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What to Do With a $99 Wall Wart Linux Server
Guanine writes in with a follow-up to our discussion a few months back on the SheevaPlug: 1.2-GHz ARM-compliant processor, 512 MB DDR2, 512 MB flash, USB 2.0, gigabit ethernet, in a package the size of a wall wart, for $99. Saul Hansell's Bits Blog in the NY Times talks about a few applications for such a device, whose price point Hansell claims will drop to $40 before too long. "The first plausible use for the plug computer is to attach one of these gizmos to a USB hard drive. Voila, you've got a network server. Cloud Engines, a startup, has in fact built a $99 plug computer called Pogoplug, that will let you share the files on your hard drive, not only in your home but also anywhere on the Internet. ... [Marvell's CEO said] 'Eventually you won't see the plug. We want this device to be in your TV, your stereo system, your DVD player.'"
that thought Wal Mart was selling linux servers?
I don't really see the revolution here - it's a small headless server. A bit like an NSLU2 only a lot faster. They're pretty cool.
They also seem to suffer from dodgy NAND memory, which is a shame, and booting from SDHC is not yet very well supported. That said, they come with Ubuntu server pre-installed and it was trivial to turn it into a media server.
What to Do With a $99 Wall Wart
Wall warts are usually nothing to be concerned about unless they grow or spread rapidly. Usually you can just freeze 'em off--just be sure to get all the abnormal growth cells. It's a common wall growth caused by HPV (Hewlett Packard Virus).
Linux Server
Your warts are functioning as Linux servers? You may need to see a specialist ... and until you get that checked I would refrain from any prolonged exposure to GPL software.
... not something you want on your resume.
... the name is a bit of an obstacle. "Wall Hugger" or "Plug Pal" or even "Linux Lump" might have been more prudent for coining.
Count yourself lucky, it could be worse. My friend once had a case of $10,000 Server Room Herpes Microsoft Servers that kept him up all night
I applaud anyone who successfully markets this product
My work here is dung.
I had to read this several times to realize that the OP wasn't talking about something being sold at WalMart. Maybe Michael Robertson should add this to the Linspire line.
We want this device to be in your TV, your stereo system, your DVD player.
Why? Do you want to hack my TV, my stereo system and my DVD player?
Putting complex computer devices into network enabled appliances is irresponsible. The makers of such time bombs should bear the full responsibility of intrusions through vulnerabilities found in their products.
Have it run either skype or magicjack. I have heard that the second is planning to support Linux "soon". I would definitely be more interested in cheap phone service at home if it didn't require me to have a desktop computer on whenever I wanted to make a call.
Damn_registrars has no butt-hole. Damn_registrars has no use for a butt-hole.
The difference with this thing is that it's got an easy to use dev kit based on a popular Linux distro, not some goofy one-off that doesn't have the packages you want (i.e. LAMP, media server, SAMBA, CUPS, etc.).
And you have yourself a nice little terminal.
Can they do a wireless version though? I have relatively few cables in my house and I'd like it to stay that way. I assume there are more people like me in the world considering how many WAPs there are in my area. It's a fantastic idea and I'm sure it's a fantastic device. I just wouldn't have one without wireless access.
I was thinking of using it for monitoring and control in a smart house type environment. I there are several company making USB sensor packages and relay controls. I found some with Linux support at phidgets.com. You could have a full set of sensor in key room and relays to control lighting or fans.
Let some one use your computer and they will use it for the day. Give or sell some one a computer and you will be tech s
If it had more RAM it'd make a great web-development server. With only 512MB Ram, I think some SQL databases might be a bit much.
I'm thinking throw a USB external HDD, or maybe just a 8GB Flash-drive on it, and "let'er-Rip"
maybe also add a second USB port, so you can add a USB WIFI adaptor, though the GigaBit ethernet sounds nice.
I can also see using one as a low-end monitoring server (Nagios), or network print server.
I will not give in to the terrorists. I will not become fearful.
When it hits that $40 pricetag, I can see it being worthwhile for a number of devices - with all the dongles around, the usb port certainly allows for that. But for the device to be truly versatile, they need more variations on the hardware. At 1 usb port, and 1 ethernet port, you're pretty limited with what you can do. Perhaps that's partly intention - you might buy more than one of them since you don't have enough usb ports to do all you'd like to do with it. Still, it would be so much more appealing if there were variations - throw in an esata port (assuming USB would be the bottleneck for NAS), or an extra ethernet port (router), or more USB ports, or built in wireless.
