Re: build a hack box of choice?

I might be narrow minded, but... hardware specifically for WiFi Linux 
projects.  I want the hardware to be much closer in cost (and function) 
to a SOHO router than the general purpose stuff that in my opinion costs 
to much to really catch on.

If an OpenBrick was $100 I would probably not be torturing you all with 
my dumb idea. 

I like at the price of the 802.11g APs and routers...  Under $50 after 
rebates on some of these.  If a company were to negotiate with 
Netgear/Dlink/Linksys or their OEMs for the same thing, with complete 
hackability... it would be well worth $100 I would think.

-Scott


Francois Gurin wrote:

>How would such hardware differ from soekris and openbrick?
>
>--francois
>
>On Wed, Jan 28, 2004 at 10:03:36AM -0700, Scott Serr wrote:
>  
>
>>To clarify what I am thinking a little...  What if XYZ company could 
>>supply you with hardware that is almost like the SOHO router that you 
>>are porting to, but XYZ company adds widget A to make it hackable.  And 
>>they try to have a long run without EOLing so fast.
>>
>>Basically XYZ would obtain or build the super hackable SOHO you want, 
>>give it to you at a decent price and in a limited way support the 
>>hacking and Linux porting that you guys do.
>>
>>-Scott
>>
>>
>>Bruno Lopes F. Cabral wrote:
>>
>>    
>>
>>>Hello there
>>>
>>>there are at least a few initiatives like you're searching for,
>>>i.e. from seattlewireless.net (Samsung S3C4510B), hri.sf.net
>>>(Conexant 84200/newer samsungs), actiontec router, ucrouter.ru
>>>(also Samsung S3C4510B) and so on
>>>
>>>all of them try to port linux to SOHO routers(*), which are
>>>cheap but have the drawback of changed hardware revisions
>>>so often that one could get a unit with a different processor
>>>than the one already ported to :^|
>>>
>>>I'm with hri.sf.net guys: some info on porting is on-line,
>>>some is published on the list (we really need to put all
>>>on-line, sf.net list archive is simply horrible!)... some
>>>is still undocumented ...
>>>
>>>our goal is to make the ports AND PUT THE INFO ON HOW WE
>>>DID IT available. the boards we're tweaking into have
>>>serial UARTs available, as JTAG connectors
>>>
>>>about books, I read one from O'reilly (Building Embedded
>>>Linux I think) but it is more on how to build your own
>>>toolchain(**) than on how to diggle with different hardware
>>>to start with. I'm in search of a book on _hardware_
>>>and how to change linux kernel to accomodate it (in case
>>>anyone knows such a book, I'd like to know)
>>>
>>>http://vega.soi.city.ac.uk/~es728/pdf/aleph.pdf
>>>as a nice doc about how to port linux to a new ARM based
>>>board. that helped me to solve the uncompressing part
>>>of linux boot loader (so I get my first cx84200 port
>>>with ramdisk to SMC7004VWBR rev.1 hardware)
>>>
>>>about a cheaper board than soekris, try www.pcengines.ch,
>>>Geode 233 for US$140 (US$98 in 480 quantities). soekris
>>>is about US$185-199 for a AMD ELAN 133, which seems too
>>>much to me ( remember you'll need to add wlan card,
>>>power supply and case -- that's why HRI project is so
>>>interesting ;-) )
>>>
>>>Cheers
>>>!3runo
>>>
>>>(*) ucrouter.ru actually build their own board. their
>>>rom can run on many samsung s3c4510b based boxes!
>>>
>>>(**) I recomend snapgear.org toolchain. it is available
>>>for various embedded systems
>>>
>>>Scott Serr wrote:
>>>
>>>      
>>>
>>>>With all the talk about which new box might be hackable, it seems 
>>>>obvious that there is a need for something cheap but with the 
>>>>capabilities of the expensive Soekris boards.
>>>>
>>>>I work as a software engineer (IT department doing mostly Java and 
>>>>web stuff) of an ASIC company.  I know very little about hardware, 
>>>>but I work with friends that know hardware and know the industry and 
>>>>the OEM players.
>>>>
>>>>My question is...  what needs to be in a box to not just make it 
>>>>hackable, but be made to hack and put Linux on it?  Also, is there 
>>>>current hardware (WRT54?) that may have an OEM much like all the 
>>>>vendors that used the WL11000 based boards?
>>>>I'm wondering if a rough business model of catering to the Linux-hack 
>>>>market would work.  Of course I am counting all the applications of 
>>>>the hacked boxes, otherwise the quantity probably wouldn't be enough.
>>>>        
>>>>
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>>>      
>>>
>>
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