Hi there !
On Tuesday i got my Efika board i purchased. After seeking for the smallest case in the internet, i found the Morex and Travla. Any of them would seem to fit for my board but i got the Morex one.
Today i have received this case but there is a lot of space for everywhere. Efika is so smaaaall !

Please, would anyone suggest one case for this board which fits properly?

By the other hand i didn't get a backplate so that the graphic boad would fit, how can i get one ?

Thanks in advance !

no case designed for it and no backplane available AFAIK, please follow this thread :
http://www.powerdeveloper.org/forums/viewtopic.php?p=5946#5946

I have posted my first impressions of the EFIKA on Pegasos.org.

Hopefully this link will work, here is my Yahoo photo album detailing my initial attempt at fitting an Efika inside of a Travla C150 (mini-itx) case.

Efika meets Travla C150 Photo Album

Short version:
It "fits" but:
a) You can only attach the motherboard using a single screw. You still need to raise the motherboard so it doesn't touch the case (there is a plastic lining but there's a gap?) I will try and make some sort of bracket.

b) You need to move the DC power adapter connector since it blocks EFIKA's PCI slot (especially the AGP adapter)

c) You need to take a dremel to both back plates so that you can see the video card's ports.

d) I took out the fan, it was pushing down on the video card.

e) I'm not sure if you can fit a slim-line drive.

f) The power led connector needs slight alteration.

Another option is to see if you can mount the board further back, and find a bunch of short extension cables that can be mounted on one of the case's supplied back plates for each port.

Edit:
Posting this from my Efika (running Debian).

The speed in running linux isn't bad, but, 128 megs of ram really hurts it in the default (GNOME) installation. I switched over to XFCE4 (I use it as my desktop at the office, so I'm at least familiar with this). And now it appears to be much more useable.

I did run into some issues prior to that:
- The USB keyboard I was planning on using didn't work with openfirmware. I'm currently using an old mac keyboard (at least I can plug into a mouse and save a slot)

- My initial attempts at getting a USB "pen" drive didn't work (I was trying to use a SD Card -> USB converter). I dug up a half-dead freebie MP3 player (the screen is smashed in... It's 128 megs in size but it worked.)

- I can't seem to get sound to work just yet. :P Although I don't really have a need for sound until MOS comes out. :P (I did try and boot MOS 1.4.5 via USB stick just to see, I got to the initial "Quark" message and nothing else. :P)


[ Edited by td741 on 2006/12/10 1:29 ]

Quote:

Thanks for passing on your intial experiences with the Efika Ironfist. :)

I wonder, has anyone run XFCE (www.xfce.org) instead of Gnome as a desktop environment for Debian on an EFIKA? They seem describe their environment as being "a lightweight desktop environment for unix-like operating systems. It aims to be fast and lightweight, while still being visually appealing and easy to use."

I'd be curious if they are a better choice on a 128MB EFIKA then Gnome, which you mentioned was swapping out to disk in your first impressions post.

i have the xfce installed, and it works quite good... anyway, it's not much faster... it's probably because of the missing 2d acceleration? windows moves smoothly, if no other windows opened... hope there will soon be some better optimised kernel for efika...

and i'm waiting for morphos ofcourse...

bye, MarK.

XFCE is quite usable but still slow, forget about Gnome. The right choice is Fluxbox, minimal and smooth.

Thanks SoundSquare.

I don't have a full grasp on the difference between an X window manager and a desktop environment. Fluxbox seems to be an X window manager, which I assume does not include all the things a desktop environment like xfce?

Also has anyone checked this out:

http://www.rocklyte.com/athene/tour/tour_2.html

The Omega Desktop (Amiga-like) interests me.

And not to load this post up with too many questions, but running Linux on PPC instead of x86, do all apps for x86 Linux install in PPC Linux? Or do the apps need something specific for running under Linux on PPC?

I see on Evolution of the Species today that there is a picture of an Efika in a case, and the caption that 'The EFIKA in this case will be on sale soon!'

http://www.flickr.com/photos/54643129@N00/381010176/

Does this mean that Morphos will be available with the package? Any ideas of cost for complete system with case, graphics, Morphos etc?

Quote:

of course Fluxbox is a bit minimalist compared to Gnome or XFCE, but you can tune it in many different ways to suit your needs, just check on the web about it (tips, screenshots...).
Fluxbox is a window manager, just like XFCE or Gnome.
I don't know at all about Omega, but thanks for the link, i'll check that later.

about the apps : every app need to be compiled for PPC. But no worries, most apps have ppc binaries ready to be installed from the debian repositories, you shouldn't need to compile anything yourself, unless you need a program that isn't available for PPC or if you need some source based linux distros like Gentoo for example.

Version 1.5 of MorphOS when it is released (date unknown) is supposed to support the Efika.

I don't believe there is any word on whether their will be a separate charge or not for the OS when it comes out for Efika owners.

As far as I know the only person selling the Efika as a full setuo with a case is here:

http://www.blastwave.org/dclarke/blog/?q=node/29

BUT Genesi has a couple of prototype cases and I believe they said one of them will be available for purchase soon. In the meantime some people are using temporary cases:

http://book.efika.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=27&Itemid=2

@fairlanefastback

the right place for Efika related topics (before MorphOS 1.5 reaches the Efika) is

www.powerdeveloper.org

you should find lots of infos about the Efika, including what you just posted :)

cheers