Hardware discussion: Time to retire my faithful PC-Fit Slim from Compulab :(

[John Canfield]

Long time weewx user here, I think I was Tom's first or second beta user (V 0.9). I started using hacked Linksys NSLU2s (aka 'slugs') but the flash memory would get corrupted after a few months. Tom and I hooked up in a forum discussing the then new PC-Fit Slims, a tiny fanless low-power PC which was a perfect hardware platform for weewx. The PC-Fit's were expensive but highly reliable. I think I've had this particular PC-Fit Slim running for five or six years, one time I think a sector got corrupted on its HDD and I had to rebuild the system.

Recently it wouldn't answer a heartbeat ping from my WebSwitch (remote power controller) about once a week and the switch would power cycle that outlet. This is very unusual, it would previously run for months with no attention needed. I think for some reason the network would go down and for a while I thought that it was basically bricked. It finally came up and I thought I better retire the box, rebuild it and keep it for a spare. The Ubuntu version wasn't being supported any longer so that was another good reason to rebuilt it.

The PC-Fit Slim's are long retired and Compulab has a new series of boxes, after looking at less expensive alternatives I decided to stick with Compulab. So in front of me as I type this is a brand new unopened MintBox Mini Pro. AMD A10 Micro-6700T microprocessor, 2Gb ram, 120Gb SSD. The box has the latest Linux Mint pre-installed.

So we will have fun getting this guy set up and running. I've never used Linux Mint but it's based on Debian and Ubuntu so there shouldn't be any surprises.

John
WB5THT - weather.janeandjohn.org, CWOP EW0158

[vince]

On Friday, February 24, 2017 at 7:04:33 AM UTC-8, John Canfield wrote:

 I've never used Linux Mint but it's based on Debian and Ubuntu so there shouldn't be any surprises.

That made me laugh for some reason.

Let us know how it goes, looks like a nice little box.

[John Canfield]

Things haven't gone well from the startup splash dialogue. It asked for my name, name of the box, password; unfortunately I said ask for password on console. When it restarted I couldn't log in. I had it start in grub and then boot into a root shell and after poking around discovered my login was my first name in lower case and not my full name I previously entered. Then figuring out in desktop mode how to update the distro was a PITA. Then I had to reenter my password with each admin/settings dialog.  Stupid desktop - takes five times longer to do any admin. On the plus side, it's a fast little box.

[Thomas Keffer]

Hi, John!

My Fit-PC is still going strong, after over 8 years of continual duty.

About 3 or 4 years ago, I reinstalled the operating system for reasons I don't recall. Like you, I could not get a more modern version of Ubuntu to work. Fortunately, Ubuntu has a repository of previously released versions, so I just reinstalled 8.04 ("Hardy Heron"), which works fine (32-bits, of course).

The other trick is to install the "server" version, which is much smaller and simpler, with fewer things to go wrong.

I'll bet there's still a few years of life left in that box of yours!

-tk

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[John Canfield]

Hey Tom,

Thanks for the link. When I get the new one in production I'll rebuild the FIT - don't need all of the desktop stuff and X, that would really simplify the install. That little guy should keep going for a long time. I might replace the HDD with SDD, then no moving parts.

I think I have the Mint box ready to go, just need to get off my duff and get it plugged in.

John
weather.janeandjohn.org

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