When the price is that low, I think people would be willing to pay a little more to make it more customizable and get some more utility out of it.
... are using one to host their website.
Registering accounts later than some other chrisb since 1997
"The first plausible use" for the thing is better served by a OpenWRT/dd-wrt router. As a web server, you might as well be using the computer you're on, or, if you're servering outsite your LAN, you should pay for real webhosting. I DO think it might be a good starting point for my networked home thermostat or even a full home automation system. But it's probably overkill.
Whale
Hook up an external hard-drive or NAS and one of those USB displays http://www.linuxdevices.com/news/NS9676037801.html to create something like this: http://technewsline.net/displaylink-for-linux-turns-a-humble-wireless-router-into-a-beautiful-pc/. I'd build myself a nice BitTorrent client for which I don't have to leave my computer on all the time. Other than that I'd use those as fileservers and for routing/processing duties. Any bets on when the first Beowulf wall cluster will emerge?
Can't they add HomePlug (ethernet over electrical wiring) functionality to it as well? It may not be as fast as gigabit ethernet, but it would mean that you don't have to have Cat5 run to it, or have it sitting directly next to a router / wifi access point.
I could buy a couple of these and use 'em as FServe's for some of my... data.
Our current home network setup has my wife and I primarily using laptops. Our printer, however, is shared out by a desktop computer upstairs. The desktop computer also acts as a file server. (For example, keeping years' worth of photos that we wouldn't keep on the individual laptops.) While the monitor is shut off unless the desktop computer is actively being used (rarely), we would definitely save power by turning the desktop computer off. This would mean, however, that we would need to go upstairs and turn it on whenever we wanted to print or retrieve a file.
I wonder how much energy these wall wart servers draw. If it's less than a standard desktop PC (which I build back in 2002), then it might be worth it to buy one, hook up a large USB HDD and the printer and share those out. Anyone know if this is possible (laptop & desktop computers currently run Windows XP)? If it is possible, any ideas how much power (if any) I would save?
My sci-fi novel, Ghost Thief, is now available from Amazon.com.
The actual link where to buy the wallwart was pretty deep linked from Marvells website. This is apparently the official place to buy these things: http://www.globalscaletechnologies.com/p-22-sheevaplug-dev-kit.aspx
you can get USB touch screens for (not cheap), but If you could tie a 7" USB touch screen to this device, you'd be able to create something that you can plug into almost any room and use for browsing, chat (rudimentary due to touch screen), and other very basic tasks.
Is it sad that I am more likely to recognize you and your posts by your sig than your name or UID?
I've been trying to come up with a way to install a webcam somewhere in the department lounge so I can be the first to know when free food shows up...
Frankly I think there is some demand for such a thing; heck Amazon still sells the NSLU2 for close to $100 (and even more on some European local sites). However at this point this new gizmo is close to vaporware to me. Let's say I'm sold, where do I get it? The site referenced in the article is really not that helpful:
- doesn't look like somebody I want to do business with (sorry)
- Availability: Ships in 1 to 2 weeks
- read the specs (WTF?):
* Dimensions (L x W x D): 4" x 2.5" x 2"
* Power requirements: 110V/220V
* Drive connection: USB 2.0
* Network connection: Gigabit Ethernet
* Web browsers: Safari, FireFox, IE (v. 7 and above), Chrome, Opera
* File access: Windows Explorer, Mac Finder
- ships only to American Samoa, Canada, Guam, Puerto Rico, United States, US Virgin Islands
are you serious? you're going to complain about the fact that its only got 1 USB port? Is this 1996 and we're still learning how USB works?
My Sig Sucks
I'm planning to try making one of these into a scanner server. It could potentially turn any plain old USB scanner into a network-attached scanner, using the vast array of SANE drivers available.
Initially it should be very easy just to run an instance of saned, which lets SANE frontends talk to the backend over a TCP socket. A more ambitious project would be to combine the SheevaPlug with a web-based SANE frontend... the only one I could find was phpSANE but it seems to be a dead project...
