[LUAU] Anyone use a Linksys NSLU2? USB hard disk drives are FOSS friendly?

[Jim Thompson]

On Dec 25, 2006, at 9:53 PM, Julian Yap wrote:

> Things are starting to get unwieldy and the amount of HD storage
> required for files which can be offloaded (namely music, photos) has
> increased to the point where I need to consider other storage options.
> Basically I want a cheap NAS (and that cheap to run, so not a PC).
>
> Anyone use a Linksys NSLU2?  Any good?
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NSLU2

I've got two, but I don't use either one for a NAS.

I've been sorta kicking around the idea of a GigE NAS.   All but one  
of the computers in the house have GigE now.

> Recommend any of the alternative firmwares on this site over any of  
> the
> others?
> http://www.nslu2-linux.org/

I run open embedded on both of mine.

> I'm thinking of getting one of these and a 'Sunday paper brochure
> insert' USB hard disk drive.

I'd be glad to let you borrow a NSLU2 if you want.

> Another question is, do USB hard disk drives require any Windows/Mac
> software to be operational?  In other words, are they all pretty much
> Free Software OS friendly?

pretty much, yeah.  (Assuming your kernel is recent enough and you  
can figure out how to partition/newfs/mount/...  Most distros have  
tools to make it EZ, though the drives
tend to some formatted as a DOS filesystem.  You might want to rid  
yourself of that.)