Rasberry Pi Update

[Carlos]

Here is the e-mail I got fro Farnells

I was originally told Mid April. 

Dear CARL

In recent days you may have heard various reports on the Web about Raspberry Pi, the need for compliance testing and possible further delivery delays.

We recognise the impact on our customers of the constantly changing delivery dates, and we apologise for the frustration and disappointment this is causing. We will supply you with accurate delivery dates just as soon as we can, as the Boards undergo compliance testing.

It is clear that many of our customers will be using the Raspberry Pi as a finished product, not just an engineering development board. As such, we see it as the most responsible approach to ensure that all Pis meet the required standards for finished products in all territories.

We are therefore going through a much accelerated compliance process, working closely with the Raspberry Pi Foundation and RS Components. We take our commitment and responsibility in this area very seriously and believe the short-term delays, whilst frustrating, will be worthwhile to ensure our customers receive a fully compliant product.

The exact situation at the present time is as follows:

    2000 Raspberry Pi's are now in the UK.You can see pictures of them leaving the factory in China here; http://www.raspberrypi.org/
    The compliance teams of element14, RS and Raspberry Pi are working round the clock with the testing houses to assess the product now.  Any issues that are identified (hardware or software) will then need to be rectified and we will ensure this happens as quickly as is humanly possible.
    There are different compliance standards around the globe. We are focused on meeting all of those as quickly as possible. Some may take longer than others.
    As soon as these initial 2000 Boards are compliant to at least one set of required standards, we will receive our share of this first batch from Raspberry Pi and ship these to customers in the locations where the compliance standards have been met on a strictly first come, first served basis. Those who ordered first in those countries will receive the product first.
    Regrettably we cannot give any firm delivery commitments on Raspberry Pis until this testing is complete. Please be assured we will provide this information as soon as we can.
    Once the product is fully compliant our manufacturing partners have the necessary stocks of components to ramp up production very quickly. So, despite these frustrating, initial delays we are confident the picture will improve and lead times for new orders will reduce.
    We will email you individually to confirm your personal delivery date as soon as we are able to. We will continue to share generic information, but recognise that it is the detailed specific information to your order that is most important to you.
    We will continue to post news and updates on our element14 community. Next week, on April 4th, Raspberry Pi founder, Eben Upton will give a 40-minute webinar on programming the Raspberry Pi as part of our element14 Design Flow series.
    To join the 2000+ Pi fans who have already registered to attend and learn more Click here

Once again we apologise to all of our customers for this delay in providing the hotly awaited Raspberry Pi. Despite these initial teething troubles, we're certain you'll be delighted with the end result.

HOT OFF THE PRESS UPDATE FROM EBEN UPTON OF RASPBERRY PI:

"We have spoken with BIS this morning, and have been told that, given the volumes involved and the demographic mix of likely users, the development board exemption is not applicable to us; as a result, even the first uncased developer units of Raspberry Pi will require a CE mark prior to distribution in the EU...... ....we are working with RS Components and element14/Premier Farnell to bring Raspberry Pi into a compliant state as soon as is humanly possible."

blah blah blah

[zapiy]

I am itching at the feet still...

[Carlos]

The first batch have gone out, they had an item about it on BBC look east yesterday, but I did not get mine so I guess that I will have to wait for the next shipment from Chineesland.

Waste of time getting up at 5;30 to try and order one.

[Havantgottaclue]

I got mine on Monday, luckily in the first batch.

Still, I can't help feeling it would have been much better if mine had gone to someone more helpful. For me, it's a slow process. The best distro is Debian Squeeze and although it's quite impressive, it is still a long way short of being fit for everyday computing. That's where hopefully the other early adopters are going to help out. Unfortunately I don't have the expertise and won't have much to offer.

