Robin Kipp writes:
> Hello list!
> As I'd like to have a small server at home for various purposes and
> Linux experiments but don't want to purchase a whole computer, I'd
> be very interested in an embedded PC from Soekris. I'd like to
> install Debian Linux on it which is my prefered Linux distribution
> really. Well, this won't be my first embedded PC actually, I
> purchased an Alix 2c2 from PCEngines a few months ago and tried to
> install Debian on the Compact Flash card using the computer, however
> I couldn't boot the device. I even purchased an IDE2CF adapter that
> let me connect a Compact Flash card to an IDE BUS directly which I
> did, but still it didn't work out. The PCEngines support is very bad
> I must say and replies to my questions were often to short or just
> rude and it was clear that the only guy who seems to work for this
> company has no idea about the stuff that he's selling, so I decided
> to return the components purchased by PCEngines. As I've heard many
> good things about Soekris and their products, I'm very interested in
> buying one of their embedded PCs. All I need is 1 or 2 network
> interfaces, 512 MB RAM, 500GHZ CPU and a serial console
> interface. Can anyone here suggest a model that suits me? Also, has
> anyone been able to install a Linux distribution such as Debian
> without compiling and all that? In this case, I'd apreciate if
> someone could tell me what he / she did because I'd really like to
> get started with a working embedded PC and don't have another Linux
> system available for compiling and so on. Thanks in advance for any
> help! Robin
I've run Debian sarge and etch on a Soekris 4801 and a PCEngines WRAP.
The WRAP doesn't have a keyboard interface and the driver gets a
little chatty. Also you need to use the BIOS to reboot. So, the
following kernel command-line is what I use: "reboot=b kbd-disable=1"
(2.6.25 kernel). Both the Soekris and the PCEngines want a generic
i386 kernel, not an i686 kernel.
As far as reliability, the WRAP boards have been great. The 4801 is
kind of unknown (insufficient data) because the Soekris power supplies
are unreliable. Buy your power supply elsewhere.
I haven't played with an Alix board, but their specifications look
good and the prices are good too. Interesting that you weren't able to
get it to boot.
Regards,
Richard....
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