ODROID-XU4 Anybody gotten a wallet to run on it?

[DaveF]

Not sure where to stick this post so I figure I'll start here.
Wound up with a few Odroid-XU4 boards.
Since everyone does all their projects on RPi and PC for the most part I was wondering if anyone ever gotten a wallet to run on it.

Probably pointless, but figured it might be interesting to play with.

-Dave

[NotATether]

It's got an ARMv7a processor so getting any wallet to work on it is a question of whether they can run on ARM32 (this is not an ARM64 board) processors. Most don't, as far as I know.

[DaveF]

It's got an ARMv7a processor so getting any wallet to work on it is a question of whether they can run on ARM32 (this is not an ARM64 board) processors. Most don't, as far as I know.

Didn't catch that part, wonder why they went 32 instead of 64.
It's a shame since they do look like an interesting SBC / controller to play around with.
Guess it's off to eBay for them.

-Dave

[NotFuzzyWarm]

They used 32-bit CPU's because the board is targeted at small light weight applications that have no need for 64 bit operations...

[DaveF]

Just took a look, did not notice that the Exynos 5422 CPU that it is based on came out in 2014.
For some reason I thought it was a newer / faster / better chip.
It's a shame, something different would be cool but, I guess I'll stick with building stuff with RPis

-Dave

[ABCbits]

Debian still support ARM32 (and some older processor architecture) and there's Python package for ARM32 (https://packages.debian.org/bullseye/python3.9).  According to vhttps://superuser.com/a/1259737, ARMel and ARMhf basically means ARM32. So if you managed to install Debian on it (AFAIK Python included by default), you could try running Electrum.

[DaveF]

Debian still support ARM32 (and some older processor architecture) and there's Python package for ARM32 (https://packages.debian.org/bullseye/python3.9).  According to vhttps://superuser.com/a/1259737, ARMel and ARMhf basically means ARM32. So if you managed to install Debian on it (AFAIK Python included by default), you could try running Electrum.

You can also run android on it.





But, really can't use it for anything else due to the fact that it is a 32 bit machine.
Other then saving a little on raw cost of using a 32 bit CPU vs 64 I no idea why they went that way, and it's not that cheap of a unit vs other SBC that are a full 64 bit.

-Dave

[NotFuzzyWarm]

 ^^ ja, but if you just want a simple networked controller for say, remotely turning on/off contactors or relays to control miner power then 32-bit is more than enough. Same for use with a weather station for monitoring temps, humidity, other sensors, making a clock etc. Gazillions of uses for it most of which work fine even with 8 or 16-bit CPU's.

[DaveF]

^^ ja, but if you just want a simple networked controller for say, remotely turning on/off contactors or relays to control miner power then 32-bit is more than enough. Same for use with a weather station for monitoring temps, humidity, other sensors, making a clock etc. Gazillions of uses for it most of which work fine even with 8 or 16-bit CPU's.

Yes, but then you come back to the cost. BEYOND the CPU. These things are NOT cheap. They are $45+ And they have a heavy power draw vs other embedded units.
It does run android so doing some things with it are easier then with a regular linux build.
And as said a few posts up, it is an older unit, but even back in 2014 just about every cpu was 64 bit.
So I just don't get it.
Either way, it's on eBay now.

-Dave

[NotFuzzyWarm]

^^ ja, but if you just want a simple networked controller for say, remotely turning on/off contactors or relays to control miner power then 32-bit is more than enough. Same for use with a weather station for monitoring temps, humidity, other sensors, making a clock etc. Gazillions of uses for it most of which work fine even with 8 or 16-bit CPU's.

Yes, but then you come back to the cost. BEYOND the CPU. These things are NOT cheap. They are $45+ And they have a heavy power draw vs other embedded units.
It does run android so doing some things with it are easier then with a regular linux build.
And as said a few posts up, it is an older unit, but even back in 2014 just about every cpu was 64 bit.
So I just don't get it.
Either way, it's on eBay now.

-Dave

I wouldn't say that, even today there are scads of 32-bit (and lower) CPU's available for the Maker community. Case in point the Arduino which is 32-bit. But ja, they are a lot cheaper. The Arduini Uno from the official site store is only $23 and has a ton of different shields for tinkering.

[ABCbits]

Debian still support ARM32 (and some older processor architecture) and there's Python package for ARM32 (https://packages.debian.org/bullseye/python3.9).  According to vhttps://superuser.com/a/1259737, ARMel and ARMhf basically means ARM32. So if you managed to install Debian on it (AFAIK Python included by default), you could try running Electrum.

You can also run android on it.

Electrum for Desktop (Windows, Linux, Mac OS) have more feature than Electrum for Android though.

Either way, it's on eBay now.

Sensible choice, considering there are many better single board computer.

[Welsh]

Electrum for Desktop (Windows, Linux, Mac OS) have more feature than Electrum for Android though.

While that might be the case, and is probably a more secure way of storing the Bitcoin in the first place. If Android can run on Odroid, then that probably means you can download Electrum from the Google Store, and therefore run a Bitcoin wallet on the board. Honestly, I'm not all that too familar with Electrum or any wallet for that matter on a phone, since I'm not a massive fan of the idea, however unless there's specific limitations in the software not supporting ARM32, then it should be possible.

