Re: [Soekris] Debian install on 4801, eth0 won't work.

[Bob Camp]

Hi

Not real sure that X would do a lot of good on a 4801 box

Bob


-Original Message-
From: soekris-tech-boun...@lists.soekris.com
[mailto:soekris-tech-boun...@lists.soekris.com] On Behalf Of The Fungi
Sent: Tuesday, February 23, 2010 10:49 AM
To: soekris-tech@lists.soekris.com
Subject: Re: [Soekris] Debian install on 4801, eth0 won't work.

On Tue, Feb 23, 2010 at 08:33:04AM +0100, Jan Ceuleers wrote:
[...]
> r...@skr03:~# df .
> Filesystem   1K-blocks  Used Available Use% Mounted on
> /dev/sda5  6973240870264   5748748  14% /
> 
> That's an Ubuntu Karmic server install (with manpages, Squid,
> Apache, what have you). No X though.
[...]

Just finished another minimal Debian/Stable installation in a VM for
an unrelated project. It came in right at 300MB, though admittedly
its only acting as a recursive DNS resolver so there's not much else
installed on it. Nothing custom about it... just chose expert mode
and didn't select any of the "roles" tasksel asks about at the end.
-- 
{ IRL(Jeremy_Stanley); PGP(9E8DFF2E4F5995F8FEADDC5829ABF7441FB84657);
SMTP(fu...@yuggoth.org); IRC(fu...@irc.yuggoth.org#ccl); ICQ(114362511);
AIM(dreadazathoth); YAHOO(crawlingchaoslabs); FINGER(fu...@yuggoth.org);
MUD(fu...@katarsis.mudpy.org:6669); WWW(http://fungi.yuggoth.org/); }
___
Soekris-tech mailing list
Soekris-tech@lists.soekris.com
http://lists.soekris.com/mailman/listinfo/soekris-tech



___
Soekris-tech mailing list
Soekris-tech@lists.soekris.com
http://lists.soekris.com/mailman/listinfo/soekris-tech

Re: [Soekris] Soekris 5501 with SSD disks

[Bob Camp]

Hi

. bringing us full circle to the original question about the TRIM
command's full integration into FreeBSD at the file system level.

Bob

-Original Message-
From: p...@critter.freebsd.dk [mailto:p...@critter.freebsd.dk] On Behalf Of
Poul-Henning Kamp
Sent: Wednesday, February 03, 2010 9:18 AM
To: Bob Camp
Cc: soekris-tech@lists.soekris.com
Subject: Re: [Soekris] Soekris 5501 with SSD disks 

In message , Bob Camp writes:
>Hi
>
>If half the disk is un-used, there's a *lot* of space to move the directory
sectors off to as they wear ...

Yeah, well, only if the Flash-Adaptation-Layer *know* they are unused.

That is why you need to tell Flash drives when you delete files, that the
content sectors are now unused, otherwise the FAL will faithfully carry
their content around, wearing out your flash-cells doing so.


-- 
Poul-Henning Kamp   | UNIX since Zilog Zeus 3.20
p...@freebsd.org | TCP/IP since RFC 956
FreeBSD committer   | BSD since 4.3-tahoe
Never attribute to malice what can adequately be explained by incompetence.



___
Soekris-tech mailing list
Soekris-tech@lists.soekris.com
http://lists.soekris.com/mailman/listinfo/soekris-tech

Re: [Soekris] Soekris 5501 with SSD disks

[Bob Camp]

Hi

If half the disk is un-used, there's a *lot* of space to move the directory 
sectors off to as they wear ...

>From past experience frying these parts (been there done that), the magic 
>"failure" point is simply time it takes the average cell to hit a certain bit 
>error rate. Some get further others don't. Since they all are doing error 
>checking to catch and correct the failure, the "death spiral" is pretty slow. 
>The controller should be able to keep up with it.

Bob


On Feb 3, 2010, at 2:45 AM, Ralph Green wrote:

> Howdy,
> If you are careful to not do more than one write to each sector per
> day, you should make it.  An MLC cell should take 1 writes.  20
> years is 7305 days, so there is no room for 2 writes per day.
>  If you write to a normal filesystem, the directory sectors are not
> going to survive.  Even with wear leveling, there will be too many
> writes.
> Good luck,
> Ralph
> 
> On Tue, 2010-02-02 at 18:08 -0500, Bob Camp wrote:
>> Hi
>> 
>> If I can re-write the entire disk once a day for 20 years, that's good 
>> enough for what I'm doing. 
> 
> 

___
Soekris-tech mailing list
Soekris-tech@lists.soekris.com
http://lists.soekris.com/mailman/listinfo/soekris-tech

Re: [Soekris] Soekris 5501 with SSD disks

[Bob Camp]

Hi

If I can re-write the entire disk once a day for 20 years, that's good enough 
for what I'm doing. 

Bob


On Feb 2, 2010, at 2:37 PM, Ralph Green wrote:

> On Tue, 2010-02-02 at 07:41 -0500, Bob Camp wrote:
> 
>> Next up is price. I'm seeing a 3 to 5X premium for the SLC's. That's a big 
>> jump,
> This is why MLC is so widespread.  There is a big difference in cost to
> manufacture.  The actual cost is 2 to 4 times more for SLC.
> 
> 
>> The question becomes - will a 2X larger name brand MLC outlast a SLC *if* you
>> never write to the second half of the disk? 
> You could probably come up with some scenario where a bigger MLC would last
> longer.  Just remember that MLC cells can be written an order of magnitude 
> less
> often than SLC.  That is no exaggeration.  It is in the specs.  MLC is 
> probably
> good enough for use in a camera, although I avoid it.  For a computer,
> it is almost always a bad idea.  Smart wear leveling is what makes MLC
> usable at all, but that order of magnitude difference in durability will
> get you in the end.
> 
> Good luck,
> Ralph
> 
> 

___
Soekris-tech mailing list
Soekris-tech@lists.soekris.com
http://lists.soekris.com/mailman/listinfo/soekris-tech

Re: [Soekris] Soekris 5501 with SSD disks

[Bob Camp]

Hi

At least with SSD's the MLC's outnumber the SLC's by a very wide margin. Where 
I shop it's at least 30:1 in favor of the MLC's. That can put you into a "Joe 
No Name SLC" vs a brand name MLC decision. 

Next up is price. I'm seeing a 3 to 5X premium for the SLC's. That's a big 
jump, and it's not getting any smaller with time.

The question becomes - will a 2X larger name brand MLC outlast a SLC *if* you 
never write to the second half of the disk? 

With any of them, you need to be sure that the batch you bought has "good" 
controllers in it. I can demonstrate controller issues pretty fast. 

I know - lots of questions - not a lot of answers 

Right now I'm on the 2X larger approach. We'll see how it goes. 

Bob
 
On Feb 2, 2010, at 4:45 AM, Bernd Walter wrote:

> On Sun, Jan 31, 2010 at 01:59:47PM -0700, David Alexander wrote:
>> On Sat, 30 Jan 2010 08:50:09 +, "Poul-Henning Kamp"
>>  wrote:
>> 
>>> In message <3f8f34c5-f376-46b0-9e2c-53a213d0e...@cq.nu>, Bob Camp writes:
>>> 
>>>>> Don't get an SSD thinking you're going to get speed.  The 5501 will
>>>>> limit the throughput well below what you'd expect for an SSD. 
>>> 
>>> An SSD still does miracles for access time.
>> 
>> Yes it does.  I should have mentioned that the one thing that drove me
>> to buy the SSD was how poorly my CF card handled multiple simultaneous
>> requests.  For example, when I open my email client it syncs all the
>> folders with the IMAP server in parallel.  This was painfully slow on
>> the CF card which is designed to read or write a single file at a
>> time.  Switching to the SSD made a significant improvement in parallel
>> operations.
> 
> As a rule of thumb: buy media based on SLC and not MLC flash.
> Technically it is something different and I have been seen MLC cards
> without this problem, but I've also seen that productions silently
> changed and the next bunch of the same card is slow.
> Many cheap cards today have the problem that they just care to be fast
> when writing linear in large chunks, which is Ok for cameras using
> msdosfs to write large pictures.
> I think the real reson behind is a simplified wear leveling technik.
> I've seen MLC cards degrading down to less than 10 transactions per
> second, which is really painfull if the OS decides to flush buffers.
> 
> Another rule of thumb is that flash blocks are in the 4k or 8k range.
> If you write smaller chunks the card is doing read modify write cycles.
> Moreover I noticed that it is horribly slow to write to the same
> physical block again, so writing continuous 8k in two 4k chunks is a
> very bad strategy.
> This is also true for SLC cards, but they don't undergo that heavy speed
> penalty as some MLC cards do.
> Use a big and properly aligned filesystem blocksize and you should see
> much better results.
> 
> -- 
> B.Walter  http://www.bwct.de
> Modbus/TCP Ethernet I/O Baugruppen, ARM basierte FreeBSD Rechner uvm.
> ___
> Soekris-tech mailing list
> Soekris-tech@lists.soekris.com
> http://lists.soekris.com/mailman/listinfo/soekris-tech
> 

___
Soekris-tech mailing list
Soekris-tech@lists.soekris.com
http://lists.soekris.com/mailman/listinfo/soekris-tech

Re: [Soekris] Soekris 5501 with SSD disks

[Bob Camp]

Hi

At least as I understand it:

Properly done with TRIM,  the file system lets the disk know each time a file 
is deleted and space is now empty.

With garbage collection, the never used sectors are accumulated together to 
make erase and re-write faster. 

To some extent they are complementary operations. You pretty much need both of 
them. TRIM so the disk knows what's not being used and GC so everything stays 
tidy.

Bob


On Jan 29, 2010, at 8:09 PM, David Alexander wrote:

> On Wed, 27 Jan 2010 20:24:03 +0100, Joel Dahl 
> wrote:
> 
>> So, is anyone running a Soekris 5501 with a SSD disk? I'm looking at buying 
>> a couple of 5501's and equip them with Intel X25-M disks, so if anyone have 
>> any experience with this type of configuration I'd be interested to hear 
>> your thoughts. Any problems I should be aware of? I'll probably run FreeBSD 
>> as the OS, if that matters...
> 
> I'm running a 5501 with an OCZ Vertex.  Works fine.  A couple things
> to keep in mind...
> 
> I haven't used it yet, but OCZ has a firmware version that does
> garbage collection when the drive is idle which negates the need for
> TRIM support.
> 
> Don't get an SSD thinking you're going to get speed.  The 5501 will
> limit the throughput well below what you'd expect for an SSD.  I find
> that mine moves about 30MB/s IIRC.  That may seem slow, but someone
> rightly pointed out to me that it's still faster than the network
> interface and since this is a network server after all it's just fine.
> 
> What you do get out of an SSD in a Soekris is low power, low heat, no
> moving parts, and no noise.  That's exactly what I wanted out of mine
> so I'm perfectly happy with the speed limitations.
> 
> ___
> Soekris-tech mailing list
> Soekris-tech@lists.soekris.com
> http://lists.soekris.com/mailman/listinfo/soekris-tech
> 

___
Soekris-tech mailing list
Soekris-tech@lists.soekris.com
http://lists.soekris.com/mailman/listinfo/soekris-tech

Re: [Soekris] Soekris 5501 with SSD disks

[Bob Camp]

Hi

Nothing wrong with FreeBSD. Nothing wrong with the 5501. Nothing wrong with the 
disk you have chosen. 

There are some disks out there than do have issues. Apparently they aren't very 
efficient at handling the disk as it fills up.

Now if we could just get the TRIM command implemented in a FreeBSD.

I'm spending part of my time re-flashing firmware on SSD's. They come from the 
factory these days set up for TRIM. You have to re-do the firmware to get them 
to properly handle an OS that does not do TRIM. Sort of an odd decision in a 
world where only one evil OS supports TRIM .

Bob

On Jan 27, 2010, at 2:24 PM, Joel Dahl wrote:

> So, is anyone running a Soekris 5501 with a SSD disk? I'm looking at buying a 
> couple of 5501's and equip them with Intel X25-M disks, so if anyone have any 
> experience with this type of configuration I'd be interested to hear your 
> thoughts. Any problems I should be aware of? I'll probably run FreeBSD as the 
> OS, if that matters...
> 
> --
> Joel
> ___
> Soekris-tech mailing list
> Soekris-tech@lists.soekris.com
> http://lists.soekris.com/mailman/listinfo/soekris-tech
> 

___
Soekris-tech mailing list
Soekris-tech@lists.soekris.com
http://lists.soekris.com/mailman/listinfo/soekris-tech

Re: [Soekris] Corrupt console during FreeBSD 8 PXEBOOT

[Bob Camp]

Hi

What are you running for a terminal? 

Most of these loaders assume that your terminal speaks ANSI escape codes.

Bob


On Jan 21, 2010, at 11:04 PM, Scott Newell wrote:

> At 09:35 PM 1/21/2010, Bob Camp wrote:
>> Hi
>> 
>> The strange looking stuff is likely the standard FreeBSD loader 
>> select screen. The version on 7.2 shows up fine for me. the one on 
>> 8.0 looks just like you describe.
> 
> Same output with 7.2.
> 
> Here's an example from my serial port logfile: "[6n[24;01H C[24;02H o[24;03H".
> 
> Once it gets past the BTX loader prompt, PuTTY just moves the cursor 
> back and forth (but the data above is in the log).  It might be 
> sending some text, but if it is the serial output is forcing the 
> cursor back and overwriting it with a space.  (My google searches 
> lead me to believe it's getting both the video and serial console 
> output at the same time.)
> 
> 
> Crap.  I do have an Alix with VGA output, so worst case I can do an 
> install there, recompile to fix the console, then do the 
> Soekris.  But that just feels so wrong--there *must* be a better way.
> 
> 
> -- 
> newell  N5TNL 
> 
> ___
> Soekris-tech mailing list
> Soekris-tech@lists.soekris.com
> http://lists.soekris.com/mailman/listinfo/soekris-tech
> 

___
Soekris-tech mailing list
Soekris-tech@lists.soekris.com
http://lists.soekris.com/mailman/listinfo/soekris-tech

Re: [Soekris] Corrupt console during FreeBSD 8 PXEBOOT

[Bob Camp]

Hi

The strange looking stuff is likely the standard FreeBSD loader select screen. 
The version on 7.2 shows up fine for me. the one on 8.0 looks just like you 
describe. 

If it is the same loader it should simply time out and move on. It takes about 
10 seconds or so.

If not the same one, it's something similar and it's likely waiting for a  
from the keyboard. 

Bob


On Jan 21, 2010, at 10:12 PM, Scott Newell wrote:

> At 09:05 PM 1/21/2010, George Fazio wrote:
>> I use PuTTY on a Windows machine with the term type set to xterm.  The
> 
> Had to update PuTTY; didn't realize the newer ones supported serial 
> ports.  That's pretty handy, thanks!
> 
> 
>> escape codes, etc. are the boot menu.  If you just hit enter, or press 1 (or
>> 4 for single user) it should continue to load normally.
> 
> Nope, still getting the corruption.  Remember, I'm trying to install, 
> and I don't even know if the kernel is getting loaded yet or not.
> 
> -- 
> newell  N5TNL
> 
> ___
> Soekris-tech mailing list
> Soekris-tech@lists.soekris.com
> http://lists.soekris.com/mailman/listinfo/soekris-tech
> 

___
Soekris-tech mailing list
Soekris-tech@lists.soekris.com
http://lists.soekris.com/mailman/listinfo/soekris-tech

Re: [Soekris] soekris 4501 ntp server using nanobsd (FreeBSD8.0)

[Bob Camp]

Hi

I'm sure Poul will by to come up with the correct answer. 

I *think* that's the one you get when pps is not compiled into the kernel.

Could be wrong 

Bob


On Dec 28, 2009, at 11:48 PM, Bruce Griffiths wrote:

> What is the meaning of the error message:
> 
> refclock_atom: time_pps create failed: Inappropriate ioctl for device.
> 
> Apart from this the server works well using an M12+T connected to the 
> second serial port (/dev/cuau1)
> 
> 
> Bruce
> 
> ___
> Soekris-tech mailing list
> Soekris-tech@lists.soekris.com
> http://lists.soekris.com/mailman/listinfo/soekris-tech
> 

___
Soekris-tech mailing list
Soekris-tech@lists.soekris.com
http://lists.soekris.com/mailman/listinfo/soekris-tech

Re: [Soekris] net5501 freebsd 8.0 compile options

[Bob Camp]

Hi

The nice thing about PCI is that you can tie it tightly to the core time wise.

Not so easy with USB and all of it's layers.

Bob


On Dec 18, 2009, at 4:27 PM, b...@lysator.liu.se wrote:

> Hi,
> 
> I also have one or a few home projects that could use this.
> 
> Does it have to be a PCI-card? USB FPGA boards are so much cheaper. Say
> that you read your computer clock and toggle an output pin and timestamp
> this pin in your FPGA as well. Then it should still be possible to
> timestamp external PPS-pulses relative to the computer clock.
> 
> Are there other needs to be on the PCI bus?
> 
> --
> 
>   Björn
> 
> 
>> Hi
>> 
>> That's actually a petty tempting offer since this is a home project.
>> 
>> Off to investigate off the shelf PCI cards with Altera Cyclone III's on
>> them. I *think* I have all the IP for Altera.
>> 
>> After a quick look I need to add the qualifier - cards that cost less than
>> 15 45xx boards...
>> 
>> 
>> Bob
>> 
>> -Original Message-
>> From: p...@critter.freebsd.dk [mailto:p...@critter.freebsd.dk] On Behalf Of
>> Poul-Henning Kamp
>> Sent: Wednesday, December 16, 2009 8:00 AM
>> To: Bob Camp
>> Cc: soekris-tech@lists.soekris.com
>> Subject: Re: [Soekris] net5501 freebsd 8.0 compile options
>> 
>> In message , Bob Camp writes:
>>> Hi
>>> 
>>> I had a nasty suspicion that was the case.
>>> 
>>> So now it's either get another 15 45xx boards or figure out another way
>>> to do it.
>> 
>> If you know anybody just moderately VHDL capable, getting a low-profile
>> PCI card with an FPGA, a counter and a bunch of latches shouldn't
>> be too hard.
>> 
>> I did this 10 years ago for the Xilings XC6200 "Hot-1", but that does
>> not exist anymore :-(
>> 
>> If you make it open source I'll happily write the kernel driver for it.
>> 
>> --
>> Poul-Henning Kamp   | UNIX since Zilog Zeus 3.20
>> p...@freebsd.org | TCP/IP since RFC 956
>> FreeBSD committer   | BSD since 4.3-tahoe
>> Never attribute to malice what can adequately be explained by
>> incompetence.
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> ___
>> Soekris-tech mailing list
>> Soekris-tech@lists.soekris.com
>> http://lists.soekris.com/mailman/listinfo/soekris-tech
>> 
> 
> 

___
Soekris-tech mailing list
Soekris-tech@lists.soekris.com
http://lists.soekris.com/mailman/listinfo/soekris-tech

Re: [Soekris] net5501 freebsd 8.0 compile options

[Bob Camp]

Hi

That's actually a petty tempting offer since this is a home project. 

