Gigabyte Brix J1900 and Linux (Mint 18.1 beta) (Good so far)

[VirtualLarry]

Well, I had a lot of issues when I first got my Brix units with the J1900 Bay Trail Atom quad-core CPUs, and Linux.

Apparently, Linux kernels developed some issues with Bay Trail devices. There's a huge bug-report on Kernel.org or whereever.

Anyways, I was able to get mine to work with Linux Mint 17.3 Mate 64-bit (due to the older kernel used), along with flashing BIOS F8, and disabling "CPU C state reporting" in the BIOS. (Without that, it would hang on reboot, and could hang during usage.)

Unfortunately, it ran ... slow. Slower than the normal slowness of the J1900. IOW, Linux was noticeably slower than Windows 7 64-bit, on the same hardware. Some of that might have been due to the limited C states, which I've heard, can lock the CPU into the lowest performance states in Linux when you do that. (Probably what was going on.)

Well, Linux Mint 18.1 beta just released, and I'm trying Mint 18.1 Cinnamon 64-bit on my Brix J1900 units, WITH C state reporting ON in BIOS.

So far, I left it playing internet radio and connected using the onboard Realtek wifi last night, and when I woke it up this morning, it hadn't frozen, and the wifi was still working. (Wifi didn't work well in Mint 17.3, it would cut out after a few minutes.)

So, thus far, Mint 18.1 beta Cinnamon seems to be a winner. However, I have had issues with not getting the desktop environment to come up properly, once you login. Still beta though, hopefully they track down and fix the issue. It wasn't a hang, though, as I can hit CTRL+ALT+F1, bring up a VC, hit CTRL-ALT-DEL, and it reboots cleanly. (Maybe something to do with SystemD?)

Edit: Also, with C state reporting ON, in Mint 18.1 beta, performance is on par, or slightly better even, than Windows 7 64-bit. It's actually, almost, sort of, maybe, a little bit "snappy".

Bottom line, so far, I'm really happy with it.

 

[whm1974]

You can give Manjaro a try. I'm sure it would run much better since it has newer kernels.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Yeah, seems like it froze up after an overnight span of time. I put the same version of Mint on both, but one I installed the Intel Microcode Firmware Update, and one I did not. (I actually did, then I selected disable, after it seemed that the update, from 2015, might have actually been older than the Microcode contained in the newest F8 BIOS.

 

[whm1974]

Geez Larry you sure do seem to buy a lot of cheap low end hardware.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Yeah, maybe so. Well, looks like Mint 18.1 Cinnamon 64-bit is a bust. It won't wake from monitor sleep mode, probably frozen up.

I updated to the newest stable 4.8.12 Kernel too, from the Ubuntu repos.

Edit: So, I tried disabling "C state reporting" in the BIOS, and Mint 18.1 with Kernel 4.8.12 stable, survived overnight. So that setting might be a winner.

Edit: I tried installing a fresh copy of Mint 18.1 Cinnamon 64-bit release version. Over a week later, with Mint 18.1 Cinnamon 64-bit, with "C state reporting" disabled in BIOS, and it hasn't frozen up solid. Seems like this solution works. Didn't upgrade the kernel separately. (4.4.something?)

 

[whm1974]

Like I said, you could give Manjaro w/ Xfce a shot. I'm sure it will work much better with the lower end hardware you are using.

 

[StefanK]

Hello All, I have a BACE-3160. Haven't deployed any Windows OS, only tried with Linux distros as that's my target OS. Tried latest Fedora and Ubuntu distros. The Brix' BIOS seems to be the latest one - on Gigabyte site it has only 2 versions of BIOS. My issue is that if I attach my 2.5" 750GB Western Digital HDD via USB then I can successfully mount it, I can even read it but after some seconds it is disconnected then connected again, and it goes over and over again. So I just cannot use it. FYI this 2.5" WD HDD is connected via an external USB enclosure without any additional power connection, hence it gets power only from the USB port itself.
I've tried connecting the HDD via a docking station but the case is the same.
I have a Samsung external 500GB SSD. With that it works just great, can read/write and leave it attached for several hours without any issues. Wondering what the issue might be, firstly I expected the power usage of the 750GB HDD that is too much for the USB port, but the docking station has extra power connection, so it is connected to power outlet. Have you guys experienced this issue? Thank you in advance for your hints.

 

[you2]

I just don't know about these bay trail processors. I feel like the price/bang is negative. A pentinum can address more memory and is pretty cheap and a lot faster. The trick is finding them in a small form factor. Anyway I just can't see myself ever using something slower than a pentinum - unless it was one of the speedy snapdragon or perhaps high end nvidia (shield).

 

[XavierMace]

I mentioned in the one of the Atom threads, it depends what your use case and expectations are. Larry buys these to use as actual computers. That's a bad fit. I bought one of the cheap Atom tablets to use as a dedicated OBD2 diagnostic tool for my car. It works fantastic for that. It will manage some light surfing and streaming, but that's about it.

 

[cbn]

I bought one of the cheap Atom tablets to use as a dedicated OBD2 diagnostic tool for my car. It works fantastic for that.

Awesome.

 

[pcgeek11]

Like I said, you could give Manjaro w/ Xfce a shot. I'm sure it will work much better with the lower end hardware you are using.

This is a good choice. I tried Mint Linux 18.1 Cinnamon on a new NUC with the Celeron J3455 Apollo Lake, 4 core, Intel HD500 graphics with 8 GB DDR3L 1600 Mhz Ram. It ran like crap and used software rendering. I never got it working as smooth as it should, even when I used the up to date kernels. Pretty sure Mint comes with 4.4 kernel in the ISO.

I installed Manjaro 17.0 Community Cinnamon Edition and it flies. It runs absolutely great right out of the box. It comes with kernel version 4.9 in the ISO. All devices were detected and installed fully functional including the bluetooth and wireless.

I have always loved Linux Mint, I think I have been converted to Manjaro Linux at least for now.

 

[you2]

It is not surprising that 4.4 kernel would not work well with the newest chip (actually i'm unsure if it is the kernel or xserver which contains the graphic drivers). Anyway the 4.4 kernel predates the newest intel gpu.

 

[whm1974]

This is a good choice. I tried Mint Linux 18.1 Cinnamon on a new NUC with the Celeron J3455 Apollo Lake, 4 core, Intel HD500 graphics with 8 GB DDR3L 1600 Mhz Ram. It ran like crap and used software rendering. I never got it working as smooth as it should, even when I used the up to date kernels. Pretty sure Mint comes with 4.4 kernel in the ISO.

I installed Manjaro 17.0 Community Cinnamon Edition and it flies. It runs absolutely great right out of the box. It comes with kernel version 4.9 in the ISO. All devices were detected and installed fully functional including the bluetooth and wireless.

I have always loved Linux Mint, I think I have been converted to Manjaro Linux at least for now.

That is one of the reasons I switched over to Manjaro from Mint and Xubuntu. Stuff is more up to date, and it's easy to upgrade to current kernels.