[9fans] Consindering eBox-4854 for Plan9
Hi all. I am considering purchasing an eBox IV Series box for a Plan9 installation, and I was curious of any of your successes or failures with these or similar systems. Specifications for each box in the series can be found at http://www.wdlsystems.com/downloads/specs/1EBX48T_s.pdf. The eBox-4854 is what Zombu uses for their $99 subscription machine, so I imagine it is open-source friendly enough, but I have had all manner of difficulty installing Plan9 on many machines. I recalled seeing a few posts here concerning success on VIA EPIA platforms, but not much, so I figured I would voice a few concerns and questions: The eBox-4854 box features Realtek RTL8100B 10/100 Base-T Ethernet. This is not listed on the Plan9 hardware compatiblilty page. Perusing online forums suggests that this adapter can be driven on some Linux distros with 8139too. How likely is Plan9 to similary drive this ethernet adapter? It also features integrated VIA UniChrome Pro II video to which the Plan9 hardware compatibility page suggests it can be driven in VESA mode. However, I do not know if there are key differences between UniChrome and UniChrome Pro II that would prevent this. Are there any such differences? Notwithstanding said differences, at what maximum resolution would Plan9 enable on this adapter? Rather than a traditional hard disk, the eBox-4854 fits an IDE Flash SDD. I imagine that this would pose no problem for Plan9, since such devices usually internally manage translation from Flash to standard IDE. Am I about right in this assumption? Finally, a related, but misplaced question: Does anyone know on what chipset the optional integrated wireless adapter is based? I have searched in vain. Again, it must be open-source friendly, but open- source wireless compatibility varies wildly across platforms and distributions. Thanks. I look forward to your inputs or suggestions if and when you have the inclination and time.
Re: [9fans] Consindering eBox-4854 for Plan9
On Fri, Feb 15, 2008 at 4:38 AM, erik quanstrom [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: vesa mode works. unichrome II is propritary and you can't get the programming docs without an nda. That's changing. Native linuxbios mode support is coming. So the information will exist outside NDA. ron
Re: [9fans] Consindering eBox-4854 for Plan9
On Fri, Feb 15, 2008 at 10:47 AM, erik quanstrom [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: actually programming documentation or just code? just code, but, while I realize code alone is often useless, I am willing to bet the docs in this case are less useful than code. The code will have all the huge doc gaps filled in. ron
Re: [9fans] Consindering eBox-4854 for Plan9
vesa mode works. unichrome II is propritary and you can't get the programming docs without an nda. That's changing. Native linuxbios mode support is coming. So the information will exist outside NDA. ron actually programming documentation or just code? - erik
Re: [9fans] Consindering eBox-4854 for Plan9
I am considering purchasing an eBox IV Series box for a Plan9 installation, and I was curious of any of your successes or failures with these or similar systems. As has been mentioned on the list recently, the Everex gPC sold by Walmart (http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.do?product_id=7754614) is comparable inasmuch as it's also a Via based system. I ordered one and installed Plan 9 on it without any problems a couple of days ago. (Well I'm getting heavy I/O load after booting even w/ DMA turned on but I suspect that's because I did a fossil+venti install and haven't gotten around to figuring out what's going on.) Video and and ethernet work out of the box. The gPC's case is much bigger than it needs to be so isn't nearly as compact as the eBox, but on the plus side it has more room for expansion. John
Re: [9fans] Consindering eBox-4854 for Plan9
Maybe all the 9fans moved here? http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0418737/ In any event, you forgot: what order of infinity is the work vs. your free time anyway? You might just be slacking. Enquiring minds want to know! the work items are not hard, there are just countablly many of them. since one works at a basically fixed rate, time to complete the countablly many items is countable. ... oh, wait ... sorry. what i mean is hell ya, i'm totally slacking. i haven't finished a driver in *days*. - erik
Re: [9fans] Consindering eBox-4854 for Plan9
actually programming documentation or just code? just code, but, while I realize code alone is often useless, I am willing to bet the docs in this case are less useful than code. The code will have all the huge doc gaps filled in. ☺. it seems to be a truism among hardware folks. the worse the documentation is, the more tightly it is kept. the via parts do a very good job with vesa. i find our 800mhz terminals very usable. the graphics are pretty snappy. i think it would be more of a priority to tackle the amd(ati) and intel parts for which there is actual documentation. intel documentation is not that great, but, you can learn to live with it. fortunately adding one more thing to the list of things to do will not decrease the amount of my infinite spare time. - erik
Re: [9fans] Consindering eBox-4854 for Plan9
As has been mentioned on the list recently, the Everex gPC sold by Walmart (http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.do?product_id=7754614) Double-checking the link it looks like I got mine just in time as that page now says that it's no longer sold online. Don't know if that means they're simply sold out or want you to pay extra for the Vista version. John
Re: [9fans] Consindering eBox-4854 for Plan9
On Fri, Feb 15, 2008 at 10:56 AM, erik quanstrom [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: fortunately adding one more thing to the list of things to do will not decrease the amount of my infinite spare time. Maybe all the 9fans moved here? http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0418737/ In any event, you forgot: what order of infinity is the work vs. your free time anyway? You might just be slacking. Enquiring minds want to know! ron