Off to investigate off the shelf PCI cards with Altera Cyclone III's on
them. I *think* I have all the IP for Altera. 

After a quick look I need to add the qualifier - cards that cost less than
15 45xx boards...


Bob

-Original Message-
From: p...@critter.freebsd.dk [mailto:p...@critter.freebsd.dk] On Behalf Of
Poul-Henning Kamp
Sent: Wednesday, December 16, 2009 8:00 AM
To: Bob Camp
Cc: soekris-tech@lists.soekris.com
Subject: Re: [Soekris] net5501 freebsd 8.0 compile options 

In message , Bob Camp writes:
>Hi
>
>I had a nasty suspicion that was the case. 
>
>So now it's either get another 15 45xx boards or figure out another way 
>to do it.

If you know anybody just moderately VHDL capable, getting a low-profile
PCI card with an FPGA, a counter and a bunch of latches shouldn't
be too hard.

I did this 10 years ago for the Xilings XC6200 "Hot-1", but that does
not exist anymore :-(

If you make it open source I'll happily write the kernel driver for it.

-- 
Poul-Henning Kamp   | UNIX since Zilog Zeus 3.20
p...@freebsd.org | TCP/IP since RFC 956
FreeBSD committer   | BSD since 4.3-tahoe
Never attribute to malice what can adequately be explained by incompetence.



___
Soekris-tech mailing list
Soekris-tech@lists.soekris.com
http://lists.soekris.com/mailman/listinfo/soekris-tech

Re: [Soekris] net5501 freebsd 8.0 compile options

[Bob Camp]

Hi

I had a nasty suspicion that was the case. 

So now it's either get another 15 45xx boards or figure out another way to do 
it.

Bob


On Dec 16, 2009, at 3:04 AM, Poul-Henning Kamp wrote:

> In message <011c0fceacbb4e59a0945d7c10a92...@vectron.com>, "Bob Camp" writes:
>> Hi
>> 
>> While we're on the topic.
>> 
>> How many PPS's can a 48xx stamp at more or less the same time?
> 
> One.
> 
> 
> -- 
> Poul-Henning Kamp   | UNIX since Zilog Zeus 3.20
> p...@freebsd.org | TCP/IP since RFC 956
> FreeBSD committer   | BSD since 4.3-tahoe
> Never attribute to malice what can adequately be explained by incompetence.
> 

___
Soekris-tech mailing list
Soekris-tech@lists.soekris.com
http://lists.soekris.com/mailman/listinfo/soekris-tech

Re: [Soekris] New models?

[Bob Camp]

Hi

Very cool!!!

Based on what I have seen so far, the D510 (dual core) appears to be the
chip to have. The D410 (single core) can get bogged down pretty fast with
Gig E involved.

Bob

-Original Message-
From: soekris-tech-boun...@lists.soekris.com
[mailto:soekris-tech-boun...@lists.soekris.com] On Behalf Of Soren
Kristensen
Sent: Tuesday, December 15, 2009 3:20 PM
To: soekris-tech@lists.soekris.com
Subject: Re: [Soekris] New models?

Hi Everybody,

Maybe it's time to tell a little more The net6501 is moving forward 
and I do expect to have hardware ready in Q1 2010, although I am known 
to be an optimist :-)

The net6501 will basically be like the other boards, just faster, with 
more memory and PCI Express expansion.

There will be both a 2 and 4 port gigabit ethernet version, using Intel 
controllers, where the 2 ports version will be targeting small servers, 
with up to 4 of them in a 1U case

And yes, it will be based on the next generation Intel Atom processor, 
the Pineview platform, in both single and dual core versions and with up 
to 2 Gbyte DDR2-SDRAM soldered on.

And it will still be low power and high reliability, with passive 
cooling. Ok, a tiny server with two 2.5" 10K rpm SATA drives will need a 
small fan

A new goodie will be onboard NiMH batteri charger/controller.


Best Regards,


Soren Kristensen

CEO & Chief Engineer
Soekris Engineering, Inc.
___
Soekris-tech mailing list
Soekris-tech@lists.soekris.com
http://lists.soekris.com/mailman/listinfo/soekris-tech



___
Soekris-tech mailing list
Soekris-tech@lists.soekris.com
http://lists.soekris.com/mailman/listinfo/soekris-tech

Re: [Soekris] New models?

[Bob Camp]

Hi

I have yet to play with an Atom board that I would trust without a fan on
it. It's not so much the CPU as the Northbridge that gets *HOT*. 

Even with the Nvidia version of the chip set it's still a warm little puppy.
Also the Nvidia chip set gets you into all sorts of "interesting" driver
issues. 

I do get bothered by heat, but that's what kills your MTBF. If you are doing
something like a router it needs to keep on working. Not so much so your
HTPC (which is a no-brainer for an ION based Atom).

Bob

-Original Message-
From: soekris-tech-boun...@lists.soekris.com
[mailto:soekris-tech-boun...@lists.soekris.com] On Behalf Of Ryan Rawdon
Sent: Tuesday, December 15, 2009 12:43 PM
To: soekris-tech@lists.soekris.com
Subject: Re: [Soekris] New models?


http://www.bwi.com/configure/1083442/
http://www.commell.com.tw/Product/SBC/LE-575.HTM

Still heavier than a Soekris in terms of what else is onboard (sound, VGA,
etc) but - 4x GbE, fanless, Atom.  A friend of mine just picked up one of
these and so far I was impressed with what I saw.  Not as great of a price
point (looking at $400 shipped +RAM most likely).  Not sure what the power
draw is in a default configuration, but definitely hungrier than a Soekris.
 I want to say that when we put my Kill-A-Watt on it, we saw 27W idle.  We
used a Thinkpad T40-series power brick on it.


On Tue, 15 Dec 2009 13:13:22 +0100, Bert Kiers 
wrote:
> On Sun, Dec 13, 2009 at 08:27:29PM -0500, Bob Camp wrote:
> 
>> The Atom has one ethernet port on the motherboard. Most of them have a
>> single slot on the board. Going past 2 ports is a pain (usb ethernet
>> ...). If you are going to use more than 1 ethernet port, the 5501 has a
>> significant advantage 
> 
> http://www.supermicro.com/products/motherboard/ATOM/945/X7SLA.cfm?typ=H
> with 2 GbE ports, 4 SATA, 1 PCI and 2 PCIe
> 
> but stil with fan :(
> 
> I use 5501 for firewall, Atom for home (file, squeezebox, daapd, ...)
> server. Both run NetBSD.
___
Soekris-tech mailing list
Soekris-tech@lists.soekris.com
http://lists.soekris.com/mailman/listinfo/soekris-tech



___
Soekris-tech mailing list
Soekris-tech@lists.soekris.com
http://lists.soekris.com/mailman/listinfo/soekris-tech

Re: [Soekris] net5501 freebsd 8.0 compile options

[Bob Camp]

Hi

While we're on the topic.

How many PPS's can a 48xx stamp at more or less the same time?

I'm too lazy to dig into the data sheets

Bob

-Original Message-
From: p...@critter.freebsd.dk [mailto:p...@critter.freebsd.dk] On Behalf Of
Poul-Henning Kamp
Sent: Tuesday, December 15, 2009 12:29 PM
To: David E. Cross
Cc: Bob Camp; soekris-tech@lists.soekris.com
Subject: Re: [Soekris] net5501 freebsd 8.0 compile options 

In message <4b27c5ac.9070...@wsg.net>, "David E. Cross" writes:

>I thought it was in the CPU itself.  Seems a shame that AMD would remove 
>that :(

It is, but it is a different CPU.

The 45xx has the Elan CPU, the 48xx and 55xx has (different) Geodes.

-- 
Poul-Henning Kamp   | UNIX since Zilog Zeus 3.20
p...@freebsd.org | TCP/IP since RFC 956
FreeBSD committer   | BSD since 4.3-tahoe
Never attribute to malice what can adequately be explained by incompetence.



___
Soekris-tech mailing list
Soekris-tech@lists.soekris.com
http://lists.soekris.com/mailman/listinfo/soekris-tech

Re: [Soekris] net5501 freebsd 8.0 compile options

[Bob Camp]

Hi

That was my reaction when I found out 

Bob

-Original Message-
From: David E. Cross [mailto:da...@wsg.net] 
Sent: Tuesday, December 15, 2009 12:28 PM
To: Poul-Henning Kamp
Cc: Bob Camp; soekris-tech@lists.soekris.com
Subject: Re: [Soekris] net5501 freebsd 8.0 compile options

Khaan! :)

(thanks)

-- 
David E. Cross

Poul-Henning Kamp wrote:
> In message <065a73544e7648008d44f09c127b4...@vectron.com>, "Bob Camp"
writes:
>   
>> Hi
>>
>> My understanding is that the precision time stuff is specific to the 45xx
>> boards. The "magic hardware" that does the time stamping is not present
on
>> the 55xx boards.
>> 
>
> You are absolutely correct.
>
>   



___
Soekris-tech mailing list
Soekris-tech@lists.soekris.com
http://lists.soekris.com/mailman/listinfo/soekris-tech

Re: [Soekris] net5501 freebsd 8.0 compile options

[Bob Camp]

Hi

My understanding is that the precision time stuff is specific to the 45xx
boards. The "magic hardware" that does the time stamping is not present on
the 55xx boards.

Been wrong before though 

Bob

-Original Message-
From: soekris-tech-boun...@lists.soekris.com
[mailto:soekris-tech-boun...@lists.soekris.com] On Behalf Of David E. Cross
Sent: Tuesday, December 15, 2009 11:59 AM
To: soekris-tech@lists.soekris.com
Subject: [Soekris] net5501 freebsd 8.0 compile options

Ok, I have everything MOSTLY going now, its just down to tweaks and 
optimizations.

Specifically kernel config at this point; the documentation is kind of 
vague on:
CPU_GEODE
CPU_SOEKRIS
CPU_ELAN

Specifically looking  for a high precession timing application for a UT+ 
GPS clock.

I realize that the GEODE is not an ELAN, but does it have the same 
time-stamping abilities?
since that seems to be part of what ELAN turns on?

-- 
David E. Cross

___
Soekris-tech mailing list
Soekris-tech@lists.soekris.com
http://lists.soekris.com/mailman/listinfo/soekris-tech



___
Soekris-tech mailing list
Soekris-tech@lists.soekris.com
http://lists.soekris.com/mailman/listinfo/soekris-tech

Re: [Soekris] New models?

[Bob Camp]

Hi

I left one more thing out.

The Atom has one ethernet port on the motherboard. Most of them have a single 
slot on the board. Going past 2 ports is a pain (usb ethernet ...). If you are 
going to use more than 1 ethernet port, the 5501 has a significant advantage 


Bob


On Dec 13, 2009, at 1:36 PM, Kyle Brantley wrote:

> On 12/13/2009 11:09 AM, Joel Jaeggli wrote:
>> There's the canonical problem of building something like this taking
>> longer than it should.
> 
> Yup, I remember the 48xx/5501 launch... delays. :) I'd bet that the 6501 
> is Q2/Q3 '10.
> 
>> 
>> I thought that intel  EP80579 looked quite promising for a while but
>> frankly it's too thirsty in usable form to power with poe.
>> 
>> atoms are a 3 chip solution with  the 945G having a TDP of 6-11w which
>> is just retarded.
> 
> Which is my primary problem with it. The incredibly low power 
> consumption of the soekris boards is a huge selling point.
> ___
> Soekris-tech mailing list
> Soekris-tech@lists.soekris.com
> http://lists.soekris.com/mailman/listinfo/soekris-tech
> 

___
Soekris-tech mailing list
Soekris-tech@lists.soekris.com
http://lists.soekris.com/mailman/listinfo/soekris-tech

Re: [Soekris] New models?

[Bob Camp]

HI

I am running a couple of different Atom boards and a slew of 5501's. They are 
*very* different animals. 

With a CF card as the "disk", the 5501 is *much* lower power than any of the 
Atom's that I have here. Even with fans on them the Atom boards get hot to the 
touch. I have never seen a "hot to the touch" 5501.

With the Atom you get a bunch of extra peripherals like HD audio and video. 
Nice stuff, but that's more drivers to mess with. Fine if you need them, 
needless pain if you don't. 

The 330 version of the Atom is a pretty powerful little beast and the boards 
will take 2 to 4 GB of RAM. They typically will take a number of SATA drives. 
Most have an enormous number of USB ports on them.

The 5501 will fit in a much smaller space and being fan-less it will tolerate 
dust and dirt a lot better. Build quality on the 5501 is *much* better than any 
of my Atom boards.

Cost wise, the Atom + RAM  (2G new) + disk (new) + enclosure (with good fans) + 
power supply is a bit more than the 5501 + CF.  You could tip it the other way 
with a used disk and 512 meg of ram.  Either way the cost is pretty similar. 

Bottom line - I expect the Atom's to run for a few years in a dusty corner of 
the basement. I expect the 5501's to outlast them by a significant margin. On a 
cost / year basis the 5501 wins out *if* it can do the job you need to do. 

Bob 

On Dec 13, 2009, at 12:27 PM, Kyle Brantley wrote:

> I have a 4521 that has served me faithfully for years as a personal 
> router. I'm looking to upgrade, and there are two things stopping me 
> from running with a 5501-70.
> 
> 1) Lack of gigabit ethernet
> 2) 586 arch
> 
> Admittedly, my 4521 is a 486, but it is slowly losing linux distro 
> support (centos, fedora come to mind). I'm also running 802.11g, but my 
> laptop has a 300mbit 802.11n card, which I can purchase a matching PCI 
> card for. Having my wired network being three times slower than my 
> wireless is just a bit annoying to me.
> 
> My other option is an Intel Atom board, where the CPU will take 0.7 
> watts, but the board itself takes 30-60W. This is compared to the 
> 5501-70 which maxes out around 20W.
> 
> I'd much prefer a soekris due to power consumption, reliability, small 
> form factor, and flexibility. However, the atom chips are i686 or 
> x86-64, in addition to gigabit.
> 
> The products page[1] says:
> 
> "Additionally, we will introduce more PC based communication products 
> during 2009. Expect to see the following, in expected release sequence:
> 
> net6501, a faster and more advanced mainboard, up to 1.66 Ghz CPU, 2 
> Gbyte DRAM, 4 Gigabit Ethernet ports and PCI Express expansion, 
> production availability in Q1 '10"
> 
> This would be ideal, but we don't have any info on it.
> 
> Has anyone heard anything? (Or have better ideas?)
> 
> --Kyle
> 
> 
> 
> [1] http://soekris.com/products.htm
> ___
> Soekris-tech mailing list
> Soekris-tech@lists.soekris.com
> http://lists.soekris.com/mailman/listinfo/soekris-tech
> 

___
Soekris-tech mailing list
Soekris-tech@lists.soekris.com
http://lists.soekris.com/mailman/listinfo/soekris-tech

Re: [Soekris] net5501 + video card?

[Bob Camp]

Hi

I suspect you would have to be careful about power consumption. That's  
both in terms of the onboard power supply and in terms of heating up  
the box.

Bob


On Feb 27, 2008, at 9:43 PM, Malcolm Herbert wrote:

> Has anyone tried running a net5501 with a video card in the PCI slot?
> I've had a small search around about this but haven't seen anything
> particularly concrete as to whether it would work or not ...
>
> Regards,
> Malcolm
>
> -- 
> Malcolm HerbertThis brain  
> intentionally
> [EMAIL PROTECTED]left  
> blank
>
> ___
> Soekris-tech mailing list
> Soekris-tech@lists.soekris.com
> http://lists.soekris.com/mailman/listinfo/soekris-tech
>

___
Soekris-tech mailing list
Soekris-tech@lists.soekris.com
http://lists.soekris.com/mailman/listinfo/soekris-tech

Re: [Soekris] Anyone know what JP3 does on net5501?

[Bob Camp]

Hi

There is a "dark side" to this. The better you document the product,  
the easier it is to duplicate. Simply buying parts and tossing them on  
a pc board is pretty easy these days. Documenting without giving away  
to much is a fairly difficult art.

Bob


On Feb 13, 2008, at 3:52 PM, Martin K. Petersen wrote:

>> "Johan" == Johan Linner <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
>
> Johan> Which keeps me wondering...  How hard could it be for
> Johan> Soren/Soekris to publish a proper documentation for this
> Johan> product?? It has been out for quite some time now.
>
> When I was doing consulting in the embedded space I had several
> customers back away from Soekris due to the (perceived) lack of
> documentation and support.  This is simply a deal breaker in most
> commercial applications.  Doesn't have to be fancy, but it absolutely
> has to be there.
>
> I'm sure Søren knows this and that he is just incredibly busy.  But I
> wish he would at least leverage the community he has successfully
> built around his products.  All it takes is an email to the list and
> I'm sure somebody would wikify the information.
>
> -- 
> Martin K. Petersen  http://mkp.net/
> ___
> Soekris-tech mailing list
> Soekris-tech@lists.soekris.com
> http://lists.soekris.com/mailman/listinfo/soekris-tech
>

___
Soekris-tech mailing list
Soekris-tech@lists.soekris.com
http://lists.soekris.com/mailman/listinfo/soekris-tech

Re: [Soekris] net4801 DC INPUT

[Bob Camp]

Hi

If the 4801 is *not* EOL then the announcement on the web site is  
pretty tough to figure out. It sure *looks* like it's a standard EOL  
statement.

Bob



On Dec 22, 2007, at 6:10 PM, Bernd Walter wrote:

> On Sat, Dec 22, 2007 at 12:57:55PM -0500, Christophe Prevotaux wrote:
>> Actually for everybody else's information
>> Soren said absolute maximum is 28Volts DC
>>
>> I hope this information is useful to somebody else
>> even though the 4801 is EOL.
>
> Who says the 4801 is EOL?
> The Controller is EOL, but Sørens last statement about this was that
> they have many of them on stock and that there are enough on the free
> market to not EOL the board as well.
>
> -- 
> B.Walterhttp://www.bwct.de  http://www.fizon.de
> [EMAIL PROTECTED]   [EMAIL PROTECTED][EMAIL PROTECTED]
> ___
> Soekris-tech mailing list
> Soekris-tech@lists.soekris.com
> http://lists.soekris.com/mailman/listinfo/soekris-tech
>

___
Soekris-tech mailing list
Soekris-tech@lists.soekris.com
http://lists.soekris.com/mailman/listinfo/soekris-tech

Re: [Soekris] Choosing Compact flash (Was: Memory upgrade)

[Bob Camp]

Hi

We live in a strange world. If you want to go high speed with a memory  
card, you pay money to get the "secret sauce" that allows you to do  
it. The open standard for hitting all of them is a slow interface.  
Most of the embedded community likes cheap better than fast.

Bob


On Dec 18, 2007, at 5:05 AM, Bernd Walter wrote
>
> In fact it is running CF in PIO, which is slow.
> CF can be quite fast if running in an appropriate mode.
> The problem is that the ELAN520 IDE Interface is limited.
>
> -- 
> B.Walterhttp://www.bwct.de  http://www.fizon.de
> [EMAIL PROTECTED]   [EMAIL PROTECTED][EMAIL PROTECTED]
> ___
> Soekris-tech mailing list
> Soekris-tech@lists.soekris.com
> http://lists.soekris.com/mailman/listinfo/soekris-tech
>

___
Soekris-tech mailing list
Soekris-tech@lists.soekris.com
http://lists.soekris.com/mailman/listinfo/soekris-tech

Re: [Soekris] Clock instability and network adapters

[Bob Camp]

Hi

I have not seen any problems with FreeBSD's NTP on a 5501.