I wonder, would it be able to run Folding@Home/Seti@Home/BOINC or do anything productive in its spare cycles?
Install NFS/Samba or whatever, mount a network drive from a NAS to it and then install Logitech's SqueezeCentre software so that the Logitech Duet can play tracks from your NAS rather than a PC.
Put a solid-state flash drive on it, and wire it direct into the house wiring, and build it into a cavity in the wall. Store all your really secret stuff on it. Cops come calling and will never find it. If it dies, or after the cops are gone, a razor knife, cut through the sheetrock, and replace/destroy it. And for good measure, build it into the wall behind the fridge or other big appliance.
"We want this device to be in your TV, your stereo system, your DVD player.'"
Kinda like this?
It's not necessarily bad to be second. First-place sometimes gets the arrow in the chest. And you duck the incoming. But media server? In my DVD player? Well, maybe right after you make a remote that works, and we find a way past the CableCard fiasco. Until then, I welcome our alien Hulu-spewing overlords. That has promise.
ps - Sorry for the PDF. I'm feeling retro this weekend.
deleting the extra space after periods so i can stay relevant, yeah.
im in ur stereo, sharing ur tun3z!
Seriously, what's the novelty here? This sort of thing has been available for a long time. Maybe not pre-packaged into a wall plug, but certainly small enough that they could have been. Is it just that this one is pre-made and relatively cheap?
Chelloveck
I give up on debugging. From now on, SIGSEGV is a feature.
I've wanted an ultra-low power solution for these two reasons (but mostly the first):
1. Overnight downloads ( usually bittorrent ). There's no reason to leave my entire PC turned on, when all I really need is an internet connection and storage. Combine this with a high capacity SD card and power savings should be huge.
2. VPN / remote desktop. While at work, I often find it useful to connect to my home machine for various reasons. It could be for a secure IM connection, or it could be just to have access to a different IP address for testing.
Maybe a "FIRST POST" comment should automatically be attached to every article?
Nobody saw this and think "external HD + bittorrent"? Just leave it on for as long as you like. I'm always looking for ways to offload background tasks to lower-power devices, and the best I can do for P2P right now is a laptop with a USB HD. It's low power, but if I didn't have a spare old laptop then the next-cheapest thing would be a netbook, which I'd probably want to use as, well, a netbook...
Entomologically speaking, the spider is not a bug, it's a feature.
With the price eventually heading down to around $60 you could build a nice beowulf cluster with a few switches and 100 wall warts. I am sure if you went direct to the manufacturer and orderd several hundred you could get the price down lower.
"Of all the things I've lost, I miss my mind the most." ~Ozzy Osborne
I can't wait till someone installs Linux on it, and creats a beowulf cluster!
Steve's Computer Service, Hobbs, NM
VPN'd to all your friends and family.
Cruciall feature being trivial vpn config support.
Deleted
This could be a space- and capital-efficient way to have many memcache servers. That was my first thought when I saw this.
I claim first use of "Error No. 0B" - or "No. 0B error." It'll be the new ID 10T!
then people would race for "Second post"
I reject your reality
This is great! I'm building some home automation hardware and wanted something to serve up control software webpages. For a little over a year I've been putting all my computers into sleep when I leave to conserve power and I was dreading going back to the old mode of operation. I considered modding my WRT54G to have a USB port-serial port, then adding a webserver, but this seems like the perfect solution.
Good timing!
Problem is that most of these functions would be happy without their own local CPU, but if the CPUs do drop below the $50 price point, it could be feasible to just have local CPUs anyway for data integrity, local signal processing, autonomous operation in the event of network failure, etc.
Did it strike anyone else as lame that the MIT dude said he'd have it run a spam filter?
When will these devices become available in Europe?
So far, i've only seen units designed for use in the US, which means they have a physically incompatible plug (and thus require a bulky adapter) and require 110V whereas european sockets provide 240V...
http://spamdecoy.net - free throwaway anonymous email - avoid spam!
Why bother when you have a legion of idiots willing to do it for free?