[DaveF]

Electrum for Desktop (Windows, Linux, Mac OS) have more feature than Electrum for Android though.

While that might be the case, and is probably a more secure way of storing the Bitcoin in the first place. If Android can run on Odroid, then that probably means you can download Electrum from the Google Store, and therefore run a Bitcoin wallet on the board. Honestly, I'm not all that too familar with Electrum or any wallet for that matter on a phone, since I'm not a massive fan of the idea, however unless there's specific limitations in the software not supporting ARM32, then it should be possible.

Actually I had to download Electrum from electrum.org .
The play store version would not run it just pushed down the 64 bit version. I guess that there is no check to see what the OS is. But, I really did not put time into figuring it out.
Lets see what other stuff I dig up while cleaning.

-Dave

[dkbit98]

I have seen some people running Bitcoin and Lightning node in similar way like you would do on RaspberryPi but on different ODROID devices.
Not sure if this is possible on ODROID-XU4, but I think that even Bitnodes used Odroid based devices in past:
https://github.com/ayeowch/bitnodes-hardware

[DaveF]

I have seen some people running Bitcoin and Lightning node in similar way like you would do on RaspberryPi but on different ODROID devices.
Not sure if this is possible on ODROID-XU4, but I think that even Bitnodes used Odroid based devices in past:
https://github.com/ayeowch/bitnodes-hardware

It can be done, but as ETFbitcoin said:

Sensible choice, considering there are many better single board computer.

Since it was there, I figured why not try it. But at the wall, just by itself no screen or SSD it was pulling more power then one of my full raspiblitz nodes.
Then it was the issue of it's older 32 bit hardware and some things would require more time then I have to get them to run properly, then the only 2GB RAM issue.

Although it would have been cool to say I did it, if I had gotten it done, it probably would have taken way more time then I have and it would have gone back into the box.

-Dave

[n0nce]

^^ ja, but if you just want a simple networked controller for say, remotely turning on/off contactors or relays to control miner power then 32-bit is more than enough. Same for use with a weather station for monitoring temps, humidity, other sensors, making a clock etc. Gazillions of uses for it most of which work fine even with 8 or 16-bit CPU's.

Yes, but then you come back to the cost. BEYOND the CPU. These things are NOT cheap. They are $45+ And they have a heavy power draw vs other embedded units.
It does run android so doing some things with it are easier then with a regular linux build.
And as said a few posts up, it is an older unit, but even back in 2014 just about every cpu was 64 bit.
So I just don't get it.
Either way, it's on eBay now.

-Dave

I wouldn't say that, even today there are scads of 32-bit (and lower) CPU's available for the Maker community. Case in point the Arduino which is 32-bit. But ja, they are a lot cheaper. The Arduini Uno from the official site store is only $23 and has a ton of different shields for tinkering.

I personally love ESP32 for ultra low cost, low-power 'maker projects' (you mentioned toggling relays for lights and the like). It's 32-bit and has onboard Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, but it's also ~$3. Really recommend it.
Like Dave, I don't get why anyone would buy a $50+ Odroid when that money gets you a modern 64-bit SBC.

Now that I think about it - would it be crazy to try to implement a Bitcoin wallet on an ESP32? Maybe it has even been done before. I should check. After all, it has been done for GameBoy already! At least I remember it, but can't find the Tweet or code anymore, I might be wrong. I found the announcement of his GameBoy miner, though: https://twitter.com/ghidraninja/status/1380515232842416133

[n0nce]

Now that I think about it - would it be crazy to try to implement a Bitcoin wallet on an ESP32? Maybe it has even been done before. I should check. After all, it has been done for GameBoy already! At least I remember it, but can't find the Tweet or code anymore, I might be wrong. I found the announcement of his GameBoy miner, though: https://twitter.com/ghidraninja/status/1380515232842416133

It's already exist and it's called Blockstream Jade. However, it's hardware wallet where you need software wallet to communicate.

Ahh okay! My idea would have been to use its Wi-Fi capability to submit signed transactions directly to the internet, which would make it more similar to a hot wallet than a hardware wallet, but of course there are multiple ways to implement it.
Since it has no secure element (that I know of) though, it would just be a PoC / little coding challenge and nothing I'd use over a mobile or hardware wallet.

[dkbit98]

Now that I think about it - would it be crazy to try to implement a Bitcoin wallet on an ESP32? Maybe it has even been done before. I should check. After all, it has been done for GameBoy already!

There are other DIY Bitcoin wallets that are using ESP32 boards, for example Bowser DIY Wallet or Krux DIY Wallet but they are hobby projects and not meant for holding keys for big Bitcoin fortune.
Jade wallet is based on one of those boards, and there are even cheaper ESP32 boards that can work with Jade code, I have one of them TTGO T-Display that I ordered for around $10, but I am to lazy to load Jade code on it, and I only 3d printed the case for now... project is on hold at the moment.  
 

Since it has no secure element (that I know of) though, it would just be a PoC / little coding challenge and nothing I'd use over a mobile or hardware wallet.

This ESP32 board has the same secure element as ColdCard, Bitbox and Pasport hardware wallets:
M5Stack Core2 ESP32 AWS (has ATECC608A secure element)