Rock960 - Questions about Ubuntu 16.04 Server distro: Connecting to WiFi, GUI version, and running AI

Products Support Rock960
#1

I have a Rock960, 2 GB RAM Version, running on the Stock Android 7.1 OS. This version of the board can’t run TensorFlow Lite Object Detection. It can run for about a couple frames but shuts down automatically. Just to clarify, the 4GB RAM Version of the board runs TF-Lite Object Detection without any hiccups, but I don’t have my 4GB RAM Version anymore.

My next option then was to look at the Ubuntu Distribution that 96Boards provided, and install the OAID AI Frameworks there and hope that it runs.

I then looked at OAID and it seems that they built their own version of Tensorflow (TF-HRT) using this guide. And this version seems to be on Ubuntu. I then followed the instructions to go install Ubuntu 16.04 on my board. And here are where the problems begin:

  1. The Ubuntu 16.04 Distro is a Server version, which means that we don’t have a GUI.
  2. It seems difficult to connect to the local Wi-Fi so that I have internet access?

So my thought process now is this: I have to install a GUI to help me program AI, and I need the internet connection for it.

I know I don’t have internet since when I hit ping google.com, I get “unkown host google.com”. Upon looking for guides on how to connect to the internet using the terminal, all I had to do was to type in iwconfig wlan0 essid name key s:password, replacing the essid with the id of my wifi network, and the password with the plaintext password. However, upon doing so, I get the following error message:

sudo: unable to resolve host rock960: Connection refused
Error for wireless request “Send Encode” (8B2A):
SET failed on device wlan0: Invalid argument

So I then used (this guide)[https://superuser.com/a/477393/572364] on how to connect to the internet, but it didn’t seem to work as well.

Now, without internet connection, I won’t be able to install the general dependencies, let alone install a GUI and help make programming easier.

Now, I don’t think that Tensorflow would run on Linaro, as it is based on Debian (if I’m not mistaken).

Has anyone actually made Tensorflow/OIAD Object Detection (NOT IMAGE CLASSIFICATION) work on a Rock960 board?

Are there any guides out there on how to run Object Detection on the Rock960? Because honestly, it isn’t well documented, and there seems to be a lot of steps that they expect the end users to just get.

Any leads or guides would be very much appreciated.

#2

I then followed the instructions to go install Ubuntu 16.04 on my board.

Which image did you install?

#3

@hipboi I used this guide to install the Ubuntu 16.04 Server on the Board

#4

If you need to run OAID, you can download and install from:

ftp://ftp.openailab.net.cn/ROCK960/firmware/

It’s based on ubuntu 16.04 with xfce desktop environment.

#5

Is there an Ubuntu or Android image we can burn on an SD Card and can run Object Detection? I’m not too keen on re-writing the eMMC.

#6

Hi,
Follow the step by step procedure to connect the Wi-Fi in Rock960(Ubuntu 16.04).

Step1: Scan the nearby Wi-Fi router or hotspot

root@rock960:~# ifconfig wlan0 up
root@rock960:~# iw dev wlan0 scan | grep SSID:
SSID: test1
SSID: hotspot
SSID: hotspot1
SSID: test2

Step2: Set the static IP for rock960 device manually

root@rock960:~# ifconfig wlan0 10.42.0.101 up

Step3: Create a wpa_supplicant.conf file and add the ssid, password & security details of the router or hotspot
root@rock960:~# vi /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf
network={
ssid=“hotspot”
psk=“123456789”
#psk=e90d0506c60ec4ff469c255b042625122ade2787ae0e1d4680cab636c06ab2d3
scan_ssid=1
key_mgmt=WPA-PSK
pairwise=CCMP TKIP
group=CCMP TKIP
}
country=US"

Note:
Where, ssid: Hotspot or Router name
psk: password
key_mgmt: Wi-Fi security

Step4: Run the following command to connect the Hotspot or Router from Rock960
root@rock960:~# wpa_supplicant -Dnl80211 -iwlan0 -c/etc/wpa_supplicant.conf -B

Step5: Set the Gateway for the device
root@rock960:~# route add default gw 10.42.0.1 wlan0

Step6: Set the DNS for the device
root@rock960:~# vi /etc/resolv.conf
nameserver 10.42.0.1

Step7: Now Ping Google to check the network connection
root@rock960:~# ping -c 3 www.google.com

— www.google.com ping statistics —
3 packets transmitted, 3 received, 0% packet loss, time 2003ms
rtt min/avg/max/mdev = 9.230/10.686/12.836/1.553 ms