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A Do-It-Yourself Embedded Linux Box

Posted by timothy on from the cool-hardware-ideas dept.

LennyDotCom points to this ZDNet story which should interest anyone with a hankering to build his own linux-based router, dedicated file server, MP3 jukebox, or whatever else you can fit in a 13" x 10" x 2.5" box pre-equipped with nearly everything but a hard drive. The author of this piece tells you how to get Linux booting on the optional disk-on-chip, too, so you can create one-off, totally silent machines. The price seems reasonable, too.

11 of 93 comments (clear)

  1. PCChips "BookPC" series by DataGrok · · Score: 3

    If you're not a "Name brand motherboard elitist"... PCChips makes some sweet looking "BookPCs". They're geared toward set-top DVD playback, and are certainly not applicable to "embedded linux." But they may be better for some than the water-cooled box with a 8MB disk-chip.

    These links are to a merchant site with good photos and info:

    I'm all about commodity hardware.

  2. why not nlx? by neitzert · · Score: 3

    This box is great and all, but for $299 you hardly get anything.
    Why not get the $399 NLX special at http://www.booksizedpc.com and get 2 pci slots and a drive, cdrom, zip, floppy, IRDA, and the rest of the stuff they offer!?
    Check out This for photos of my linux router/firewall.
    chris

    --
    This communication is secured using Rot-26 Encryption Algorithm, Unauthorized decryption will be subject to laughter.
  3. Re:get this instead by psychosis · · Score: 3

    If you do a search on Pricewatch for "Book PC" (use the space!), they are for sale from Directron for $152 (with CD vice DVD tho). I have one, and have built about 3 or 4 others, and they are neat little machines. The S-Video output is great quality (even at 800x600), and adding a wireless kb/mouse makes it complete.... DVD models are around $90 more, but they say you can drop any DVD drive into it. A friend has had mixed luck on that front.
    Definitely something to check out!!!

  4. Re:Troll moderators (continued) by Christopher+B.+Brown · · Score: 4
    Alternatively, if Anonymous Coward is treated as a real but "shared" user, the low level of karma would naturally pull it down to defaulting to a negative score.

    This would discourage serious posters from using Anonymous Coward instead of their own.

    Back on topic somewhat, the pricing and configuration of these "set top" boxes are quite similar to the Think NIC ones. There seems to be a "price point" around $325-$350.

    By the way, a monitorless NIC is priced at $199, and while it includes no hard drive, it does have a CD-ROM, which certainly provides more space than a maybe-64MB flash card...

    --
    If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the precipitate.
  5. Amptron by thing12 · · Score: 4

    Amptron sells a couple of 'pre-systems' that are without cpu/ram/hd based mostly on i810 boards. You can pick one up that's about that size with video / audio / lan / modem / cd-rom for around $130. They've got one with a DVD-ROM and a wireless keyboard for under 300. Slick little systems.

  6. Re:One problem... by Tom_N · · Score: 3
    you may NOT make MP3s out of your CDs ... It's against the law and will be prosecuted to the maximum extent.

    This is flat-out wrong. (Although I'm not too surprised you would believe this given the source of your information.)

    Go to RIAA.ORG for more information. If you're going to do this make sure you obey the law.

    Funny, I don't remember the Constititution giving the RIAA the power to make the law. May I suggest the Copyright Office site instead?

    The RIAA also seems to like to distort history to their own ends:

    Before free speech, before freedom of assembly, before freedom of religion, there was copyright protection in our Constitution. The founding fathers knew copyright protection could improve society by preserving the economic incentive for people to come up with brilliant ideas and inventions. They also realized the fundamental fairness of granting control of the creative work to the author.

    It's extremely disingenous of the RIAA to say that copyright came before freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, and freedom of religion. The people who wrote the Constitution considered these latter freedoms to be fundamental freedoms that no human government had the right to take away. There was a debate between those who felt a Bill of Rights was not necessary (because it was implicit -- and including one might cause the Government to take away every right not enumerated), and those who felt that the basic rights must be guaranteed in writing. The people who wanted the guarantee in writing won. RIAA's assertion that copyrights came before First Amendment freedoms is wrong. But even if it were not, amendments override the parts of the Constitution that came before. So however you look at it, the First Amendment trumps copyrights, not the other way around.

    As for "realiz[ing] the fundamental fairness of granting control of the creative work to the author," copyright under the Constitution is a recognition of natural property rights (see the references in the Betamax ruling), but merely an artificial incentive to be granted if and when it serves public ends. On a different level, given how the major RIAA members routinely take copyrights away from artists, I would hardly think of the RIAA as an organization concerned with "granting control of the creative work to the author."

    The principle that the work you created belongs to you and should be controlled by you is as timeless as it is global. For centuries, new inventions, from the printing press to the Internet, have threatened that principle. For centuries, advocates have resolutely defended it. The RIAA is just such an advocate today.

    Amazing. Here the RIAA portrays themselves as being aligned with the type of "advocates" who opposed the printing press. Can you imagine where human technology and living standards would be if we still relied exclusively on hand-copied books? Need I say more?

  7. That box is familiar by Jenova · · Score: 3

    I've got that box. The manufacturer is a company called AllWell

    http://www.allwell.com.tw

    The box is pretty ok. The only problem I have is trying to get the CyberPro 2010 chipset working with 16bit colour under X( anyone has better luck).

    The box runs hot though. Best to get a CPU fan.

  8. info... by pirodude · · Score: 3

    This is quite a cool device. The company also sells stuff like this for hotel internet access. More information about the actual device can be found here

  9. Re:get this instead by thing12 · · Score: 4

    this one's better and it's available right now - just add cpu/ram/hdd. (these people sell the base system for $260... pretty good deal)

  10. Look familiar? by Andy+Dodd · · Score: 3

    Is it just me, or does that look EXACTLY like the Innovator WebSurfer Pro? (Remember, the one that you could get for $50 for a few days because CompUSA screwed up in their advertising?)

    Innovator probably licensed one of AllWell's designs and added their own software.

    --
    retrorocket.o not found, launch anyway?
  11. Good location of info by d-ude · · Score: 4

    If you want to explore the hack value further, go to Linux-Hacker where Ken Segler (a.k.a. codeman) has some modification info on the original Websurfer Pro, which is made by the same company. He has a BBS there too with alot of good technical info amassed by people using these things.

    Shawn