ebenZEROONE@verizon.net (Hactar) wrote:
> case (mini-ITX, fanless, black):
> http://www.logicsupply.com/products/gs_l01

Seems to be a nice box...

> 5 16 GB thumb drives to go in a RAID 5 (? 4 * partition + parity) making
> 64 GB:
> http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820208378

Maybe another option would be to boot by PXE network and have root file
system mounted by NFS? With such a solution you would have a networked
noisy server in another room.

> 4-line LED panel:
> http://www.matrixorbital.com/product...?pName=lk20425

The LED panels are cheaper than the VFD panels, however VFD panels look
more exclusive. However, how are you going to fit that panel into the box
of your choice?

> I'll find a keyboard somewhere.

A keyboard might be useful during installation and configuration. For day
to day operation a remote control might be more convenient.

regards Henrik
--
The address in the header is only to prevent spam. My real address is:
hc3(at)poolhem.se Examples of addresses which go to spammers:
root@localhost postmaster@localhost

On Mon, 21 Apr 2008 03:08:03 UTC in comp.os.linux.hardware,
ebenZEROONE@verizon.net (Hactar) wrote:

> 5 16 GB thumb drives to go in a RAID 5 (? 4 * partition + parity) making
> 64 GB:

I have no idea of the life epectancy of those but I would also look at using 3 x
2.5" laptop drives instead, also in RAID 5. You can get a 60GB version for
about $50 - that seems to be the smallest size you can buy at the moment. If you
went that route you might want to find a different motherboard with SATA ports
to connect them to.




--
Trevor Hemsley, Brighton, UK
Trevor dot Hemsley at ntlworld dot com

In article ,
Trevor Hemsley wrote:
> On Mon, 21 Apr 2008 03:08:03 UTC in comp.os.linux.hardware,
> ebenZEROONE@verizon.net (Hactar) wrote:
>
> > 5 16 GB thumb drives to go in a RAID 5 (? 4 * partition + parity) making
> > 64 GB:
>
> I have no idea of the life epectancy of those but I would also look at using 3 x
> 2.5" laptop drives instead, also in RAID 5. You can get a 60GB version for
> about $50 - that seems to be the smallest size you can buy at the moment. If you
> went that route you might want to find a different motherboard with SATA ports
> to connect them to.

Dunno... I'm trying to agoid anything that creates even a small amount
of noise. This will be in my bedroom, after all. I think I'm going to
go for having it boot and mount its filesystems over the LAN, from this
machine which is up 24/7. Yeah, that ties its operation to the router
and my machine.

Maybe a hybrid, with some 2.5" drives hanging off a USB cable in the
closet?

--
-eben QebWenE01R@vTerYizUonI.nOetP royalty.mine.nu:81
Your pretended fear lest error might step in is like the man who
would keep all wine out of the country lest men should be drunk.
-- Oliver Cromwell

Trevor Hemsley :
> On Mon, 21 Apr 2008 03:08:03 UTC in comp.os.linux.hardware,
> ebenZEROONE@verizon.net (Hactar) wrote:
>
> > 5 16 GB thumb drives to go in a RAID 5 (? 4 * partition + parity) making
> > 64 GB:
>
> I have no idea of the life epectancy of those but I would also look at using 3 x
> 2.5" laptop drives instead, also in RAID 5. You can get a 60GB version for
> about $50

Man, what a golden age this is. A silent 60 Gb server in the size of
a toaster slot. Not screaming performance perhaps, but still
impressive. Stick ten of 'em together and build a slow Beowulf.

:-) Love learning about these ITX & Sokris-ish things.


--
Any technology distinguishable from magic is insufficiently advanced.
(*) http://blinkynet.net/comp/uip5.html Linux Counter #80292
- - http://www.faqs.org/rfcs/rfc1855.html Please, don't Cc: me.

ebenZEROONE@verizon.net (Hactar) wrote:

> Henrik Carlqvist wrote:
>> Maybe another option would be to boot by PXE network

> Possibly. Where the stereo cabinet is, there's not a reasonable way to
> use wired LAN, so it'd have to be wireless.

To use PXE network boot your network card must have BIOS making it capable
to boot. Some network cards have a socket for placing a PROM with such a
BIOS. Many motherboards with builtin NICs also have such a BIOS which can
be enabled in the CMOS setup.

