Re: Compact Freebsd 'appliance'
On Jun 18, 2009, at 7:59 PM, Charlie Kester wrote: On Thu 18 Jun 2009 at 14:18:21 PDT Tim Judd wrote: I've read reports (and forgotten it's source since then) that some Intel Atom processors work well, some don't with FreeBSD. This was something I read within a couple months, so I would see if anyone here can provide input on pros and cons on weather that particular Atom model number is well received and well tested. The only problems I've seen reported re Atoms was back in the days before the FreeBSD 7.2 release (or was it 7.1?) when there were problems with not recognizing the Realtek networking chip included on the Intel motherboards. FWIW, I'm running FreeBSD 7.2 on an Intel D945GCLF motherboard, which has an Atom 230 CPU. I got mine from http://www.mini-box.com. (I *am* using a Intel networking card rather than the builtin Realtek chip, but only because the Realtek recognition problems still existed when I first set up the machine. One of these days I should probably see if those problems are truly fixed, so I can recover the single PCI slot for some other use.) Since this is a home machine, I can't say it's the best test of whether FreeBSD runs OK on it. But I haven't had any problems with it. Sounds good. They are so inexpensive, I will just give it a whirl and see if it cuts the mustard. Speed isn't really an issue, since it's going to be twiddling it's thumbs most of the time. Doesn't really matter if it takes 10 seconds or 30 minutes to translate the videos. Thanks: John ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to freebsd-questions-unsubscr...@freebsd.org
Re: Compact Freebsd 'appliance'
John Almberg writes: I have a client who has an application that he wants to deploy in his customer's offices as a headless 'appliance'. Basically, just a black box that you can plug into a Lan, turn it on, and it runs. No floppy disk or CD, no monitor/keyboard, just remotely managed. This application won't store any critical data, so it doesn't need redundancy. It just needs to be reasonably reliable, compact, and quiet. My first recommendation was to use a Mac Mini, but that excellent bit of hardware was deemed 'not professional enough'. So now I am looking for a compact pc that can run FreeBSD, of course. I think it probably just needs a power supply, tiny motherboard with onboard ethernet, usb, etc., and hard drive. If anyone has a recommendation (or if their are any vendors lurking), please shoot me an email off list. I'll compile a list of recommendations and post it all at once, in case anyone else is interested in this. I have a couple of Via Artigo a2000 boxes, one running FreeBSD-STABLE (post 7.2) and the other running FreeNAS. Both work well. I've seen posts from one fellow who's tracking a bug with the vge interface under very heavy load, but both of mine stream music and do Time Machine backups via netatalk without any trouble. Logic Supply has a custom FreeNAS build that recognizes the disks as SATA and that adds support for Gb ethernet to the NIC (rolling in changes from -STABLE to the 6.x series on which the stable FreeNAS is based). http://www.logicsupply.com/blog/2009/05/11/custom-a2000-freenas-image/ They're not the cheapest place to buy the box, but they're close and they do good support (I'm just a happy customer and I helped with the FreeNAS image, no other association). They're not Living Room quiet, but they're about as unobtrusive as you can get in a little box w/out going fanless. g. ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to freebsd-questions-unsubscr...@freebsd.org
Re: Compact Freebsd 'appliance'
On Fri 19 Jun 2009 at 07:24:58 PDT John Almberg wrote: Sounds good. They are so inexpensive, I will just give it a whirl and see if it cuts the mustard. Speed isn't really an issue, since it's going to be twiddling it's thumbs most of the time. Doesn't really matter if it takes 10 seconds or 30 minutes to translate the videos. If you try one of the new fanless boards, let me know how it goes. I've been thinking about getting one of those myself. ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to freebsd-questions-unsubscr...@freebsd.org
Re: Compact Freebsd 'appliance'