Bob


On Dec 3, 2007, at 7:26 AM, Tim Jakobsen wrote:

>> It's a standard option of ntpd.  And I would not want to be making a
>> 12-second adjustment using it.
>>
>> Better to find/fix the underlying problem.
>>
>> There may be information on this at http://support.ntp.org/Support .
>>
>> I did not specifically reference the Troublsshooting NTP section,
>> because I am not certain that a more basic problem (like OS or NTP
>> configuration) should not be considered first.
>
> I do not think this is a configuration issue. I have several servers
> running NetBSD that does not show this kind of behaviour. It only  
> happens
> on the 5501.
>
> I seem to remember having heard that NTP was patched on FreeBSD with
> regards to the 5501. Is this true? Perhaps something in NTP needs  
> patching
> in order to work with the 5501 on NetBSD?
> Or could this indeed still be a hardware problem?
>
> -- 
> Regards.,
> Tim
>
> ___
> Soekris-tech mailing list
> Soekris-tech@lists.soekris.com
> http://lists.soekris.com/mailman/listinfo/soekris-tech
>

___
Soekris-tech mailing list
Soekris-tech@lists.soekris.com
http://lists.soekris.com/mailman/listinfo/soekris-tech

Re: [Soekris] Net4801 can't be powered up

[Bob Camp]

Hi

My guess would be that the power supply is dead. I have seen some  
problems,  but never a board with absolutely no lights.

Bob


On Dec 1, 2007, at 1:57 AM, 赵佳 wrote:

> Hi guys ,I have bought a new net4801 board. But when I plugged  in the
> DC Jack, nothing happens.None of the leds was light.
> I wonder if I have missed some steps, or is there a "switch" thing?
> I think i have noticed the ESD problems too.
> I appreciate your advices .
> Thank you!
>
> --
> ×
> 武汉若比邻科技有限公司
>  专业的IT服务外包公司
> 　　赵佳　市场部
> 办公电话：027-87856237
> 移动电话：13971585860
> Email:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> ×
>
>
> -- 
> ×
>  武汉若比邻科技有限公司
>   专业的IT服务外包公司
> 　　赵佳　市场部
> 办公电话：027-87856237
> 移动电话：13971585860
> Email:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> ×
> ___
> Soekris-tech mailing list
> Soekris-tech@lists.soekris.com
> http://lists.soekris.com/mailman/listinfo/soekris-tech
>

___
Soekris-tech mailing list
Soekris-tech@lists.soekris.com
http://lists.soekris.com/mailman/listinfo/soekris-tech

Re: [Soekris] Net4801 component identification help

[Bob Camp]

Hi

When used as a fuse a ferrite bead generally does a poor job. They  
will move quite a bit of current before they explode. I seem to prove  
that every so often ...

Bob


On Nov 28, 2007, at 1:59 AM, Sean Murphy wrote:

> Greetings all
>
> I have a net4801 that, unfortunately, was running connected to a large
> battery bank when a short occurred.  This killed the net4801 rather
> effectively, but from looks alone it seems that one particular
> component may have sacrificed itself alone to save the rest as
> (visually) that is the only one showing damage.
>
> http://www.gambierrip.ca/~sean/pict/net4801_fried.JPG
>
> I am hoping someone can help me identify what part this.  Seen intact
> here:
>
> http://www.gambierrip.ca/~sean/pict/net4801_not-fried.JPG
>
> If I can identify that part I will see if I can resurrect this net4801
> and put it back into use.  Granted this may be a long shot, but it is
> a whole lot better then tossing it in the trash!
>
> Sean Murphy
> [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
> ___
> Soekris-tech mailing list
> Soekris-tech@lists.soekris.com
> http://lists.soekris.com/mailman/listinfo/soekris-tech
>

___
Soekris-tech mailing list
Soekris-tech@lists.soekris.com
http://lists.soekris.com/mailman/listinfo/soekris-tech

Re: [Soekris] Soekris Hardware Test

[Bob Camp]

Hi

I keep a "good" CF and power supply around. If the board does not boot  
with them I send it back to Soekris.

The regulators are pretty obvious on the board. You can check a good  
board and get the voltages on the big capacitors. I have never found a  
problem that way, so I stopped doing it. I have seen very few bad  
boards, so maybe it's a good idea.

Bob


On Nov 26, 2007, at 7:09 AM, Matteo Basso - Net Stop Snc wrote:

> Hi,
> last week a net4801 has crash from our customer. After some test (ext
> psu, compact flash and board) we have changed all.
> The old board with new ext. psu don't boot new CF (reset every time at
> grub) and the cf on new board start perfectly.
>
> Now I'll test the board but how can I test Soekris Board?
> Do You know some hardware test?
>
> Matteo
> -- 
> Matteo Basso
> email: matteo [at] netstop.it / www.netstop.it / www.kraba.it
> Net Stop Snc - Soluzioni Informatiche
> Str. Statale Sup. 11 verso VR, 257
> 36100 Vicenza (VI) - Italy
> Tel. +39 0444 521129
> Fax. +39 0444 809885
>
>
> ___
> Soekris-tech mailing list
> Soekris-tech@lists.soekris.com
> http://lists.soekris.com/mailman/listinfo/soekris-tech
>

___
Soekris-tech mailing list
Soekris-tech@lists.soekris.com
http://lists.soekris.com/mailman/listinfo/soekris-tech

Re: [Soekris] net4511 - TinyBSD - Freeze after showing date at startup

[Bob Camp]

Hi

The point it stops at is roughly the end of the boot process. More or  
less the choices on the list are:

1) It locked up running a local init script
2) You switched baud rates between the boot process and login process
3) A local script sent a string or flipped a pin that has your  
terminal locked up

In cases 2 and 3 the Soekris will only feed you more data if you give  
it a proper carriage return.

Bob


On Nov 18, 2007, at 4:27 AM, Lyle Scott III wrote:

> Hey, i am using a net4511 board with a 32MB compact flash card.  I
> followed the instructions on the TinyBSD web sites for installation.
> Everything seems to work find during the boot process but right near
> the end it freezes.
>
> screenshot:  http://www.epoxysbox.org/netprob.gif
>
> It shows the date, then about 6 random characters immediately after
> then quits responding completely.  I have tried multiple kernels *full
> kernel, chopped kernel* and don't know where else to turn.
>
> I'm pretty new at embedded anything and am an avid user of fbsd, but
> this is really awesome and am looking forward to learning MUCH more!
>
> -- 
>
> Lyle Scott, III
> http://www.portcitycs.com
> [EMAIL PROTECTED] |#| 910-231-0906
> ___
> Soekris-tech mailing list
> Soekris-tech@lists.soekris.com
> http://lists.soekris.com/mailman/listinfo/soekris-tech
>

___
Soekris-tech mailing list
Soekris-tech@lists.soekris.com
http://lists.soekris.com/mailman/listinfo/soekris-tech

Re: [Soekris] The CF Master/Slave Issue on the 5501

[Bob Camp]

Hi

The master / slave thing has been going on for a long time. I suspect  
that if there was an easy fix it would be gone by now.

The source of the problem seems to be the way the card reports it's  
self to the BIOS. The BIOS is simply doing what the card tells it to do.

Bob


On Oct 28, 2007, at 9:20 AM, gavrik peterson wrote:

> I just purchased a Transcend Compact Flash card for my net5501 (my  
> first Soekris machine) and was disappointed that it was detected as  
> 'slave'. I tried two other CF cards and found that a U-Tek is also  
> detected as slave. Only the Sandisk card was detected as master. All  
> these cards are detected as master when placed in a CF reader.
>
> This problem came up with the 4801 and was discussed in 2004 by  
> Soren here:
>
> http://article.gmane.org/gmane.comp.hardware.soekris.technical/6510
>
> Why does this problem exist with 5501? Is there some good reason to  
> initialize the ATA devices in a way that requires such a specific  
> response from CF cards? Is this something that can be fixed with a  
> BIOS revision?
>
> Thanks.
>
> Gavrik (Seattle, USA)
>
> ___
> Soekris-tech mailing list
> Soekris-tech@lists.soekris.com
> http://lists.soekris.com/mailman/listinfo/soekris-tech

___
Soekris-tech mailing list
Soekris-tech@lists.soekris.com
http://lists.soekris.com/mailman/listinfo/soekris-tech

Re: [Soekris] (no subject)

[Bob Camp]

Hi

One idea - contact the people who issued your credit card. Many of  
them will give you a "single use number".

Bob


On Oct 15, 2007, at 6:54 AM, Stanislav Meduna wrote:

> Bill Maas wrote:
>
>> The problem is that I don't like having my credit card nos. all  
>> over the
>> place, so I asked Wim Vandeputte from soekris.kd85.com
> ..
>> A company named Escrow.com (www.escrow.com)
>
> And why exactly do you trust Escrow.com more than Wim Vandeputte?
> You are probably not USA-based if you buy from Wim - good luck
> to dispute something if they screw up...
>
>> The key issue is trust, the financial side should be much less
>> of a problem (basically all that is required is a computer
>> and a bank account).
>
> Yes, the key issue is trust. So how exactly can an "open
> source community" help here?
>
>> And I still feel that any host any of my my CC-nos. sits on is one  
>> too
>> many (they're not even on any of my computers).
>
> If they do not store CVV (and nobody should do this), you as
> a buyer are pretty safe. A CC transaction with neither
> a signature nor CVV is basically a seller's risk, so if
> they do get hacked, you'll have no problems to get
> the money back.
>
> You can also order by fax (giving the seller a signature,
> but not the CVV). Or pay by transfer in advance limiting
> your possible loss to that one transaction.
>
> -- 
> Stano
>
> ___
> Soekris-tech mailing list
> Soekris-tech@lists.soekris.com
> http://lists.soekris.com/mailman/listinfo/soekris-tech
>

___
Soekris-tech mailing list
Soekris-tech@lists.soekris.com
http://lists.soekris.com/mailman/listinfo/soekris-tech

Re: [Soekris] Trouble upgrading bios

[Bob Camp]

Hi

The BIOS upgrade process is pretty specific to Windows Hyperterminal  
implementation of XMODEM / CRC. They use a somewhat non-standard  
method for getting CRC running. Most normal communications programs  
drop back to checksum XMODEM when they see what the bios is doing.  
Once they do that it's all over. Nothing but NAK's from there on out ...

Bob


On Oct 9, 2007, at 4:56 PM, Marco A. Calamari wrote:

>
> I'm sorry to ask a stupid question, but I'm unable to
>  start the download of the bios.
>
> I use often serial connection with strange things
>  with no problem that some thinkering doesn't solved
>
> But in this case the XMODEM transfert make ACK errors and
>  quit, or just start and stop after 2 blocks
>
> I'm using Minicom, Linux, a commercial, tested cable
>  that I normally use with Soekris board, a 5501
>
> I tried also various, strange combination of speed, flow control,
>  but no luck.
>
> Any suggestion ?
>
> Many thanks.  Marco
>
> -- 
>
> +--- http://www.winstonsmith.info ---+
> | il Progetto Winston Smith: scolleghiamo il Grande Fratello |
> | the Winston Smith Project: unplug the Big Brother  |
> | Marco A. Calamari [EMAIL PROTECTED]  http://www.marcoc.it   |
> | DSS/DH:  8F3E 5BAE 906F B416 9242 1C10 8661 24A9 BFCE 822B |
> + PGP RSA: ED84 3839 6C4D 3FFE 389F 209E 3128 5698 --+
>
> ___
> Soekris-tech mailing list
> Soekris-tech@lists.soekris.com
> http://lists.soekris.com/mailman/listinfo/soekris-tech

___
Soekris-tech mailing list
Soekris-tech@lists.soekris.com
http://lists.soekris.com/mailman/listinfo/soekris-tech

[Soekris] New Bios 45xx

[Bob Camp]

Hi

Any idea if any of the recent bios changes will affect the 45xx  
machines?

Bob
___
Soekris-tech mailing list
Soekris-tech@lists.soekris.com
http://lists.soekris.com/mailman/listinfo/soekris-tech

Re: [Soekris] OS FAQ

[Bob Camp]

Hi

I completely agree with you. It's something that would be very  
useful. Even if it was just a page of links it would make the process  
easier.

Last time I brought this up, the general consensus was *not* in favor  
of the idea. It's more or less it's a bandwidth issue. If it's going  
to get done somebody is going to have to volunteer to do it. Dumping  
it on top of all the stuff that Soren has on his plate does not seem  
like a good idea.

Bob


On Sep 28, 2007, at 5:35 AM, Bill Maas wrote:


>
> Of course, I overlooked that option: RedHat has been shipping kernels
> optimized for 686 for years. Isn't it about time to publish a FAQ  
> about
> trivia like this (disk geometry issues, set OS to serial I/O, "no, you
> currently can't boot off USB" etc..)?
>
> And yes, I know, it's not Soekris' responsability etc., but most  
> people
> who buy a Soekris box plan to run an OS on it. Referring [new] Soekris
> owners to such a document would at least be a bit friendlier than the
> usual "search the archives". User base could supply OS-specific  
> details,
> hosting and manpower for coordination and maintenance (I could spare a
> few hours every now an then..) Where there's a list, there's usually a
> FAQ, so why not here.
>
> [expect some heat..]
>
> Bill
>
>> Unfortunately debugging this kind of problem is painful since you  
>> only
>> get to know the kernel didn't work :)
>>
>> Regards,
>> Jussi Peltola
>> ___
>> Soekris-tech mailing list
>> Soekris-tech@lists.soekris.com
>> http://lists.soekris.com/mailman/listinfo/soekris-tech
>>
>
> ___
> Soekris-tech mailing list
> Soekris-tech@lists.soekris.com
> http://lists.soekris.com/mailman/listinfo/soekris-tech
>

___
Soekris-tech mailing list
Soekris-tech@lists.soekris.com
http://lists.soekris.com/mailman/listinfo/soekris-tech

Re: [Soekris] CF/SD/flash on a mini-PCI?

[Bob Camp]

Hi

Sounds like it's time to become TC inc 

I certainly would keep trying. There are a lot of distributors out  
there and this kind of thing is what they do for a living. Somebody  
should be able to help out.

Bob


On Sep 27, 2007, at 3:11 PM, Tomasz Chmielewski wrote:

> Bob Camp schrieb:
>> Hi
>> I would talk to one of the distributors in Europe. It sounds like  
>> a good card. You might get them to stock the "second" one.
>
> I found a firm in Europe that has it:
>
> http://www.bvm-store.com/ProductDetail.asp?fdProductId=423
>
> But:
>
> "Thank you for your enquiry.  Sorry but we are a business to  
> business supplier, we cannot supply private individuals or small  
> quantities."
>
>
> No luck so far :(
>
>
> -- 
> Tomasz Chmielewski
> http://blog.wpkg.org
>

___
Soekris-tech mailing list
Soekris-tech@lists.soekris.com
http://lists.soekris.com/mailman/listinfo/soekris-tech

Re: [Soekris] CF/SD/flash on a mini-PCI?

[Bob Camp]

Hi

I would talk to one of the distributors in Europe. It sounds like a  
good card. You might get them to stock the "second" one.

Bob


On Sep 26, 2007, at 9:42 AM, Tomasz Chmielewski wrote:

> Tomasz Chmielewski schrieb:
>> Bob Camp schrieb:
>>> Hi
>>>
>>> This is not a knock on the company below, or the very helpful person
>>> who gave us the link. It's just something I noticed when I followed
>>> the link...
>>>
>>> Am I the only one that's put off by "send us an email and we'll let
>>> you know what it costs?". It sort of makes me wonder if the product
>>> really exists or not. Maybe it's just me ...
>>>
>>> I  like the Soekris approach of "here's the price, click to order" a
>>> *lot* better.
>>
>> Actually, they have a "Request Quotation" link, and when we follow  
>> it,
>> we can see a short form.
>> And "A handling fee of $5.00 will be added to orders under $500".
>
> And they said that "we do have a minimum $100 order for offshore
> accounts. You would have to buy at least two". I'm from Europe, and I
> need just one such card right now...
>
> Any other suggestion for similar products? :)
>
>
> -- 
> Tomasz Chmielewski
> http://wpkg.org
> ___
> Soekris-tech mailing list
> Soekris-tech@lists.soekris.com
> http://lists.soekris.com/mailman/listinfo/soekris-tech
>

___
Soekris-tech mailing list
Soekris-tech@lists.soekris.com
http://lists.soekris.com/mailman/listinfo/soekris-tech

Re: [Soekris] CF/SD/flash on a mini-PCI?

[Bob Camp]

Hi

I bet it's an either / or sort of thing. You either get the CF and no  
ATA or you get the ATA, but can not use the CF. I have not seen the  
card up close so I could be totally wrong about that.

Bob

On Sep 23, 2007, at 5:10 PM, Tomasz Chmielewski wrote:

> Dustin Lundquist schrieb:
>> Tomasz Chmielewski wrote:
>>> BTW, how is such a CF-card on a PCI seen by the operating system?  
>>> As a
>>> disk? As flash? Depends?
>>
>> VIA VT6421A is a single channel ATA and two port SATA controller so I
>> would assume it is connected to the ATA channel and shows up as a  
>> disk.
>
> There are already: one IDE and two SATA ports on that mini-PCI card.
> CF socket is the fourth "port"; VIA VT6421A doesn't seem to handle two
> IDE ports.
>
>
> -- 
> Tomasz Chmielewski
> http://wpkg.org
> ___
> Soekris-tech mailing list
> Soekris-tech@lists.soekris.com
> http://lists.soekris.com/mailman/listinfo/soekris-tech
>

___
Soekris-tech mailing list
Soekris-tech@lists.soekris.com
http://lists.soekris.com/mailman/listinfo/soekris-tech

Re: [Soekris] CF/SD/flash on a mini-PCI?

[Bob Camp]

Hi

This is not a knock on the company below, or the very helpful person  
who gave us the link. It's just something I noticed when I followed  
the link...

Am I the only one that's put off by "send us an email and we'll let  
you know what it costs?". It sort of makes me wonder if the product  
really exists or not. Maybe it's just me ...

I  like the Soekris approach of "here's the price, click to order" a  
*lot* better.

Bob

On Sep 23, 2007, at 3:40 PM, Joel Jaeggli wrote:

> Tomasz Chmielewski wrote:
>> Is it possible to buy a CF/SD card adapter or generally flash  
>> storage on
>> a mini-PCI card? A USB interface on a mini-PCI card would be fine,  
>> too.
>>
>> I have a device with a mini-PCI card, and would like to add it some
>> "storage" - I thought I could use mini-PCI for it.
>>
>> Does something like "storage" (1GB etc.) on a mini-PCI exist at all?
>> I tried to search on the internet, but all I found were not much
>> storage-related (mostly wireless cards and modems on a mini-PCI).
>
> http://www.globalamericaninc.com/new_spec/spec2.php?id=933
>
>>
>
> ___
> Soekris-tech mailing list
> Soekris-tech@lists.soekris.com
> http://lists.soekris.com/mailman/listinfo/soekris-tech
>

___
Soekris-tech mailing list
Soekris-tech@lists.soekris.com
http://lists.soekris.com/mailman/listinfo/soekris-tech

Re: [Soekris] metrix cm9

[Bob Camp]

Hi

Sounds like a fine thing to talk about here to me.

