RE: build a hack box of choice?

I completely agree with Keith.

I've had a bunch o' USR APs for a few years now and an sram card, I've run
all the linuxAP releases, built my own, Jumpered, soldered, paper clipped
and modded the USRs like everybody else.

Then I went to Soekris. It's rock stable, it's simple. it's painless and it
just works.

The Soekris JUST an x86 PC, boots like a PC, has a bios like a PC and has an
ATA hard disk (CF card) just like a PC.

The only difference is the Soekris sends console output to the serial port
instead of VGA, just like a Vaxen, DG, PDP, Prime, Tandum, Altos, 3b2 and
the zillion other *nix machines over the last 30 years.

A 4501 is just $168.00 single lot, throw in a Netgate mini pci card for
another $79.00 and you have an AP. You can use any 12v to 48v dc brick you
have lying around for power.

> -----Original Message-----
> From: [email protected]
> [mailto:[email protected]]On Behalf Of Keith Smith
> Sent: Friday, February 06, 2004 5:38 PM
> To: Linux Access Point Development
> Subject: Re: [LinuxAP-dev] build a hack box of choice?
>
>
> Brian Wilson wrote:
> > Last night I spent some time looking at Openbrick and about 3 dozen
> > other SBC's and can't find anything I really want to shell out my own
> > money for. The disclaimer at the top of the Soekris price list says it
> > all.  It warns that docs are bad and that you have to know what you
> > are doing. Sort of the oppposite of documentation. And marketing. :-)
>
> If you are having problems with a Soekris, talk to me.
>
> The Soekris is basically a PC with no video, it uses the serial port
> instead.  It's pretty brain dead to use, it will boot DOS right off a
> flash as well as linux with the console=serial,... command line, and
> just work.
>
> You can develop on a normal PC with a CF->IDE adaptor, once it boots
> there just snap it in the soekris.
>
> The soekris *has* a BIOS, they just don't have a support infrastructure
> for the real dummies who put in the CF's upside down and can't figure
> out why it isn't working.
>
> There is another similar board to Soekris, that is very long and thin
> like 11" X 3.5" or something, about $20 cheaper in the case.
> Kind of Silly
> beacuse the 100Mhz soekris 4511 is damn near ideal, in terms of footprint
> & capability.
>
> > Back in the real world we'd hire an engineer and get him to learn the
> > board inside out and the vendor would offer training to us because
> > we'd be planning on buying 30,000 units. But here I am all alone and
> > those are not options... I suspect that I am all alone with several
> > thousand other people.
>
> This is silly.  One of the main reasons I ignore all this other 68K and
> Power & ARM stuff is for this very reason.  These x86 boards are identical
> to an old AT/DX4/100 setup with 32MB RAM no video and a single
> serial port.
> In fact . . .  I have an old Cyrix-150 with a 2S/1P serial card on my
> bench that I use to test flashes on.  Don't feel like spending $100 on a
> Cardbus rig for it, or I could take it all the way.  The soekris is a
> PITA to get the CF's in and out of.
>
> $200 is not a ridiculous amount of money.
>
> _______________________________________________
> LinuxAP-dev mailing list
> [email protected]
> http://linuxAP.ksmith.com/mailman/listinfo/linuxap-dev
>