Stroller has a cool idea: > On 16 Oct 2009, at 12:58, Alex Schuster wrote:
[I want a Linux PC to act as USB mass storage device] > The hack that springs to mind is to see if you can pick up an Openmoko > Freerunner with a broken screen. I'd guess you might be able to pick > one up for as little as $50 or so. It needs no SIM - you just connect > it to your office wifi instead, configure it to act as a mass storage > device and share the appropriate directory by Samba or NFS or whatever. > > http://wiki.openmoko.org/wiki/Using_the_Neo_as_an_USB_Mass_storage_device Hey, this is a great idea! I'd never have thought about this. > Configuring the device to boot up and automagically load the mass > storage device kernel module - instead of the USB networking one, > which is default - could be a bit tricky with a broken screen. But I > doubt if you want to spend $200 on this, and I think that's about the > going rate on a brand new Freerunner. Well, even $200 might be okay. I need this for a commercial project anyway, and I guess the customer would be happy not to have to move around USB sticks. But even better, I guess already have such a thing! My girl-friend got one a year ago, but was not happy with it. I just uses too much energy, has to be recharged every day. And there is some bug, when the battery is completely dead, it cannot be recharged - the moko needs another battery to start, then it can be exchanged with the dead one and recharged. Maybe there is s newer software, she hasn't looked for that for a while. And I thought the project is about dead anyway, but that may also be completely wrong. Anyway, the device would be already here, so I can play around with it. > I do feel this is kinda a clumsy suggestion, to use a relatively > expensive mobile phone - and such little of its functionality - for > such an ostensibly-simple task. Clumsy, but also geeky :) I like it. > There must be other Linux-based > devices which will pretend to be mass storage devices, and I wouldn't > be at all surprised if some of them were quite cheap and readily > available. But I have no idea what they might be. There are many Linux-based handhelds or MP3 players, but I did not find such thing as a PCI card with USB peripheral hardware. At least now I know that an normal PC just cannot be a peripheral, its USB controller can work in host mode only. Thanks again! Wonko