What were your plans for antennas? Chop holes in the case, or  
something more creative?

Bob


On Sep 22, 2007, at 4:39 PM, Randy Bush wrote:

> Randy Bush wrote:
>> is there a published cookbook recipe for using the metrix cm9
>> (http://metrix.net/cm9-p-2.html) as an access point on a 5501?
>
> i am an idiot.  this is for freebsd-current
>
> randy
> ___
> Soekris-tech mailing list
> Soekris-tech@lists.soekris.com
> http://lists.soekris.com/mailman/listinfo/soekris-tech
>

___
Soekris-tech mailing list
Soekris-tech@lists.soekris.com
http://lists.soekris.com/mailman/listinfo/soekris-tech

Re: [Soekris] net4801-60 died

[Bob Camp]

Hi

I would pop out the CF and any other cards. That would at least  
narrow down the cause of the failure. Swapping the power supply is  
probably a good idea as well.

Bob


On Sep 19, 2007, at 3:23 AM, magnus.hagdorn wrote:

>
> Hi there,
> I wonder if you have any suggestions of what I could try next. My  
> net4801-60 based firewall (running IPCop) has suddenly died  
> yesterday, after running for half a year without any problems. When  
> I power up the unit the power LED comes on and the error LED keeps  
> flashing. This suggests to me that the system doesn't even get to  
> the BIOS?
> Any suggestions?
> Cheers
> magi
>
>
> ___
> Soekris-tech mailing list
> Soekris-tech@lists.soekris.com
> http://lists.soekris.com/mailman/listinfo/soekris-tech
>

___
Soekris-tech mailing list
Soekris-tech@lists.soekris.com
http://lists.soekris.com/mailman/listinfo/soekris-tech

Re: [Soekris] high CPU usage for network interrupts on 4801

[Bob Camp]

Hi

If you had the silicon resources you would directly ID each device as  
it interrupted. Back a long time ago (as in I had hair on my head  
then) there wasn't enough silicon available for that kind of thing.  
Today it would be pretty easy to do chip wise. Changing every  
motherboard,  card, and OS  in existence might create a few problems  
though.

Interrupt sharing has been a way of life since the 80286. You can  
fiddle and poke what you put where, but you still put multiple  
devices on each one. There simply are not enough interrupts available  
to do it any other way.

You could argue that on an single board device you don't have the  
same constraints. That's true as far as it goes. In order to get the  
silicon changed what ever you do will have to work with that OS from  
Redmond. If it doesn't then there's no volume / money to do it.

Bob

On Sep 17, 2007, at 4:19 AM, Arnt Gulbrandsen wrote:

> Maurice Janssen writes:
>> On Sunday, September 16, 2007 at 21:26:36 +, Poul-Henning Kamp  
>> wrote:
>>> The 4801 unfortunately has all three internal network cards on the
>>> same interrupt line, that's not a good thing because for every
>>> interrupt the kernel will have to check all three network interfaces
>>> to see where it came from.
>>
>> I'm by no means an expert on this subject, but others seem to think
>> that interrupt sharing is a good thing:
>> http://mail-index.netbsd.org/tech-perform/2003/02/03/.html
>> http://www.openbsd.org/faq/faq12.html#IrqShare
>
> It depends. If the operating system in use has certain  
> optimisations and
> misses certain others, it helps in some cases, including an important
> case. But in general, more precise information from the hardware to  
> the
> OS helps the OS work faster, and "eth0 needs care now" is more precise
> than "either eth0, eth1, eth2 or a combination needs care now".
>
> Arnt
> ___
> Soekris-tech mailing list
> Soekris-tech@lists.soekris.com
> http://lists.soekris.com/mailman/listinfo/soekris-tech
>

___
Soekris-tech mailing list
Soekris-tech@lists.soekris.com
http://lists.soekris.com/mailman/listinfo/soekris-tech

Re: [Soekris] net4501 card flash

[Bob Camp]

Hi

I have been using AData 1 Gig cards. The ones that I got back in July  
worked fine in everything. The last batch of 40 that I got work in  
the 48xx and the 55xx, but are not recognized at all by the 4501.

Bob


On Sep 13, 2007, at 5:40 PM, Mike Tancsa wrote:

> At 05:36 PM 9/13/2007, Bob Camp wrote:
>> Hi
>>
>> Has anybody else seen problems with recently manufactured CF cards
>> being recognized in the 4501?
>
> I bought a boat load of old SanDisk 512MB off ebay and they work  
> well on my last batch (4 weeks ago) of 4511s.  I have more 4511s  
> coming next week.  What type of CFs were you using ?
>
> ---Mike

___
Soekris-tech mailing list
Soekris-tech@lists.soekris.com
http://lists.soekris.com/mailman/listinfo/soekris-tech

[Soekris] net4501 card flash

[Bob Camp]

Hi

Has anybody else seen problems with recently manufactured CF cards  
being recognized in the 4501?

Bob
___
Soekris-tech mailing list
Soekris-tech@lists.soekris.com
http://lists.soekris.com/mailman/listinfo/soekris-tech

Re: [Soekris] Connecting to a net4521 from Mac OS X

[Bob Camp]

Hi

As others have mentioned, there are a lot of ways to do the Mac to  
4521 connection. I have yet to find one that *does not* work on the  
Mac for basic communication.

There is one thing to be careful about. The ComBios serial flash  
update uses Xmodem-CRC. The process the bios uses is "tuned" to match  
the Windows Hyperterminal implementation of the protocol. I have had  
odd things happen with a couple of programs, both on Windows and the  
Mac. I have not chased down the issues, I just switch over to  
Hyperterminal when I'm doing an update.

As long as you are not doing flash updates, you should be ok with a  
*lot* of different programs.

Bob


On Sep 4, 2007, at 1:21 AM, Juan Manuel Palacios wrote:

>
>   Evening everyone!
>
>   I'm new on this list so I apologize before hand if any of my
> questions are repeated and have been dealt with already, I've been
> googling for a while and still don't have some things very clear.
> Feel free to simply point me to some other [online] resource where I
> can look up the information I'm looking for if it's been aired here
> too many times here.
>
>   In a nutshell, I need to connect to the console in a net4521 device
> from a Mac OS X computer (MacBook Pro running 10.4.10), so my obvious
> question is how to accomplish that from both the hardware and
> software fronts.
>
>   The box has a db9 serial port, so I'm guessing a db9 to USB
> converter will help; but I'm not sure if the serial port on the 4521
> is a DTE or a DCE, so I don't know if I'll need a null modem (female
> to female?) to make the connection work or not (I should note that
> I've been a Mac user all my life, so I don't know much about serial
> ports other than USB ;-). In short, what hardware is recommended to
> make the connection? If there are any Mac users reading, can you also
> tell me if I'll need any drivers for the USB-db9 converter to work on
> 10.4?
>
>   Lastly, once the hardware part is dealt with, how do I reach the
> console in the 4521? That is, what software should I use to actually
> connect to the device? I'm fairly comfortable with the Unix aspect of
> the system so please don't refrain from pointing me to some command
> line only application, even if it means compiling it from source. I
> could go as far as considering installing Linux and/or {Free,Net,Open}
> BSD on my computer if any of those makes communicating with the 4521
> any easier.
>
>   Thanks in advance for your help and time! Regards,...
>
>
> -jmpp
>
> ___
> Soekris-tech mailing list
> Soekris-tech@lists.soekris.com
> http://lists.soekris.com/mailman/listinfo/soekris-tech
>

___
Soekris-tech mailing list
Soekris-tech@lists.soekris.com
http://lists.soekris.com/mailman/listinfo/soekris-tech

Re: [Soekris] What to do with my old 4501

[Bob Camp]

Hi

A couple fairly easy things to add on the login box, most of them are  
just cron jobs:

1) Login timing - only login first 5 seconds of the minute
2) Rotating passwords by day / hour
3) Logging and email alerts - every login attempt generates an email
4) Login hours - If you are home at night, no logins then.
5) Rate limiting - stop responding for 10 minutes after 3-5 failed  
attempts

All of this stuff has downsides. If it is *vital* you log in you may  
not want to do some of them. What ever you do, I would go with SSH  
and set it up to use  *large* keys only.

Bob


On Aug 29, 2007, at 7:10 AM, Bill Maas wrote:

> On Mon, 2007-08-27 at 10:28 -0700, Paul Bartell wrote:
>> I would like to hear about some of these tricks. Its sounds like fun.
>
> Alternate ports, IP redirection, hosts.allow, complex multiple login
> paths, who knows what else (see firewall manuals in the first place).
>
> But the point is that a Soekris box is perfect for use as a central
> access point for a network: logins don't require huge amounts of
> processing power, and it's power usage while running 24/7 is
> eco-friendly by any standard. Also note that the difficulty to break
> into a system will grow [more or less] exponentially with the  
> number of
> different passwords required for access (which makes sudo vs. su an
> unsafe program to use, surely in ALL:ALL config). So using a surplus
> Soekris box as such a central RAS definitely makes sense.
>
>> I have also thought about controlling a robot with a soekris, but
>> wouldent you need more GPIO? or would you use a simple AVR program to
>> drive the servos etc?
>
> What I have in mind is a program that reads a command language and
> sends/receives bytes over RS232 to the microcontroller, which runs a
> program that translates these bytes into actions (and sensor input to
> bytes sent back). Such a translator would only have to be written  
> once,
> and programmed once per AVR (save for extensions and, of course, bug
> fixes).
>
> Gain: a comfortable programming environment without all the size
> constraints of traditional AVR (or PIC) programming. In other words  
> the
> possibility to run enormous programs, somthing which can't be done  
> with
> the standard tools. It will requires developing a command language of
> course, so this is obviously not something done over a weekend..
>
> Timing will definitely be an issue due to latencies in program  
> execution
> and the connection, but that's where a great part of the challenge  
> lies.
> Motion doesn't require real-time operation at all (we aren't real-time
> systems ourselves), and timing issues could be resolved in the  
> hardware,
> through anticipation and by setting message priorities. Maybe  
> having to
> deal with those latencies will even enhance the robot's motion in the
> end.
>
> I'm by far not a robot expert, I just stumbled into robotics by chance
> about 1 1/2 year ago. From what I've seen so far it's not really a
> stupid idea. It's just like controlling a robot from a PC, but with  
> the
> PC sitting on the robot itself.
>
> It does at least look like a nice challenge. Can't wait to see the  
> first
> robot run, "Powdered By OpenBSD". So if anyone is interested in  
> starting
> a SoekrisBot project, I'd be happy to contribute whatever I can.
>
>
> Bill
>
>> On 8/27/07, Bill Maas <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>>> Hi,
>>>
>>> (1) (Almost) identical config for load-balancing and/or cases where
>>> the 4801 breaks down or needs to be pulled down for maintenance.
>>> CARP is tailored for such setups, but I couldn't get it working
>>> together with SSH (that was on OpenBSD 3.9, using the local
>>> ethernet interface for SSH logins - with a separate maintenance
>>> network it should give no problems).
>>>
>>> (2) In case you are offering external SSH access to any "live"  
>>> device:
>>> set up the 4501 as an "SSH RAS" for your network. You'll have  
>>> to log
>>> in twice or more to reach a particular machine, but at least it
>>> won't have to be directly exposed to the Big Bad World anymore.
>>> And you can play all kinds of tricks to make a cracker's life  
>>> more
>>> difficult - fun!!
>>>
>>> (3) Use it for controlling a robot. Would require some real-time
>>> capabilities from the OS though. But if you've ever  
>>> programmed an
>>> AVR directly, you'll know how incredibly comfortable high-level
>>> languages running with MB's rather than kB's of memory are.  
>>> I'd very
>>> much like to give this a try, in case anyone's interested.  
>>> Should
>>> provide Soekris Engineering with a great boost too. Robots  
>>> are hot!
>>> (it seems).
>>>
>>> Bill
>>>
>>> On Sat, 2007-08-25 at 10:14 -0500, Ronald L. Rosson Jr. wrote:
 I currently have a NET4501 sitting on the shelf doing nothing since
 it was replaced by my NET4801 as a firewall running pfSense.

 I am looking for a low cost solution to have this system do  
>

Re: [Soekris] 5501 reboot problem

[Bob Camp]

Hi

They definitely showed up long enough this week to ship out my stuff  
and to answer a couple of emails. They mentioned that the serial disk  
mount is now "on hold".

There's obviously some work going on. I suspect that they are simply  
a bit swamped at this point. I have not seen any replies to my  
questions about CF handling in the newer 4501 bios. That's been a  
while back as well.

One thing I am fairly sure of. They will get to all the bugs and  
stomp them. It's just a matter of when. For those of us with project  
deadlines it's always about the when 

Bob


On Aug 24, 2007, at 1:50 AM, Jeffrey W. Baker wrote:

> On Thu, 2007-08-23 at 23:10 -0700, Ralph Becker-Szendy wrote:
>
>> Agree.  It would be good to know that Soekris considers this to be a
>> problem, and is intending to actually fix it (for example by having a
>> combios update).  At this point, this problem has been known since
>> late June (see Martin Johnson's message on this list from 6/30);
>> several people (including me) have reported here that they can
>> reproduce it (all it takes is a 5501, a disk, and a reboot command).
>> It is now late August, and to my knowledge there has been no single
>> indication from Soekris that they even acknowledge this as a problem
>> (or consider the current behavior acceptable), or that they have any
>> intention of addressing it.  The pessimist in me is thinking that  
>> this
>> problem will never be fixed, and that I'm better off replacing my  
>> 5501
>> with some Via nanoUTX boards, perhaps returning the 5501 under
>> warranty for a refund.  The optimist in me hopes that a combios
>> upgrade will be available any day now.  The lazy bum in we will do
>> nothing (replacing the 5501 would cause extra work), but will stop
>> buying and recommending Soekris until they demonstrate that they  
>> care.
>
> It seems possible that the people (person) at Soekris who can address
> this problem is on vacation or otherwise indisposed to answering  
> emails.
> Even my orders aren't being answered.
>
> Anyone know when Soekris will come back from lunch break?
>
> -jwb
>
> ___
> Soekris-tech mailing list
> Soekris-tech@lists.soekris.com
> http://lists.soekris.com/mailman/listinfo/soekris-tech
>

___
Soekris-tech mailing list
Soekris-tech@lists.soekris.com
http://lists.soekris.com/mailman/listinfo/soekris-tech

[Soekris] New Stuff

[Bob Camp]

Hi

I just got a box of stuff in the mail. Inside where a bunch of  
net5501ATA disk mount brackets and a couple of net5501's. The  
brackets seem to work pretty well. All required screws, jumpers and  
cables came with the brackets. The bios on the 5501's is rev 1.32  
with a date of 2007 06 06

Bob
___
Soekris-tech mailing list
Soekris-tech@lists.soekris.com
http://lists.soekris.com/mailman/listinfo/soekris-tech

Re: [Soekris] Actual problems with net5501

[Bob Camp]

Hi

I have not seen any "official" errata from Soekris on the 5501. I  
also have not seen anything on the card flash differences between the  
1.2x bios and the 1.31 version. Hopefully that's because they are so  
busy working on the fixes to comment.

Bob


On Aug 22, 2007, at 2:25 AM, Joerg Schoppet wrote:

> -BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-
> Hash: SHA1
>
> Hi,
>
> so here are the problems I actual have with my net5501 running Debian
> etch.
>
> - - ide dma not enabled from bios (see:
> http://kerneltrap.org/node/6803#comment-196286)
> - - the hardware-clock is running to to fast (between 6x to 10x)
> - - SATA-problems (my german distributor told me, that problems with
> SATA avoid sending out the mounting kit.
>
> This all seems to me to be hardware (BIOS) problems.
>
> Are there any official announcements from soekris, if they acknowledge
> these problems and when a bios-update can be expected?
>
> Kind Regards
>
> Joerg Schoppet
> -BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-
> Version: GnuPG v1.4.6 (MingW32)
> Comment: Using GnuPG with Mozilla - http://enigmail.mozdev.org
>
> iD8DBQFGy9bEq5Me6rRDqPURAiYHAJ0T/jdk2SLrn264JpnC0FwTPOGCCwCfbswv
> IE1UjFwsit28ylR1XTckpHE=
> =N4I/
> -END PGP SIGNATURE-
>
> ___
> Soekris-tech mailing list
> Soekris-tech@lists.soekris.com
> http://lists.soekris.com/mailman/listinfo/soekris-tech
>

___
Soekris-tech mailing list
Soekris-tech@lists.soekris.com
http://lists.soekris.com/mailman/listinfo/soekris-tech

Re: [Soekris] Soekris 4501 drift? ... NTP issue

[Bob Camp]

Hi

The high jitter is normal when the system is unable to "tune" the  
local clock far enough.

How old is the 4501 box? Everything I have seen in the last few  
months has been very close to the correct frequency.

Turning off NTP and just checking the system time against a wrist  
watch should sort out what's going on pretty fast.

Bob


On Aug 19, 2007, at 9:08 AM, John Hay wrote:

> On Sun, Aug 19, 2007 at 01:13:49AM -0700, ev wrote:
>>
>> hi & thx,
>>
>> So we are down to a HW issue if I understand you correctly ... BIOS
>> corrections ?  ervin
>
> Some batches of net 4501's used different frequency crystals. Normally
> either
>
> machdep.elan_freq=32768000
>
> or
>
> machdep.elan_freq=3300
>
> in /etc/sysctl.conf will sort things out.
>
> John
> -- 
> John Hay -- [EMAIL PROTECTED] / [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> ___
> Soekris-tech mailing list
> Soekris-tech@lists.soekris.com
> http://lists.soekris.com/mailman/listinfo/soekris-tech
>

___
Soekris-tech mailing list
Soekris-tech@lists.soekris.com
http://lists.soekris.com/mailman/listinfo/soekris-tech

Re: [Soekris] How to make the 5501 recognize the SATA drive?

[Bob Camp]

Hi

You got a drive cable kit with your 5501 

I've had one on back order for quite a while and have yet to see it.

grump ... grump ...

Of course the way we operate it could be sitting up on the receiving  
dock gathering dust.

Bob


On Aug 12, 2007, at 6:39 AM, Bent wrote:

> Hi,
>
> I just got my 5501, but unfortunately I got it without any kind of
> documentation. I have found plenty on the Internet, although most of
> it is for the 4xxx series.
>
> I cannot make the BIOS recognize the SATA harddrive. It is connected
> through a cable kit I got with the box. I know  the HD is running (I
> can hear it when I put my ear next to it) but it does not show up in
> the BIOS listing given at power-on.
>
> SInce I do not have a system manual I have to ask for help. What
> should I do to make the disk recognized?
>
> BTW I have installed a ArchLinux on the HD, using another PC, so there
> is something on the disk for the BIOS to sink its teeth into.
>
> KInd regards,
>
> Bent
> ___
> Soekris-tech mailing list
> Soekris-tech@lists.soekris.com
> http://lists.soekris.com/mailman/listinfo/soekris-tech
>

___
Soekris-tech mailing list
Soekris-tech@lists.soekris.com
http://lists.soekris.com/mailman/listinfo/soekris-tech

Re: [Soekris] Power supply /

[Bob Camp]

Hi

The only disadvantage to using a 16 volt supply is that it's not 12  
volts :)

Some odd cards require a +12 volt supply and it can be stolen from a  
+12 volt unregulated input. If you have a +16 supply then you would  
have to do something a bit more complex. I have not seen any cards  
here that need +12 in an long time ...

