontent.com;valve544.steamcontent.com;valve528.steamcontent.com;valve556.steamcontent.com;valve520.steamcontent.com;valve542.steamcontent.com;valve538.steamcontent.com;valve551.steamcontent.com;valve521.steamcontent.com;valve564.steamcontent.com;valve516.steamcontent.com;valve535.steamcontent.com;valve541.steamcontent.com;valve533.steamcontent.com;valve536.steamcontent.com;valve557.steamcontent.com;valve559.steamcontent.com;valve537.steamcontent.com;valve508.steamcontent.com;valve525.steamcontent.com;valve565.steamcontent.com;valve566.steamcontent.com;valve514.steamcontent.com;valve545.steamcontent.com;valve517.steamcontent.com;valve547.steamcontent.com;valve549.steamcontent.com;valve503.steamcontent.com;valve515.steamcontent.com;valve506.steamcontent.com;valve562.steamcontent.com;valve526.steamcontent.com;valve543.steamcontent.com;valve522.steamcontent.com;valve518.steamcontent.com;valve509.steamcontent.com;valve550.steamcontent.com;valve552.steamcontent.com;valve505.steamcontent.com;valve553.steamcontent.com;valve512.steamcontent.com;valve546.steamcontent.com;valve554.steamcontent.com;valve510.steamcontent.com;valve563.steamcontent.com;valve501.steamcontent.com;valve531.steamcontent.com;valve523.steamcontent.com;valve524.steamcontent.com;valve507.steamcontent.com;valve560.steamcontent.com;valve567.steamcontent.com;valve513.steamcontent.com;valve1601.steamcontent.com;valve164.steamcontent.com;valve1615.steamcontent.com;valve1602.steamcontent.com;valve1604.steamcontent.com;valve1608.steamcontent.com;valve1603.steamcontent.com;valve1606.steamcontent.com;valve1609.steamcontent.com;valve1618.steamcontent.com;valve1617.steamcontent.com;valve1613.steamcontent.com;valve1607.steamcontent.com;valve1611.steamcontent.com;valve1614.steamcontent.com;valve1619.steamcontent.com;valve1616.steamcontent.com;valve1612.steamcontent.com;valve1610.steamcontent.com;valve165.steamcontent.com;valve1605.steamcontent.com;valve954.steamcontent.com;valve955.steamcontent.com;valve904.steamcontent.com;valve901.steamcontent.com;valve957.steamcontent.com;valve953.steamcontent.com;valve956.steamcontent.com;valve950.steamcontent.com;valve905.steamcontent.com;valve952.steamcontent.com;valve902.steamcontent.com;valve907.steamcontent.com;valve958.steamcontent.com”
Go to the line

“InstallConfigStore”
{
“Software”
{
“Valve”
{
“Steam”
{
“CM”

Paste in a new line under the “CM” line with all the IP Addresses

Save config.vdf

Launching Steam
Select Crazy Taxi

Click Run

Note: Click debug to see errors and bugs
Click “Login to existing account”

Login

Find Crazy Taxi in your Steam Library

Click Install

• Uncheck “Created desktop shortcut”
• Uncheck “Create start menu shortcut”

Click Next

Click Play

Check “Configure Crazy Taxi”

Click Play

Adjust:

 

• Resolution
• V-Sync
• FXAA
• Windowed

Click the Play arrow

Conclusion:
Crazy Taxi ran perfectly on my GeForce GTX 1060 in 1920×1080 resolution. I didn’t have any bugs or problems except the Steam server error/hack. I was also able to configure my Xbox controller in the Setup and play the game just fine.

Gameplay Video:

Screenshots:

Source

You may not even bother to care but fonts are one of the most crucial things that every single computer system in the world must have. Fonts enable the machine to communicate with us, humans, in the form of human languages. Computers don’t understand what “P” or “d” is. All they know is binary numbers – 1 and 0. There are tons of available fonts in the world that can enhance your system to look more attractive and soothing. On the internet, you can find out a number of available fonts for all the platforms. Ubuntu is one of the major Linux distros, used by thousands of people every day. Let’s have a look at installing fonts on Ubuntu.

Before you install a font, you have to get them first. There are a number of sources for getting cool and brilliant fonts. There are tons of available source but I like Google Fonts the most. Feel free to grab all your font(s) you like from anywhere you like.

Collected all your favorite fonts? Good! Time to install them in your system!

Installing fonts

I’ll be using Thunar file manager for this purpose as it’s more advanced and offers better control over your actions. Run the following commands –

# Install Thunar
sudo apt install thunar

# Start Thunar
sudo thunar

Grab all your font files (TTF/OTF files) and combine them in one place.

