CubieTruck, or simply the Cube.

The first time I saw this mini computer, I knew I wanted one too.
Read on for the rest of the story.

When the gearbest store offered me a product to review, I couldn't resist and ordered this board for myself.
It's not a cheap toy, I agree, but I think anyone who's into this kind of thing will understand.
I'll start with the usual photos and a description of the package itself.
The package arrived pretty quickly: 12 days according to the tracking, shipped from the Netherlands, which surprised me a little.
It was packed quite simply, in a large white envelope.


But the package was basically in no danger. Inside was a box made of fairly thick cardboard, and it hadn't been dented at all.


Inside the box, the board was fitted very snugly into a little case made of a rubber-like material (I can't even tell what it is—it's firm but soft at the same time), with a lid made of the same material on top.


Under the white packaging were some additional accessories for the board, some necessary and some not so much. They're packed in a separate cardboard box. Overall, everything looks very neat.


The complete kit. The case panels were packed in a sturdy resealable bag.


The kit includes:
1. A USB power cable for the board, with a connector on the other end measuring 4 mm in outer diameter. Cable length: 80 cm.
2. A short OTG cable, 12 cm long.
3. A USB-to-mini-USB cable, 80 cm long.
4. A SATA + power cable for 5 and 12 V, 11 cm long.
5. A set of fasteners for assembling the case.
6. Three panels made of plexiglass (or acrylic).
7. A heatsink for the processor.
8. And, of course, the Cubie board itself.


And here is the star of this review.
The board is built around a dual-core A20 processor with ARM Cortex-A7 cores from Allwinner.
The top of the board holds the processor itself, RAM, IO connectors, and a WiFi and Bluetooth module with an antenna. More on that later.


The front edge of the board has:
An IR receiver for using a remote control.
A power button.
4 LEDs (their functions can be changed in software).
A microSD card slot.
A connector for line out and a microphone.
A mini-USB connector for external devices. It can be used with an OTG cable, as well as to connect the board to a computer (for firmware updates and installing applications).
2 full-size USB ports for connecting external devices.
The side also has a connector for a SATA drive and its power. A 2.5-inch drive gets power from the board's main connector; a 3.5-inch drive needs an additional 12 V power supply.
A connector for an external battery.
The side also has a connector that exposes pins for various interfaces (this is one of the main features of boards like this).


The following connectors are on the back edge of the board:
VGA connector for connecting a monitor or TV
Toslink connector for digital audio output.
HDMI connector for connecting a monitor or TV.
Ethernet connector
Power connector. The board specifies a non-standard supply voltage of 5.2 V and a maximum current of 3 A. In practice, though, it works perfectly well powered from a standard 5 V USB port. I’ll come back to the power requirements later.
The other side edge of the board has:
Reset buttons (you can’t do without one :)) and a button for entering firmware mode.
The second interface connector.
UART connector.
Wi-Fi module with a chip antenna; there’s no provision for connecting an external antenna (which is a real shame).


There are a few additional components on the back of the board, as well as a flash memory chip.


I mentioned above that the board has LEDs. There are five, all different colors. On the one hand, that’s very convenient; on the other, it looks a bit like a Christmas tree, since the LEDs are quite bright. I managed to catch all five lit in this photo (the fifth is next to the power connector).
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The board’s specifications are as follows (from the manufacturer’s website).
— AllWinnerTech SOC A20, ARM® Cortex™-A7 Dual-Core, ARM® Mali400 MP2 Complies with OpenGL ES 2.0/1.1
— 1GB/2GB DDR3@480MHz (960MTPS)
— HDMI&VGA 1080P display output on-board
— 10M/100M/1G Ethernet
— Wifi+BT wireless connection with antenna on-board
— SATA 2.0 interface support 2.5' HDD, (for 3.5' HDD, only need another 12V power input)
— Storage solution: NAND+MicroSD or TSD+ MicroSD or 2*MicroSD
— 2 x USB HOST, 1 x OTG, 1 x Toslink (SPDIF Optical), 1 x IR, 4 x LEDs, 1 Headphone, 3 x Keys
— Power: DC5V @ 2.5A with HDD, support Li-battery & RTC
— 54 extended pins including I2S, I2C, SPI, CVBS, LRADC x2, UART, PS2, PWMx2, TS/CSI, IRDA, LINEIN--FMIN--MICIN, TVINx4 with 2.0 pitch connectors
— PCB size: 11cm *8cm*1.4mm, very suite for installing a 2.5' HDD

The description lists a composite video output, but I couldn’t find one in the schematic. I’ve also seen online references to an error in the specifications (and I’d really like the board to have one).
Basically, what caught my eye about this board was its wealth of external interfaces. It has plenty of possible uses, such as home automation or controlling various industrial processes. I even have an idea for a video surveillance system, though I’m afraid it might not have enough processing power. Or it could be a simple media server or NAS.

