Current Status
Currently, when it boots up, Debian GNU/Linux comes up normally in text mode, then runs a simple Python script, which randomly plays all the MP3 files under certain directory. It has only minimum user interface to skip a song when right button of gamepad is pressed. To play movie, I have to use keyboard to login and type commands to start X and mplayer with appropriate parameter.
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| Debian started, and my script is playing MP3s (no interesting screen) |
Working on command line... |
This is too inconvenient, and not what I want to show off to friends, so I'm planning to write a media player program, which has neat fullscreen GUI and gamepad control. Existing player program is not suitable for in-car use because one has to select songs or playlist to play every time it starts. More like car CD changer, I want my EPIA to play continuation of the song it was playing last time I turned off the ignition key.
One of the most shortcomings of a car PC is slow boot. To overcome this, I want to try out LinuxBIOS. It does nothing but minimum hardware setup to boot Linux kernel.
Next | My Linux Car Project