Johan - DesignerVisuals's questions

I have chased this for several days now.. I am working with an OEM to build/market/sell all electric vehicle(s). We are wanting to build a CARPC for these vehicles (similar to mimodhp.com). Mimod uses windows, and I DONT want to use Windows for this project.

I am thinking a linux OS is the best for this type of "embedded application". I have looked at various "front ends" for CARPCs, like Riderunner, Centrafuse, but I came to the conclusion they are all slow, poorly implemented, poorly supported (especially with Ride Runner), and they are all WINDOWS based. Centrafuse has some sort of Beta thing for linux, (they show no real interest in linux), and thats about it.

I found a couple videos on youtube talking about linuxICE and nGhost, which looked interesting. Then I googled that, and found its a dead project, replaced by another project, meego. I googled that, and I see its also pretty much dead.

I cant imagine a front end being THAT complicated to create. Does anyone on this forum/site know of a good front end to ubuntu for a CARPC? Its basically just a menu system with big buttons, that works with a touchscreen, and has things like an on screen keyboard (much like my samsung phone does actually, which runs android).

By the way I am not just looking for playing mp3s/videos, etc. We want to have gauges and show the state of the controller and the batteries, GPS Navigation, control things like power windows/locks, show turn signals, basically a digital replacement for all the analog instruments in a vehicle.

Kind of like this: http://www.chevyhardcore.com/news/greg-cullums-69-chevelle-brings-muscle-into-the-world-of-tomorrow/

Im working with an OEM, and we are wanting to build a CARPC, for use in an electric car. We want to build a system similar to MiMod (mimodhp.com). Mimod is too expensive, it is a closed system, AND its based on Windows (I cant see doing that, especially for a PC that controls the operation of the vehicle, with gauges etc). I think Linux is the way to go.

So I thought why not test the latest Ubuntu?

Created the Ubuntu 12.10 USB stick on an HP laptop running Vista. Booted Ubuntu on the laptop, to check out Ubuntu and the USB stick. It worked great! btw this is a very cool idea to be able to "try" Ubuntu this way! Kudos to whoever came up with that idea.

In order to show a proof of concept, and test Ubuntu on a small PC, I have an older (but hardly used) Via Motherboard with a C3 Processor. I wanted to see if Ubuntu 12.10 will run on it, as well as it ran on the laptop, and install Ubuntu 12.10 onto a blank 40 gig IDE drive hooked up to this MB. Note: I have windows xp home edition running with no problems on this MB, off another drive.

Here's the initial post on the screen: Model EPIA-M Bios 1.13 Via C3 600A mhz(133x4.5)

At first, installer gave me the error: Loading bootlogo - graphics initialization failed error loading gfxboot

I Googled that, entered "help" at the boot prompt. It gets further. I see: loading /casper/vmlinuz...... loading /casper/initrd.lz..........

After a looong wait, it comes up with the following message: Unable to boot - please use a kernel appropriate for your cpu.

Does the fact I booted off this USB Stick on laptop make any difference? Should I reload the ISO on the USB stick? Or do I need to burn the installer on a DVD, and use that? In other words, does the install for a DVD have different software on it than for a USB stick? Or are they the same?

Thanks in advance for any help anyone can offer me.

Johan