The board has gigabit Ethernet, which is useful in itself. What’s more, this interface is connected to the processor bus rather than using an intermediate connection over the USB bus, as is the case with some similar boards.
The SATA port is another welcome feature; it’s very useful for a device like a media server.
Video output is available via HDMI or VGA. The latter is handy for using older monitors, which can greatly expand the device’s range of applications.
There’s also an IR receiver, so you can use a remote control if you’re building a media server or some kind of TV box… I haven’t seen one on other boards.
The board also has Bluetooth and Wi-Fi. I can’t say much about Bluetooth, but Wi-Fi works well. The antenna is tiny, yet the connection is excellent—at least better than my daughter’s tablet in the same spot (it won’t connect at all there). I tested the connection through 3.5 reinforced-concrete walls, connecting to a Ralink USB dongle.

The board’s power consumption is tiny. Even under load, you can comfortably keep a finger on the processor without a heatsink. I installed the heatsink only because it came in the box; also, the board might get hotter if installed in an enclosed case. With the heatsink, overheating is definitely not a concern.
One of the Linux distributions reported a board temperature of 36.2 degrees. I don’t know how much to trust that reading, but it feels quite plausible.
While one of the distributions was booting, I saw a table showing the processor supply voltage as a function of its frequency. The processor’s operating frequency started at zero.


Speaking of power.
There are several ways to power it.
1. A 5.2 V, 3 A power connector (the maximum is stated separately: 3 A with a hard drive, 2 A without one). In practice, the board runs just fine from a D-Link USB hub.
2. The OTG connector, which is also the miniUSB port on the board. When flashing the board, I can power it just from this connector. But I noticed an interesting effect. Linux is running, and the board is powered through both connectors at once (external power and OTG). Everything works. I unplug the external power connector, and everything still works, but the mouse connected to USB stops working. I plug the external power back in, and everything works normally again. I need to investigate this.
3. Connecting a battery. This is really cool—in my opinion, a device with a built-in UPS is about as good as it gets. :)
The board also has a 12 V connector. Connect power here if you're using a 3.5-inch hard drive; nothing else is powered from it.
The board can control the 5 V power supplied to the hard drive (as far as I understand).

There are some downsides, though. For example, the RTC is powered by a small button-cell battery, which only lasts a few days. After that, the time resets, and the year goes back to 2000. If your browser suddenly starts complaining about the page's certificate, check the time. I can't remember the last time I had to do that on a regular computer. The battery charges while the board is powered.

Next, the assembly process.
The photo shows the board, three acrylic plates with holes pre-cut for the connectors and mounting points (including four holes for mounting the hard drive), and the hardware.
Four 15 mm standoffs, eight 12 mm standoffs, eight 6 mm standoffs, and four M3 nuts. I used my own screws to mount the hard drive; they aren't included. On the other hand, I have four 15 mm standoffs left over, and I haven't figured out what to do with them yet.
I'm still experimenting with software versions, so I decided to assemble it as the manufacturer recommends. After that, I'll either make a case or find something suitable that's already available to buy.


All assembled.
The kit looks great, and the board is assembled perfectly. There's no need to adjust, file down, solder anything extra, or do anything like that. It's a great kit, though it isn't cheap.


First power-on.
Here's the stock Android home screen.


System information.


AnTuTu test. Yes, the board isn't exactly a speed demon, but performance isn't really its strong suit.


And of course, I had to visit the familiar Muska.


A little about the software.
It came with Android 4.2.2 installed. Everything started up right away, and it connected to my home Wi-Fi without any problems. But I noticed one inconvenient thing: I couldn't use Wi-Fi and Ethernet at the same time under Android. It also has Bluetooth, but I don't really need it, at least for now.
There's a newer firmware on the manufacturer's website. I tried it just as an experiment; it installed and worked without any problems. I only did this to check that it worked. As far as I could tell, the changes aren't very significant.

But as many people understand, Android on this board is only interesting as a way to get a working device straight out of the box, and there's no problem with that.
The problems started when I decided to use Linux with this board.
Since I've worked almost exclusively with Windows (starting with 3.11), apart from some early tinkering with Sinclair computers and working in DOS, this wasn't easy for me.
But in principle, when I ordered this board, I knew it would be difficult (though I didn't yet realize just how difficult), and that made it more interesting.
The thing is, when you try to get started with Linux on a regular computer, I always ended up installing Windows anyway, and that was the end of it. That won't work here: it's either Android or Linux. And since Android doesn't interest me (especially when it comes to using specialized external interfaces), Linux is the only option. Most of the information is available here, here and here, and also here. There's quite a lot of information overall. That's great on the one hand, but on the other, it's a lot for a beginner to take in all at once.