Most switching supplies are more "happy" with a higher input voltage  
than a lower one. You may get a little more output current at +5  
volts with a +16 input than with a +12 volt input before the parts  
start to smoke. That is all on the load side though, and it's not  
something I would depend on without really looking at the circuit used.

Bob


On Aug 11, 2007, at 1:55 PM, ev wrote:

>
> hi,
>
>
> when I read the 5501 specs it says "Power using external power  
> supply is
> 6-25V DC", does it mean that I can use a 16v supply? ... I have a  
> couple of
> spare small 16v 4,5A PSU's  I have issues when powering up the  
> 5501
> incl. a 2.5" hard drive, making a quick calculation tells me that  
> the std
> 12v 1,5A Soekris supply is on the limit (18W max) and the 5501 and  
> a 2,5"
> drive takes (12,3W + 5W during start up = 17,3W)
>
> best regards
> -- 
> View this message in context: http://www.nabble.com/Power-supply--- 
> tf4254222.html#a12107626
> Sent from the Soekris - Technical mailing list archive at Nabble.com.
>
> ___
> Soekris-tech mailing list
> Soekris-tech@lists.soekris.com
> http://lists.soekris.com/mailman/listinfo/soekris-tech
>

___
Soekris-tech mailing list
Soekris-tech@lists.soekris.com
http://lists.soekris.com/mailman/listinfo/soekris-tech

Re: [Soekris] PCI Modem for Console Access on net 4801

[Bob Camp]

Hi

Most people seem to be doing as Mike suggested and finding an older  
modem card that really has all the guts in hardware. Even some of the  
externals have gone the Winmodem route these days 

Bob


On Aug 10, 2007, at 7:01 AM, Heather Lockridge wrote:

> Oops,
>
> I was planning on running Linux and was hoping to have this modem  
> allow me to get console or tty  access via a dial-up.  I'd rather  
> not have to use an external modem and connect it by cable to the  
> built in console port.
>
> Thanks for your help.
>
> ----- Original Message 
> From: Bob Camp <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> To: soekris-tech@lists.soekris.com
> Sent: Thursday, August 9, 2007 6:50:58 PM
> Subject: Re: [Soekris] PCI Modem for Console Access on net 4801
>
>
> Hi
>
> A *lot* of modem cards these days are "win modems". Most of the real
> processing is on the driver side rather than in hardware. That's
> going to make doing this a little tough.
>
> What OS are you planning to use? It may make a difference in terms of
> what drivers are or are not functional.
>
> Bob
>
> On Aug 9, 2007, at 4:01 PM, Heather Lockridge wrote:
>
>> Hi,
>>
>> I'm a Soekris newbie,
>>
>> Has anyone used a modem card plugged into the PCI slot on a net4801
>> to get console access via POTS?  If so, what card?
>>
>> Thanks,
>>
>> Heather
>>
>>
>>
>> _ 
>> _
>> __
>> Looking for a deal? Find great prices on flights and hotels with
>> Yahoo! FareChase.
>> http://farechase.yahoo.com/
>> ___
>> Soekris-tech mailing list
>> Soekris-tech@lists.soekris.com
>> http://lists.soekris.com/mailman/listinfo/soekris-tech
>>
>
> ___
> Soekris-tech mailing list
> Soekris-tech@lists.soekris.com
> http://lists.soekris.com/mailman/listinfo/soekris-tech
>
>
>
> __ 
> __
> Yahoo! oneSearch: Finally, mobile search
> that gives answers, not web links.
> http://mobile.yahoo.com/mobileweb/onesearch?refer=1ONXIC
>

___
Soekris-tech mailing list
Soekris-tech@lists.soekris.com
http://lists.soekris.com/mailman/listinfo/soekris-tech

Re: [Soekris] PCI Modem for Console Access on net 4801

[Bob Camp]

Hi

A *lot* of modem cards these days are "win modems". Most of the real  
processing is on the driver side rather than in hardware. That's  
going to make doing this a little tough.

What OS are you planning to use? It may make a difference in terms of  
what drivers are or are not functional.

Bob

On Aug 9, 2007, at 4:01 PM, Heather Lockridge wrote:

> Hi,
>
> I'm a Soekris newbie,
>
> Has anyone used a modem card plugged into the PCI slot on a net4801  
> to get console access via POTS?  If so, what card?
>
> Thanks,
>
> Heather
>
>
>
> __ 
> __
> Looking for a deal? Find great prices on flights and hotels with  
> Yahoo! FareChase.
> http://farechase.yahoo.com/
> ___
> Soekris-tech mailing list
> Soekris-tech@lists.soekris.com
> http://lists.soekris.com/mailman/listinfo/soekris-tech
>

___
Soekris-tech mailing list
Soekris-tech@lists.soekris.com
http://lists.soekris.com/mailman/listinfo/soekris-tech

Re: [Soekris] 5501 console "Easteregg"

[Bob Camp]

Hi

Then I would guess that PHK's your guy.

 From what I can gather, the first step is to do a PCI dump and see  
what's where. Next you look for a bit showing an un-used counter.  
Past that it's the typical turn it off (possibly twice ..) before you  
touch anything. Program it up in the order they show. Then turn it  
back on again. Counters typically are very picky about doing things  
in the proper order.

Past that I can't help much. When I want to bang bits in assembler I  
do it on a PIC Micro.

Bob


On Aug 8, 2007, at 10:01 PM, Mike Tancsa wrote:

> At 06:17 PM 8/8/2007, Bob Camp wrote:
>> Hi
>>
>> What OS are you running?
>
> FreeBSD 6.x and 7
>
> ---Mike

___
Soekris-tech mailing list
Soekris-tech@lists.soekris.com
http://lists.soekris.com/mailman/listinfo/soekris-tech

Re: [Soekris] 5501 console "Easteregg"

[Bob Camp]

Hi

What OS are you running?

Bob


On Aug 8, 2007, at 11:26 AM, Mike Tancsa wrote:

> At 02:26 AM 7/24/2007, Poul-Henning Kamp wrote:
>> --===1199632190==
>>
>>
>> There's a little secret about the 5501 which Søren hasn't sad much
>> about yet: The 5501 has a simple "lights out" feature on the console
>> port.
>>
>> On your serial console type
>> +++
>> wait second or so then type
>> reset 
>>
>> If instead of "reset" you type "power", the powersupply will shut
>> down for a few seconds.
>>
>> I belive this only works at 19200 speed.
>
> Is there any way to call this from the OS ?
>
> Also, does anyone know if the MFGPT is setup as
> documented by AMD ?  I am trying to get a
> watchdog timer working for the device and not
> having much luck so far. I am going by the docs at
>
> http://wwwd.amd.com/support/PCSGtech.nsf/FAQTablookup/FAQ.49? 
> OpenDocument
>
> A lot of it is beyond my knowledge, so its a lot
> of "rat in maze" fumbling around so far.
>
>  ---Mike
>
> ___
> Soekris-tech mailing list
> Soekris-tech@lists.soekris.com
> http://lists.soekris.com/mailman/listinfo/soekris-tech
>

___
Soekris-tech mailing list
Soekris-tech@lists.soekris.com
http://lists.soekris.com/mailman/listinfo/soekris-tech

[Soekris] Odd Flash Boot

[Bob Camp]

Hi

I had one of those “wonderful” experiences with a new set of CF cards  
today.

I picked up a batch of 40 cards from my usual supplier and *surprise*  
they are not quite the same as the last batch. That's not terribly  
unusual, and I expected to be able to take care of it with a modest  
amount of toil.

The old CF's are BIOS recognized just fine on both a net4501 and a  
net4801. The new CF's are not recognized at all by the net4501. The  
new ones are properly identified by the BIOS in the 4801 and the  
FreeBSD boot loader comes up just fine on the 4801. I suspect the  
real difference is that the 4501’s are running bios 1.31 and the  
4801’s are running bios 1.29.

The new cards come up as 8054-8-32 on the 4801’s. I’m not very  
surprised that this makes a bios choke a bit. The new cards format  
fine under on an XP machine, and seem to work ok in a reader running  
FreeBSD on a desktop.

Has anybody else seen this specific issue between 45xx's and 48xx's  
or between BIOS 1.29 and 1.31? I'd like to move forward without a lot  
of mucking around if possible. Any thoughts about a quick fix?

Thanks!

Bob
___
Soekris-tech mailing list
Soekris-tech@lists.soekris.com
http://lists.soekris.com/mailman/listinfo/soekris-tech

Re: [Soekris] net45xx BIOS v1.31b - Bricked net4511s

[Bob Camp]

Hi

I *think* the bios chip is on the board in a socket. If so swapping  
the chip by mail would save postage.

Bob


On Aug 6, 2007, at 9:58 PM, Jason Rabel wrote:

> William,
>
> Just for grins, try pulling out the CF card and see if it will POST
> completely.
>
> Worst case you can send them in to Soekris and they can remove the  
> flash
> chip off the board to re-flash and ensure everything is okay.
>
> Jason
>
> ___
> Soekris-tech mailing list
> Soekris-tech@lists.soekris.com
> http://lists.soekris.com/mailman/listinfo/soekris-tech
>

___
Soekris-tech mailing list
Soekris-tech@lists.soekris.com
http://lists.soekris.com/mailman/listinfo/soekris-tech

Re: [Soekris] Incidental RF emissions spectra?

[Bob Camp]

Hi

I think you will find that it varies a *lot* with the configuration  
of any cables coming out of the box. You will always have the  
ethernet clocks as peaks, pretty much no matter what you do. You will  
also have peaks at 33 1/3 MHz and it's multiples.

A proper run with the "correct" antennas is major undertaking.

Bob

On Aug 3, 2007, at 8:53 AM, Drake Wilson wrote:

> On Fri, Aug 03, 2007 at 01:37:47PM +0200, Soren Kristensen wrote:
>> Drake Wilson wrote:
>>> I don't
>>> see these data anywhere on the website; are they published or  
>>> requestable
>>> somewhere (and I just didn't find them), or extant but unpublished,
>>> or just unavailable?
>>
>> Not available, the actual test reports only have a list with the  
>> peaks
>
> (Cc'ing to the list for archival and discussion, since the original
> singular reply may have been a mistake; I expect it's not
> confidential, anyway.)
>
> Hmm.  Okay; are those published, then?  The next best thing after a
> spectrogram would be an overview of peaks and average contour, but
> just peaks would still be useful.  Even just the top peak would yield
> some information.  I'm also interested in how much it varies between
> the different devices, though the net4501 and net4801 are the primary
> targets.
>
> On Fri, Aug 03, 2007 at 11:52:42AM +, Poul-Henning Kamp wrote:
>> If there are any particular frequencies you're worried about, I  
>> can do
>> a sanity check up to about 1.5 GHz with my HP8568B
>
> It's mostly the common "consumer electronics" bands: broadcast
> television and radio, mobile phones, unlicensed wireless---that
> sort of thing.  Some of that is above 1.5 GHz, though.
>
>---> Drake Wilson
> ___
> Soekris-tech mailing list
> Soekris-tech@lists.soekris.com
> http://lists.soekris.com/mailman/listinfo/soekris-tech
>

___
Soekris-tech mailing list
Soekris-tech@lists.soekris.com
http://lists.soekris.com/mailman/listinfo/soekris-tech

Re: [Soekris] Unable to install FreeBSD on 4801 via PXE/TFTP

[Bob Camp]

Hi

It could be a board problem .

The question becomes which board. The easy way to work it out is to  
start swapping parts and see what part the problems follow. That only  
works if you have multiple 4801's, multiple disks / CF cards,  
multiple lan switches, and multiple DHCP servers (talk about fun).   
Yesterday afternoon my problem was a partially functional cable (go  
figure).

Bob



On Jul 25, 2007, at 11:09 PM, Tom Mazzotta wrote:

> Just a followup on the PXE/TFTP boot problems I wrote about  
> yesterday. After a lot of experimenting I found (by accident) that  
> my 4801 would boot using only TFTP (w/o NFS). However, it only work  
> occasionally! To get it to work, I needed to configure the default  
> boot device to "F0" (ethernet port) using "set bootdrive=F0 80 81"  
> in the combios. (Previously, I was using the default boot device  
> parameters and I would ^P to get the monitor screen and type "boot  
> f0"). Anyway, after cycling to power on the unit anywhere from 6 or  
> 7 to more than a dozen times, it would boot properly. The way I  
> knew when it would work was by "pxe_open" values reported by the  
> bootstrap loader. When I saw "pxe_open: gateway ip:  0.0.0.0", I  
> know it was going to fail! However, on occasion, it would say  
> "pxe_open: gateway ip:  192.168.168.1", which is the correct  
> gateway address on my LAN, and in this instance it would boot  
> correctly.
>
> QUESTION #1 - Is this normal? Could there be a h/w problem w/ my  
> 4801 or my LAN, etc...?
>
> Then after going thru a standard FreeBSD install, I get the errors:
>   ad0: setting up DMA failed
>   ata0: FAILURE - NON aligned DMA transfer attempted
>
>   Unable to find device node for /dev/ad0s1b in /dev
>   The creation of the filesystem will be aborted.
>
> QUESTION #2 - Did I fry my drive by cycling the power so many  
> times, or might something else be wrong?
>
> Thanks!
> -tm
> 
> From: Tom Mazzotta
> Sent: Tuesday, July 24, 2007 11:09 PM
> To: soekris-tech@lists.soekris.com
> Subject: Unable to install FreeBSD on 4801 via PXE/TFTP
>
> I have been trying to use the procedure on the ultradesic.com  
> website to install FreeBSD 6.2 on to a net4801-60. I have basically  
> tried 4 permutations of the install using the boot image file  
> downloaded from Ultradesic vs. patching the standard bootonly ISO  
> image w/ recompiled PXEBOOT, LOADER, and KERNEL files (all built  
> according to the Ultradesic procedure and sample config's). I also  
> tried using FreeBSD vs. Windows XPP (w/Tftpd32) as my DHCP/TFTP  
> server. No success with any of the scenarios. Typically, the  
> following is what I see:
>
> comBIOS ver. 1.31  20070408  Copyright (C) 2000-2007 Soekris  
> Engineering.
> net4801
> 0256 Mbyte MemoryCPU Geode SC1100 267 Mhz
> Pri Mas  FUJITSU MHN2100AT   LBA Xlt 1024-255-63  9820  
> Mbyte
> Slot   Vend Dev  ClassRev Cmd  Stat CL LT HT  Base1Base2   Int
> ---
> 0:00:0 1078 0001 0600 0107 0280 00 00 00  
> 0:06:0 100B 0020 0200 0107 0290 00 3F 00 E101 A000 10
> 0:07:0 100B 0020 0200 0107 0290 00 3F 00 E201 A0001000 10
> 0:08:0 100B 0020 0200 0107 0290 00 3F 00 E301 A0002000 10
> 0:10:0 104C AC23 06040002 0107 0210 08 3F 01  
> 0:18:2 100B 0502 01018001 0005 0280 00 00 00  
> 0:19:0 0E11 A0F8 0C031008 0117 0280 08 38 00 A0003000  11
> 1:00:0 100B 0020 0200 0107 0290 00 3F 00 D001 A400 05
> 1:01:0 100B 0020 0200 0107 0290 00 3F 00 D101 A4001000 11
>
> comBIOS Monitor.   Press ? for help.
>> boot f0
> NSC DP83815/DP83816 Fast Ethernet UNDI, v1.03
> Copyright (C) 2002, 2003 National Semiconductor Corporation
> All rights reserved.
> Pre-boot eXecution Environment  PXE-2.0 (build 082)
> Copyright (C) 1997-2000  Intel Corporation
>
> CLIENT MAC ADDR: 00 00 24 C8 B4 F8
> CLIENT IP: 192.168.168.11  MASK: 255.255.255.0  DHCP IP:  
> 192.168.168.38
> GATEWAY IP: 192.168.168.1
> PXE Loader 1.00
> Building the boot loader arguments
> Relocating the loader and the BTX
> Starting the BTX loader
> Consoles: internal video/keyboard
> BIOS drive C: is disk0
> PXE version 2.1, real mode entry point @9e64:00f6
> BIOS 639kB/261120kB available memory
> FreeBSD/i386 bootstrap loader, Revision 1.1
> ([EMAIL PROTECTED] 
> , Tue Jul 24 17:18:00 EDT 2007)
> pxe_open: server addr: 192.168.168.38
> pxe_open: server path: /pxeroot
> pxe_open: gateway ip:  0.0.0.0
> NFS MOUNT RPC error: 60
> \
> can't load 'kernel'
> Type '?' for a list of commands, 'help' for more detailed help.
> OK
> ---
> By examining the log from Tftp32, I can tell the PXEBOOT was sent  
> to the box, but it doesn't get an further:
>
> Rcvd DHCP Discover Msg for IP 0.0.0.0, Mac 00:00:24:C8:B4:F8 [24/07  
> 23:05:12.250]
> DHCP: proposed address 192.168.168.12 [

Re: [Soekris] trouble with net4826 and powered USB hub

[Bob Camp]

Hi

Even if everything is "perfect" with the injectors there is the drop  
in the ethernet wires to consider.

POE is normally limited to 400 ma for a very good reason.

The wire used in most cables is 24 gauge (US). Each lead is commonly  
rated at about 1/2 amp maximum in cable bundles. Resistance is 25  
ohms per 1,000 feet. That's all for pure copper. Some stuff has a  
steel core and it's ratings are much lower on current and higher on  
resistance. I doubt you will find steel core unless you look pretty  
hard.

The USB hub "wall wart" I just grabbed is rated at 3 amps / 5 volts.  
That's one for a 4 port powered USB hub. At three amps your ground  
pair would rise 37.5 volts in a 1000 foot run. A 10 foot run would  
get you above .3 volts. I would not want to go much past .3 volts in  
order to keep everything "happy".

The other side of the problem is that at ten feet the 5 volt supply  
is now a 4.2 volt supply (at 3 amps). That's probably less than your  
devices want to see. They may try to pull more current to make up for  
the drop (constant power load).

All of that does not take into account any problems with the  
connectors. It also assumes that the wire is full size.

I'd look for another way to power the hubs ...