ZuluPad, the wiki notepad on crack
Got two development kits Wed. I setup samba shares off a usb drive with no problem. However it looks like cups might be overkill for this little server. Has anyone got a working solution for a print server ?
thx
-mike
MJ is the biggest crock of crap ever foisted on an unsuspecting public. I've been struggling with it for about a year- fortunately my subscription for it is about to end and I will let it die. The MJ firmware is unreliable. Their servers are unreliable. Don't count on replacing your phone line with MJ.
Skype, on the other hand, just works. Video, which I use to call Japan regularly, is also great.
buy 9 more and cluster them. Then you can rent out processing time on your cluster.
They're using their grammar skills there.
Seriously,
Take 2 - use the 2nd as a backup -
Adults are obsolete children. - Dr. Seuss
Likely said before, but this would be perfect for a file backup/media server. Connect a USB drive, tie this little guy to a backup app like jungle disk and you have a remotely accessible file server that can be backed up offsite.
Sorry if this was mentioned in the article...
It would be nifty to get a bunch and hook them up as cheap compute farm.
Given the specs of this device I'd rather put it in my vehicle than my home. Has anyone opened one up to have a look at its internals? I imagine it wouldn't take too much tinkering to lop off the AC power supply and wire it to run off 12V DC. Add USB wifi and GPS dongles and this could be the platform for the vehicle tracking system I've been contemplating.
place this refurbished walmart system directly in the trash!! just because it comes from walmart doesn't mean your getting a deal. save your pennies. when times are tight, as they are now, shop around and build your own server with honest new brand-named components. walmart sells computers and electronics as new when they've actually been refurbished.
Combine with a USB "docking port" ( http://www.toshibadirect.com/td/b2c/adet.to?seg=HHO&poid=408593) and you get a computer with no moving parts. No moving parts = no noise, and less to break.
Stop feeding the trolls
Obama's legacy: (N)othing (S)ecure (A)nywhere and (T)error (S)imulation (A)dministration
As a geek dad with a 2.0 edition just over 2 months away, I can't help but think this is the missing link for an excellent baby monitor. Some good easy-to-use software feels like the "last mile" to a low-cost internet baby monitor. Laid out my wish list here: Internet Baby Monitor. Any other geek dads or mom's thinking the same thing? -BC
Found this article a while ago after having bought a Skype-to-phone adapter (This thing, I forget the exact model number). It basically describes a method of creating a "Skype server" that will provide skype service through the regular phone lines in your house.
Having abandoned the adapter in question as being a bit pointless, I would be ASTOUNDED if the above solution actually worked reliably, but, hey, certainly looks like he put a lot of effort into creating it.
"The dew has clearly fallen with a particularly sickening thud this morning"
DO NOT BUY!!!
I bought one. When I tried to download the development tool there were pages and file missing from the web page. Once I got it I found out that the host development platform was MSwindows only. I contacted Globalscale Technologies but they never answered my eamils. The hardware is nice but the software development system is horrible, support in non existent,
DO NOT BUY!!!
These are missing features which would make these well suited for wider geekdom adoption.
Namely (in this order):
* 2x Ethernet (only has one)
* eSATA (only has CPU intensive USB 2.0)
* WiFi (with a hostap capable chip)
No, not all those features are necessary, and they're not all inclusively necessary, but they'd certainly push it a long way in any combination.
One or the other would make these very appealing. As it stands, they're only a cursory attraction. Their cost outweighs any functionality.
~/ssh slashdot.org ssh: connect to host slashdot.org port 22: too many beers
So I've had the idea for a while now, of trying to find a console MP3 player. Even though I haven't ascended to LAN SSH jockey status yet, I have long been disgusted by the bloated abominations that are GNOME and KDE, (I'm a little less averse to KDE, truth be told, but it is even more bloated than GNOME) and thus have been looking for a better way.
Yesterday I found this wonderful gem of a blog post, which told me about a lot of applications which I can use from the CLI, as well as a series of blog posts from this guy, which give you a lot more ideas in terms of applications and how to set them up.
The end result is a realisation that just about any old junk you've got lying around, north of 400 Mhz, can be used for doing pretty much anything you want. Servers of all kinds, jukebox appliances, even incremental render/compiling nodes if you've got distcc or blender.
Even people who've got 3Ghz+ machines should take a serious look at these CLI apps, IMHO. Cplay as a media player for example works great, and because it is only a front end rather than the app itself, as well as a media player, I can also plug something like mikmod into it to listen to my old mod files as well, which is awesome.
