7 ms·

Low-end Linux

61 points by swah 15y ago

zokier 15y ago
I don't really see the value of running 486 instead of equivalent ARM CPU. Looking at something like RaspberryPi[1], you'd get a lot more everything with the same price, and the performance characteristics are actually relevant to modern day low power systems. http://elinux.org/RaspberryPiBoard#Provisional_specification http://elinux.org/RaspberryPiBoard#Provisional_specification
- MostAwesomeDude 15y ago
  Or a Gumstix, Beagle, Panda... The thrust of this blog post appears to be that the software he has written works on even a very nerfed machine. It's about his software, not his hardware.
- rwg 15y ago
  The value is x86 compatibility. Our seismograph network is held together by DMP eBox 2300 computers. These things have 200 MHz 486DX compatible CPUs, 128 MB RAM, and a CompactFlash slot that we populate with a 4 GB SLC NAND card (that are now ridiculously hard to find). The computers come in a nice, small, passively cooled metal case, cost about $150 each, and draw a few watts at idle. Now, sure, we could get ARM-based systems that are cheaper, faster, and even less power hungry (and I hope in the future I can start using such systems!), but for now, I'm stuck with x86 because we have to run a proprietary Linux/x86 binary on each computer to get the data out of the digitizers and into a "common" data format. (One day I'll write my own code to replace that proprietary binary, and then the company that makes a small, sub-$100 ARM board that boots Linux and has a flash memory slot of some sort, two Ethernet ports, and two real [not TTL-level] serial ports will be my most favorite company in the world.)
  - joshu 15y ago
    Might want to check out the Alix boards.
  - daedhel 15y ago
    I guess a i386 chroot would be too ressouce intensive for your case?
  - zokier 15y ago
    Legacy applications are a very valid reason to run x86, that I'll agree.
leakybucket 15y ago
I've been a long time user of Soekris boards & cheap x86 boxes: http://soekris.com/ http://soekris.com/ They've just come out with their first Atom based system; it's been 486 class (Amd Elan) and 586 class (Amd Geode) processors until now.
- kokey 15y ago
  Soekris is good suggestion for small boxes to use as Linux/BSD appliances. That said, they're too high a spec/cost a device for the kind of applications one would want to use a bifferboard for.
pmarin 15y ago
Some years ago I had some memory problems installing Debian in a similar setup (486dx4/100Mhz/24mb), Netbsd worked fine though. I think these days most Linux distributions are compiled for i686.
lloeki 15y ago
I'm running a low-end linux myself at home for years, with surprisingly similar characteristics (no FPU either): lloeki@slug> cat /proc/cpuinfo ~ Processor : XScale-IXP42x Family rev 1 (v5l) BogoMIPS : 266.24 Features : swp half thumb fastmult edsp CPU implementer : 0x69 CPU architecture: 5TE CPU variant : 0x0 CPU part : 0x41f CPU revision : 1 Hardware : Linksys NSLU2 Revision : 0000 Serial : 0000000000000000 lloeki@slug> free ~ total used free shared buffers cached Mem: 28844 27212 1632 0 2372 10496 -/+ buffers/cache: 14344 14500 Swap: 121076 10272 110804 lloeki@slug> cat /etc/debian_version ~ 6.0.2 It has been tasked to do quite a bit of things, including: - imap+smtp server (smarthost) - out-of-cloud mail mirror - having a permanent, "immutable" diagnostics access point - securing untrusted wifi connexions with a vpn - tunnelling through even the worst http proxies (httptunnel+openvpn) - hosting a sixxs tunnel and a radvd instance for my LAN - IPv6 everywhere (via the openvpn TAP if) - NAS - networked Linux rsync hardlink delta backup (Time Machine style) - private file sharing (kinda like megaupload/dropbox links...) - mpd host - DNLA server - WOL packet sender - ssh hop - alarm system (cron+aplay) - LAN DNS - mDNS/dns-sd - WAN v4/v6 uptime monitor with history Debian/arm provides a huuuge number of packages. The biggest constraint is actually not the CPU but the RAM, 2x or 4x that amount would be nice. Many of those have been phased out when I replaced my wrt54g (v5, dd-wrt) with a Time Capsule, but it saved (and still saves) me time (or even my ass) quite a lot. Total cost: ~100€ + 5W max. Well worth it.
- joshu 15y ago
  What is the product?