Bob

On Jul 25, 2007, at 3:39 AM, Stanislav Meduna wrote:

> Brad Karp wrote:
>
>> So in full, the picture is:
>>
>>  PoE12V
>>port0 > DWL-P50 > net4826
>>   /  |
>>  HP PoE switch   | USB cable
>>   \  |
>>port1 > DWL-P50 > DUB-H7 USB hub
>>  PoE 5V
>
> Generally the USB hub expects to be powered either from the
> device it is hanging on, or externally where the power
> supply is galvanically isolated from the data lines.
> Reason: There is no guarantee that a signal ground
> of the data lines is the same as the power ground
> of the power supply. So either they have to be the same
> (internally powered), or isolated so that they can
> float to the same potential.
>
> Secondly, I don't know about PoE, but I don't think that
> it guarantees much beyond that the device gets its power.
> The signal grounds between the two devices on a PoE might
> be the same, or might be 48V apart.
>
> Depending on the devices used what you are trying to do
> might or might not work, but is surely unsupported at best
> and can kill the devices used at worst.
>
> Generally, loops with power involved are bad. Very bad.
> Note: ethernet connection itself is galvanically isolated.
>
>> We find that while the net4826 can talk to the USB hub when the USB
>> hub is *not* externally powered (i.e., unplug the 5V cable in the
>> above picture), the net4826 fails to talk to the USB hub when the USB
>> hub *is* externally powered.
>
> If the signal and data ground differ on the net4826 or the
> ground potentials of the DWL-P50s differ, the hub gets one
> idea of ground via the net4286 and the other one via power
> supply. Bad.
>
>> Moreover, we seem to have *permanently* killed the internal USB
>> hub on at least one of our net4826 boxes by connecting an externally
>> powered USB hub in this way.
>
> Well possible.
>
>> Before you tell me that we're powering the hub incorrectly, consider
>> that when we power the USB hub in exactly this way over PoE, it works
>> flawlessly when connected to *any other* type of desktop PC we've
>> tried.
>
> Depends on the devices used.
>
>> Even more strangely, when we power the USB hub not using PoE, but
>> using the AC adapter supplied with the USB hub, the USB hub works
>> *fine* when connected to the net4826. But the AC adapter and PoE
>> splitter output are both extremely close to 5V.
>
> Because the AC adapter is galvanically isolated from the rest
> of the world.
>
>> We're mystified. Has anyone seen behavior anything like this
>> elsewhere, or might anyone have a hypothesis as to why PoE behaves so
>> strangely with this combination of devices?
>
> In the presence of the loop in the power supply connections
> this behaviour is completely logical.
>
>> We're trying to find a work around as quickly as possible, as we need
>> to purchase dozens more small PCs ASAP. We'd like to use more
>> net4826es, but the problem with USB and PoE is a showstopper for us,
>> as the main role of these boxes in our lab is to control USB devices.
>
> You need to galvanically break the power loop. Either power one of the
> DWLs via an AC adapter instead of via PoE, or the Soekris,
> or the USB hub.
>
> If this is not possible, there are galvanically separated DC/DC
> converters that can help, but I have no idea how much cost
> they add to your setup.
>
> One final note: an externally powered hub can be quite demanding -
> 500 mA per port. The net4826 will also draw a good 1A. Are you
> sure the DWL-P50 can handle it w

Re: [Soekris] net4501 reboot/crash

[Bob Camp]

Hi

This is just a guess. I have not seen the problem you describe.

Can you catch the BIOS with a control-p before it reboots again?

If so do a show and see what the bios settings are. It's possible  
that something is set very strange in the bios.

Again, that's only a guess. I am by no means an expert on the Soekris  
bios ...

Bob

On Jul 20, 2007, at 2:04 AM, Bastien Durel wrote:

> Hello,
>
> since monday, my net4501 is constantly rebooting.
>
> monday evening, it rebooted on networking initialization (it runs
> OpenBSD), but now, the error led doesn't shut down, and I do not ever
> see the memory test. It crashs during the POST ...
>
> I removed the CF, wifi card, and network cables, and now I have  
> time to
> see the bios before the reboot.
> The error led do not shut down, thought.
>
> Ther are the only two lines I can see on the console before reboot :
>
>> POST: 0123456789bcefghipajklnopq,,,tvwxy
>>
>> comBIOS ver. 1.28  20050527  Copyright (C) 2000-2005 Soekris
>
> Is the card broken ?
>
> Thanks,
>
> -- 
> Bastien
> Beaucoup trop payé pour ce que je fais,
> mais pas assez pour ce que je m'emmerde.
> -+- Daniel Pennac -+-
> ___
> Soekris-tech mailing list
> Soekris-tech@lists.soekris.com
> http://lists.soekris.com/mailman/listinfo/soekris-tech
>

___
Soekris-tech mailing list
Soekris-tech@lists.soekris.com
http://lists.soekris.com/mailman/listinfo/soekris-tech

Re: [Soekris] Comm Port Help!

[Bob Camp]

Hi

Yes, I would *think* that the bios and grub settings are not going to  
impact what happens once the kernel is up. The problem is a kernel  
resource conflict rather than a  bios of boot loader problem.

Bob


On Jul 17, 2007, at 3:19 PM, Mark wrote:

> Hi Bob,
>
> By "leave Grub on the serial port", do you mean leave the terminal  
> lines in
> menu.lst, and not mess with the BIOS?
>
> Thanks,
>
> Mark
>
> ___
> Mark Nichols
> President
> Signal Processing Analytics
> Work: (804) 364-1050
> Cell:   (804) 503-0552
> www.spanalytics.com
>
> -Original Message-
> From: Bob Camp [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> Sent: Tuesday, July 17, 2007 3:14 PM
> To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> Cc: soekris-tech@lists.soekris.com
> Subject: Re: [Soekris] Comm Port Help!
>
> Hi
>
> I think I would leave Grub on the serial port. That way you will have
> some kind of access if things go very wrong. Grub will be completely
> out of the way long before the kernel is done loading and any
> application will load.
>
> Bob
>
>
> On Jul 17, 2007, at 2:11 PM, Mark wrote:
>
>> Thanks, RB.  I had tried killing agetty, but of course, it was
>> respawning-duh.  I'll try to go slowly as I don't want a brick on
>> my hands--the flash is soldered to the board.
>>
>> --Mark
>>
>> -Original Message-
>> From: RB [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>> Sent: Tuesday, July 17, 2007 1:59 PM
>> To: Mike Tancsa
>> Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED]; soekris-tech@lists.soekris.com
>> Subject: Re: [Soekris] Comm Port Help!
>>
>> On 7/17/07, Mike Tancsa <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>>> Take a look in the bios of the unit
>>
>> Nope.  Mark is competing with the system's console getty.  To get a
>> clean ttyS0, you're going to need to do two things:
>>
>>  - point kernel messages elsewhere
>>  - turn off the console getty
>>
>> Not being familiar with Voyager, I can't give you precise
>> instructions, but I can give you concepts.  To turn off your getty,
>> simply edit /etc/inittab (or it's equivalent) and comment out the  
>> line
>> that looks like:
>>
>> s0:12345:respawn:/sbin/agetty 9600 ttyS0 vt100
>>
>> Then, execute 'telinit q' or reboot; you may have to kill the  
>> existing
>> getty process.
>>
>> Grub's 'terminal' command simply tells it where to display it's
>> initial output.  By eliminating that and not having any other  
>> console,
>> it may have just not done anything at all, preventing boot all
>> together.  I don't know if it's possible to force it to be completely
>> silent, but this is what I would do:
>>
>> ###
>> default 0
>> timeout 0
>> terminal --silent serial
>>
>> title Voyager
>> kernel ...
>> 
>>
>> That _will_ put some predictable text at 9600bps to ttyS0 at boot,  
>> but
>> that should be the only time.  To make sure the kernel doesn't print
>> any of it's messages out to the serial line,delete any 'console='
>> argument on the 'kernel ' line.
>>
>> Like you said, once you do this there is no turning back without
>> taking out the disk and manually booting/imaging it elsewhere.  You
>> can do remote administration, but that's about it.
>>
>> RB
>>
>> ___
>> Soekris-tech mailing list
>> Soekris-tech@lists.soekris.com
>> http://lists.soekris.com/mailman/listinfo/soekris-tech
>>
>
>

___
Soekris-tech mailing list
Soekris-tech@lists.soekris.com
http://lists.soekris.com/mailman/listinfo/soekris-tech

Re: [Soekris] Comm Port Help!

[Bob Camp]

Hi

I think I would leave Grub on the serial port. That way you will have  
some kind of access if things go very wrong. Grub will be completely  
out of the way long before the kernel is done loading and any  
application will load.

Bob


On Jul 17, 2007, at 2:11 PM, Mark wrote:

> Thanks, RB.  I had tried killing agetty, but of course, it was  
> respawning-duh.  I'll try to go slowly as I don't want a brick on  
> my hands--the flash is soldered to the board.
>
> --Mark
>
> -Original Message-
> From: RB [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> Sent: Tuesday, July 17, 2007 1:59 PM
> To: Mike Tancsa
> Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED]; soekris-tech@lists.soekris.com
> Subject: Re: [Soekris] Comm Port Help!
>
> On 7/17/07, Mike Tancsa <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>> Take a look in the bios of the unit
>
> Nope.  Mark is competing with the system's console getty.  To get a
> clean ttyS0, you're going to need to do two things:
>
>  - point kernel messages elsewhere
>  - turn off the console getty
>
> Not being familiar with Voyager, I can't give you precise
> instructions, but I can give you concepts.  To turn off your getty,
> simply edit /etc/inittab (or it's equivalent) and comment out the line
> that looks like:
>
> s0:12345:respawn:/sbin/agetty 9600 ttyS0 vt100
>
> Then, execute 'telinit q' or reboot; you may have to kill the existing
> getty process.
>
> Grub's 'terminal' command simply tells it where to display it's
> initial output.  By eliminating that and not having any other console,
> it may have just not done anything at all, preventing boot all
> together.  I don't know if it's possible to force it to be completely
> silent, but this is what I would do:
>
> ###
> default 0
> timeout 0
> terminal --silent serial
>
> title Voyager
> kernel ...
> 
>
> That _will_ put some predictable text at 9600bps to ttyS0 at boot, but
> that should be the only time.  To make sure the kernel doesn't print
> any of it's messages out to the serial line,delete any 'console='
> argument on the 'kernel ' line.
>
> Like you said, once you do this there is no turning back without
> taking out the disk and manually booting/imaging it elsewhere.  You
> can do remote administration, but that's about it.
>
> RB
>
> ___
> Soekris-tech mailing list
> Soekris-tech@lists.soekris.com
> http://lists.soekris.com/mailman/listinfo/soekris-tech
>

___
Soekris-tech mailing list
Soekris-tech@lists.soekris.com
http://lists.soekris.com/mailman/listinfo/soekris-tech

Re: [Soekris] Second DB9 serial connector?

[Bob Camp]

Hi

It's a little tough to send one out to a customer set up that way 

It does work pretty well around the lab. I'm not sure about knots in  
flat cable. I normally use RTV cement to just glue the cable to the box.

Bob

On Jul 14, 2007, at 2:08 PM, Max Campos wrote:

> No need to drill, just do what I did:
>
> http://www.bpsw.biz/ebay/soekris/serial.jpg
>
> There's also a loose knot inside the case to prevent you from pulling
> the cable out excessively.
>
> Granted, a punch on the case would probably be better -- but I like
> this alternative over drilling.
>
> - Max
>
> On Jul 13, 2007, at 1:02 am, Bill Maas wrote:
>
>> Hi,
>>
>> here's my contribution to the litany of complaints about what you
>> can't
>> do [easily] with a Soekris box. The issue has probably been raised
>> before, but I couldn't find anything about it. The question is: why
>> isn't the aux serial port (COM2) on a Soekris box provided with a DB9
>> connector?
>>
>> The reason why I ask this is because in my view, using a pair of
>> Soekris
>> boxes i.o. a single one on remote, unattended locations could vastly
>> improve QoS: the boxes' serial ports would be cross-linked, so that
>> one
>> could be accessed from the other in case of trouble. Of course this
>> can
>> be done right now (and it undoubtedly is, somewhere), but it will
>> involve some drilling and "stuff". It would be nice if it could be
>> done
>> without "stuff". Would an extra DB9 connector make a Soekris box
>> vastly
>> more expensive?
>>
>> I've been working on a "Watch My Back" config about a year ago, but
>> the
>> project stalled over the unwillingness of SSH to work with CARP
>> (probably something to do with suddenly changing host keys), plus the
>> fact that I got consumed by other issues (not Soekris-related), but
>> it's
>> still in the back of my mind.
>>
>>
>> Bill
>>
>> -- 
>> "Fix bugs first, add features later"
>>
>> ___
>> Soekris-tech mailing list
>> Soekris-tech@lists.soekris.com
>> http://lists.soekris.com/mailman/listinfo/soekris-tech
> ___
> Soekris-tech mailing list
> Soekris-tech@lists.soekris.com
> http://lists.soekris.com/mailman/listinfo/soekris-tech
>

___
Soekris-tech mailing list
Soekris-tech@lists.soekris.com
http://lists.soekris.com/mailman/listinfo/soekris-tech

Re: [Soekris] Powersupply Net4801

[Bob Camp]

Hi

A better alternative would be to get a *good* +5 volt external power  
supply rated at a couple of amps. Then you could at least run the +5  
only flavor of disks.

Bob


On Jul 13, 2007, at 11:49 AM, Egbert Jan wrote:

> As we all know is the powersupply of the Net4801 not really capable of
> feeding diskdrive, CF and Wifi miniPCI all together at the same  
> time. I've
> tried an adapter with slightly more voltage and that helped a bit  
> but was
> not as relieable as I could wish. Now I had another sneaky plan: to  
> feed the
> diskdrive via a separate regulator (7805). I cut both pin 41 and 42  
> in the
> short interconnect (this is logic and power Vcc 5V) but I only get a
> flashing disk LED.
>
> I tapped the input voltage for the 7805 directly from the power  
> connector
> (solder side PCB) aasuming that the GND of the power adapter is the  
> GND for
> the whole circuit.
>
> Any one (Henrik? Soeren?) willing to shed some light here?
>
> Tnx
> Egbert Jan  (NL)
>
> ___
> Soekris-tech mailing list
> Soekris-tech@lists.soekris.com
> http://lists.soekris.com/mailman/listinfo/soekris-tech
>

___
Soekris-tech mailing list
Soekris-tech@lists.soekris.com
http://lists.soekris.com/mailman/listinfo/soekris-tech

Re: [Soekris] Second DB9 serial connector?

[Bob Camp]

Hi

If we are taking a vote, I certainly would like to see a version with  
multiple serial ports on the case. Running the cases in and out of  
the machine shop here costs me more than anything Soekris would  
charge for the same process.

The Net550x box gives you the option of plugging in a PCI serial card  
to do the job. I would prefer to save that slot for other things if  
possible.

Bob


On Jul 13, 2007, at 4:02 AM, Bill Maas wrote:

> Hi,
>
> here's my contribution to the litany of complaints about what you  
> can't
> do [easily] with a Soekris box. The issue has probably been raised
> before, but I couldn't find anything about it. The question is: why
> isn't the aux serial port (COM2) on a Soekris box provided with a DB9
> connector?
>
> The reason why I ask this is because in my view, using a pair of  
> Soekris
> boxes i.o. a single one on remote, unattended locations could vastly
> improve QoS: the boxes' serial ports would be cross-linked, so that  
> one
> could be accessed from the other in case of trouble. Of course this  
> can
> be done right now (and it undoubtedly is, somewhere), but it will
> involve some drilling and "stuff". It would be nice if it could be  
> done
> without "stuff". Would an extra DB9 connector make a Soekris box  
> vastly
> more expensive?
>
> I've been working on a "Watch My Back" config about a year ago, but  
> the
> project stalled over the unwillingness of SSH to work with CARP
> (probably something to do with suddenly changing host keys), plus the
> fact that I got consumed by other issues (not Soekris-related), but  
> it's
> still in the back of my mind.
>
>
> Bill
>
> -- 
> "Fix bugs first, add features later"
>
> ___
> Soekris-tech mailing list
> Soekris-tech@lists.soekris.com
> http://lists.soekris.com/mailman/listinfo/soekris-tech
>

___
Soekris-tech mailing list
Soekris-tech@lists.soekris.com
http://lists.soekris.com/mailman/listinfo/soekris-tech

Re: [Soekris] 5501 red light

[Bob Camp]

Hi

If the clock oscillator stops then you get a red light and nothing  
much else. One thing you do seem to get is the lights on the ethernet  
ports flashing. That might be one way to distinguish between a  
massive problem and something a bit less significant.

Bob


On Jul 9, 2007, at 5:01 PM, R Bruce Hoffman wrote:

> So... I probably know the answer to this, but I have to ask anyway...
>
> I have a 5501, and the red error led comes on and stays on... with  
> every
> thing removed from the board... so... I have a dead board?
>
> The only thing I can remember doing that _might_ have caused this is
> accidentally removing the CF card from the board with power applied.
>
> It's that easy to screw the board? Is there any possible repair or  
> just
> trash it?
>
>
> -- 
> "Suppose you were an idiot...
>   And suppose you were a member of Congress...
>   But I repeat myself."
> - Mark Twain
>
> ===
> R Bruce Hoffman
>
>
> ___
> Soekris-tech mailing list
> Soekris-tech@lists.soekris.com
> http://lists.soekris.com/mailman/listinfo/soekris-tech
>

___
Soekris-tech mailing list
Soekris-tech@lists.soekris.com
http://lists.soekris.com/mailman/listinfo/soekris-tech

Re: [Soekris] installing linux on net4801

[Bob Camp]

Hi

We're splitting hairs pretty fine here, but I guess that's the nature  
of the beast.

I wrote a much longer reply, but it probably was not going to advance  
this discussion much. If coming up with something as simple as  
another list for "recipes" is an impossibility, then so be it. I do  
not see it as such a big deal.

Bob Camp



On Jul 3, 2007, at 3:18 PM, Michael Scheliga wrote:

> The issue is you have a mix of people, skills, uses, and different
> goals.  Your intentions are good, but in practice "how to" things for
> something with so many variables end up cheating people out of  
> learning
> proper setup.  If you don't know why you're doing something you also
> don't know if it's secure.  If you're running a Soekris, it  
> probably has
> to do with higher end (than the shiny blue/black box routers)
> applications, special requirements, or a cool toy.  There are enough
> tutorials and how to web pages for this already.  They tend to be OS
> specific as they should.  When I got my first 4801 I followed a few of
> these and had a heck of a time getting them to boot pxe... Wasted the
> free time of a few days.. When I finally read the official OpenBSD FAQ
> for pxe and followed it, I was up in less than 5 minutes.  I'm sure  
> the
> same goes for other operating systems.
>
> If Soren puts up one of these here, then he has to maintain it.   
> His is
> a small operation that obviously would be better suited to developing
> new products and selling boxes than to be repeating and being held
> liable for generic information that would come from the respective OS.
> There are enough links on the Soekris.com site to get started with  
> just
> about anything.  Links from those links and a little internet  
> searching
> will get you where you want to go.
>
> If independent people (and you are asking for this, but not  
> offering to
> do it in the first place...) create tutorials/how to's they tend to  
> work
> well for a while, then get outdated quickly, but not before being  
> linked
> by a bunch of other sites and saved in lots of archives, only to steer
> people down the wrong or outdated path for years to come.
>
> Not trying to smash your idea to help others, but an official cookbook
> would not be a good idea, neither would an independent one.  If you
> wanted to put up a page with some pointers and links to official FAQ's
> on the respective OS web sites, this might help.  It would be a lot  
> more
> likely to stay current and would be easier to maintain, but I still
> disagree with anything that approaches spoon feeding, even if it's  
> just
> to boot the box.
>
> Mike
> ___
> Soekris-tech mailing list
> Soekris-tech@lists.soekris.com
> http://lists.soekris.com/mailman/listinfo/soekris-tech
>

___
Soekris-tech mailing list
Soekris-tech@lists.soekris.com
http://lists.soekris.com/mailman/listinfo/soekris-tech

Re: [Soekris] Lightweight UPS

[Bob Camp]

Hi

A couple of simple "voting" diodes are a good idea, as is a fuse. If  
you are on line power you want the Soekris to run off of line power  
rather than the battery. You want no power going backwards into the  
regulated supply from either the battery or the Soekris. I know that  
one sounds odd, but I *have* burned up supplies that way (yes that's  
the plural).

