NSLU2 Now More Useful

NSLUG writes "The WRT54G's not the only hackable kid on the block. Linksys has a new device out. The NSLU2 is a tiny network storage device running Linux and it's been hacked to add SSH, NFS, an iTunes server, etc. Tom's Hardware is running a series of articles on how to hack the NSLU2. The first article is here and the second is here. Check out this page for details on getting into the box."

Avaks RoadRunner 64

[koody]

A-Link has released two new ADSL-modems RoadRunner 64 and RoadRunner 64AP. Both have many advanced features, but the one that cought my eye was that they are Linux based. I bought the RoadRunner64 (without WLAN) and I've gathered some data about it.

You can find out more about the product either by looking at the RR64 feature sheet [a-link.com] or by checking out the guides and firmware [a-link.com] page.

The platform

Both versions use LSI Logic's HomeBASE platform with the AR901 network processor. The only difference is that the AP version has a WLAN module manufactured by Zydas.

The platform consists of AR901 processor (ARM922), the AR8203 analog-to-digital adsl chip and the AR229 USB/Ethernet chip. Note that the value of these parts is a measly $21 while I paid 80 EUR for the complete modem ;-)

Specs

Processor: ARM922 @ 200MHz integrated in the AR901 chip
Flash: 4MB
RAM: 16MB SDRAM
Ports: 4 RJ45, 1 RJ11, 1 power
Other: Zydas 802.11b WLAN (In RR64AP only)

One can simply ssh to the box. It has tftp support and you can mount nfs partitions, so setting it up to distribute kernels for a ltsp setup would be possible. Cool little gadget, I must say. Unfortunately the software isn't 100% yet, at least not the firmware I have (first release). I got the source by asking politely by e-mail, and after it suddenly borked on me, they changed it for a new one without any hassle.

Re:AAAAAARGH!!

[strictfoo]

Lucky for you, the NSLU2 stands for "LINKSYS Network Storage Link for USB 2.0 Disk Drives"
so you can have both the WRT54G and the NSLU2, unless you were looking for two items to hack.

$80 street price

[ediron2]

Buy's got it for $71 if you use a $5 off coupon. Nobody /. 'em until I finish my order, though... thanks!

Re:Avaks RoadRunner 64

[Anonymous Coward]

About neck and neck with WinCE. Way above WinXPe.

Still dwarved by iTron and VxWorks.

All are dwarved by custom implementations.

Linux was the hot thing in embedded systems a year or two ago. It turns out that the cost of implementing a Linux system in a consumer electronic device (the only place where that kind of power is necessary) is roughly equal to the cost of implementing it in WinCE. So pay either Microsoft or Montevista, it's the same.

Re:The whole idea is crazy

[Dr Reducto]

You have made Slashdot history, Obvious Guy.

not in this particular situation...

[da5idnetlimit.com]

buzbee specifically indicate that he just accessed the flash-partition containing the system using the usb connector on the device and mounting the drive so he could

all his copying, untarring, editing and modifying where made on the device network share-drive, him being short on space and all...

so you don't need to fiddle a lot with the box, except for plugging in usb, which any luser can do.(?)

he didn't even have to crack the password :
"As expected, the passwd file showed the user accounts I had created with a /dev/null for the shell. But there were two accounts that had a real shell: root and an interestingly named account--ourtelnetrescueuser, that looked like a back door account used for debugging or recovery purposes.

root:WeeOvKUvbQ6nI:0:0:root:/root:/bin/sh
bin:x :1:1:bin:/bin:
lp:x:4:7:lp:/share/spool:
mail:x: 8:12:mail:/var/spool/mail:
ftp:x:14:50:FTP User:/:
nobody:x:99:99:Nobody:/:
ourtelnetrescue user:scFf7ZMXBMl4I:100:100::/home/u ser:/bin/sh
guest:scEPG0VnVyqmE:501:501:::/dev/nu ll
admin:sclzZZfodiRXY:502:501::/home/user/admin: /dev /null

test_user:scEPG0VnVyqmE:2000:501:::/dev/null
te st2:scEPG0VnVyqmE:2001:501:::/dev/null
test3:sc50 wKPq.zChw:2002:501:::/dev/null

But in order to use these accounts, I would need to have their passwords. I started down the path of cracking the passwords before I came out of my stupor and realized all I had to do was edit the passwd file and replace the encrypted password with a known encrypted password from one of my other accounts! I could also just add a valid shell to one of my accounts, but for starters, decided to just put a new password in for root and leave the rest of the accounts alone. "

See, just copying and pasting a configuration file...
even a luser ca do that (bis repetitam placient 8p )

Cheers

da5id

Re:Performance & # of USB ports

[Tux2000]

Speed: The USB 2.0 Hi-Speed FAQ [usb.org] tells us that the maximum speed of USB 2.0 is 480 Mbit/s. The maximum speed of parallel ATA is 133 MByte/s = 1064 MBit/s, plus it does not have the "ATA over USB" protocol overhead. Serial ATA does 150 MByte/s = 1200 MBit/s, IIRC. The ethernet interface of the device supports 100 MBit/s. Modern harddisks can not deliver 133 MByte/s = 1064 MByte/s, but they become faster every day. Flash memory can be that fast, at least for reading.

