Hey Vagrant! On Mon, Sep 03, 2018 at 10:59:38AM -0700, Vagrant Cascadian wrote: >On 2018-09-03, Ricardo Wurmus wrote: >> The first question is what ARM hardware to buy; the second is where to >> host that hardware. Here are some considerations: >> >> - The new systems should be easy to host in a data centre; this might >> mean that we need rack-mounted servers, or that we need a co-location >> data centre that accepts machines with unusual form factors. >> >> - The system should be able to build substitutes for both armhf and >> aarch64. Not all aarch64 CPUs support building for armhf, for >> example. >> >> - We need to be able to restart the machine remotely. If members of the >> Guix project have no physical access to the hosting site, this can be >> done via remote-controlled power supply or similar. > >Debian also has similar needs for build machines and is currently >exploring new hardware. There was a pretty good summary a few months >back: > > https://lists.debian.org/debian-arm/2018/06/msg00062.html > >One of the most promising seems to be the SynQuacer: > > https://www.96boards.org/product/developerbox/ > >With a 24-core processor, SATA, PCIe, USB 3.0, micro-atx form-factor, >and 4 ram slots (up to 64GB, in theory, but may be picky about >ram). > >Sounds like they're working with Debian's 4.17.x kernels, so should have >reasonable mainline linux support. > >Steve McIntyre (CCed) has been rebuilding debian with them to test them >out, and my impression is it's been going pretty well. Might be more >details in the Debian ARM ports BoF video: > > https://debconf18.debconf.org/talks/93-arm-ports-bof/ > > >> One system that looks promising for co-location is the Softiron >> Overdrive 3000 (a rack-mounted ARM server.) A system suitable for >> hosting at home is the Softiron Overdrive 1000. > >It does sound like the processors used in the Overdrive systems are >officially EOL, but maybe there are still enough of them that SoftIron >will continue to support them for a while. I'll see if I can follow-up >on that, too.
Other people I've been talking to have been struggling a lot to get hold of any Overdrive-based systems. I'm honestly surprised there are any left, to be honest! -- Steve McIntyre, Cambridge, UK. st...@einval.com Dance like no one's watching. Encrypt like everyone is. - @torproject