Cutting the battery from the Soekris allows you to accurately charge  
the battery stack. In order to get a long life out of the batteries  
you don't want to put to much into it. Overcharge is the way most  
backup batteries die.

The next most likely way to kill a typical battery is to discharge it  
to deeply. Cutting the load off from the battery at a higher voltage  
reduces the amp hours available but significantly increases the life  
of the cell.

In most applications you are willing to trade off a shorter life on  
the battery for more capacity. Sad to say but many places trade  
shorter life for a cheaper charge setup as well.  The total cost of a  
very good charge setup for a small battery pack is less than $10 in  
parts.

Enjoy!

Bob


On Jul 4, 2007, at 2:49 PM, Joel Jaeggli wrote:

> Joel Jaeggli wrote:
>> Bill Maas wrote:
>>> Hi,
>>>
>>> here's a question that's been in my mind for a while now: is  
>>> there some
>>> widely available toy or other mass-produced item that happens to  
>>> have an
>>> excellent loader and batteries which can easily be ripped out and  
>>> could
>>> serve as a lightweight UPS for my 2 Soekris boxes? Must be able  
>>> to feed
>>> while loading of course. All available UPS systems seem to be in  
>>> the kW
>>> range. One of the reasons why I run these Soekris boxes is their  
>>> 3-10 W
>>> power consumption, so kW's are way out of range, as are the  
>>> prices of
>>> these things. [Links to] loader/feeder circuit diagrams also  
>>> welcome.
>>
>> 12 volt battery
>>
>> charge controller
>>
>> breaker
>
> The other thing I would observe is that if you put a regulated dc  
> power
> supply between the battery and the soekris you can put up with a
> multitude of sins that might otherwise be fairly messy depending on  
> the
> other components used.  obviously pulling your gel cells down to the
> point where they are flat is not such a great idea from a lifespan
> perspective but a 12volt 7ah battery should run a 5501 for about 10
> hours at a minimum unless you have lots of perhiperals.
>
>> all electronics corp is probably a good place to start... in fact:
>>
>> http://www.allelectronics.com/cgi-bin/item/BC-80/search/2_AMP_% 
>> 22#34;SMART%22#34;_BATTERY_CHARGER___MAINTAINER_.html
>>
>> looks promising
>>
>>> Bill
>>>
>>
>> ___
>> Soekris-tech mailing list
>> Soekris-tech@lists.soekris.com
>> http://lists.soekris.com/mailman/listinfo/soekris-tech
>>
>
> ___
> Soekris-tech mailing list
> Soekris-tech@lists.soekris.com
> http://lists.soekris.com/mailman/listinfo/soekris-tech
>

___
Soekris-tech mailing list
Soekris-tech@lists.soekris.com
http://lists.soekris.com/mailman/listinfo/soekris-tech

Re: [Soekris] Lightweight UPS

[Bob Camp]

Hi

The junk where you are may not be the junk where I am ...

Around here the kids seem to get electric powered cars and trucks  
when they are about three or four years old. In a lot of cases the  
toy is interesting for about three days. They are a fine source of  
batteries and chargers.

I would ultimately aim for a full DC setup. Say an 18 volt 2A supply,  
a couple of diodes, a simple charge circuit and a 12V 10 to 20 amp  
hour battery. For a small setup like that  any missing parts should  
be pretty easy to come by.

Finding a good charger in something widely available will not be real  
easy. I have no idea why these guys all skimp on the charger.  
Fortunately there are several good (and cheap) IC's that will do the  
job with pretty simple stuff around them.

Bob

On Jul 4, 2007, at 7:14 AM, Bill Maas wrote:

>
> Hi,
>
> here's a question that's been in my mind for a while now: is there  
> some
> widely available toy or other mass-produced item that happens to  
> have an
> excellent loader and batteries which can easily be ripped out and  
> could
> serve as a lightweight UPS for my 2 Soekris boxes? Must be able to  
> feed
> while loading of course. All available UPS systems seem to be in  
> the kW
> range. One of the reasons why I run these Soekris boxes is their  
> 3-10 W
> power consumption, so kW's are way out of range, as are the prices of
> these things. [Links to] loader/feeder circuit diagrams also welcome.
>
>
> Bill
>
> -- 
> "Fix bugs first, add features later"
>
> ___
> Soekris-tech mailing list
> Soekris-tech@lists.soekris.com
> http://lists.soekris.com/mailman/listinfo/soekris-tech
>

___
Soekris-tech mailing list
Soekris-tech@lists.soekris.com
http://lists.soekris.com/mailman/listinfo/soekris-tech

Re: [Soekris] installing linux on net4801

[Bob Camp]

Hi

Ok, so maybe it's not exactly Joe average. It's certainly not Joe  
I've never done anything inside a PC in my life, or Joe who has  
trouble opening up email.

The guy may not be Joe who has an extensive network background  
either. If the objective is a box to do sensor monitoring or simple  
machine control, network experience is certainly not a pre- 
requisite.  Best guess would be that he's pretty much dead if he's  
never even heard of any form of Unix.

The issue is that you want to get the box up and running, so you can  
get on with the real task at hand. The task is never just booting the  
box. There's always something that you actually want to *do* with the  
box. Any time spent on initial load or to get it to boot the kernel  
is time better spent elsewhere. That goes double for the time spend  
troubleshooting an obvious error. TFTP is not something most of us  
set up every day 

The kind of thing I'm talking about is not going to run to multiple  
pages. It may be more than three lines long though. It is going to be  
different say for FreeBSD / Nanobsd image,  than for a Gentoo install  
from scratch. The people who most need it are starting out from  
scratch. It would be good to have it where they can find it easily.

Fun stuff

Bob Camp




On Jul 3, 2007, at 10:35 AM, der Mouse wrote:

>> 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.
>
> "Joe average" does not even know Soekris exists, much less have any  
> use
> for their machines.
>
> /~\ The ASCII der Mouse
> \ / Ribbon Campaign
>  X  Against HTML [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> / \ Email! 7D C8 61 52 5D E7 2D 39  4E F1 31 3E E8 B3 27 4B
> ___
> Soekris-tech mailing list
> Soekris-tech@lists.soekris.com
> http://lists.soekris.com/mailman/listinfo/soekris-tech
>

___
Soekris-tech mailing list
Soekris-tech@lists.soekris.com
http://lists.soekris.com/mailman/listinfo/soekris-tech

Re: [Soekris] installing linux on net4801

[Bob Camp]

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
Soekris-tech@lists.soekris.com
http://lists.soekris.com/mailman/listinfo/soekris-tech

Re: [Soekris] dead net4801

[Bob Camp]

Hi

If it does not make it to bios with *everything* out (including the  
CF card) then a good guess is that the board is toast.

Bob Camp


On Jul 1, 2007, at 12:46 PM, matthew saunders wrote:

> Hi Martin,
>   Yes, I have removed everything in the end but it still behaves the
> same. I was originally trying to add a wireless card to the PCI slot
> (it already had a laptop hd). It seemed to be booting ok. Then I
> plugged in a crossover cable in one of the ethernet ports to try to
> ssh in and it shut down.
>   My original power supply was 12V, 1.2 A and worked fine for the
> last 3 years. I also tried another power supply that was handy and
> currently working for another device (12 V, 1 A) but it produced the
> same results. I foobed the board didn't I?
>
> Matt
>
> On 7/1/07, Martin Johnson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>>
>> On 1 Jul 2007, at 17:16, matthew saunders wrote:
>>
>>> Ok, let me try that again without html. I think that I've burned out
>>> my net4801 but I'm not sure. It currently lights up the power and
>>> error lights for a few seconds (maybe 10 - 15) and then shuts down.
>>> I've tried another power supply within the appropriate volt and watt
>>> range and got the same result. The console shows the BIOS counting
>>> 12345 and then halts.
>>>
>>> Is this possibly still a power supply issue? Is known behavior of a
>>> dying board? Thanks,
>>
>> Have you disconnected any external stuff: e.g. disks, cards, USB
>> devices and network cables?  So that you're testing the Soekris board
>> in isolation.
>>
>>
>>
> ___
> Soekris-tech mailing list
> Soekris-tech@lists.soekris.com
> http://lists.soekris.com/mailman/listinfo/soekris-tech
>

___
Soekris-tech mailing list
Soekris-tech@lists.soekris.com
http://lists.soekris.com/mailman/listinfo/soekris-tech

Re: [Soekris] net 5501 booting with usb disk

[Bob Camp]

Hi

I keep thinking that the net550x is "big enough" to directly do  
development on. The normal development process is to do pretty much  
everything on a second machine. You then shoot the result to CF and  
see what happens. On the 550x you have enough RAM and other resources  
to run it like a normal PC.

Boot from CD probably isn't going to happen any sooner than boot from  
USB. Of course there may be something hidden in the new BIOS that we  
don't know about. Assuming that's true then you need a work around.

I suspect that you could put two images onto a big CF card. Set one  
image up to be your development boot and the other to be the final  
product boot. Keep the development boot partition fairly small and  
run most of it off of a big USB 2.0 flash stick.

To start the process you would need to seed the USB flash stick and  
CF cards from a PC with a CD on it. You could do it directly or via  
PXE. It's going to be harder to set up initially this way than to do  
the development on a PC.  The only advantage to the on 550x  
development is you only need a serial terminal if you do work in the  
field.

Fun to fiddle with, but maybe not worth the effort.

Bob Camp

On Jun 30, 2007, at 11:10 PM, Kannaiyan Natesan wrote:

> Thanks Bob.
> How would I go with the installation?
> Attach an CDROM first and install on CF and boot from there? Any other
> shortcuts available?
>
> Kannaiyan
>
> On 6/30/07, Bob Camp <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>> Hi
>>
>> It would be *very* neat to be able to boot directly from the USB
>> flash. That seems to be a problem for most BIOS implementations. The
>> closest you can get with most boards is to boot from CF and then
>> mount the USB flash.
>>
>> Bob
>>
>>
>> On Jun 30, 2007, at 4:12 PM, Kannaiyan Natesan wrote:
>>
>> > Some one please help me how to get the 5501 to run from the usb  
>> flash
>> > disk. Can I install any image from windows or linux directly to the
>> > usb disk and make it to run from there? I want to use it as a PBX
>> > which storage option will be better?
>> >
>> > Thanks.
>> >
>> > Kannaiyan
>> > ___
>> > Soekris-tech mailing list
>> > Soekris-tech@lists.soekris.com
>> > http://lists.soekris.com/mailman/listinfo/soekris-tech
>> >
>>
>>
>

___
Soekris-tech mailing list
Soekris-tech@lists.soekris.com
http://lists.soekris.com/mailman/listinfo/soekris-tech

Re: [Soekris] net 5501 booting with usb disk

[Bob Camp]

Hi

It would be *very* neat to be able to boot directly from the USB  
flash. That seems to be a problem for most BIOS implementations. The  
closest you can get with most boards is to boot from CF and then  
mount the USB flash.

Bob


On Jun 30, 2007, at 4:12 PM, Kannaiyan Natesan wrote:

> Some one please help me how to get the 5501 to run from the usb flash
> disk. Can I install any image from windows or linux directly to the
> usb disk and make it to run from there? I want to use it as a PBX
> which storage option will be better?
>
> Thanks.
>
> Kannaiyan
> ___
> Soekris-tech mailing list
> Soekris-tech@lists.soekris.com
> http://lists.soekris.com/mailman/listinfo/soekris-tech
>

___
Soekris-tech mailing list
Soekris-tech@lists.soekris.com
http://lists.soekris.com/mailman/listinfo/soekris-tech

Re: [Soekris] Connecting RS232 !

[Bob Camp]

Hi

The connector on both the net550x and on the back of your computer is  
a male connector. You need a female to female cable to connect the  
two. Since you are going same to same it needs to be a cross over  
cable. Pin 5 goes to pin 5. Pin 2 goes to pin 3 on the other end. It  
will also work just fine with a full null modem cable.

Bob Camp


On Jun 29, 2007, at 9:27 AM, Kannaiyan Natesan wrote:

> Hi I received my 5501 and Would like to know how can I connect it to
> my computer. Just a gender changer of RS232 will do to connect it to
> the computer? (I have a RS232 Extender cable)
>
> Regards,
> Kans
> ___
> Soekris-tech mailing list
> Soekris-tech@lists.soekris.com
> http://lists.soekris.com/mailman/listinfo/soekris-tech
>

___
Soekris-tech mailing list
Soekris-tech@lists.soekris.com
http://lists.soekris.com/mailman/listinfo/soekris-tech

Re: [Soekris] Will a 3.5" HD fit in Net5501+case+pci card?

[Bob Camp]

Hi

I don't see any way that a normal full height PCI card *and* a  
standard sized 3.5 inch drive is going to fit in the Net5501 case.  
You could easily fit one or the other, but not both. The box is  
slightly less than 1.2 inches tall and most hard drives are just a  
bit over 1 inch tall. There is no way to put one on top of the other,  
or either one on top of the CPU board.

Bob Camp

On Jun 28, 2007, at 7:21 PM, canuck15 wrote:

> Can anyone give a difinitive yes or no on this. I want to put in a  
> standard 3.5" hard drive in a Net5501+case+PCI card.  There is talk  
> of some sort of bracket that hasn't quite shipped yet.  Someone  
> somewhere must know what fits and what doesn't.  I know there are  
> slim 3.5" drives and 24/7 2.5" drives.  I would like to know if a  
> standard LxWxH 3.5" drive will fit one way or another.  Even if I  
> have to make a custom bracket or something.  Not worried about  
> power or heat.  I can make that work one way or another as long as  
> it fits in the box.
> ___
> Soekris-tech mailing list
> Soekris-tech@lists.soekris.com
> http://lists.soekris.com/mailman/listinfo/soekris-tech

___
Soekris-tech mailing list
Soekris-tech@lists.soekris.com
http://lists.soekris.com/mailman/listinfo/soekris-tech

Re: [Soekris] installing linux on net4801

[Bob Camp]

Hi

It sounds like two problems at one time to me.

Best guess would be that the kernel boot (as opposed to grub) console  
is set wrong. It could be something as simple as the baud rate.

The second problem could be almost anything. Without the serial  
console working it's impossible to figure out.

There are a lot of other possibilities, but I sure would check the  
console stuff first.

Bob Camp



On Jun 27, 2007, at 4:54 AM, Domenico Cacciari wrote:

> Hi,
> i´ve installed linux ubuntu 2.6.20-16-server with grub on cf card... i
> have all the output on serial console but when the net4801 boots up
> after grub i don´t see nothing, i have only one long and one short  
> flash
> of the disk activity led but no more.
> Ther are some specific parameters for the kernel or what? someone can
> help me? thanks
>
> -- 
> Domenico Cacciari
> Azienda Ospedaliero-Universitaria di Bologna
> Policlinico S.Orsola-Malpighi
> Direzione Tecnologie e Sistemi Informatici
> Settore Rete - PostWebMaster - Accessi Remoti
> Tel. +39-0516363306 Cell. +39-3480622062 +963-96897019
> email [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> --
> Inchinatevi, arcangeli, nei vostri fiochi soggiorni:
> Prima che voi foste o che qualsiasi cuore palpitasse,
> Presso il suo seggio ella indugiava languida e cortese;
> Egli creo' il mondo come un sentiero erboso
> Affinche' lei vi posasse i piedi erranti.
>  W.B.Yeats
> --
>
> ___
> Soekris-tech mailing list
> Soekris-tech@lists.soekris.com
> http://lists.soekris.com/mailman/listinfo/soekris-tech
>

___
Soekris-tech mailing list
Soekris-tech@lists.soekris.com
http://lists.soekris.com/mailman/listinfo/soekris-tech

Re: [Soekris] What wireless card for OpenBSD 5501 router

[Bob Camp]

On Jun 26, 2007, at 1:41 AM, Ralph Becker-Szendy wrote:


>   wireless AP for our house),
> - and a 4-port USB card.
>
> Why did I pick the 5501?  Mostly because it has a more studly internal
> power supply, and I was worried that the 4801 might not be able to
> handle the power draw of those three accessories.  Also, the extra CPU
> speed and RAM won't hurt, and the price difference is minor.  And
> there is another very superficial reason: Soekris has the metal cases
>


Hi

If you are going to run the USB card at full function, it's going to  
have to be able to put out 500 ma on each of the four ports. That's  
right at 10 watts. If the power supply is 80% efficient you are  
putting in 12.5 watts to get the 10. I suspect that is a bit more  
than the 5V switcher on the net5500 board was designed to supply on a  
24/7 basis.

A better solution power wise might be to run the single usb port on  
the net5500 to an external powered hub. As long as you have power to  
the external supply they shouldn't consume any power from the computer.

The obvious problem with this solution is bandwidth. One port takes  
you down to either 12 or 480 Mb/sec. If you *really* need 4 x 480 Mb/ 
s you may need something with more cpu than the net5500 ...

Bob Camp
___
Soekris-tech mailing list
Soekris-tech@lists.soekris.com
http://lists.soekris.com/mailman/listinfo/soekris-tech

Re: [Soekris] 1u case + 4801 + RS-232 board?

[Bob Camp]

Hi

One possibly un-acceptable solution would be USB serial dongles. They  
are nice for a console server because you can "spread out" the  
cabling. Depending on the size of your system that may or may not be  
an advantage.

I have used Rocket Port cards in the past and they have done well for  
me. The drivers on FreeBSD 6.x are broken at the moment.

