Re: LinkSys NSS4000 NAS w/ RM7000+PMON2000

Toru Nishimura <locore64 <at> alkyltechnology.com> writes:

> 
> Andy Ruhl sez;
> 
> > Hmm, nice machine. Dual gigabit ethernet controllers and 4 disks...
> > 
> > Do you know if you can netboot it similar to the NSLU2?
> 
> PMON2000 is a feature rich bootloader made by the man who
> ported the world first real BSD Unix to R4000.  The port was called
> "pica".
> 
> http://www.opsycon.se/pmonmain
> 
> Started from the original PMON, PMON2000 has been acumulating
> many features by importing code from NetBSD and OpenBSD.  I would
> not be surprised seeing NASS4000 even boots ELF kernel on FFS
> filesys.
> 
> > This thing could make a really nice box. It's still a little pricey though.
> 
> The 64bit OS capable machine could be made in lower price and I feel
> puzzling indeed about the wrong combination of HW.
> 
> - PM8172 is SysAD32 system controller.  By replacing it with other
>   "industory grade" one like Marvell Discovery LT you can buy
>   133MHz/166MHz SysAD64 frontside bus w/ DDR333 memory and
>   buildin GbE.
> - Having RM9120/9220(dual E9K core) could be instant win (but
>   PMC-Sierra abandond the entire RM9000 line)
> - then moderate replacement choice would be RM9150.
> 
> Toru Nishimura / ALKYL Technology
> 
> 

Toru,

I now this is from seven years ago, but did you ever make any progress on
this?  I have an NSS4000 that's basically bricked itself, and I'd like to
find an option other than the Cisco-supplied o/s.

I'm considering yanking the mobo out and replacing with something
ATOM-based, or even a Pi B+.

Cheers.

Tim Mueller