[Elecraft] K3 firmware updates under Linux/ARM?

[Jussi Eloranta]

On 02/15/2015 09:19 PM, David Fleming via Elecraft wrote:
> Let me try that again with fewer typos. Sometimes my typing outruns my brain.
> It should be possible. I'm not sure how well a Qemu x86 VM would perform on a mini ARM rig like a Raspberry Pi or Beaglebone. Qemu can only run on one core. That is, it can emulate multiple CPUs, but it does this in a single thread, IIRC. And I suspect getting it up and running would be a challenge.  A better option might be Exagear Desktop. It is like Qemu but much faster. Like 4x faster. But it is not free ($30). Exagear Desktop on a Raspberry Pi 2 Model B should run 32-bit Linux x86 applications nicely (like the Elecraft Utilities). I figure Exagear is worth the money just for the performance advantage. It could be an awesome little system for around $75 (if you already have a HDMI monitor and a keyboard). I've been seriously considering ordering one just to play with.
>
>
I just tried to boot 32bit intel fedora 21 live image under ARM qemu (on 
banana pi). This is REALLY slow and even speeding up by a factor of 4 is 
not going to help much. I did not have enough patience to get the whole 
thing to boot up to the desktop, so I concluded that this will not work 
in practice.

It shouldn't be that difficult to cross-compile the K3 utility for ARM 
(unless they are using some strange development tools that don't support 
this). Since everything else works now, I will go the ARM way with my 
station. If I need to update the K3 firmware, I will visit someone with 
a PC. Hopefully Linux/ARM will be supported in the future.

Jussi (AA6KJ)