With both solutions you need to think about how much serial traffic  
you will have. The "pipe" is only just so big 

Bob Camp


On Jun 25, 2007, at 12:20 AM, Neal R wrote:

>
>
>  I've in the process of ripping out every single bit of Cisco gear
> we have and when that is done I'm going to start on the networks we
> maintain. The only bit I'm having trouble with is the terminal server
> role currently filled by Cisco 2509/2511 in the various networks.
>
>  I will admit to a desire to have more than just a terminal  
> server -
> a proper FreeBSD box with several RS-232 ports and at least two  
> ethernet
> interfaces would be an absolute joy. Is there a low power RS-232 card
> that would work in the 4801? Where could I get a 1U case that would  
> fit
> such a thing?
> ___
> Soekris-tech mailing list
> Soekris-tech@lists.soekris.com
> http://lists.soekris.com/mailman/listinfo/soekris-tech
>

___
Soekris-tech mailing list
Soekris-tech@lists.soekris.com
http://lists.soekris.com/mailman/listinfo/soekris-tech

Re: [Soekris] Net5501 board and its standard case

[Bob Camp]

Hi

The "standard" power supplies go up to about 1.5 amps at 12 volts.  
Depending on what you decide to use for a card and drive you may be  
pushing the power supply past it's limits. For long term use staying  
below around 80% of the rating is a good idea 

Bob Camp


On Jun 24, 2007, at 5:03 AM, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:

>
>
> On Sun, June 24, 2007 10:52, Randy Bush wrote:
>>> would a net5501 board, a PCI card and a normal hard drive fit  
>>> into the
>>> standard net5501 case
>>
>> yes, if the pci card is not really long.  but it can be full height.
>>
>>> In terms of noise and heat, is it better to get it all in a  
>>> bigger case or
>>> to try with a 2.5" hard drive ?
>>
>> the standard case seems to work well in all the uses i have seen.
>>
>> randy
>
> k, that s pretty cool then :)
> thanks, Randy
>
> Pascal
>
>
>
>
> ___
> Soekris-tech mailing list
> Soekris-tech@lists.soekris.com
> http://lists.soekris.com/mailman/listinfo/soekris-tech
>

___
Soekris-tech mailing list
Soekris-tech@lists.soekris.com
http://lists.soekris.com/mailman/listinfo/soekris-tech

Re: [Soekris] Soekris & NTP

[Bob Camp]

Hi

Synergy has always done good by me. Their modules work very well.  
They have done a great job of keeping the "Motorola standard" alive.  
The FreeBSD driver works *very* well with their modules.

All of that said the timing products are a bit of overkill for most  
NTP applications. A "not so hot" GPS these days will do a  
microsecond. A timing receiver gets you into the tens of nanoseconds.  
Of course a "broken" GPS will do terribly 

NTP is doing well at a few tens of microseconds. Most people look to  
it as a "millisecond(s)" timing source. Most system designers will go  
for a reference that's 5x or 10x better than the system requirement.   
Something that does a microsecond should be just fine 

Bob Camp

On Jun 23, 2007, at 10:02 PM, Jason Rabel wrote:

> You could probably start with a low cost Garmin OEM GPS, but if  
> that doesn't
> perform as well as you need you will probably need to step it up to  
> a timing
> receiver and separate active antenna (that you can mount on your  
> roof).
>
> Check out Synergy Systems: http://www.synergy-gps.com/
>
>
>> After reading thru this thread and looking at the write-up that was
>> posted at febo it looks like a $100 USD is needed to get my 4501 set-
>> up properly. My question is does anyone have any links for low cost
>> GPS sources to be used for the signal input.
>
> ___
> Soekris-tech mailing list
> Soekris-tech@lists.soekris.com
> http://lists.soekris.com/mailman/listinfo/soekris-tech
>


___
Soekris-tech mailing list
Soekris-tech@lists.soekris.com
http://lists.soekris.com/mailman/listinfo/soekris-tech

Re: [Soekris] Soekris & NTP

[Bob Camp]

Hi

The crystals in the boards I have from Soekris are very good. You  
will have a hard time improving performance by replacing them with an  
un-compensated source.

If you have big temperature swings in your environment heating things  
may help. Under normal conditions you may be moving the crystal to a  
less stable region with the heater.

Bob Camp



On Jun 22, 2007, at 5:31 AM, Bob Bishop wrote:

> Hi,
>
> On 22 Jun 2007, at 03:35, David Duchscher wrote:
>
>> On Jun 21, 2007, at 8:47 PM, Bob Camp wrote:
>>
>>> A reasonable alternative is to grab what ever frequency you have
>>> and use a clock multiplier / divider (like an ICS 525).
>>
>> Yea, thats what I am investigating now.  A Soekris 4501 clocked  
>> from a
>> TAPR Clock-Block with input from an OCXO.
>> http://www.febo.com/pages/soekris/ shows this solution except they
>> use an external HP Z3801A GPS disciplined oscillator.
>>
>> --
>> DaveD
>
> An alternative might be to get one of the programmable XO parts at  
> 33.33 MHz (not sure about setting accuracy, jitter, ...) and  
> find a suitable oven - they are available commercially.
>
> --
> Bob Bishop  +44 (0)118 940 1243
> [EMAIL PROTECTED] fax +44 (0)118 940 1295
>
>
>
>

___
Soekris-tech mailing list
Soekris-tech@lists.soekris.com
http://lists.soekris.com/mailman/listinfo/soekris-tech

Re: [Soekris] Soekris & NTP

[Bob Camp]

Hi

The ideal OCXO would be one at 33.33 MHz. I suspect you will have  
a hard time finding one, short of a special order build. That's going  
to take time and cost money (trust me on that ...).

A reasonable alternative is to grab what ever frequency you have and  
use a clock multiplier / divider (like an ICS 525).

If you have everything in one stack then you *might* be able to use a  
single frequency source. That's probably not a real good idea from a  
reliability standpoint ...

Bob Camp

Mandatory truth in advertising notice - yes I'm in the OCXO  
business 


On Jun 21, 2007, at 4:00 PM, David Duchscher wrote:

> On Jun 21, 2007, at 1:38 AM, Poul-Henning Kamp wrote:
>
>> In message <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>,
>> David Duchscher
>> writes:
>>
>>> The Garmin GPS 17HVS PPS line has a
>>> specification of +/- 1 microsecond.  Secondly, do you have an idea
>>> of what the accuracy of the such a setup would be?
>>
>> The GPS is actually the less critical component, as long as it has
>> a decent PPS output.
>>
>> I have only used Oncore GPS, but with an OCXO that will hold solid
>> inside 1ms.  With an Rb you get to the point where calibration of
>> cable-lengths and ethernetchips is your major source of error.
>
> I guess I get to see what I can get away with...I love to play with
> this stuff but my electronics knowledge is low. Guess I have more
> research to do.  :)  If anybody has any pointers or recommendations
> on OCXO, I would love to hear from you.
>
> Thanks again for taking time to answer my questions.
> --
> DaveD
>
> ___
> Soekris-tech mailing list
> Soekris-tech@lists.soekris.com
> http://lists.soekris.com/mailman/listinfo/soekris-tech
>

___
Soekris-tech mailing list
Soekris-tech@lists.soekris.com
http://lists.soekris.com/mailman/listinfo/soekris-tech

Re: [Soekris] Soekris & NTP

[Bob Camp]

Hi

What's the topology of your network?

If you have asymmetric routing delays they can easily limit your  
accuracy.

We apparently  have some creative IT guys, so we even see non- 
stationary asymmetry on our LAN ....

Bob Camp


On Jun 20, 2007, at 9:05 PM, David Duchscher wrote:

> On Jun 20, 2007, at 2:59 PM, Poul-Henning Kamp wrote:
>
>> In message <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>,
>> David Duchscher
>> writes:
>>
>>> I am looking at using a Soekris unit for NTP and was wondering if
>>> people have a recommendation for which board to use?  Traffic  
>>> will be
>>> low, no encryption.  I was looking at the 4801 as I see netgate.com
>>> has a rack mount case for it but that is just a nicety and not
>>> requiredment.  GPS clock we are looking at using is the GPS 17HVS.
>>> Any comments, suggestions, pointers, etc would be greatly
>>> appreciated.
>>
>> Go for the 4501, you can get much better precision if you throw
>> a GPS and possibly a good X-tal after it.
>>
>> John wrote up my design here:
>>
>>  http://www.febo.com/pages/soekris/
>
> That really is sweet.
>
> A couple of questions, if you have the time.  The accuracy requirement
> for our setup is +/- 1 millisecond, do you think the 4501 plus the
> Garmin GPS unit with the standard clock crystal would be able to
> meet that requirement?  The Garmin GPS 17HVS PPS line has a
> specification of +/- 1 microsecond.  Secondly, do you have an idea
> of what the accuracy of the such a setup would be?  It would be fun
> to build a very accurate NTP server but the requirements are not
> there. I am trying to keep things as simple and reliable as possible
> since I am not the only admin that will be maintaining the unit.
> At the same time, I rather not spend 400 for a Symmetricom NTS-150.
> As an example of our thinking, we decided on the Garmin GPS sensor
> for easy installation and it being designed for marine applications,
> would be able to handle the hot, long days of sun, and wet environment
> we have here.
>
> The Garmin manual is located here:
>
>http://www8.garmin.com/manuals/GPS16HVS_TechnicalSpecifications.pdf
>
> Thanks for your time,
> --
> DaveD
>
> ___
> Soekris-tech mailing list
> Soekris-tech@lists.soekris.com
> http://lists.soekris.com/mailman/listinfo/soekris-tech
>

___
Soekris-tech mailing list
Soekris-tech@lists.soekris.com
http://lists.soekris.com/mailman/listinfo/soekris-tech

Re: [Soekris] Soekris & NTP

[Bob Camp]

Hi

... or you could put a good low profile OCXO in as the frequency  
standard :)

As far as I can tell you can get up to several hundred clients and  
still have a lightly loaded net4501. With 30 to 40 clients "top"  
shows almost no load at all (< < 1%).

Bob Camp


On Jun 20, 2007, at 3:59 PM, Poul-Henning Kamp wrote:

> In message <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>,  
> David Duchscher
> writes:
>
>> I am looking at using a Soekris unit for NTP and was wondering if
>> people have a recommendation for which board to use?  Traffic will be
>> low, no encryption.  I was looking at the 4801 as I see netgate.com
>> has a rack mount case for it but that is just a nicety and not
>> requiredment.  GPS clock we are looking at using is the GPS 17HVS.
>> Any comments, suggestions, pointers, etc would be greatly  
>> appreciated.
>
> Go for the 4501, you can get much better precision if you throw
> a GPS and possibly a good X-tal after it.
>
> John wrote up my design here:
>
>   http://www.febo.com/pages/soekris/
>
>
> -- 
> Poul-Henning Kamp   | UNIX since Zilog Zeus 3.20
> [EMAIL PROTECTED] | TCP/IP since RFC 956
> FreeBSD committer   | BSD since 4.3-tahoe
> Never attribute to malice what can adequately be explained by  
> incompetence.
> ___
> Soekris-tech mailing list
> Soekris-tech@lists.soekris.com
> http://lists.soekris.com/mailman/listinfo/soekris-tech
>

___
Soekris-tech mailing list
Soekris-tech@lists.soekris.com
http://lists.soekris.com/mailman/listinfo/soekris-tech

Re: [Soekris] Soekris Net4826-50 mounting

[Bob Camp]

Hi

They can be found at:

http://www.hammondmfg.com/index.htm

Their die cast boxes are the ones I normally like to use. Very rugged  
and well made.

Bob

On Jun 13, 2007, at 7:16 PM, Jingshao Chen wrote:

> Hi Bob,
>
> Do you have a link to Hammond Industries?
>
> Thanks,
> Jingshao
>
> On Wed, Jun 13, 2007 at 07:33:39AM -0400, Bob Camp wrote:
>> Hi
>>
>> Take a look at Hammond Industries cases. A lot of places sell them
>> including DigiKey. They seem to be a little better made than the ones
>> from Bud.
>>
>> If you are going for more than a few hundred cases then custom begins
>> to make sense.
>>
>> Bob Camp
>>
>>
>> On Jun 13, 2007, at 5:10 AM, ranjith wrote:
>>
>>> Hi,
>>>
>>> Thanks for the answers.
>>> Well actually we figured out that it would be better to use a ready
>>> made
>>> casing for our requirement and not a custom built one...We would
>>> probably look for enclosures on budind.com for that..anyway we
>>> would be
>>> going in for metallic casing..so all your answers would help.
>>>
>>> Thanks
>>> Ranjith
>>>
>>> nicodache wrote:
>>>> Hello,
>>>>
>>>> I'd add that on some "commecial" motherboard (asus, msi, etc), not
>>>> all
>>>> the mouting holes are connected together, I've heard about
>>>> motherboard
>>>> that died of surge problems with some mouting holes unused.
>>>> However, I
>>>> don't know how the mouting holes are on soekris hardware.
>>>>
>>>> anyway, if you make yourself a case, you might think of using
>>>> standard
>>>> mouting brassed screws/spacers, and in that case, you won't have  
>>>> this
>>>> kind of problems
>>>>
>>>> (and if you make yourself a case, would you mind share your case
>>>> plans
>>>> with us ?)
>>>>
>>>> On 6/13/07, Poul-Henning Kamp <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> In message <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>,
>>>>> Ranjith writes:
>>>>>
>>>>>> Hi,
>>>>>>
>>>>>> We have purchased Net4826-50 board and case from Soekris. We
>>>>>> would be
>>>>>> mounting the board in another custom built casing.
>>>>>> Please guide as to whether we can either use metallic or non-
>>>>>> metallic
>>>>>> mounting plate for the same? Would the choice of the mounting  
>>>>>> plate
>>>>>> material really matter?
>>>>>>
>>>>> Depends what exactly you are doing with it, it's hard to give
>>>>> blanket advice about something like that.
>>>>>
>>>>> You need to decide up front if you want your (presumably) metalic
>>>>> enclosure to have electrical connection to the GND potential of
>>>>> the 4826.
>>>>>
>>>>> Choosing that this should _not_ be the case puts your soekris
>>>>> at a healthy danger because it will have to take all static
>>>>> electricity spikes on its own, whereas if you keep a common
>>>>> reference potenential for the entire enclosure the box will
>>>>> usually take the hit.
>>>>>
>>>>> Having decided what to do about your reference potential, you need
>>>>> to figure out how to do it.  A metalic mounting plate with metalic
>>>>> spacers is normally an OK reference connection, if you use  
>>>>> isolating
>>>>> spacers or isolated mounting plate, you would need to add a wire
>>>>> from one of the mounting holes on the soekris to your reference
>>>>> potential.
>>>>>
>>>>> --
>>>>> Poul-Henning Kamp   | UNIX since Zilog Zeus 3.20
>>>>> [EMAIL PROTECTED] | TCP/IP since RFC 956
>>>>> FreeBSD committer   | BSD since 4.3-tahoe
>>>>> Never attribute to malice what can adequately be explained by
>>>>> incompetence.
>>>>> ___
>>>>> Soekris-tech mailing list
>>>>> Soekris-tech@lists.soekris.com
>>>>> http://lists.soekris.com/mailman/listinfo/soekris-tech
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>> ___
>>>> Soekris-tech mailing list
>>>> Soekris-tech@lists.soekris.com
>>>> http://lists.soekris.com/mailman/listinfo/soekris-tech
>>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> -- 
>>>
>>>
>>> _
>>>
>>> Thanks & Regards
>>> Ranjith
>>>
>>> Amrita Research Labs
>>> Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham
>>> Amritapuri P.O
>>> Kollam, Kerala - 690525
>>>
>>> Ph:0476-2896318/2896328
>>> Extn: 4102
>>>
>>> http://arl.amrita.edu
>>>
>>> ___
>>> Soekris-tech mailing list
>>> Soekris-tech@lists.soekris.com
>>> http://lists.soekris.com/mailman/listinfo/soekris-tech
>>>
>>
>> ___
>> Soekris-tech mailing list
>> Soekris-tech@lists.soekris.com
>> http://lists.soekris.com/mailman/listinfo/soekris-tech
> ___
> Soekris-tech mailing list
> Soekris-tech@lists.soekris.com
> http://lists.soekris.com/mailman/listinfo/soekris-tech
>

___
Soekris-tech mailing list
Soekris-tech@lists.soekris.com
http://lists.soekris.com/mailman/listinfo/soekris-tech

Re: [Soekris] Soekris Net4826-50 mounting

[Bob Camp]

Hi

Take a look at Hammond Industries cases. A lot of places sell them  
including DigiKey. They seem to be a little better made than the ones  
from Bud.

If you are going for more than a few hundred cases then custom begins  
to make sense.

Bob Camp


On Jun 13, 2007, at 5:10 AM, ranjith wrote:

> Hi,
>
> Thanks for the answers.
> Well actually we figured out that it would be better to use a ready  
> made
> casing for our requirement and not a custom built one...We would
> probably look for enclosures on budind.com for that..anyway we  
> would be
> going in for metallic casing..so all your answers would help.
>
> Thanks
> Ranjith
>
> nicodache wrote:
>> Hello,
>>
>> I'd add that on some "commecial" motherboard (asus, msi, etc), not  
>> all
>> the mouting holes are connected together, I've heard about  
>> motherboard
>> that died of surge problems with some mouting holes unused.  
>> However, I
>> don't know how the mouting holes are on soekris hardware.
>>
>> anyway, if you make yourself a case, you might think of using  
>> standard
>> mouting brassed screws/spacers, and in that case, you won't have this
>> kind of problems
>>
>> (and if you make yourself a case, would you mind share your case  
>> plans
>> with us ?)
>>
>> On 6/13/07, Poul-Henning Kamp <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>>
>>> In message <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>,  
>>> Ranjith writes:
>>>
>>>> Hi,
>>>>
>>>> We have purchased Net4826-50 board and case from Soekris. We  
>>>> would be
>>>> mounting the board in another custom built casing.
>>>> Please guide as to whether we can either use metallic or non- 
>>>> metallic
>>>> mounting plate for the same? Would the choice of the mounting plate
>>>> material really matter?
>>>>
>>> Depends what exactly you are doing with it, it's hard to give
>>> blanket advice about something like that.
>>>
>>> You need to decide up front if you want your (presumably) metalic
>>> enclosure to have electrical connection to the GND potential of
>>> the 4826.
>>>
>>> Choosing that this should _not_ be the case puts your soekris
>>> at a healthy danger because it will have to take all static
>>> electricity spikes on its own, whereas if you keep a common
>>> reference potenential for the entire enclosure the box will
>>> usually take the hit.
>>>
>>> Having decided what to do about your reference potential, you need
>>> to figure out how to do it.  A metalic mounting plate with metalic
>>> spacers is normally an OK reference connection, if you use isolating
>>> spacers or isolated mounting plate, you would need to add a wire
>>> from one of the mounting holes on the soekris to your reference
>>> potential.
>>>
>>> --
>>> Poul-Henning Kamp   | UNIX since Zilog Zeus 3.20
>>> [EMAIL PROTECTED] | TCP/IP since RFC 956
>>> FreeBSD committer   | BSD since 4.3-tahoe
>>> Never attribute to malice what can adequately be explained by  
>>> incompetence.
>>> ___
>>> Soekris-tech mailing list
>>> Soekris-tech@lists.soekris.com
>>> http://lists.soekris.com/mailman/listinfo/soekris-tech
>>>
>>>
>> ___
>> Soekris-tech mailing list
>> Soekris-tech@lists.soekris.com
>> http://lists.soekris.com/mailman/listinfo/soekris-tech
>>
>
>
> -- 
>
>
> _
>
> Thanks & Regards
> Ranjith
>
> Amrita Research Labs
> Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham
> Amritapuri P.O
> Kollam, Kerala - 690525
>
> Ph:0476-2896318/2896328
> Extn: 4102
>
> http://arl.amrita.edu
>
> ___
> Soekris-tech mailing list
> Soekris-tech@lists.soekris.com
> http://lists.soekris.com/mailman/listinfo/soekris-tech
>

___
Soekris-tech mailing list
Soekris-tech@lists.soekris.com
http://lists.soekris.com/mailman/listinfo/soekris-tech