I have a couple of Via Artigo a2000 boxes, one running FreeBSD-STABLE (post 7.2) and the other running FreeNAS. Both work well. I've seen posts from one fellow who's tracking a bug with the vge interface under very heavy load, but both of mine stream music and do Time Machine backups via netatalk without any trouble. Logic Supply has a custom FreeNAS build that recognizes the disks as SATA and that adds support for Gb ethernet to the NIC (rolling in changes from -STABLE to the 6.x series on which the stable FreeNAS is based). http://www.logicsupply.com/blog/2009/05/11/custom-a2000-freenas- image/ They're not the cheapest place to buy the box, but they're close and they do good support (I'm just a happy customer and I helped with the FreeNAS image, no other association). They're not Living Room quiet, but they're about as unobtrusive as you can get in a little box w/out going fanless. Also very nice looking boxes. Thanks! -- John ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to freebsd-questions-unsubscr...@freebsd.org
Compact Freebsd 'appliance'
I have a client who has an application that he wants to deploy in his customer's offices as a headless 'appliance'. Basically, just a black box that you can plug into a Lan, turn it on, and it runs. No floppy disk or CD, no monitor/keyboard, just remotely managed. This application won't store any critical data, so it doesn't need redundancy. It just needs to be reasonably reliable, compact, and quiet. My first recommendation was to use a Mac Mini, but that excellent bit of hardware was deemed 'not professional enough'. So now I am looking for a compact pc that can run FreeBSD, of course. I think it probably just needs a power supply, tiny motherboard with onboard ethernet, usb, etc., and hard drive. If anyone has a recommendation (or if their are any vendors lurking), please shoot me an email off list. I'll compile a list of recommendations and post it all at once, in case anyone else is interested in this. Thanks: John -- jalmberg at identry dot com ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to freebsd-questions-unsubscr...@freebsd.org
Re: Compact Freebsd 'appliance'
What kind of application? This is so we can gear a hardware that is powerful enough to power your application. Naming the application and/or website would be a good addition. On 6/18/09, John Almberg jalmb...@identry.com wrote: I have a client who has an application that he wants to deploy in his customer's offices as a headless 'appliance'. Basically, just a black box that you can plug into a Lan, turn it on, and it runs. No floppy disk or CD, no monitor/keyboard, just remotely managed. This application won't store any critical data, so it doesn't need redundancy. It just needs to be reasonably reliable, compact, and quiet. My first recommendation was to use a Mac Mini, but that excellent bit of hardware was deemed 'not professional enough'. So now I am looking for a compact pc that can run FreeBSD, of course. I think it probably just needs a power supply, tiny motherboard with onboard ethernet, usb, etc., and hard drive. If anyone has a recommendation (or if their are any vendors lurking), please shoot me an email off list. I'll compile a list of recommendations and post it all at once, in case anyone else is interested in this. Thanks: John -- jalmberg at identry dot com ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to freebsd-questions-unsubscr...@freebsd.org ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to freebsd-questions-unsubscr...@freebsd.org
Re: Compact Freebsd 'appliance'
On 6/18/09, John Almberg jalmb...@identry.com wrote: I have a client who has an application that he wants to deploy in his customer's offices as a headless 'appliance'. Basically, just a black box that you can plug into a Lan, turn it on, and it runs. No floppy disk or CD, no monitor/keyboard, just remotely managed. This application won't store any critical data, so it doesn't need redundancy. It just needs to be reasonably reliable, compact, and quiet. My first recommendation was to use a Mac Mini, but that excellent bit of hardware was deemed 'not professional enough'. So now I am looking for a compact pc that can run FreeBSD, of course. I think it probably just needs a power supply, tiny motherboard with onboard ethernet, usb, etc., and hard drive. If anyone has a recommendation (or if their are any vendors lurking), please shoot me an email off list. I'll compile a list of recommendations and post it all at once, in case anyone else is interested in this. There's lots of hardware vendors out there that sell stuff like this, if you're buying enough of them, they'll even brand the case for you. Some terms you can search on: Soekris, AMD Geode -- Bill Moran http://www.potentialtech.com http://people.collaborativefusion.com/~wmoran/ ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to freebsd-questions-unsubscr...@freebsd.org
Re: Compact Freebsd 'appliance'