Then of course there are the possibilities for a ram stick you can carry around in your pocket, as well. The command line is the single best thing about a UNIX system; if you don't use it, you're basically missing the entire point of it as a unique operating system. Ubuntu users and GUI junkies, take note! ;)
I can't find it at Walmart. Would someone please post a link
to the product.
Thanks
It's slightly more significant than that. It's a 1GHz ARM board with 512Mb of RAM for $100. That's maybe a 5th what you'd find in a SBC format.
Now, if only it had enough of the right kind of i/o ports to make hobbiest projects more appealing. 2x Ethernet and/or wifi would have been a good start.
~/ssh slashdot.org ssh: connect to host slashdot.org port 22: too many beers
I'd like to see a device with connectors for: USB, Ethernet, Sata, VGA, DVI, 5.1 DD Audio, RJ12 (Telephone line), ...
...
This way we can use it for everything: Router, Network storage, video recorder / playback, playing console for older games, web browser, VOIP server/client,
Love many, trust a few, do harm to none.
Don't buy it!
Looks to me like its $200 for the board only, you need to shell out another $50 if you want it in a nice case....
Anyway, this is quite interesting, since probably within 10 years everyone will be able to have something like this running 24/7 and this will mean that all kind of darknets will become practical and everyday, making Big Content's attempts at preventing free distribution of its content much more difficult.
Everyone has already seen this a bazillion times, but still it's neat how the human brain recognizes words. Also more on this here.
I think it would be cool to put a SmoothWall linux distro on a Wall Wart to act as an impromptu firewall. Now, if they just made a version of the Wal Wart that had 2 NIC interfaces, then we would be in business!
-- Betting on the survival of the media industry is a serious risk. I advise investing elsewhere.
Could be a task for Amazon's Mechanical Berk.
I must be the only one that thinks PXE booting should be a standard feature on all these kinds of little devices. Why use a big PC for such a task if it's so easy to use such a tiny device like this? Seems like it would be gaining popularity with all the CD-less netbooks floating around.
"UNIX is very simple, it just needs a genius to understand its simplicity." -Dennis Ritchie
Eh. I get perfectly functional Pentium machines from my local thrift stores. They're usually $20/apiece. I don't understand the point in buying new PC's for anything these days.
looks kewl but it's pink so it must be for gurlz
For me it is missing eSata.
Then it would be a killer for me...
USB for disks is kind of lame and slow...
I'm playing with mesh node wifi routers, setting up a small mesh near where I live.
Something like this would be awesome as an itty-bitty squid server, to cache users' commonly browsed web content within the mesh itself. The open question would be whether the cache itself should reside entirely on a RAM disk to keep down access times, or whether the flash disk is fast enough. I'm guessing the former.
Well heck, if these things hit $40 I may just have to pick one up :)
=profit!!
Sometimes the best solution is to stop wasting time looking for an easy solution.
Its a great little NAS, runs icecast, http, etc just fine. The one thing to keep in mind is that it does not have a math coproc, so anything needs to do floating point is dog slow. For example, I was looking to have it as a solution that would reencode all my mp3s realtime down to 128 or 64 for transmitting over the internet. I don't think this puppy can handle it.
Can it run windows?
Maybe a "FIRST POST" comment should automatically be attached to every article?
then people would race for "Second post"
Maybe a convincing-looking autogenerated fake "first post" should be added randomly to around 50% of articles. Thus making it unclear which is the "true" first post and reducing the appeal.
"Slashdot - News and Chat Sites Deviant". (Click "homepage" link above for details).
We want this device to be in your TV, your stereo system, your DVD player.'"
Stay out.
I don't want your DRM, behavior/preference capturing, profiling, or any other implementation of your nitwit schemes on my gear.
You cannot just throw DLC at me, and expect that I don't know what you're really trying to do.
Looks like Linux can tap this market to become the prefered OS of corporate espionage, keylogging, etc., almost literally overnight!
They are made from refurbished parts made to look like new. Plus the parts they used are bottom of the barrel, I wouldn't store any valuable data on one.
I'm starting to look at putting up my own mail server and ssh soon and maybe this will be the best option out there. I have an aging notebook but I worry the thing will go into hibernation and make the server useless.
