Anybody wants to share their experience with any of mini-PCs?
http://www.linux.com/news/embedded-mobile/mobile-linux/825663-10-mini-pcs-with-pre-installed-linux
Even Raspberry Pi has also become an "entry level PC": http://techcrunch.com/2015/02/02/raspberry-pi-2/. Has anybody tested Moodle on it?
Gareth (Maintainer of Essential theme) has been into Raspberry Pi for a long time now, you can contact him directly as I believe Gareth only assists in theme forum.
Hi Usman
Thanks! Sent a PM to Gareth.
Raspberry Pi is just one on the list, and by far the cheapest. In fact, I am playing with a RasPi 2 for a different purpose. Must get a new micro SD card and install Moodle on Raspbian. I am curious whether the Moodle performance is now acceptable. The numbers from the prev. version, Model B https://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=208201#p936305, were disappointing.
The question is whether the Moodle appliance has arrived.
Thanks! Sent a PM to Gareth.
Raspberry Pi is just one on the list, and by far the cheapest. In fact, I am playing with a RasPi 2 for a different purpose. Must get a new micro SD card and install Moodle on Raspbian. I am curious whether the Moodle performance is now acceptable. The numbers from the prev. version, Model B https://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=208201#p936305, were disappointing.
The question is whether the Moodle appliance has arrived.
Hi Visvanath,
Interesting question. Ok....
I once had Moodle 1.9 up and running (page serving time was around five minutes) on a Raspberry Pi Model B - the first 256K batch - and I needed to use an external HD for storage for 'speed'. I now have a Pi Model B+ but not tried yet. I believe that the Pi 2-B is much more powerful and has a Gig of RAM so would be an interesting experiment to try out .
However, I do run Moodle on my Netbook (Duel core Atom) and its ok for development, but probably not for any level of user load.
I think I've read in the past about the desire to have a 'Moodle Lite' version, so possibly that would be something to look at.
But, the main thing here apart from the technical challenge is the use case. Is it actually needed? Could you be out on a field trip with your students running Moodle on a battery powered Pi and WiFi router and then have the students connect and interact with their mobiles? Possibly. For my MSc project I did experiment with WiFi ranges on a field for a Java based web server system running on the Pi and it worked with up to about 100m of usable range.
So, ultimately, if there is a good educational reason for this then its something worth going for. Actually if things were trimmed down, then could you have a solar powered learning environment for off grid locations where there is a desperate need for connectivity.
Cheers,
Gareth
Hi Gareth,
Like you, I have a Netbook (Dual core Atom) which I tried Moodle on in a Windows XP environment. With the normal drive it was quite slow. After putting a solid state drive it was much better. Don't remember any page load times for it. I eventually wiped it out as I just could not stand working on Moodle stuff with that small of a screen.
I also have the same type motherboard cpu combination in a Zotac Mini-PC with a solid state drive and 4 GB of RAM that I use as an emergency backup to my regular server. It is running Centos 6.5 and it can actually handle four concurrent quiz startups, and can also handle a "normal" class, 16 of us, using Moodle with very reasonable page load times. Most times listed at the bottom of the page are less than four seconds.
I have run it for up to fifteen minutes on a small UPS after a power failure. It would be interesting to see what it could do with some of the solar panel and battery combinations that are out there now.
AL
Hi Al,
Very interesting - I've often wondered what the Atom would be with a *nix operating system.
At iMoot 2014 I did mention about an 'in field' possibility on slide 16 of my presentation:
www.slideshare.net/gb2048/my-own-moodle, drive.google.com/drive/#folders/0B17B0rYH2zERU21sQnVweUZCUFk and
.
Where I've also shared details and guides about installing different *AMP stacks.
I think it would be great if people here with different kit started experimenting around in the field with what they have.
I've also got this neat T-Link mini-router which runs off USB but is a fill blown router with DHCP etc.: http://uk.tp-link.com/products/details/?categoryid=241&model=TL-WR702N - so would be good for 'in-field' stuff.
Cheers,
Gareth
Hi Gareth
Yes, I have a Pi 2, quad core, 1 GB. The CPU and the GPU are excellent. A quick test running Apache didn't give great results. I think the (micro) SD card is a bottle neck.
Any way, whether a portable Moodle server is needed? (Note that the discussion is about all the 11 "mini PCs" in the OP.) If I take my students to an Internet-free retreat, I will open a Moodle instance in my (Debian) laptop. It is officially a netbook but Intel i5 and 4 GB. Too much power for a development only. If the server needs to run 24 h, I might take a mini PC. So other than the fun of getting the maximum out of weak hardware I can't say the exercise is _needed_.
Yes, I have a Pi 2, quad core, 1 GB. The CPU and the GPU are excellent. A quick test running Apache didn't give great results. I think the (micro) SD card is a bottle neck.
Any way, whether a portable Moodle server is needed? (Note that the discussion is about all the 11 "mini PCs" in the OP.) If I take my students to an Internet-free retreat, I will open a Moodle instance in my (Debian) laptop. It is officially a netbook but Intel i5 and 4 GB. Too much power for a development only. If the server needs to run 24 h, I might take a mini PC. So other than the fun of getting the maximum out of weak hardware I can't say the exercise is _needed_.
Hello all,
Just seen an advert for the 'Banana Pi' so found the website: http://www.bananapi.org/p/product.html - looks like this could be a good portable Moodle server. With the SATA port, then could have an off the shelf SSD for storage.
Cheers,
Gareth
So Banana Pi is like Raspberry Pi but yellow? Here is Moodle in a raspberry Pi with some statistics: https://moopi.mrverrall.co.uk/
Yello 'go faster' stripes ;)
Could be, in form of Intel Compute stick, coming with Quad Core Atom and 2GB Ram, 32G Drive (windows version) and 1GB RAM/8GB space on Ubuntu version.