Working on my Linux driven Laptop and it works like a charm.
The X96 Mate Plus was a bit of a disappointment. It was supposed to make a TV Smart. But things just do not work as they should. No problem, I hook the Chromecast thing back up to the TV. And give the little Android TV media box a new meaning in life. Something I wanted to do with the Smartphone I used before the one I use currently. Unfortunately that one quit working all together. The little Android TV thing could function as a digital clock. Beautiful blue light clock, and even the alarm could be set. Yet somehow that seemed like a waste. It has got Android 10 (TV version, no Hive based Apps for that, not even on F-Droid.) but somehow it all just does not function as it should.
Then I came across Termux, a Linux terminal, with some limits. No 'sudo' stuff, there are limits, but also some clever ways around the limits. It is even possible to install complete Linux distros like Ubuntu, Debian or Parrot. With restrictions, but it seems to function. But it seemed it bit overkill to me. Because I wanted to have an energy saving kind of automation unit, running 24/7, but still beat renting a virtual server. Which would be over the top anyway, at least for what I wanted to use it for. All 'it' would need to do is run some software constantly that looks at what is happening on the Hive blockchain and / or the Hive-Engine one. And then do some stuff, or not at all.
Once I had Termux going, added some packages and tried to get Python do its thing I actually started to believe in the little bugger again. Could it be that fellow Hive member Holger80 his masterpiece would run on it? Oh happy day, it actually did, in one go! Started Beempy, that worked like a charm too. But it would not be able to handle Hive-engine, let alone make Distribubot happen? Guess what, it all worked like a charm. But I thought that adding Kivy to Python would be just asking too much of the goodies. And then it seemed that have gotten stuck on building a 'wheel' thing. As I am not a real hardcore programming wizzard, more like a geek who does a little 'trial and error' programming now and then, I was not sure what was going on there.
But also that was working. Now it is possible to make a graphical interface for whatever I want to with this little box. There is one thing that I am missing when working on the Xfce4 desktop, a Browser that supports Javascript. Netsurf is a great little fast browser, but sites that are heavily build with Javascript are a horror. Even sites that serve some documentation, text data. And I do miss using my favorite Hive dApps from the Remmina VNC client. Of course I can swap just back to the Linux desktop and like now post using Ecency. But it is just not the same. When I am 'there' I want to do all the things I want to do. Geany works, so why not the rest. Thought that Kivy might help me with a browser that also does Javascript. Tried to install a Browser ment for Raspberry Pi, same ARM based processor, what could go wrong? But it complained that I did not have 'sudo' rights: "Not rooted perhaps?" So no, and not planning too Root the thing, yet.
On the little box there is this VNC server running and helping to make it possible for me to use it from another computer in the local network. Full resolution on the Laptop that i'm using to get this article done. And 32 bit color depth at high quality. When I move the windows they tend to wobble a little. But that is actually the only kind of 'lag' that it has. The rest feels like working in real-time, even so much that I tend to forget that I work on a remote computer that has a quad core ARM processor. While the Remmina client runs on an older model AMD e350, dual core. Actually it feels more powerful to work on the little remote box. It is not really ment to be used like a desktop computer. So it could function well for the idea that I had for the old SmartPhone. Well, old, it had 8 cores, a bit more powerful than the little Android TV Mediabox.
And what am I going to do with it? Not sure yet, at least I can use it with the DUCAT Token I have made on Hive-Engine. Have it automated to be used for tipping, like that thing with the BEER or the ENGAGE Token? And that I could run locally, but I'd have to be sure it can actually run 24/7 without any issues. Trial and error, not jumping in the deep water right away. And already I am more happy with the little box that I was a couple of days ago. The firm that send it to me was not the best either, they had send me the wrong kind of powerconnector. Luckily I have a lot of those things lying around and a soldering iron to connect the right plug to the right power supply. Though I think the current one is supposed to deliver 2 Amps with 5 Volts but I think it is better to go for one with 3 Amps. When I hook an external drive to it the thing wont spin and do its thing. But without that, it works fine.
Except for the VNC server stopping a couple of times before leaving all kinds of files behind. Could wright a script for that, to clean it up after that happens. But for now I call it a day. So far it has been fun, with curses in between. Wonder if I can actually make this thing become useful...
It is a joy to work with
Screenshot by Oaldamster