However, wireless network is a little bit more complex than wired lan. I
don't know if there are any wireless cards which it is possible to boot
from.

regards Henrik
--
The address in the header is only to prevent spam. My real address is:
hc3(at)poolhem.se Examples of addresses which go to spammers:
root@localhost postmaster@localhost

Henrik Carlqvist wrote:
> ebenZEROONE@verizon.net (Hactar) wrote:
>
>> Henrik Carlqvist wrote:
>>> Maybe another option would be to boot by PXE network
>
>> Possibly. Where the stereo cabinet is, there's not a reasonable way to
>> use wired LAN, so it'd have to be wireless.
>
> To use PXE network boot your network card must have BIOS making it capable
> to boot. Some network cards have a socket for placing a PROM with such a
> BIOS. Many motherboards with builtin NICs also have such a BIOS which can
> be enabled in the CMOS setup.
>
> However, wireless network is a little bit more complex than wired lan. I
> don't know if there are any wireless cards which it is possible to boot
> from.

It might also possible to find a boot floppy or cdrom that has the right
drivers to PXE boot from.

You can also use an external wireless bridge attached to a wired NIC in
order to get PXE boot to work.

--
Jon Biggar
Floorboard Software
jon@floorboard.com
jon@biggar.org

In article ,
Jonathan Biggar wrote:
> Henrik Carlqvist wrote:
> > ebenZEROONE@verizon.net (Hactar) wrote:
> >
> >> Henrik Carlqvist wrote:
> >>> Maybe another option would be to boot by PXE network
> >
> >> Possibly. Where the stereo cabinet is, there's not a reasonable way to
> >> use wired LAN, so it'd have to be wireless.
> >
> > To use PXE network boot your network card must have BIOS making it capable
> > to boot. Some network cards have a socket for placing a PROM with such a
> > BIOS. Many motherboards with builtin NICs also have such a BIOS which can
> > be enabled in the CMOS setup.
> >
> > However, wireless network is a little bit more complex than wired lan. I
> > don't know if there are any wireless cards which it is possible to boot
> > from.
>
> It might also possible to find a boot floppy or cdrom that has the right
> drivers to PXE boot from.

Might. What would be more flexble is to boot from a custom CD-R (which
I configure on my other machine) that does the thing LiveCDs do
(whatever that is) to make / on a RAMdisk. Or maybe a USB thumb drive.
Or maybe an IDE-CF adapter, if it won't boot from USB.

> You can also use an external wireless bridge attached to a wired NIC in
> order to get PXE boot to work.

That would work? Cool. How would I configure the bridge for the right
SSID/password to use?

--
-eben QebWenE01R@vTerYizUonI.nOetP royalty.mine.nu:81
If you need someone to blame
Throw a rock in the air
You'll hit someone guilty -- U2, _Zooropa_, "Dirty Day"

Hactar wrote:
>> You can also use an external wireless bridge attached to a wired NIC in
>> order to get PXE boot to work.
>
> That would work? Cool. How would I configure the bridge for the right
> SSID/password to use?

Sure. Wireless bridges that you can buy have a built in web-server
which you can use to set the wireless network and encryption parameters.
Usually you just hook it directly up to a computer, connect your
browser to 192.168.1.1 and go from there.

I use a Belkin 802.11g wireless bridge to connect my TiVo with the rest
of my network.

--
Jon Biggar
Floorboard Software
jon@floorboard.com
jon@biggar.org

On 23 Apr, 07:10, Henrik Carlqvist
wrote:

> To use PXE network boot your network card must have BIOS making it capable
> to boot. Some network cards have a socket for placing a PROM with such a
> BIOS. Many motherboards with builtin NICs also have such a BIOS which can
> be enabled in the CMOS setup.
>
> However, wireless network is a little bit more complex than wired lan. I
> don't know if there are any wireless cards which it is possible to boot
> from.

I have done both of these with the Epia motherboard. The board is now
at a friends house, and he boots DSL from a SD card in an IDE adaptor
instead. I've used a CF adaptor similarly.

I overcame the problem of setting up a wireless network card by using
a different wireless solution:
http://uk.asus.com/products.aspx?l1=...10&modelmenu=1
used not in access point but in ethernet adaptor mode. You set it up
with a web browswer so it knows the SSID and WEP key, and it remembers
those. The mother board thinks it is on wired ethernet, and knows no
better.

At one time I had a tower of epia motherboards. One had a hard disk
and booted suse 8.3, and the others PXE booted from it and loaded a
ramdisk using tftp. Then /bin /usr /tmp etc etc (including, of
course, /etc) were NFS mounted. They all shared the same ones except /
tmp and /etc. It was a sort of compute engine for seti. Long gone,
of course. Wired ethernet, that one, with a switch in the tower too.
At the top, so the leds made it colourful. Gave it to a local school,
but the technology teacher left and the replacement chap didn't
understand it at all.