On 6/18/09, John Almberg jalmb...@identry.com wrote: On Jun 18, 2009, at 4:14 PM, Tim Judd wrote: What kind of application? This is so we can gear a hardware that is powerful enough to power your application. Naming the application and/or website would be a good addition. It's main purpose is to fetch videos off a local server (i.e., on the same lan it's plugged into), convert them into flash videos, and upload them to a remote server. There will also be a small web application that will be used to manage the application. Why do we need this little box, at all? I.e., why can't the whole thing be done by a remote server? It probably could, but my client feels that this little box makes his service 'concrete' and easier to sell. It's something his customers can hold and marvel at. Marketing... go figure. I'm thinking something like the Intel BOXD945GCLF2D Intel Atom processor 330 Intel 945GC Mini ITX Motherboard/CPU Combo, might do the trick. -- John John, so I'd use a system board like you described in preference to all other boards that are referenced or called a embedded board. Video processing can be very CPU intensive, plus RAM intensive. I didn't actually look at that product you posted, but that would be the gear I would start looking at. I've read reports (and forgotten it's source since then) that some Intel Atom processors work well, some don't with FreeBSD. This was something I read within a couple months, so I would see if anyone here can provide input on pros and cons on weather that particular Atom model number is well received and well tested. Nothing like developing a product based on inadequate or crappy hardware OR support. Do lots of prototypes, that's the only sure way to test. --Tim ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to freebsd-questions-unsubscr...@freebsd.org
Re: Compact Freebsd 'appliance'
Tim Judd wrote: On 6/18/09, John Almberg jalmb...@identry.com wrote: On Jun 18, 2009, at 4:14 PM, Tim Judd wrote: What kind of application? This is so we can gear a hardware that is powerful enough to power your application. Naming the application and/or website would be a good addition. It's main purpose is to fetch videos off a local server (i.e., on the same lan it's plugged into), convert them into flash videos, and upload them to a remote server. There will also be a small web application that will be used to manage the application. Why do we need this little box, at all? I.e., why can't the whole thing be done by a remote server? It probably could, but my client feels that this little box makes his service 'concrete' and easier to sell. It's something his customers can hold and marvel at. Marketing... go figure. I'm thinking something like the Intel BOXD945GCLF2D Intel Atom processor 330 Intel 945GC Mini ITX Motherboard/CPU Combo, might do the trick. -- John John, so I'd use a system board like you described in preference to all other boards that are referenced or called a embedded board. Video processing can be very CPU intensive, plus RAM intensive. I didn't actually look at that product you posted, but that would be the gear I would start looking at. I've read reports (and forgotten it's source since then) that some Intel Atom processors work well, some don't with FreeBSD. This was something I read within a couple months, so I would see if anyone here can provide input on pros and cons on weather that particular Atom model number is well received and well tested. Nothing like developing a product based on inadequate or crappy hardware OR support. Do lots of prototypes, that's the only sure way to test. --Tim There was a discussion on this a few days ago. I happen to have one of these Atom based systems, a Shuttle X27D: CPU: Intel(R) Atom(TM) CPU 330 @ 1.60GHz (1596.01-MHz 686-class CPU) Origin = GenuineIntel Id = 0x106c2 Stepping = 2 Features=0xbfe9fbffFPU,VME,DE,PSE,TSC,MSR,PAE,MCE,CX8,APIC,SEP,MTRR,PGE,MCA,CMOV,PAT,CLFLUSH,DTS,ACPI,MMX,FXSR,SSE,SSE2,SS,HTT,TM,PBE Features2=0x40e31dSSE3,DTES64,MON,DS_CPL,TM2,SSSE3,CX16,xTPR,PDCM,b22 AMD Features=0x2010NX,LM AMD Features2=0x1LAHF Cores per package: 2 Logical CPUs per core: 2 real memory = 2137915392 (2038 MB) avail memory = 2086662144 (1989 MB) ACPI APIC Table: Shuttl Shuttle FreeBSD/SMP: Multiprocessor System Detected: 4 CPUs cpu0 (BSP): APIC ID: 0 cpu1 (AP/HT): APIC ID: 1 cpu2 (AP): APIC ID: 2 cpu3 (AP/HT): APIC ID: 3 ioapic0: Changing APIC ID to 4 ioapic0 Version 2.0 irqs 0-23 This works nicely with FreeBSD (needs only a sysctl setting to hush some messages on absurd temperature measurements - all onboard devices work). One disappointing thing about it: the one and only fan in the system failed about after a week of continuous operation. ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to freebsd-questions-unsubscr...@freebsd.org
