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Everyone's free Linux: DeviceVM's Splashtop (ComputerWorld Blog)
Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols looks
at Splashtop. "Splashtop is a mini-desktop Linux distribution
that's based on the 2.6.20 Linux kernel. Currently, Splashtop comes
pre-installed on pretty much all ASUS motherboards and on netbooks and
laptops from ASUS, HP's high-end VoodooPC division and Lenovo. Rumor has it
that Splashtop and similar baked-in desktop Linuxes, like Dell's
"BlackTop," aka Latitude ON, will soon be appearing from other PC and
motherboard vendors. I wouldn't be in the least bit surprised if DeviceVM
makes some new partner announcements at this week's CES (Consumer
Electronics Show)."
(Log in to post comments)
Everyone's free Linux: DeviceVM's Splashtop (ComputerWorld Blog) Posted Jan 6, 2009 21:18 UTC (Tue) by MattPerry (guest, #46341) [Link]
Splashtop is great. I bought an Asus P5Q Deluxe motherboard to upgrade my old file server. Within a few seconds of power-on you get a graphical boot menu where you can choose which application to boot into, continue booting the system (with an adjustable 10 second countdown), or go into the BIOS. Clicking on the application name will boot Splashtop (Asus calls it ExpressGate) and launch the given program. The whole environment reminds me of CDE. Here's a screenshot: http://www.splashtop.com/images/product/splashtop_browser...
The environment is GTK-based, has Firefox 2, Pidgen instant messenger, and Skype. There's also a photo manager and "online games" icon. I didn't run the last two so I don't know what they lead to. Overall, it's nice for what it is. I found it most useful that I could look up something on the web before I installed Ubuntu Server on my new system, and I didn't have to take out my laptop.
The best part about having this on a motherboard is knowing that your hardware is supported by Linux. :-)
Everyone's free Linux: DeviceVM's Splashtop (ComputerWorld Blog) Posted Jan 6, 2009 21:35 UTC (Tue) by freehat (guest, #45283) [Link]
So I'm not exactly sure how this works. Would this be an accurate representation of splashboot?
[x86 hardware]
Thats the best I gleaned from the web pages.
Everyone's free Linux: DeviceVM's Splashtop (ComputerWorld Blog) Posted Jan 6, 2009 21:46 UTC (Tue) by Kit (guest, #55925) [Link]
I think a more accurate representation would be:
[x86 hardware]
Basically, it's an alternative OS to boot on the hardware that comes pre-installed on the motherboards (I assume on some built-in flash memory, doubt it'd be on ROM). Don't be confused by the 'VM' in the 'DeviceVM' name (not sure if they have anything to do with Virtual Machines at all).
The idea is that instead of spending time to boot up the normal operating system on the computer, you can very quickly boot into a minimal Linux OS to accomplish some tasks... although with Suspend/Hibernate becoming pretty standard I'm not sure how useful it would really be in practice (MattPerry's post lists a couple advantages to it, although I'd more so list those in the utility category).
Everyone's free Linux: DeviceVM's Splashtop (ComputerWorld Blog) Posted Jan 6, 2009 22:07 UTC (Tue) by freehat (guest, #45283) [Link]
o.k. I guessed I confused myself by reading this article
http://www.linux.com/feature/128004
In the "Getting under the Hood" section.
They refer to this "custom, in-house-designed real-time operating system (RTOS)", which I'm now guessing is just a modified linux kernel - probably with proprietary binary drivers bundled with it.
The article says that the RTOS is not linux based, but I'm starting to think that is a misinterpretation.
Security? Posted Jan 7, 2009 7:17 UTC (Wed) by pabs (subscriber, #43278) [Link]
I'm kinda concerned about security in these things, especially since the stuff on them is likely to be web-exposed. I wonder if the flash that stores splashtop is write-protected once the splashtop kernel starts. I also wonder about the update process.
Security? Posted Jan 7, 2009 13:21 UTC (Wed) by tzafrir (subscriber, #11501) [Link]
The things you can read are useful as well.
"SplashTop Security Hole Still Exists"
Everyone's free Linux: DeviceVM's Splashtop (ComputerWorld Blog) Posted Jan 7, 2009 9:24 UTC (Wed) by fb (subscriber, #53265) [Link]
Unfortunately the article is wrong.
Recent Asus boards do NOT come with Splashtop (i.e. ExpressGate) pre-installed (I own a P5N7A-VM). The boards do support it, but they are now shipped with ExpressGate uninstalled, and to install it you need Windows.
Second, at least some Asus boards do not have the flash-ROM, and will install ExpressGate in the beginning of the disk.
So far I haven't had the time to *try* to install it from Linux. If anybody has information about how to do it, I'd be glad to hear it.
If anybody is interested in trying it, this article shows how to install it in a USB stick: http://www.phoronix.com/forums/showthread.php?t=11653 (but there are some stability problems).
Everyone's free Linux: DeviceVM's Splashtop (ComputerWorld Blog) Posted Jan 7, 2009 13:25 UTC (Wed) by mangoo (guest, #32602) [Link]
Would it be possible to install a real distro instead of SplashTop (possibly, a custom kernel would be needed)?
Just turn your computer on, your distro boots immediately without waiting for any BIOS checks etc...
Everyone's free Linux: DeviceVM's Splashtop (ComputerWorld Blog) Posted Jan 7, 2009 13:39 UTC (Wed) by fb (subscriber, #53265) [Link]
AFAIK the speed gain is due to kernel, services, and other optimizations.
So *if* you installed a standard Linux dist you would still experience the same boot time as you would from booting it from a USB stick. As you would be using a (relatively) bloated kernel, and a system built to start and use loads of services.
I have no idea if Asus checks for image signature when writing images to the board.
Everyone's free Linux: DeviceVM's Splashtop (ComputerWorld Blog) Posted Jan 7, 2009 15:48 UTC (Wed) by leoc (subscriber, #39773) [Link]
As I understand it, there are two versions of the ASUS "ExpressGate" function. The one you are referring to that lives on your hard drive is the "lite" version. Some ASUS motherboards come with the regular version that lives in (relatively expensive) flash memory while others come with the "lite" version.
Everyone's free Linux: DeviceVM's Splashtop (ComputerWorld Blog) Posted Jan 8, 2009 9:36 UTC (Thu) by fb (subscriber, #53265) [Link]
I've seen people making this distinction between regular and "lite" versions in web forums.
My problem with it, oh well, my problem with _Asus_ is that Asus doesn't make this distinction in the technical features listings of their boards. That kind of vocabulary is also not present in my board's installation manual (which does not mention the lack of Flash-ROM).
In any case, the article is incorrect when it states that all Asus boards ship with "ExpressGate", once one does need XP or Vista to install it in many (most?) Asus boards.
Everyone's free Linux: DeviceVM's Splashtop (ComputerWorld Blog) Posted Jan 8, 2009 2:09 UTC (Thu) by thoffman (subscriber, #3063) [Link]
Same here -- I just built myself a new machine with an ASUS P5Q-EM LGA, and although it is a nice motherboard, I was rather disappointed to learn that to enable Splashtop I would have to install Windows first and run some kind of program they provided.
I don't own Windows and certainly wasn't going to buy a copy just to install Linux into ROM. So no Splashtop for me.
Fortunately, Ubuntu Intrepid boots very quickly on this hardware, and suspend/resume also works perfectly, so I don't really have a substantial need for Splashtop after all.
However, if someone out there figures out how to enable/install Splashtop from Linux, I would be willing to beta test.
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