Plug computers

[Keith Fligg]

VT:

Did you ever come to a verdict on the Shiva/Guru plugs? Care to share your findings? I know that I need to head in that direction, I'm just not sure how painful it will be. :)

Thanks,

- Keith

[Vadim Tkachenko]

Hello Keith,

> Did you ever come to a verdict on the Shiva/Guru plugs?

Not yet

> Care to share your findings?  I know that I need to head in that direction, I'm just not sure how painful it will be. :)

At least somewhat painful.

I haven't touched neither in months (working on something else), but
here is where things stand:

Sheeva:

The darned thing can't even recognize a USB to Serial bridge
configured out of the box. Unfortunately, Ubuntu decided to drop ARM
support, so Sheeva comes with the last version of Ubuntu that does
have ARM support, and that is 9.04 (read: lack of forward support).
Configuration I got has a segfaulting hald(8), and as of the moment I
dealt with it for the last time there was no fix for it.

Maybe Marvell did come up with support for bridges by now, maybe it
hasn't, I don't know. In any case, last thing that I was planning to
do with Sheeva was to install generic Debian on it (which does keep
ARM supported, unlike Ubuntu), but didn't get time to do that.

Guru:

Hardware sounds more impressive (twice Ethernets, twice USBs, WiFi,
Bluetooth for the configuration I got), but looks cheaper. If I had to
choose based on the feel of hardware, I'd pick Sheeva in a moment -
but alas, the looks is not everything.

Has Debian on it. Networking is trigger happy and unpredictable, PITA
to configure (haven't committed anything). Runs pretty hot - don't
know if I am comfortable with it, but haven't run it for long enough
to have anything substantiated. Has a micro SD card (unlike Sheeva),
so you won't be able to reuse any you previously had.

I've played with Guru even less than I've played with Sheeva, so can't
give any tangible "pro" or "con" advice. Yes, that'll be the most
definite answer - "I don't know yet". Will know in a few months, when
I'm done with what I'm doing now.

Meanwhile, even though it may so happen that neither will run DZ
happily (unlikely, but possible), other people have great success
using them as low power media servers and general purpose utility
boxes, so your investment will not go to waste.

>  - Keith

--vt

[Keith Fligg]

Yikes! Not at all what I was hoping to hear. I'll have to do some research
now and find a more friendly option.

Thanks for sharing!

- Keith

[Tim Small]

On 13/09/10 13:20, Keith Fligg wrote:
> Yikes! Not at all what I was hoping to hear. I'll have to do some research
> now and find a more friendly option.
>

Debian ARM is pretty good, so I wouldn't write it off. I've had
excellent support via the debian-arm mailing list and IRC. ARM employ
some of the Debian ARM project leaders...

Tim.

[Vadim Tkachenko]

Hello Keith,

> Yikes!  Not at all what I was hoping to hear.  I'll have to do some research
> now and find a more friendly option.

Haste not, all I said is I don't know yet :)

If you're in a hurry to make a hardware choice, then spending $130 or
so on Guru and then tuning the software configuration would be
probably a better solution than going for something different.

Hardware seems to be decent, it's the software configuration that is
lacking polish.

>  - Keith

--vt

[Forrest Voight]

I would look at the Linksys NSLU2. They were discontinued but can be
found on eBay for cheap. It's just a tiny device with two USB ports,
ethernet, and a 5vdc power supply.

I've been using one for a while as a server and zoning controller.
It's quiet (fanless), and really low power and stable. I have it
running from a hard drive, but for reliability you could use a USB
flash drive. I'm using Debian ARM on it with no problems.

[Keith Fligg]

Thanks for the pointer!