It runs quite slowly at the moment. One of the main aims for developers seems to be to get XWindows to speak to the GPU directly, thus taking a load off of the processor, which is being hit quite hard when you try to do anything at the moment. There's only 256Mb of memory so it does take you back to the days when you had to be careful not to open too many programs. At the minute, if you do, it grinds to a halt or even crashes. It probably doesn't help that the graphic mode autodetect is a bit on the optimistic side, choosing 1080p when it would probably be better off choosing a lower resolution in the interests of performance. I will have to go down into the configuration files at some point to see if I can do it manually. Also sound isn't working - apparently I'm supposed to install alsa-lib, and I have libalsa installed ... the words "dependency hell" are going through my mind ...

If that all sounds horrendous, I have to say it's not, really - it's a solid start, with USB mouse and keyboard, and USB hard drive being detected, and XWindows all working straight from the disk image on SD card. Compared to the first time I installed RedHat 5, which took quite an effort just to get XWindows up and running, it's positively user-friendly. I've installed Synaptic now, and now that I've resized the root partition there's plenty of space for installing applications.

[zapiy]

Nice one, not to sure when i will get mine.. but like you i dont really have anything in the way of development to offer so its best someone else has the early ones and i will grab one as and when.

[Carlos]

I got mine on Monday, luckily in the first batch.

Still, I can't help feeling it would have been much better if mine had gone to someone more helpful. For me, it's a slow process. The best distro is Debian Squeeze and although it's quite impressive, it is still a long way short of being fit for everyday computing. That's where hopefully the other early adopters are going to help out. Unfortunately I don't have the expertise and won't have much to offer.

It runs quite slowly at the moment. One of the main aims for developers seems to be to get XWindows to speak to the GPU directly, thus taking a load off of the processor, which is being hit quite hard when you try to do anything at the moment. There's only 256Mb of memory so it does take you back to the days when you had to be careful not to open too many programs. At the minute, if you do, it grinds to a halt or even crashes. It probably doesn't help that the graphic mode autodetect is a bit on the optimistic side, choosing 1080p when it would probably be better off choosing a lower resolution in the interests of performance. I will have to go down into the configuration files at some point to see if I can do it manually. Also sound isn't working - apparently I'm supposed to install alsa-lib, and I have libalsa installed ... the words "dependency hell" are going through my mind ...

If that all sounds horrendous, I have to say it's not, really - it's a solid start, with USB mouse and keyboard, and USB hard drive being detected, and XWindows all working straight from the disk image on SD card. Compared to the first time I installed RedHat 5, which took quite an effort just to get XWindows up and running, it's positively user-friendly. I've installed Synaptic now, and now that I've resized the root partition there's plenty of space for installing applications.

Hmmmm Its sounds REALLY easy for kids to start coding on


well done though and keep us posted on how you are doing, looks like we will need your help soon.

[Carlos]

Dear customer,

Having successfully passed its CE compliance testing, we can now confirm that your Raspberry Pi will be delivered in the week commencing 07/05/2012.

 

[Carlos]

Anyone know what courier Farnell use?

Mine is due tomorrow.

[TL]

Anyone know what courier Farnell use?

Mine is due tomorrow.

I bet you can't wait!

[Carlos]

Got a feeling that I wont be home to take delivery of the thing!

UPS by the looks of it!

[TL]

Got a feeling that I wont be home to take delivery of the thing!

UPS by the looks of it!

Always the way isn't it?

I was waiting on a parcel and it came today when I was in the bloody shower and didn't hear the door 

Now I have to wait until Friday for redelivery 

[AmigaJay]

My Raspberry Pi was sent this morning 

[Carlos]

My Raspberry Pi was sent this morning 

[AmigaJay]

My Raspberry Pi was sent this morning 

Why, was there a problem with your first one?

[Carlos]

My Raspberry Pi was sent this morning 

Why, was there a problem with your first one?

Hi Jay, I had to use a hair dryer to boot the sd card!!!!

http://www.retrovideogamer.co.uk/http:/ ... ic.php?t=3