Efika MX - Very Brief Experience

[Michel]

Hi there,

the forum for the EFIKA MX Smarttop are quite empty so I thought I drop a note at least, the device deserves it

I purchased an EFIKA MX and a Dreamplug for various purposes. When they arrived I unpacked and installed the EFIKA first it looks so nice.

Attached to the TV and powered the device booted up into the Ubuntu setup which is quite simple. After entering the few things Ubuntu asks for the installation, the distro got configured and updated all pretty standard. I added a few packages like openssh-server and the squeezebox server and that was it. The EFIKA was up and running and so far I haven't experienced any issue (fingers crossed).

So my very personal evaluation:

Pro:
- Looks really nice and fits in a living room
- Works out of the box
- Does not get really warm
- Stays cool and runs quiet
- Multiboot implemented by default (for tinkering)
- Has a power button (to deal with outcomes of the tinkering)

Cons:
- No USB in the back of the device - just in the front
- Not all drivers available yet for all the hardware (As I understood)

Wishes:
- 1GB Ethernet Interface would be nice to avoid issues with certain routers
- 2nd Ethernet Interface would allow to use it as a firewall, or similar
- At least one USB in the back of the case

Summary:
For me the EFIKA is a nobrainer, delivered with a working distro and leaves enough flexibility to play around

cheers

Michel

[Warfire]

Thanks Michel!

I've been trying to decide whether to buy an MX or wait for the "new" models with 1080p support (if they ever do launch).

I have a question if you can answer - does the device seem to support multiple USB harddrives attached?

-
Warfire

[Michel]

I have a question if you can answer - does the device seem to support multiple USB harddrives attached?

-
Warfire

Well I have one external drive attached (LaCie 1TB/  2.5") and this one works fine - even the sleep mode works.
I would have to attach a second one to find out if it works as well. I will try this the coming weekend.

One thing I saw is that the pre-boot environment (BIOS/UBOOT whatever) complains about my disk because it is formatted in ext3 not in FAT32.
While the system continues to boot the linux I do not bother.

I still run the Ubuntu Distro which was pre-installed and the only thing I have noticed in the past few weeks is that the system hangs after some time. I do not know what it is yet, but I will investigate into it when I have the time. Sadly there is no way to remote cycle the power switch remotely

regards

Michel

[NewIT_James]

Michel,

Have you tried the latest version of the Software from Matt Sealey @ Genesi (October 2011)

http://blog.efikamx.info/2011/10/maverick-october.html

[Michel]

Hi,

I haven't tried yet but thanks for the hint, I am going to do that and looking forward to see how it performs.

regards

Michel

[Warfire]

I'm now running the October 2011 image (thanks to the NewIT recovery SD, I'm lazy) and have configured SSH and Serviio DLNA server. It works really well, although I haven't yet tried pushing the DLNA through SSH VNC works through it and DLNA works locally.

I am VERY impressed with the little box, it plays 720p MKVs with no issue and only very minimal occasional delays on the video in normal 300/400 line AVIs. I haven't looked to tweak the video playback or increase priority yet so I'm hopefully that I can get rid of those stutters too.

It serves SMB to my network fine as well, although I have an issue with my external HDD which I will fiddle with a bit more before asking for help with it.