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Full Debian ARM for Under $200

Posted by timothy on Wed Jul 20, 2005 07:18 PM
from the neato-keen dept.
Hardware Hacking Debian Wireless Networking Linux
An anonymous reader writes "With minor elbow grease, you can now set yourself up with a complete Debian ARM Linux box for under $200. This is thanks to Peter Korsgaard, who figured out a cool byteswapped kernel hack for the little $99 Linksys NSLU2. Add a $99 USB harddrive, and the tiny, cute, quiet 'Slug' can run any of about 16,000 Debian ARM packages, 24x7, for pennies per month worth of electricity, since ARM is still orders of magnitude more power-efficient than anything x86. Serve files, music, web pages, printers, backups, kernel images, webcams/motion detection, firewalls/routers, wireless access point... or whatever. Oh, did I mention you can overclock the Slug?"
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  • Stereo component (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Doc Ruby (173196) on Wednesday July 20 2005, @07:21PM (#13118777) Homepage Journal
    Where's the $100 ARM device for Debian that includes ethernet and stereo audio out (headphones/speakers)? Even used PocketPCs cost $100, plus $50-100 for PCMCIA ethernet/sleeve.

  • So... the question on everyone's mind is... (Score:3, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 20 2005, @07:22PM (#13118784)
    Does it run Li...Oh, right... ^_^

  • Already hacked (Score:5, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 20 2005, @07:24PM (#13118809)

    The Linksys NSLU2 has already been hacked [tomsnetworking.com] so you can run your own applications on it. :-)

  • Fans of this should check out openwrt.org (Score:5, Informative)

    by kaldek (901414) on Wednesday July 20 2005, @07:26PM (#13118828)
    OpenWRT is a similar thing for the Linksys WRT54G and GS wireless routers. Same goes for the Asus WL500 series. Linux forever! heh

  • Decent file server... (Score:5, Funny)

    by MindNumbingOblivion (668443) on Wednesday July 20 2005, @07:29PM (#13118848) Homepage
    ...that doesn't cost an ARM and a leg.

    Thank you, thank you.

    • If you're gonna go there... (Score:5, Funny)

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 20 2005, @08:22PM (#13119295)
      Hacking it will require strongarm tactics.

      Buying largue quantities means you're exercising your right to bear ARMs.

      People running to get them are conducting an ARMs race.

      A beowulf cluster of these will be called an ARMy

      Stallman's creating an OS specifically for this called GNU/HARM

      They're marketing it and calling it a Linux-Installed Micro Box System (LIMBS) with a monitor called a Linux-Embedded Graphics Station (LEGS)
      [ Parent ]

  • Serve This! (Score:4, Funny)

    by Nom du Keyboard (633989) on Wednesday July 20 2005, @07:47PM (#13119005)
    Serve files, music...

    And be served with an RIAA lawsuit!

  • Project page slashdotted, but I have questions... (Score:4, Interesting)

    by PsychoKiller (20824) on Wednesday July 20 2005, @07:51PM (#13119048) Homepage
    Can it use other USB 2.0 peripherals?

    How much power does it consume? Better than a WRT54G?

    Can it be further underclocked?

  • If you don't want to mod... (Score:5, Informative)

    by pyrrhonist (701154) on Wednesday July 20 2005, @08:28PM (#13119349)
    To install Debian on the NSLU2, you'll need to do a serial port modification. If you aren't comfortable with modifying your NSLU2, than I suggest running Unslung [nslu2-linux.org].

    Unslung can be installed without using a serial port modification, because it simply uses the built-in Linksys web administration to upgrade the firmware to the Unslung distribution.

    Once Unslung is installed, it only takes a matter of minutes to have your NSLU2 running Samba, OpenSSH, Apache, Slimserver, and even Asterisk!

  • New uses (Score:5, Interesting)

    by JanneM (7445) on Wednesday July 20 2005, @10:12PM (#13120110) Homepage
    [Note: I wrote about this just a day ago here [lucs.lu.se]; I'm paraphrasing and shortening it below]

    I just bought myself a wireless router, for the price of 5100 yen (about $45). Of course, it's a real, full single-board computer that happens to have excellent connectivity to everything. Add storage ability and interfaces through USB2 and you can start thinking up some really interesting uses for this kind of gear.

    With the kind of price we're starting to see, there's no reason to have only one. How about having two, three or more of them at home, in different rooms to get good wireless coverage anywhere? They could present themselves as being one single friendly system to its users, transparently talking to each other wirelessly and move data to where it's needed.

    The units with hard disks could be hidden away in closets or workrooms where the noise doesn't bother anyone, while the ones out in the livingroom or bedrooms would would be small and quiet and have extra communications abilities like being able to play music or show movies stored anywhere in the home network. They would act as an external redundant storage (more convenient and much safer than backing up on CD:s or DVD:s), as backup, as household web, mail and IP telephone server, climate controller and general communications forwarder (whether you are at home, using your cellphone, or being on some conference trip halfway around the world, you can get to your email, voice mail and IM in the same way).

    You need more storage or some new hardware functionality? Just get another unit. When powered on it'll join the rest of them and suddenly your home has a bit of added capacity it didn't have before.

    When highly capable hardware like this is coming down into the sub-10000yen range, a whole new range of uses is becoming feasible.

