I am considering putting together a 'micro server' that I can easily travel with. I am seriously considering the decTOP, as at $99 (plus the cost of a 256MB SIMM) is amazingly priced.
But I want to run on batteries, so trash a real hard drive. I have a couple of IDE to Compact flash adapters that support 2 flash cards. So I was considering a 4Gb (or even 2Gb) cheap real fash card for the OS and a 4 or 8 Gb micro drive (I have a 4Gb sitting in a drawer gathering dust got to figure out how to fix its paritions that I messed up).
So I was thinking to put the more static parts of the OS on the flash card and the not static parts on the micro drive.
Obviously the Swap partition, /home, and /var/log go onto the micro drive. What else? /tmp?
Are /dev and /proc real things on disk or only pointers to the various devices?
And then how do I put all these directory trees on the micro drive. I currently use a LVM partition for my /home on my notebook, but this is a lot more. Do I do Symbolic links? Or what. Are there any howtos? I have not found anything to help me so far.
Probably got at least a week to figure this out. Obviously I don't have the system right now. And monday it is off to San Fran for the IEEE 802 meeting... (and the following week IETF in Chicago, family gets really upset when I have these 'back-to-back' conferences).
Robert Moskowitz wrote:
I am considering putting together a 'micro server' that I can easily travel with. I am seriously considering the decTOP, as at $99 (plus the cost of a 256MB SIMM) is amazingly priced.
But I want to run on batteries, so trash a real hard drive. I have a couple of IDE to Compact flash adapters that support 2 flash cards. So I was considering a 4Gb (or even 2Gb) cheap real fash card for the OS and a 4 or 8 Gb micro drive (I have a 4Gb sitting in a drawer gathering dust got to figure out how to fix its paritions that I messed up).
So I was thinking to put the more static parts of the OS on the flash card and the not static parts on the micro drive.
Obviously the Swap partition, /home, and /var/log go onto the micro drive. What else? /tmp?
Are /dev and /proc real things on disk or only pointers to the various devices?
And then how do I put all these directory trees on the micro drive. I currently use a LVM partition for my /home on my notebook, but this is a lot more. Do I do Symbolic links? Or what. Are there any howtos? I have not found anything to help me so far.
Probably got at least a week to figure this out. Obviously I don't have the system right now. And monday it is off to San Fran for the IEEE 802 meeting... (and the following week IETF in Chicago, family gets really upset when I have these 'back-to-back' conferences).
The major issue with that box is processor power and usb speed (it is not USB 2). I do not have an alternative that can be used in that way, and so it may be OK so long as you know what you are getting.
Johnny Hughes wrote:
Robert Moskowitz wrote:
I am considering putting together a 'micro server' that I can easily travel with. I am seriously considering the decTOP, as at $99 (plus the cost of a 256MB SIMM) is amazingly priced.
But I want to run on batteries, so trash a real hard drive. I have a couple of IDE to Compact flash adapters that support 2 flash cards. So I was considering a 4Gb (or even 2Gb) cheap real fash card for the OS and a 4 or 8 Gb micro drive (I have a 4Gb sitting in a drawer gathering dust got to figure out how to fix its paritions that I messed up).
So I was thinking to put the more static parts of the OS on the flash card and the not static parts on the micro drive.
Obviously the Swap partition, /home, and /var/log go onto the micro drive. What else? /tmp?
Are /dev and /proc real things on disk or only pointers to the various devices?
And then how do I put all these directory trees on the micro drive. I currently use a LVM partition for my /home on my notebook, but this is a lot more. Do I do Symbolic links? Or what. Are there any howtos? I have not found anything to help me so far.
Probably got at least a week to figure this out. Obviously I don't have the system right now. And monday it is off to San Fran for the IEEE 802 meeting... (and the following week IETF in Chicago, family gets really upset when I have these 'back-to-back' conferences).
The major issue with that box is processor power and usb speed (it is not USB 2). I do not have an alternative that can be used in that way, and so it may be OK so long as you know what you are getting.
The 'hard' drive is on a IDE to Compact flash interface. These things are almost all wiring. I do not believe they are an IDE to USB converter. Afterall, the Compact flash is a drive, so it is a matter of wiring and power. (there is only a couple of capcitors on the PCB and a place to plug in a drive power connector.
So the bottle neck is the Geode GX500 (articles equate it to a 366Mhz Intel processer). But if I can find another nice micro system like the decTOP with a little more speed, at that price point, I would grab it....
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Johnny Hughes -
Robert Moskowitz