by Ciro Santilli (@cirosantilli, 34)
This section is about companies that integrate parts and software from various other companies to make up fully working computer systems.
Their websites a bit shitty, clearly a non cohesive amalgamation of several different groups.
E.g. you have to create several separate accounts, and different regions have completely different accounts and websites.
The Europe replacement part website for example is clearly made by a third party called flex.com/ and has Flex written all over it, and the header of the home page has a slightly broken but very obviously broken CSS. And you can't create an account without a VAT number... and they confirmed by email that they don't sell to non-corporate entities without a VAT number. What a bullshit!
This is Ciro Santilli's favorite laptop brand. He's been on it since the early 2010's after he saw his then-girlfriend-later-wife using it.
Ciro doesn't know how to explain it, but ThinkPads just feel... right. The screen, the keyboard, the lid, the touchpad are all exactly what Ciro likes.
The only problem with ThinkPad is that it is owned by Lenovo which is a Chinese company, and that makes Ciro feel bad. But he likes it too much to quit... what to do?
Ciro is also reassured to see that in every enterprise he's been so far as of 2020, ThinkPads are very dominant. And the same when you see internal videos from other big tech enterprises, all those nerds are running... Ubuntu on ThinkPads! And the ISS.
Those nerds like their ThinkPads so much, that Ciro has seen some acquaintances with crazy old ThinkPad machines, missing keyboard buttons or the like. They just like their machines that much.
ThinkPads are are also designed for repairability, and it is easy to buy replacement parts, and there are OEM part replacement video tutorials: www.youtube.com/watch?v=vseFzFFz8lY No visible planned obsolescence here! With the caveat that the official online part stores can be shit as mentioned at Section "Lenovo".
The only thing Ciro never understood is the trackpoint: superuser.com/questions/225059/how-to-get-used-of-trackpoint-on-a-thinkpad Why would you use that with such an amazing touchpad? And vimium.
Enable SSH on boot:
  • sudo touch /boot/ssh
Model B V 1.1.
SoC: BMC2836
Model B V 1.2.
SoC: BCM2837
Serial from cat /proc/cpuinfo: 00000000c77ddb77
Some key specs:
  • SoC:
    • name: RP2040. Custom designed by Raspberry Pi Foundation, likely the first they make themselves rather than using a Broadcom chip. But the design still is closed source, likely wouldn't be easy to open source due to the usage of closed proprietary IP like the ARM
    • dual core ARM Cortex-M0+
    • frequency: 2 kHz to 133 MHz, 125 MHz by default
    • memory: 264KB on-chip SRAM
  • GPIO voltage: 3.3V
Figure 1. Source.
Has Serial wire debug debug. Why would you ever get one without unless you are a clueless newbie like Ciro Santilli?!?!
You can connect form an Ubuntu 22.04 host as:
screen /dev/ttyACM0 115200
When in screen, you can Ctrl + C to kill main.py, and then execution stops and you are left in a Python shell. From there:
  • Ctrl + D: reboots
  • Ctrl + A K: kills the GNU screen window. Execution continues normally
but be aware of: Raspberry Pi Pico W freezes a few seconds after after screen disconnects from UART.
The first/only way Ciro could find was with ampy: stackoverflow.com/questions/74150782/how-to-run-a-micropython-host-script-file-on-the-raspbery-pi-pico-from-the-host/74150783#74150783 That just worked and it worked perfectly!
python3 -m pip install --user adafruit-ampy
ampy --port /dev/ttyACM0 run blink.py
TODO: possible with rshell?
Install on Ubuntu 22.04:
python3 -m pip install --user adafruit-ampy
Ctrl + X. Documented by running help repl from the main shell.
Our examples at: rpi-pico-w/upython.
The examples can be run as described at Program Raspberry Pi Pico W with MicroPython.
Ubuntu 22.04 build just worked, nice! Much feels much cleaner than the Micro Bit C setup:
sudo apt install cmake gcc-arm-none-eabi libnewlib-arm-none-eabi libstdc++-arm-none-eabi-newlib

git clone https://github.com/raspberrypi/pico-sdk
cd pico-sdk
git checkout 2e6142b15b8a75c1227dd3edbe839193b2bf9041
cd ..

git clone https://github.com/raspberrypi/pico-examples
cd pico-examples
git checkout a7ad17156bf60842ee55c8f86cd39e9cd7427c1d
cd ..

export PICO_SDK_PATH="$(pwd)/pico-sdk"
cd pico-exampes
mkdir build
cd build
# Board selection.
# https://www.raspberrypi.com/documentation/microcontrollers/c_sdk.html also says you can give wifi ID and password here for W.
cmake -DPICO_BOARD=pico_w ..
make -j
Then we install the programs just like any other UF2 but plugging it in with BOOTSEL pressed and copying the UF2 over, e.g.:
cp pico_w/blink/picow_blink.uf2 /media/$USER/RPI-RP2/
Note that there is a separate example for the W and non W LED, for non-W it is:
cp blink/blink.uf2 /media/$USER/RPI-RP2/
Also tested the UART over USB example:
cp hello_world/usb/hello_usb.uf2 /media/$USER/RPI-RP2/
You can then see the UART messages with:
screen /dev/ttyACM0 115200
TODO understand the proper debug setup, and a flash setup that doesn't require us to plug out and replug the thing every two seconds. www.electronicshub.org/programming-raspberry-pi-pico-with-swd/ appears to describe it, with SWD to do both debug and flash. To do it, you seem need another board with GPIO, e.g. a Raspberry Pi, the laptop alone is not enough.

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