Select all and copy the fonts.

Now, navigate to “/home/<username>”.

Press “Ctrl + H” to enable showing hidden file(s)/folder(s).

Create a new folder “.fonts”.

Paste all the fonts into the folder.

Rebuild system font cache.

Restart your system to make sure that all the apps know about the fonts.

Ensuring font integration with the system

Font installation is complete, time to check things out. Start LibreOffice Writer.

All the fonts are installed successfully!

Source

Over its long history, the Apache HTTP Server Project (commonly referred to as just Apache) had dominated the web server market and even now in 2018, it continues to hold the top spot, according to a number of different measures.

The most recent release of Apache is version 2.4.37 which became generally available on Oct. 23, providing a series of updates that will help the open source project to continue to hold its top spot.

“The Apache HTTP Server 2.4.37 represents a continuing marvel of a journey through Open Source history,” Daniel Gruno, Vice President of Apache HTTP Server, wrote in a statement. “More than four thousand people have contributed directly to the project during its lifetime, and one dare say many more will contribute, as we continue a steady pace at the very forefront of Web server software engineering.”

New Features

Among the new features that have landed in Apache HTTP Server 2.4.37 is is full support for the Transport Layer Security (TLS) 1.3 specification. TLS 1.3 is the latest evolution of the SSL/TLS specification which encrypts data in motion across the internet. TLS 1.3 was approved as a formal IETF (Internet Engineering Task Force) standard in March.

Additional enhancements in the 2.4.37 update provide improved seep and upgraded efficiency for the web server.

“Keeping pace with the major browsers and servers, this release is another step in our collective journey to a more secure Internet,” Daniel Ruggeri, Apache HTTP Server committer and v2.4.37 Release Manager, wrote in a statement. “We are in an exciting time in the Web technology space, and are proud to keep a great server on top of its game.”

In the past, Apache had maintained multiple branches of the web server, but that’s no longer the case in 2018. The Apache 2.2.x series hit its end of life stage in 2017 and is no longer actively maintained.

Apache Usage

In recent years, Apache has come under increasing competitive pressure from rivals, most notably the nginx web server.

According to Netcraft’s October 2018 Web Server Survey, Apache still holds the lead in terms of active sites on the internet with 57.6 million active sites, down from 70.8 million sites in September. In contrast, Nginx powered 42.2 million active sites in October, up from 39.9 million in September.

Sean Michael Kerner is a senior editor at ServerWatch and InternetNews.com. Follow him on Twitter @TechJournalist.

Source

System76 has launched a line of mostly open hardware, Ubuntu-equipped “Thelio” desktop PCs built in Colorado with a choice of AMD and Intel CPUs.

We don’t regularly cover mainstream desktop and laptop computers, even when they ship with Linux, but System76’s Thelio is anything but mainstream. The x86-based Thelio computers are preloaded with either Ubuntu 18.04 LTS or the same Ubuntu-based, encryption enhanced Pop!_OS! distro that appears on its Linux-based laptops such as last year’s Intel Coffee Lake based Galago Pro. Unlike the Denver-based company’s earlier systems, this is fan-cooled desktop PC with a custom chassis built primarily with open source hardware (see farther below).

Thelio, Thelio Major, and Thelio Massive (left) and internal view
(click images to enlarge)

 

The gaming ready Thelio line is available in three models with AMD or Intel processors and a variety of customizations including additional graphics cards, M.2 storage devices, and more. All the systems ship standard in either Walnut or Maple styling with 802.11ac (WiFi 5) with Bluetooth, as well as the base level RAM shown below.

The systems default to a 250GB NVMe M.2 SSD, with other M.2 and SATA storage options ranging to 24TB (Thelio), 46TB (Major), and 86TB (Massive). You pay extra for keyboard, mouse, display, speakers. You also pay for higher-end or additional CPU and GPU, as well as additional RAM and storage.

