Hi Bob, where to start with this one? I don't think there's a threshold of expertise for running a Soekris box, it's just a matter of how deep ypu are willing to dig.
First, a Soekris box is accessed through a serial port until sshd is running. It's like a constant: there's no way to change it, unless you are prepared to rebuild the machine almost from scratch. So anyone who purchases a Soekris should know that s/he will have to set up a serial connection before anything else can be done. So that would be Chapter 1 in your Soekris Cookbook. Which would have to describe at least the use of cu, minicom and, who knows, hyperterminal. Next chapter describes the procedures and quirks for each of the most widely used OSes, OS distributions, OS distribution versions and possibly OS distribution branches or flavors. That's N*N[*N[*N]] possibilities Joe User has to deal with. Good luck with that one;) As for the boot process: there's that CHS quirk, which is indeed a bit of a gray area, and pretty complex to describe as well. I don't know what exactly the problem is here either, I just know that it's there. There are tables with CHS values for CF cards of various sizes, but none seems to be authoritative. Lack of standard seems to be the problem here. Anyway, as long as you stick with doing things The Right Way, in most cases you will never have to worry about these. As for the disk number problem, I've never witnessed it myself (net4521/net4801 + Apacer/Kingston/HEAD CF cards). The Soekris comBIOS undoubtedly has a few blind spots over versions, like any other system. I've been following the soekris-tech list for over a year now, and apart from new hardware vs. existing drivers trouble, it appears that most of the Can't Do's come from people who insist on doing non-standard things in a non-standard way. Like wanting to cram a pile of 3.5" harddisks into a Soekris box, plug them onto the boards power supply, and blaming Soekris when it appears that it can't be done. The Soekris docs may not be the most elaborate ever written, but in my opinion they're very clear about what's possible and what's not (right down to the mW in fact). What I was trying to point out was that if you want to do non-standard things, possibly described nowhere, you're on your own. And if existing documentation suggests that things will work just like that, while in reality they won't (like the "burn on PC" issue), then the blame clearly lies with the docs, not with the Soekris board or manual. The CHS problem just seems to be a blind spot in Linux/GRUB environments (or else why do these "won't boot" reports keep reaching this list over and over again) - for OpenBSD it's described in detail. In fact, for OSes and distros leaning towards embedded environments, these cookbooks are readily available: just type "myos soekris" in your favourite SE and see what comes up. Following the mainstream (or the De Facto standard if you like) is the best thing to do here: Debian, Gentoo, xBSD are all well-described for running on Soekris boxes. Trying to install a desktop-oriented system like Ubuntu, Mandrake or Fedora onto a Soekris box is definitely a nodo. Or an interesting experiment at most, just don't complain if you can't find your desktop anywhere.. These are the snowboots of Linux distributions: nice and warm and comfy, but have you ever seen a backpacker wearing a pair of those? [In fact, I'm wearing a pair right now - their called Laptop and Ubuntu 6.06]. So yes, operating a Soekris box does require a certain level of expertise - you must be a kind of a virtual backpacker to feel at ease with a Soekris. If you don't, better stay in your PC/MAC/Windows Vista/Fedora 5 star hotel (mmm.. rating Windows Vista 5 star is maybe a bit optimistic). Finally, I run 2 Soekris boxes for a very low-grade purpose: they run as almost identical web servers, one as a backup and one for real. The only thing I've had a bit of trouble with, when making the transition from Linux to OpenBSD, was that bizarre thing called the BSD Disklabel, which I would be very happy to see disappear. Or be replaced by something that just sticks with subpatitioning a PT partition, i.o. enforcing a duplicate administration of the entire disk. Still, both in my (Debian at least) Linux and OpenBSD Soekris adventures I felt well-informed, and it was all a matter of just following the guidelines layed out on a few excellent web sites. No trouble at all. By the way, since STB's are accessed over a serial line, computer stores are more likely to have a pile of nullmodem cables in stock than a regular serial cable, at least here in Holland/Europe. All Joe User has to remember are the words "serial" and "nullmodem". Seller will have "9-pin" programmed into his or her firmware as the default;). Bill On Tue, 2007-07-03 at 08:44 -0400, Bob Camp wrote: > Hi > > Let's say I just got my first Soekris in the mail and I've never done > any of this before. Like it or not if I'm Joe average I have a > Windows PC somewhere. Past that it's tough to guess what I do or do > not have lying around the house. Simply getting serial I/O going is > not trivial (is this the right cable or the wrong one ....). The more > steps to follow and things to install the more chances of a simple > stupid error. Cascaded stupid errors can be very aggravating .... > With no "stable base" to start from things can be more difficult than > they should be. > > It would be very nice to have a few "cookbooks" for this kind of > thing. The form might be "use this terminal program , short pins 2 > and 3 together and type to check the software". The software > distributions have information scattered about in a lot of places. > It's not particularly easy to pull it all together first time around. > There are just enough odd things about the Soekris boards that it > might be worth doing. I still hold my breath each time I grab a new > flash card until I see which disk number it's going to boot as on > each board ... > > Bob Camp > > > > On Jul 3, 2007, at 3:01 AM, Bill Maas wrote: > > > Hi, > > > > I hope I didn't offend anyone with my possibly somewhat harsh tirade > > against burning CF cards externally yesterday. Meanwhile, an > > installation procedure for linux that in my view is both the most > > standard and easiest to follow, has been bubbling up from the depth of > > my memory. > > ................................... > > _______________________________________________ > Soekris-tech mailing list > [email protected] > http://lists.soekris.com/mailman/listinfo/soekris-tech > -- "Fix bugs first, add features later" _______________________________________________ Soekris-tech mailing list [email protected] http://lists.soekris.com/mailman/listinfo/soekris-tech