Discuss.
To me this seems best combined with a UPS. Power your Cable/DSL modem, router, switch, ATA, and this (all low-power devices). Install asterisk on it and you could have sustained phone and internet service (via laptop) during power outages.
$40 in 2 years isn't the really wild part - $4 in 10 years is where it starts getting crazy.
The pogoplug is pretty impressive -- I was ready to click "buy", but then after a few more minutes of research, found out that they broker all communication to your wallwart...
This is a dealbreaker for me. While I realize this is their "magic sauce" that makes it super easy to access your pogoplug, any service that forces me to route my files through them is a no-go. (partly for security reasons, but mostly for being tied to a single vendor)
There is something very pleasing and unix-like about this sort of setup. Instead of having a large, noisy computer that contains all sort of components do perform this task and many others, we have a few components that do one thing well, and we just connect those components together. I hope in the future we have more devices that allow this sort of "tinkering by combination."
Coming from someone trying to set up CUPS and SANE on my MythTV machine, trying to get SANE up and a scanner accessible on a remote computer is like stabbing yourself in the eye with a butter knife.
Like .. Imagine a beowolf cluster of those plugs? .. ... There is no such thing as avoiding the beowolf!
--- I am known for the ones who want to find me on the net. Is that a privacy risk or a privilege? One might wonder..
Wall Wart Linux Server - $99
USB Hub - $15
USB VGA video card - $50
USB flash drive - $35
Building your own nettop computer - priceless!
(T>t && O(n)--) == sqrt(666)
Back in the mid-90s, when the web server business hadn't quite been invented, and PCs were still about 4U size but not rack mounted, I did a consulting gig out at Novell, whose primary business in those days was Netware networking. Their test lab was maybe half a Walmart large, with Metro shelves with PCs on them, including keyboards and monitors. There were about 500 PCs, and the network was probably running on Thinwire, but might have been upgraded to 10baseT by then? They were able to segment off groups of 10-100 servers for smaller tests if they needed to, or patch the whole room together.
Bill Stewart
New Fast-Compression-only CPR http://preview.tinyurl.com/dy575ks
If you look at the documentation( When I bought it the version was only 1.0), you will see everything is for MWsindow (Putty?). I tried every know ftdi configuration to get OpenOCD working(I even had to cat /proc/bus/usb to get the numbers, it was not published then), none worked. When I wrote them about it, No answer.
If OpenOCD does not work, and you can not debug the system at that low level, You do not have full control,
The Linux host that come with it is just a is a bzip2 of a gcc&libs and a file system (BTW: devices and sockets do not like to be zipped, use cpio). To me this is a MSwindoze programmer that does not know what they are doing.
Setting up TFTP and NFS root is basic to any embedded Linux project, it is the low level debugger that makes the system.
A souped up router plus USB drive for minimal file/print serving saves tons of power (since the router's going to be running anyway).
Tomato firmware provides excellent bandwidth reports (including a realtime graph and saving logs to a device), and even better, very useable Quality of Service controls plus fine grained control over many aspects of the device (including broadcast power). It is rock solid and easy to use. I find the GUI clearer than almost all stock consumer router software, yet vastly more capable.
For a router with USB ports that can load Tomato, I suggest the Asus Premium models, or the linksys WRTSL54GS (f you can find one). You will need a special version of Tomato that supports USB.
Check the wikipedia page for an overview, and for the USB + FTP + Samba mod see this thread on the Linksys community forum.
Damn those pesky terrorists
If you run linux, you could probably set it up as a pulseaudio sink. That way, you could stream music to speakers other than the ones at your desk. I always wanted to do that, sorta like what apple does on it's airport, but cheaper and linux based.
Yeah, the network stuff in SANE sucks, I was trying to get it working myself last week, without success.. this is in fact what gave me the idea for the web frontend. The SheevaPlug is just a really nifty device to host it on.
.....are so knowledgeable, I have been known to experience several waves of vertigo induced by the hyper-concise answers to even the most complex questions delivered with extreme rapidity and a smile. Who am I talking about? Where have I fallen under the spell of superior intellect and customer relations to the point where they had to throw water in my face? Or.....
Hebrews 11:8
Jeremiah 33:3