61 points by swah 15y ago

I don't really see the value of running 486 instead of equivalent ARM CPU. Looking at something like RaspberryPi[1], you'd get a lot more everything with the same price, and the performance characteristics are actually relevant to modern day low power systems. http://elinux.org/RaspberryPiBoard#Provisional_specification http://elinux.org/RaspberryPiBoard#Provisional_specification

MostAwesomeDude 15y ago
Or a Gumstix, Beagle, Panda... The thrust of this blog post appears to be that the software he has written works on even a very nerfed machine. It's about his software, not his hardware.
rwg 15y ago
The value is x86 compatibility. Our seismograph network is held together by DMP eBox 2300 computers. These things have 200 MHz 486DX compatible CPUs, 128 MB RAM, and a CompactFlash slot that we populate with a 4 GB SLC NAND card (that are now ridiculously hard to find). The computers come in a nice, small, passively cooled metal case, cost about $150 each, and draw a few watts at idle. Now, sure, we could get ARM-based systems that are cheaper, faster, and even less power hungry (and I hope in the future I can start using such systems!), but for now, I'm stuck with x86 because we have to run a proprietary Linux/x86 binary on each computer to get the data out of the digitizers and into a "common" data format. (One day I'll write my own code to replace that proprietary binary, and then the company that makes a small, sub-$100 ARM board that boots Linux and has a flash memory slot of some sort, two Ethernet ports, and two real [not TTL-level] serial ports will be my most favorite company in the world.)
- joshu 15y ago
  Might want to check out the Alix boards.
- daedhel 15y ago
  I guess a i386 chroot would be too ressouce intensive for your case?
- zokier 15y ago
  Legacy applications are a very valid reason to run x86, that I'll agree.

leakybucket 15y ago

I've been a long time user of Soekris boards & cheap x86 boxes: http://soekris.com/ http://soekris.com/ They've just come out with their first Atom based system; it's been 486 class (Amd Elan) and 586 class (Amd Geode) processors until now.

kokey 15y ago
Soekris is good suggestion for small boxes to use as Linux/BSD appliances. That said, they're too high a spec/cost a device for the kind of applications one would want to use a bifferboard for.

pmarin 15y ago

Some years ago I had some memory problems installing Debian in a similar setup (486dx4/100Mhz/24mb), Netbsd worked fine though. I think these days most Linux distributions are compiled for i686.

lloeki 15y ago

I'm running a low-end linux myself at home for years, with surprisingly similar characteristics (no FPU either): lloeki@slug> cat /proc/cpuinfo ~ Processor : XScale-IXP42x Family rev 1 (v5l) BogoMIPS : 266.24 Features : swp half thumb fastmult edsp CPU implementer : 0x69 CPU architecture: 5TE CPU variant : 0x0 CPU part : 0x41f CPU revision : 1 Hardware : Linksys NSLU2 Revision : 0000 Serial : 0000000000000000 lloeki@slug> free ~ total used free shared buffers cached Mem: 28844 27212 1632 0 2372 10496 -/+ buffers/cache: 14344 14500 Swap: 121076 10272 110804 lloeki@slug> cat /etc/debian_version ~ 6.0.2 It has been tasked to do quite a bit of things, including: - imap+smtp server (smarthost) - out-of-cloud mail mirror - having a permanent, "immutable" diagnostics access point - securing untrusted wifi connexions with a vpn - tunnelling through even the worst http proxies (httptunnel+openvpn) - hosting a sixxs tunnel and a radvd instance for my LAN - IPv6 everywhere (via the openvpn TAP if) - NAS - networked Linux rsync hardlink delta backup (Time Machine style) - private file sharing (kinda like megaupload/dropbox links...) - mpd host - DNLA server - WOL packet sender - ssh hop - alarm system (cron+aplay) - LAN DNS - mDNS/dns-sd - WAN v4/v6 uptime monitor with history Debian/arm provides a huuuge number of packages. The biggest constraint is actually not the CPU but the RAM, 2x or 4x that amount would be nice. Many of those have been phased out when I replaced my wrt54g (v5, dd-wrt) with a Time Capsule, but it saved (and still saves) me time (or even my ass) quite a lot. Total cost: ~100€ + 5W max. Well worth it.

joshu 15y ago
What is the product?