Cubieboard

A Raspberry Pi WiFi Extender is a cheap and power efficient way of increasing the total range of your WiFi Network. In my case I needed to extend a WiFi coverage within the same LAN (bridge mode from Ethernet to WiFi).

I have found a working shortcut 😎 to create an access point following a GitHub project so I didn’t need to follow instructions from raspberrypi.org page – Using the Raspberry Pi as an access point to share an internet connection (bridge).

I’ve bought  BMP085 barometric pressure sensor and my goal was to get pressure and temperature data via I2C interface to my Cubieboard running linux (cubieboard2-lubuntu-installation).

I executed the following steps to install apache with PHP on my cubieboard2 with lubuntu.

Lets start with installation that will take about 25MB:

sudo apt-get install apache2
sudo apt-get install php5
sudo /etc/init.d/apache2 restart

Put your IP address to the browser (or localhost) and you see that Apache was installed correctly.

Your www content is stored in /var/www.

The whole www folder is owned by root. So for easier access I changed owner to my user named linaro

When I installed Lubuntu on my new Cubieboard2, the print screen was not working.
When I hit the “Print Screen” button I got this message:

I’ve fixed it by installing the scrot application:

sudo apt-get install scrot

If you hit “Print Screen” or “Alt+Print Screen” you will see a new file *_scrot.png in you home directory.

I use vnc to access graphic interface from my PC to cubieboard that runs on lubuntu. I have chosen tightvncserver and spent some time to configure and run it. Also to my surprise it took me a while to set it up correctly. This guide was the most helpful how-to but I needed to make some changes so I’ve written this post.

If you have your cubieboard stable and do not like the led to blink, you can turn it off.

I wanted to connect my cubieboard with lubuntu to my arduino via serial communication. For that I had to enable a UART and connect pins to my arduino (only RX/TX is needed). I have arduino mini 3.3V on which I have attached some sensors (outside temperature).
By this command you can check if the port is enabled:

stty -F /dev/ttyS0 -a

In fresh installation of lubuntu the ttyS0 is configured and used by kernel and ttyS1 is not enabled. You will get this message for ttyS1:

Cubieboard has thickness 2.00mm 2×20-pin-header that is not so suitable for home hobbiest.
Arduino and other small boards uses 2.54mm pin (0.100inch)

To connect it I have bought 2.00mm to 2.54mm 40pcs Wire Cable 2P to 1P.

2.00mm to 2.54mm (2P to 2x1P) wires