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

Michael Bishop michael at michaelsplace.net
Wed Dec 27 12:25:42 PST 2006


Jim Thompson wrote:
>
> Intel OEMs a box with a 400MHz 80219 Xscale controller and a SATA 
> controller that will house up to 4 3.5" SATA drives.
> It has 2xGigE + 2x USB 2.0 coming out of it, and .. it runs Linux, and 
> supports CIFS/SMB and NFS out of the box.
I've had my eye on this for a while. Looks to be best of breed for now. 
However, the $500 price tag has me thinking of building a box and 
installing FreeNAS.

http://www.freenas.org/

FreeNAS is a free NAS (Network-Attached Storage) 
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Network-attached_storage> server, 
supporting: CIFS (samba), FTP, NFS, RSYNC protocols, local user 
authentication, Software RAID (0,1,5) with a Full WEB configuration 
interface. FreeNAS takes less than 32MB once installed on Compact Flash, 
hard drive or USB key. The minimal FreeBSD distribution, Web interface, 
PHP scripts and documentation are based on M0n0wall 
<http://www.m0n0.ch/wall/>.
>
> http://www.intel.com/design/servers/storage/ss4000-E/
>
> They're about $560, plus drives (see recent threads here for what 4 x 
> 250GB fast SATA drives will cost, and note that 750GB SATA drives are 
> available,
> should you really need 3TB of storage in your home.  (MythTV backend, 
> anyone?)
IIRC, Max storage is 2TB. While you can put 750GB HDs in it you're still 
limited to the 2TB ceiling.
>
> If you have l33t embedded skills, you can develop your own distro for 
> this.   There is simply no reason it couldn't be your home gateway, 
> and then
> with the exception that most people's broadband connections stuck for 
> upload(*), it could serve to make your 'media' accessible when you're out
> of the home/office.
>
> Personally, I'm waiting for the linux port of ZFS to complete.   (Its 
> very close: http://zfs-on-fuse.blogspot.com/, see also: 
> http://www.wizy.org/wiki/ZFS_on_FUSE)
>
> Because you really want your SOHO/SMB NAS, full of cheap disks, to be 
> able to do all you find here:  
> http://www.opensolaris.org/os/community/zfs/whatis/
>
> With the right web gui, (so your average prosumer doesn't have to deal 
> with the ZFS cli), this combination would make a killer home/SMB NAS.  
> Add a service component to keep a copy of the snapshots on the 
> big-server-in-the-sky, and you've got something that should sell.
>
> Jim
>
> (*) if you're in the Honolulu core, you can get 9.2Mbps, 
> fully-symmetric service for a bit under $1k/month.
>
> On Dec 26, 2006, at 10:03 AM, Brian Chee wrote:
>
>> The NLSU2 is a totally hackable box and is pretty nice....just keep 
>> firmly
>> in mind that it's USB so slow. The Netgear SC101 is totally windoze ONLY
>> since it's a hacked up Zetera HBA driver and while a cool concept, it
>> keeps dropping off the network on me.
>>
>> Also, the Linksys NLSU2 (aka the Network SLUG) has a huge embedded fan
>> base with some folks using them as cheaper embedded web servers, USB
>> servers, etc...
>>
>> You might want to get instead go for some of the newer boxes that are 
>> NFS
>> mountable (also SMB) and web managed, AND are SATA based for speed. 
>> So far
>> nothing is catching my eye, and I'm considering just building an 
>> embedded
>> Linux box for NFS, and perhaps some other stuff...the platform that's
>> catching my eye for now is the Medallion by Techsol.ca that I used 
>> for the
>> PODS project....general purpose StrongARM SA1110 system...that uses VERY
>> little power so perhaps with 2.5" drives I could make it all battery
>> powered. The only hassle is that toolchain and cross compiling can be a
>> royal hassle if you don't do it all the time.
>>
>> /brian chee
>>
>>
>> University of Hawaii at Manoa
>> School of Ocean and Earth Sciences and Technology (SOEST)
>> Advanced Network Computing Laboratory (ANCL)
>> 2525 Correa Road, HIG 500
>> Honolulu, HI  96822
>> Voice: 808-956-5797       Email: chee at hawaii.edu
>> Brian J.S. Chee, CNE/CNI
>> http://ancl.ics.hawaii.edu
>>
>> On Mon, 25 Dec 2006, 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
>>>
>>> Recommend any of the alternative firmwares on this site over any of the
>>> others?
>>> http://www.nslu2-linux.org/
>>>
>>> I'm thinking of getting one of these and a 'Sunday paper brochure
>>> insert' USB hard disk drive.
>>>
>>> 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?
>>>
>>> ~ Julian
>>>
>>>
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