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Only the boot loader firmware can turn on the pcie connector on a Raspberry Pi 5 or so it seems. And the only way (I could find) to configure the boot loader is with RaspiOS. Lots and lots of posts were read to arrive at this point. Thankyou to everyone who posted stuff about this issue all over the place. Hopefully this helps someone. BTW - it's jolly fast!

The issue: booting on the Ubuntu SD-Card then performing an lsblk or an lspci command, one cannot see any evidence of an NVMe SSD. As far as I understand it this is essentially because the pcie connector is not enabled. The connector only becomes available when the bootloader goes looking for a pcie M.2 boot device. These steps are what I did to get Ubuntu booted from NVMe on the Pi 5

Discover the RGB keyboard

In a review of various models the author pondered what reaction people would have if he could take a current generation RGB keyboard back in time to the late nineties. They could marvel at the progress of computer technology and how far human civilization had progressed 20 years hence.

NVIS helical dipole antenna

Limited space in a temporarily rented house close to the heart of Bendigo in Victora, Australia forced the construction of a smallish 40m band HF antenna to go with the newly acquired Yaesu FT-710 HF transceiver.

WARNING - This is HAM RADIO stuff

Raspberry CM4 cluster node with NVMe disk

This cluster node is pretty much identical to the orginal CM4 node with the exception that it has the additional NVMe storage onboard. It's based on the Waveshare carrier board. Its main reason for existence is to run the OpenSearch based Intrusion Detection System (IDS) but also general container duties.

Linux Phone Adventures - trying to replace an iphone and IOS

This is the evolving story of the development of a phone that won't spy on its user. The story starts in late 2021 on the tail end of the global Covid 19 pandemic. Apple has just announced its phone software will now scan its user's photos for stuff it doesn't like. Furthemore, if the spy program doesn't like what it sees enough it shall inform on its owner to the police, who presumably will investigate and if warranted the justice system shall incarcerate the phone's owner.

2022-01-04 iPhone, Goodbye old friend - Gone to Ubuntu Touch Linux.

The plan decided on, with the assistance of the informal committee (composed of various experts in their respective fields), was to aquire very highly spec'd yet cheap phones. Obviously that immediately discounts Apple Inc. The manufacturer and model settled on was the Xiaomi Poco M3.

Dave's self made OpenEVSE car charger gets an update

This is my story about upgrading the firmware in the OpenEVSE Controller and OpenEVSE Wifi. The Short section is a quick summary of how to do it. The Long is a verbose discussion about the process I followed (including the blooper).

OpenEVSE started in February 2011 with a simple experiment to try to generate the SAE J1772 pilot signal on an Arduino Development Board. One experiment lead to another to another until a prototype J1772 compatible controller was born. With lots of feedback and interest from the great folks on the "My Nissan LEAF" Forum a few boards were offered to other hardware hackers. What started as a few boards (6 built in the first batch) turned into more and more... Today, OpenEVSE powers charging stations from many manufactures all over the world.

Meet the newest teensy weensy cluster member

It might be smallest node but she opens the door to thousands just like her. The Raspberry Pi Zero W running Docker-ce and managed by Portainer. This tiny unit is equipped with the PiMoroni Enviro hat capable of displaying temperature graphs, measuring sound pressure levels, temperature, barometric pressure and light intensity.

Shown in the picture is the video output from the PiZeroW (courtesy of the multi-input PIP monitor) and Portainer which will directly manage this tiny nodelett (is that a new word "Nodelett" ?).

Free yourself from OS lock-in with help from Portainer

As a complete computer geek I feel compelled to talk about how easy it was to completely change the operating system over on a cluster node leading to all nodes on the entire cluster (completed today). The key point here is that it's now possible to be free from the shackles imposed by your operating system provider.

Changing over the OS was a by-product of containerizing all applications.

Renault ZOE electric arrives at ElectricBrain

Actually it's been here for a few months. The page is still under construction (resources, priorities, etc. excuses). Renault as a company withdrew from the Australian market recently due to our Victorian government introducing an EV tax. Coupled with the federal govenment's love affair with coal (who can forget that photo of our Federal Treasurer Josh Frydenberg proudly holding a piece in parliament) the company clearly saw limited opportunities here. Nevertheless as a city run-about, it's been wonderful.

Some fun - The forgotten art of a PC Build
Music by bensound.com

RGB madness has taken hold here at ElectricBrain, as you can see. The Thermaltake fan kit, which is outrageously expensive, worked "out of the box" as designed with Linux thanks to linux-thermaltake-rgb. There's no liquid cooling either since AMD don't recommend it for the Ryzen 3700X (saving heaps).