Orange Pi Zero

[John Spikowski]

It seems once again, zero interest in my project threads.

I'm going to be offering this portable Linux development tool on the OrangePiZero.com site for those wanting this in quantities.

•   Ubuntu 24.04 64 bit Linux server
•   Webmin / Usermin control panel
•   MariaDB (MySQL) server + phpMyAdmin
•   Postgres SQL server
•   Apache web server + ScriptBasic proxy server
•   Amazon S3 as mounted file systems
•   Visual Studio Code Web
•   SMF forum

Visual Studio Code User Guide

You can edit local files with the VS Code Web site editor. This is a great way to get familiar with using VC Code. This is Microsoft sponsored so only allowing Github, Azure and having a Microsoft account works beyond simple local file edits.

VS Code loads much faster from the 🍊 Pi Zero server than the Microsoft hosted version.

VS Code - Local File Edit


Webmin User Guide

[John Spikowski]

I can map the server /home directory in the Windows file explorer. This includes the AWS S3 mounted buckets.

I've installed Samba Windows Networking but haven't configured it yet. This is a more direct approach than mapping drives. The Orange Pi Zero server will have access to printers on the Windows network as well.

[John Spikowski]

I can clone my 128GB micro SD card in about 5 minutes under Windows. Full image backups are great. A restore takes 5 seconds. (insert backup micro SD card)

This is also a nice way to build images branches. I have a micro SD card that contains Ubuntu only which I keep updated. When I want to start a new build I clone the base OS SD to a fresh SD and use it for the build.

This eliminates having to use an out dated image the manufacture offers.

[John Spikowski]

If you want to build your own 🍊 Pi Zero portable Linux server, there is nothing I do that is unique. All the hardware can be purchased from Amazon. The software is open source and uses apt install. If you install webmin as the second step after Ubuntu, you will have a web browser interface to install the other packages.

Additional Items: (beyond the 🍊 Pi Zero 2W)

•   GeekPi RPi Zero USB dongle
•   4 5mm circuitboard spacers.
•   Heat sinks that match the size of the CPU and memory module
•   HDMI video adapter plug
•   Micro USB to USB C adapter plug
•   Scandisk 128GB Extreme Pro SD

Note:  The WIFI / Bluetooth antenna is sandwiched between the 🍊 Pi Zero and GeekPi dongle board. The 5mm spacing between the boards is critical for the power pins to make contact.

[John Spikowski]

The 🍊 Pi Zero build I'm offering focuses on ScriptBasic being the HTML generator engine for browser content. ScriptBasic's proxy server is written in C that creates threads for each session that can communicate with each other with shared variables. I'm using Bootstrap for the UI framework.

[John Spikowski]

I've been using UltaEdit since its first release. My subscription ends in 3 days and I'm not going to renew it. VS Code with its repository support leaves UltraEdit in its dust.

[John Spikowski]

Installing Apache, MariaDB (MySQL) and Postgres SQL from Webmin went flawlessly. I highly recommend this approach to take.

[John Spikowski]

I'm going to setup a SMF (current version) forum on OrangePiZero.com site for this project.

If no one else joins this forum or posts besides Richard, the forum is going into archive mode like the others I host.

[John Spikowski]

🍊 Pi 5. - $140 - Amazon

This is the version of Orange Pi 5 with 16GB RAM. Orange Pi 5 is a single board computer that uses Rockchip RK3588S, a new generation AIoT chip that has an 8-core 64-bit processor, a Mali-G610 GPU, and a 6Tops NPU. It supports up to 8K video codec and has a variety of interfaces, such as HDMI 2.1, M.2 PCIe2.0, Type-C, Gigabit LAN port, and more. It can run Android 12 and Debian 11 operating systems, as well as the official Orange Pi OS（Droid）. It can be used for various applications, such as tablets, edge computing, artificial intelligence, cloud computing, AR/VR, intelligent

This might be my next Android based Linux development tablet. Downside is Android is Java based. Peter (ScriptBasic author) has a Java version of ScriptBasic.

[John Spikowski]

My goal with the 🍊 Pi Zero is provide a portable VS Code editor with repository and AWS S3 mounted file systems support and a personal Apache web server. Web apps can use either MySQL or Postgress DB servers.

The 🍊 Pi Zero will look like Windows server you can connect to the 🍊 Pi Zero from Networks in the Windows Explorer. This gives you access to printers from your VS Code session.

Linux system maintence and configuration is done in a browser tab with Webmin.

I see this working well for remote developers that wish to work from where ever they wish.

[John Spikowski]

I added a while back zero as an entry in the Windows hosts file so I didn't have to enter 192.168.8.203. I added the following to a /code/index.php file.

Code: PHP

1. <?php header ("Location: http://192.168.8.203:8080";)
2. ?>
3.  

All I have to do now is type zero/code in the browser URL and it brings me to the VS Code login screen.

zero/admin takes me to the Webmin login screen.

zero/forum works in its traditional way without a redirect.

Note:  Both VS Code and Webmin gives you terminal (connsole) access.

Fact is most web sites run under Linux. The 🍊 Pi Zero let's you use a web browser to emulate working on a Linux hosting server. Like having a portable AWS EC2 instance without the cost of running the instance and you don't need an internet connection.

[John Spikowski]

I installed VS Code as the orangepi user and not as the root (sudo) user. This keeps the VS Code user from writing to protected files owned by root. Before you say that sucks, that's what a terminal and nano is for.