The Thelio, Thelio Major, and Thelio Massive are detailed here in their default configurations and prices:

• Thelio — Ryzen 5 2400G with 4x dual-threaded 3.6GHz/3.9GHz cores (optional extra cost Ryzen 7 or Intel Core); 8GB to 32GB DDR4; 324 x 207 x 209mm; $1,099 and up
• Thelio Major — Ryzen Threadripper 1900X with 8x, dual-threaded 3.8GHz/4.0GHz cores (or Intel Core X-Series); Radeon RX 5500 GPU with 2GB RAM and 512 cores; 16GB to 128GB DDR4; 1300W power supply; 462 x 262 x 408mm; $2,299 and up
• Thelio Massive — Intel Xeon Bronze 3104 with 6x single-threaded 1.7GHz cores (optional, extra-cost dual-threaded Xeons with 8x to 28x cores and/or CPU option for second Xeon 3104); Radeon RX 5500 GPU with 2GB RAM and 512 cores; 16GB to 384GB DDR4 (768GB with 2nd Xeon); 1600W power supply; 492 x 262 x 527mm; $2,899 and up

All three Thelio system are available with optional GPU boards that can be used in conjunction with integrated graphics. As shown in the spec list below, the choice of GPU also dictates what display ports you get.

Thelio internal views
(click images to enlarge)

 

The base level Thelio lets you choose between the AMD Radeon RX 550/580, Nvidia GeForce 2070/2080, and Titan V graphics cards, or if you’re going with an Intel Core system, the built-in Intel UHD Graphics 630. The Major and Massive systems offer a slightly broader range of choices shown below, and can also load up to 4x GPUs, as long as you don’t mix and match AMD and Nvidia modules:

• Radeon RX 550: 1× DisplayPort, 1× HDMI, 1× DVI
• Radeon RX 580: 3× DisplayPort, 1× HDMI, 1× DVI
• RX Vega 64: 3× DisplayPort, 1× HDMI
• GeForce RTX 2070: 3× DisplayPort, 1× HDMI, 1× USB Type-C
• GeForce RTX 2080: 3× DisplayPort, 1× HDMI, 1× USB Type-C
• GeForce RTX 2080Ti: × DisplayPort, 1× HDMI, 1× USB Type-C
• Titan V: 3× DisplayPort, 1× HDMI

The standard Thelio and the Thelio Massive each ship with 2x GbE ports while the Major only has one. The Thelio provides 4x USB 3.1 Gen 1 ports and a single USB 3.1 Type-C port. The Major adds a bank of 4x USB 3.1 Gen 2 ports for 8x host ports overall, and the Massive offers 10x USB 3.0 ports, but no Type-C port. The Massive also adds 2x eSATA ports and an S/PDIF port in addition to the standard trio of audio jacks found on all the systems.

Thelio rear view (left) and homegrown Thelio Io board
(click images to enlarge)

 

The Thelio features oversized fans and heat pipes that rapidly draw heat from the CPU. Ducts direct the hot air out of the system. “”To maximize performance, Thelio is constructed to prevent throttling of all components inside,” says System76.

A homegrown, open source Thelio Io daughter board acts as a chassis controller, hard drive backplane, and thermal controller. The Thelio thermal system uses motherboard data, fan speed, and GPU and OS data to coordinate optimal airflow. The Thelio Massive offers an additional home-grown open source board: referred to as an SAS backplane for high performance 2.5-inch PCIe storage.

Aiming for open hardware

The Thelio systems are OSHWA certified open hardware, offering the same open source CC-BY-SA (Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike) license used by the BeagleBone boards. You also get GPLv3 licensed, Ubuntu based firmware.

Like Olimex’s community backed Teres-A64 laptop, Thelio is not as open source as your typical open-spec hacker board. This is due to the variety of components demanded by PC customers that are hard to find with open source licensing. In addition, like most hacker boards — with the exception of SiFive’s expensive, RISC-V based HiFive Unleashed development board — it’s powered by mostly proprietary CPUs and GPUs.

Thelio, Thelio Major, and Thelio Massive
(click image to enlarge)

 

Nevertheless, the Thelio systems are said to be certified by

OSHWA

(Open Source Hardware Association) as being open hardware. As explained in System76’s

blog entry

on open hardware, every effort was made to select open source components or build them inhouse.

In the past, like fellow Linux laptop specialists ZaReason, System76 has primarily been a system integrator, offering highly customizable laptops pre-loaded with Linux. For the Thelio, however, it built its own factory and manufactured the chassis and some of the components itself. “To remove functionality from the proprietary mainboard,” System76 designed the open source Thelio Io daughter board.

As celebrated in the betanews story that alerted us the Thelio, the computer is also notable for being primarily made in the U.S. This may not mean much if you live elsewhere, but it’s a selling point for some U.S. buyers ranging from American Firsters to environmentally conscious techno-locavores.

Further information

The Thelio computers are available for pre-order starting at $1,099, with shipments beginning in early December. More information may be found on System76’s Thelio product page (specs are at the bottom), which offers links to individual shopping configurator pages. Thelio and Thelio Io design files may be found on the Thelio GitHub page.

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