  • Full Debian SH for Under $200 in Japan (Score:4, Interesting)

    by kinneko (901475) on Thursday July 21 2005, @02:40AM (#13121624)
    See this one.
    You can buy it with $160.
    http://supertank.iodata.jp/products/sotohdlwu/ [iodata.jp]

    CPU: SH-4/266MHz
    DRAM: 64MB
    NIC: 100BASE-TX (Realtek)
    USB: 2.0 x2 (NEC)
    SerialConsoleCable: (not include. extention$33)
    HDD: 3.5 ATA HDD x2 (not include)
    OS: Debian GNU/Linux SH (iohack version)
    kernel: 2.4.21
    daemons: mt-daapd, akaDAV, vsftpd, wizd,
    mdnsresopnder, telnetd

    Web reviews (Japanese)
    http://pcweb.mycom.co.jp/column/jisakuparts/023/ [mycom.co.jp]
    http://bb.watch.impress.co.jp/cda/special/10056.ht ml [impress.co.jp]
    http://bb.watch.impress.co.jp/cda/special/10074.ht ml [impress.co.jp]

  • Limited memory :-( (Score:4, Informative)

    by Mark Gillespie (866733) on Thursday July 21 2005, @04:20AM (#13122068)
    The crippling factor on the NSLU2 is the limited memory. Fine for what it's intended to do, but they to expand it's capabilities, and you hit the wall. Many people have this problem when trying to use it as a UPnP Mediaserver (using Twonkyvision). The hardware is simply not powerfull enough, or enough memory to cope with large scale media databases and heavy network media streaming.

    • Re:Overclock the slug? (Score:5, Informative)

      by jaylee7877 (665673) on Wednesday July 20 2005, @07:44PM (#13118988) Homepage
      This is not an overclock. For reasons unknown, Linksys chose to clock the unit at 133mhz. The chip is spec'ed by intel to run at 266mhz w/o cooling. So your not overclocking your un-underclocking :-)
      [ Parent ]

      • Re:Overclock the slug? (Score:5, Interesting)

        by tang (179356) on Wednesday July 20 2005, @09:12PM (#13119667)
        Just to note, I just performed the operation and de-neutered my NSLU to full speed. I went the non-soldering route and just used a boxcutter to cut the resistor in half, then scrapped it carefully off the board. From booting down the slug , till the time it was back and operational was 5 minutes. Very easy procedure, even if you don't have a soldering iron or soldering skills.
        [ Parent ]

    • Re:Think again, homies: (Score:5, Informative)

      by pyrrhonist (701154) on Wednesday July 20 2005, @08:07PM (#13119165)
      How are you planning on accessing those files? Hopes and dreams? Network Attached Storage with no Network Attached is just a hard drive.

      If you don't need a distro as large as Debian, you can run Unslung [nslu2-linux.org], which does support the built-in Ethernet.

      Unslung uses ipkg for package management and has a simple installation using the native firmware. It is very stable, since it has been available almost since the Linksys product was announced. It is actively being developed and you can talk to the developers via IRC at #nslu2-linux on Freenode.

      There is also a Yahoo group [yahoo.com] for running Linux on the NSLU2.

      [ Parent ]

    • Re:I've been waiting for this! (Score:4, Informative)

      by chrysrobyn (106763) on Wednesday July 20 2005, @08:18PM (#13119259)
      Cheaper, more efficient, faster (Disk I/O wise), more stable, more flexible (apt-get) than the Mac Mini.

      Cheaper? Granted, by at least 5x. More efficient? Less power, certainly, can't attest to what efficiency you're shooting for -- if its CPU cycles per cubic inch, not likely. Faster? If I put an identical IDE drive on a firewire bridge, the MacMini will be faster than some USB implementation.

      Not to mention the ability to hack it when I want (The warranty is already void!).

      Who cares about the warranty when you're doing something like this? With a Mac Mini, you're not voiding the warranty by loading an alternative OS anyway.

      My Linux box is a PowerMac 7600 with a 500MHz G3 upgrade card, running PowerPC Debian. PowerPC doesn't have all the support of the x86 world in Linux (and ARM is even worse), but Debian provides a great platform to provide support for us non-x86 platform users.

      [ Parent ]

    • Apples to Oranges... (Score:4, Insightful)

      by jevvim (826181) on Wednesday July 20 2005, @08:19PM (#13119270) Journal
      faster (Disk I/O wise)

      Since both the NSLU2 and the Mac Mini support USB2, I don't really understand how one would have faster disk I/O than the other. Now, certainly, there can be questions about file system efficiency, but you could also say that the Mac Mini (for, granted, 5x the price) could have much faster I/O, since you have 256MB of RAM instead of 32MB for things like read-caching.

      more stable

      I'm very interested as to why the NSLU2 would be more stable than a Mac Mini. Personally, I think the short, square design of the Mini is more stable than the tall, tower design of the NSLU2. From a software standpoint, I'd say the two are rather comparable in stability for comparable activities (i.e., no complaining about 3D games crashing on the Mini when the NSLU2 doesn't even have a graphics chip).

      more flexible

      While the Mini's certainly not a flexibility powerhouse, I don't see the NSLU2 beating it out here, either. Software flexibility? Mac OS X has a lot of software available, both commerical and software libre (GPL/BSD). You can also run GNU/Linux on the Mini, including the Debian distribution with apt-get.

      Not to mention the ability to hack it when I want (The warranty is already void!).

      Open your Mini and replace the hard drive. Voila, both can be hacked at will because the warranty is void! ^__^

      [ Parent ]

    • Re:Read Slashdot post, Read TFA, Order NSLU2. 5 Mi (Score:4, Informative)

      by pyrrhonist (701154) on Wednesday July 20 2005, @08:57PM (#13119567)
      I want to make this a PBX using Asterisk.

      I've tried (Asterisk is already ported for Unslung [nslu2-linux.org]). Unfortunately, the NSLU2 just isn't powerful enough for that.
      You can get one side of a conversation at most, and it's really jittery.

      Try it out anyway - it's an easy install with Unslung!

      [ Parent ]
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