Before my experiments, I read several articles on Habr 1, 2, 3 and initially thought I'd just download an image, write it to an external or internal flash drive, and everything would be fine. Not so. I had to get familiar with command-line commands like these:
sudo su
modprobe bcmdhd
iwlist scan
ifconfig eth0 up
ifconfig wlan0 down
And others, too. As a die-hard Windows user, this was unusual for me; I was used to clicking checkboxes with a mouse. But it's worth noting that, as far as I could tell, Wi-Fi and Ethernet can only not work simultaneously under Android. As I understand it, Linux doesn't have this problem.

While experimenting, I measured the board's power consumption.
5.2 V applied; only the board itself is running, sitting on the desktop (you can just make out the CPU load indicator in the bottom-right corner of the screen).


Video playback is on


There were also problems like these—
One of the distributions showed a black screen, apparently because it was intended for HDMI output (versions are usually compiled for either HDMI or VGA, and this isn't always specified, though some versions work with both connection types). Further testing revealed that it only worked with HDMI, but there were problems configuring the network.
Another one worked, but first I had to get an internet connection up using the command line (no big deal). Then it turned out that, in this version, the board went back to the login screen instead of shutting down, and wouldn't turn off. If I cut the power abruptly, after the second or third time it wouldn't boot by itself anymore.
The third one shut down normally, but even after getting the internet working, it refused to ping even the gateway.
The fourth one turned out to be in Chinese, and I couldn't figure out how to switch it to English. I don't know Chinese characters, and couldn't manage it by looking at the pictures and trying things at random. The command line also yelled at me in Chinese characters.
The fifth one had no graphical interface. Being inexperienced, I couldn't connect to the internet and download one (I confess, I'm used to windows).
The sixth and seventh ones did nothing but turn the monitor backlight on and off and flash a horizontal white bar. It worked with HDMI and was almost identical to the eighth one.
The eighth one I did manage to boot, but despite its large size, it didn't even have a media player. After fiddling with the command line, I got the internet working and downloaded some Dragon player weighing 96 MB. It took about 40 minutes to install, and even then I still couldn't watch a video.
The ninth one had only text mode, worked only with HDMI, and I didn't investigate further.
The tenth one booted right up. It was made for HDMI, and getting it going just meant enabling Wi-Fi from the command line. It immediately picked up the monitor's 1680x1050 resolution, has a nice interface, and already includes Chrome (though I'm used to Opera), a video player, and an audio player. No problems shutting it down. I highly recommend it as a desktop replacement; it runs pretty snappily.

Here's what I've got so far.
Running on battery, OS: Debian debieez, internet connected, with a page from Muska open in the browser.


Attached is a tested image for download (though it only works with HDMI). The login and password for this image (Debian debieez) are cubie/cubieboar and root/cubieboard.
To get Wi-Fi working, I ran a few commands in the terminal:
Sudo su
Enter the password cubieboard
modprobe bcmdhd

Download link.

Also, here's a tested Fedora 20 image compiled for VGA. The configuration is simpler, but it definitely worked for me.
Download link.

PhoenixSuit and ImageWriter software, the board schematic, and a brief description.
Download.

Summary.
Pros.
The board is genuinely interesting. I'm thinking of buying a few for friends; they've taken quite an interest in it. There's plenty of room for experimentation, though it does eat up time before you know it.
It's essentially a full-fledged computer—not very fast, but it works right out of the box.
A wide range of interfaces: VGA, HDMI, audio output in either analog or digital form via optical or HDMI, an IR receiver, support for a backup battery (the board charges it itself), SATA, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, and Ethernet.
Fast delivery. The seller's packaging was basic, but the manufacturer made sure the board was protected.
Excellent build quality.

Cons.
Something needs to be done about the clock, or rather its backup power. The small battery installed on the board doesn't do a very good job.
In Android, I can't use both network interfaces at the same time, though there's not much need to use both anyway.
The board isn't completely silent; the inductors emit a faint whine. I noticed it at first, but don't anymore. Put the board in a case or at least half a meter away, and you won't hear it.

I'm not counting the problems installing alternative operating systems as a downside, since they're not the fault of the manufacturer or seller—it's more that I'm unfamiliar with these alternative OS versions. It works well with the stock Android. I didn't notice any problems playing 1080p video, but when I tried to play 2160p, Android reported Out of memory.
It would also be nice if the board came with a power supply and hard drive mounting hardware.

P.S. This board took me back about 18 years: my first PC, a 486DX2, 4 MB of RAM, an 810 MB hard drive, 512 of video memory. I wiped the hard drive for the first time and then tried to get everything running, not knowing that the disk had to be made bootable first. Volkov's blue windows, Autoexec.bat, Config.sys, Command.com.
Anyway, don't throw tomatoes at me; I did my best. But this probably won't be my last review of the board. I'm planning a short series about using it.
I hope you found this interesting and useful.

I'd be glad to hear your comments, suggestions for things to try, and ideas for how else to use it.

This board was provided free of charge by the gearbest store for testing and review.
Until September 31, the store is running a promotion on this board. Coupon: DD23DH; price with the coupon: $104.29.