Power: Each USB port must be able to deliver 5V @ 0.5A.

Now do the maths: You can see that already a single USB device can deliver more data than the ethernet port could transport. The CPU (according to http://www.batbox.org/nslu2-linux.html [batbox.org]) is an XScale CPU with 131.48 BogoMIPS, roughly comparable in Performance to a slow Pentium II. I'm sure it can't handle much more than 100 MBit/s Ethernet and two USB 2.0 ports.

Adding a second USB port is convenient to copy data directly between USB devices, e.g. for backup or upgrade purposes. But adding more USB ports costs 0.5A per port for the PSU, making it much more inefficient for each added port.

Tux2000

Re:The whole idea is crazy

[selfsealingstembolt]

Well, there goes his account....

Take a look at his journal [slashdot.org].

Re:RAID?

[turbine216]

The unit already does scheduled disk-to-disk backups, without any hacking, which should cover whatever data integrity concerns you may have.

Power consumption and price comparison

[Glyndwr]

Lots of people are claiming that this is much cheaper to run than a dedicated ATX server, but they are forgetting you need to power the hard disks too. In my (limited) experience, powering desktop 7200rpm disks from USB is very dicey, so you need externally powered hard disk boxes for them.

Based on UK prices turned up in 30 seconds by Google, so probably not the cheapest to be had, but never mind.

NSLU2: £60, 5V/2A power into device

Cheap USB hard disk box:£35, 50-80VA power into the PSU brick (based on the one on my desk). I'll use 70VA, to be on the safe side.

So, outfitting one of these for two hard disks would cost around £130. Assume a 60% efficiency plugpack for the NSLU2 (which seems conservative) and total power consumption would then be around 160VA.

In comparison, my server has an Athlon 900Mhz, a couple of fans, the same two hard disks, and a 300W PSU. Let's assume it's highly loaded and actually draws around 250VA; I'll ignore power correction factor for these calculations.

At 10p/kWh, the NSLU2 costs 39p per day to run, and the server 60p. If I upgraded to the NSLU2, it would take over 3 years to get a ROI from a purely financial point of view. Unless I've gotten something wrong, in which case I'm sure some clever slashdotter will correct me in a few seconds :o)

So, on purely financial grounds, perhaps hard to justify. Still, it's nifty, it's a hell of a lot smaller than my existing server, and it would reduce the noise in this room nicely by eliminated a few fans too.

Update: hmmm, PC guide [pcguide.com] reckons it's more like 10W for a hard disk under use, suggesting the rather high sounding 50-80VA max draw are probably for 10,000rpm disks spinning up or something. Even assuming 15W to be on the safe side changes things around a lot; assume 75% efficient PSU plugpacks just to look on the bright side, and we get 20W per hard disk and 13W for the device = 13p per day. Break even is now about 9 months; not too shabby, given the other benefits.

Re:ah that wonderful kernel

[drinkypoo]

Windows NT scales neither up nor down as well as Linux does. It is really only suited to systems with between one and four processors, for example, and no current version of windows (including embedded versions, but besides WinCE which is a different operating system anyway) can handling running in less than about 32MB well. While you may end up with an older version of the linux kernel, you can still get older kernels with up to date security patches which will run on minuscule systems, say 4MB ram, no MMU, et cetera.

Windows can go many places, but not nearly as many as Linux.

Re:Power consumption and price comparison

[WuphonsReach]

Most 5400rpm drives are 6-7W idle and ~10W when seeking. The 7200rpm drives are a bit more power hungry, 7-10W idle and 10-13W seeking. Dunno about 10k RPM drives, but for a low-power fanless server you'd want to stick with cool running 5400rpm drives anyway. (Those numbers are from the manuf websites.)

Here in the northeast US, 10W of power draw costs $0.60/mo. Figure a 25W low-power CPU like a VIA C3, another 10W for the motherboard, plus 2x7.5W for a pair of 250GB 5400rpm drives in RAID1. That *should* clock in at around 50W on average, and maybe 40W if the disks spin down. The NSLU2 draws 10W (max) plus another 15W for the (2) USB hard drives for a total of 25W (being conservative). So the cost savings is around $1/mo.

Unit price for the NSLU2 is $80, plus another $50 for a pair of USB enclosures. Definitely cheaper then building a mini-ITX system (est $300-$400, not including drives).

All that being said, I prefer my toaster-sized mini-ITX linux server.

Re:passwd files

[stevey]

The password for the 'admin' user is 'admin', the password for the test* users is '1234'. Given that these accounts have no shells they aren't useful.

Cracking the others would be more useful - but I've not managed that yet.