Re: Compact Freebsd 'appliance'
There was a discussion on this a few days ago. I happen to have one of these Atom based systems, a Shuttle X27D: CPU: Intel(R) Atom(TM) CPU 330 @ 1.60GHz (1596.01-MHz 686-class CPU) Origin = GenuineIntel Id = 0x106c2 Stepping = 2 Features=0xbfe9fbffFPU,VME,DE,PSE,TSC,MSR,PAE,MCE,CX8,APIC,SEP,MTRR,P GE,MCA,CMOV,PAT,CLFLUSH,DTS,ACPI,MMX,FXSR,SSE,SSE2,SS,HTT,TM,PBE Features2=0x40e31dSSE3,DTES64,MON,DS_CPL,TM2,SSSE3,CX16,xTPR,PDCM,b2 2 AMD Features=0x2010NX,LM AMD Features2=0x1LAHF Cores per package: 2 Logical CPUs per core: 2 real memory = 2137915392 (2038 MB) avail memory = 2086662144 (1989 MB) ACPI APIC Table: Shuttl Shuttle FreeBSD/SMP: Multiprocessor System Detected: 4 CPUs cpu0 (BSP): APIC ID: 0 cpu1 (AP/HT): APIC ID: 1 cpu2 (AP): APIC ID: 2 cpu3 (AP/HT): APIC ID: 3 ioapic0: Changing APIC ID to 4 ioapic0 Version 2.0 irqs 0-23 This works nicely with FreeBSD (needs only a sysctl setting to hush some messages on absurd temperature measurements - all onboard devices work). One disappointing thing about it: the one and only fan in the system failed about after a week of continuous operation. I can't find the discussion you mentioned, but this Shuttle looks pretty nice. You can't beat the price of these little boards. Thanks. --- John ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to freebsd-questions-unsubscr...@freebsd.org
Re: Compact Freebsd 'appliance'
--- On Thu, 6/18/09, John Almberg jalmb...@identry.com wrote: From: John Almberg jalmb...@identry.com Subject: Re: Compact Freebsd 'appliance' To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: Thursday, June 18, 2009, 10:54 PM There was a discussion on this a few days ago. I happen to have one of these Atom based systems, a Shuttle X27D: CPU: Intel(R) Atom(TM) CPU 330 @ 1.60GHz (1596.01-MHz 686-class CPU) Origin = GenuineIntel Id = 0x106c2 Stepping = 2 Features=0xbfe9fbffFPU,VME,DE,PSE,TSC,MSR,PAE,MCE,CX8,APIC,SEP,MTRR,PGE,MCA,CMOV,PAT,CLFLUSH,DTS,ACPI,MMX,FXSR,SSE,SSE2,SS,HTT,TM,PBE Features2=0x40e31dSSE3,DTES64,MON,DS_CPL,TM2,SSSE3,CX16,xTPR,PDCM,b22 AMD Features=0x2010NX,LM AMD Features2=0x1LAHF Cores per package: 2 Logical CPUs per core: 2 real memory = 2137915392 (2038 MB) avail memory = 2086662144 (1989 MB) ACPI APIC Table: Shuttl Shuttle FreeBSD/SMP: Multiprocessor System Detected: 4 CPUs cpu0 (BSP): APIC ID: 0 cpu1 (AP/HT): APIC ID: 1 cpu2 (AP): APIC ID: 2 cpu3 (AP/HT): APIC ID: 3 ioapic0: Changing APIC ID to 4 ioapic0 Version 2.0 irqs 0-23 This works nicely with FreeBSD (needs only a sysctl setting to hush some messages on absurd temperature measurements - all onboard devices work). One disappointing thing about it: the one and only fan in the system failed about after a week of continuous operation. I can't find the discussion you mentioned, but this Shuttle looks pretty nice. You can't beat the price of these little boards. Thanks. The discussion of appliance machines took place on the stable mailing list. http://lists.freebsd.org/pipermail/freebsd-stable/2009-June/thread.html --- John ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to freebsd-questions-unsubscr...@freebsd.org ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to freebsd-questions-unsubscr...@freebsd.org
Re: Compact Freebsd 'appliance'
On Thu 18 Jun 2009 at 14:18:21 PDT Tim Judd wrote: I've read reports (and forgotten it's source since then) that some Intel Atom processors work well, some don't with FreeBSD. This was something I read within a couple months, so I would see if anyone here can provide input on pros and cons on weather that particular Atom model number is well received and well tested. The only problems I've seen reported re Atoms was back in the days before the FreeBSD 7.2 release (or was it 7.1?) when there were problems with not recognizing the Realtek networking chip included on the Intel motherboards. FWIW, I'm running FreeBSD 7.2 on an Intel D945GCLF motherboard, which has an Atom 230 CPU. I got mine from http://www.mini-box.com. (I *am* using a Intel networking card rather than the builtin Realtek chip, but only because the Realtek recognition problems still existed when I first set up the machine. One of these days I should probably see if those problems are truly fixed, so I can recover the single PCI slot for some other use.) Since this is a home machine, I can't say it's the best test of whether FreeBSD runs OK on it. But I haven't had any problems with it. ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to freebsd-questions-unsubscr...@freebsd.org
