June 25, 2009 at 11:59 Perfect NAS? Another point of view, eBox-2300SX
About a month ago, I came to the conclusion that I needed a NAS. For what? It's simple - I wanted to download torrents regardless of the main computer. That is, I scored the downloads in the queue and do what you want with the main computer - let the NAS work. The question immediately arose - and what, in fact, to take?
I determined for myself the relative criteria:
- the price is up to 5000 rubles
- noiselessness
- functionality
- small sizes
Having walked through the range of available models, I realized one very important thing - at a price of up to 5000 rubles, not a single NAS can mentally download torrents. First of all, because the hardware platform of these models is very weak, and torrents are known for their voracity (relative to direct data transfer).
And if you also add the cost of the hard drive to this, then it becomes straight quite bad.
And then I became interested in thin clients.
Thin clients, of course, are not intended for NAS organization at all. Such machines are mainly used for users to work through the terminal. Having studied the possible options, I settled on the Vortex86SX platform , manufactured by the Taiwanese company DM&P.
This platform is used in the eBox-2300SX thin client model .
Features:
Processor - x86-compatible MSTI PSX-300, 366MHz
Memory - 128MB DDR2
Video - XGI Z9S with 32MB DDR2
USB 2.0 port - x3
Type I / II Compact Flash slot - x1
10 / 100Mbps LAN port - x1
PS / 2 port - x1
Passive cooling, dimensions 115 x 115 x 35 mm.
There are several models of eBox-2300SX. These ones are worth highlighting:
SX - the standard version with all of the above - 140 $
SX-H - the standard version with the ability to connect 2.5 HDD - 160 $
SX-M - the standard version with mini-PCI slot - $ 160
Poking around at home, I found the Transcend 250GB usb-hard lying around. Therefore, it was decided to take the standard model and save 20 bucks, and connect hard via usb.
It is worth noting that in Russia both the eBox-2300SX itself and its clones, for example Norma-TS С36D and WTPRO Easy2Use, are sold . They cost a little more.
The decision is made - I order, pay and wait. In parallel with this I buy a 4GB CF card from Transcend for 600 rubles to install the system.
Now the bad news - the MSTI PSX-300 processor does not have FPU. In general, this processor is an Intel 486SX clone with a significantly increased frequency. So far from all OSs can work on it. The developer officially announces support for three systems - WinCE, DOS and Linux. Of course, the first two are of no interest. DM&P introduces its own version of Linux - X-Linux .
Here is a short list of its components:
Kernel - 2.6.24
Shell - BusyBox
FTPD - vsftpd
HTTPD - WN Server
SSHD - Dropbear
It’s clear that you won’t get far on this. There is no package manager, not even standard gcc / g ++ and make. However, the developer positions it only as the basis for building anything. From this we will build on.
In fairness, I must say that on the eBox-2300SX it is quite realistic to run any Linux distribution at all. To do this, you just need to assemble the kernel with the CONFIG_MATH_EMULATION = y parameter :) However, modern adult distributions are not designed to be used in a small amount of memory and a weak processor. Therefore, and only therefore, I decided to bring to mind X-Linux. But more on that later.
Here it is, the treasured box.
And here is the eBox itself.
All as stated, though I could not imagine that he really is so small.
Options are simply amazing. The eBox itself, an adapter to it and 4 bolts for the VESA mount. It's all. Saved even on paper, no manuals or warranty cards. Well, yes, in principle, probably this is not so important.
The first thing I climb inside. There are no fillings on the road, so you can safely open it. The lid sits on four long bolts; you do not need to unscrew anything else.
Interesting ... Everything is so small and such a healthy battery. I look at the bottom:
Oops ... Port for connecting HDD. Very interesting. It turns out that an additional $ 20 is paid for the cable for the connection? Looking ahead, I will say that in the BIOS this port is freely configurable. Probably in the SX-H modification, a cable for connection was simply added and the bottom cover was made removable for more convenient connection.
Another interesting feature is the small lever near the CF slot, which serves to determine the CF card. He has two positions - Master and Slave.
It is also worth considering that those who wish can easily unsolder another USB port and as many as two COM ports.
BIOS is standard and poorly functional. In some sections, there are some interesting options that I have never encountered before. But there is no manual and you can only find out what they are doing empirically. I did not begin to do this, everything works out of the box.
Proceed to install the OS. DM&P honestly warned that for “installation” it is better to use image recovery through Symantec / Norton Ghost. We connect the CF card to the main computer through a card reader and in 3 clicks we restore the image to the CF card (Local> Disk> From image). The main thing here is not to make a mistake in choosing the destination disk.
Well, now we insert the CF card into the corresponding slot on the eBox and you can boot.
Download time is good - from the moment of switching on to full load it takes about 12 seconds.
The default username and password is root: password.
And now the fun begins - you need to make a NAS out of this.
As a donor, I chose the ZenWalk 5.2 Core distribution , mainly for two reasons:
- ZenWalk is built on the basis of Slackware and all the packages in it are built under i486, which is just suitable for the eBox platform
- its image was found on my screw :)
First of all, I installed the following:
autoconf
automake
bash
binutils
cvs
cxxxlibs
db44
dialog
expat
g ++
gcc
gdbm
gettext
gettext-tools
glib
glibc
gzip
libtermcap
m4
make
ncurses
netpkg
openssl
perl
perl-pvfilter
pkgtools
python
readline
sed
tar
zlib
Of course, all this had to be done with pens, but with standard Slack packages in tgz this is not very difficult. In time, it took me about an hour.
That's it, now you can safely use netpkg to install everything that your soul desires. With the ability to compile, I got a little broken off. The processor is so weak that even mc was going to take about an hour. If there is no hurry, then this is not a problem. I preferred to build software for ZenWalk in VMWare on the main computer.
Yusb devices are seen and so. I calmly was able to connect my usb-hard and usb-dvd.
We put samba and transmission with a web interface:
netpkg samba
netpkg transmission
Configured, everything is as usual. Add both of them (smbd, nmbd, transmission-daemon) to /etc/init.d/rcS for startup. There is no service manager in X-Linux, but I decided not to bother and do as they suggest.
That's basically all - I got what I wanted - a silent and small rocking torrent with the possibility of unlimited expansion of functionality. The download time from the start with all services is ~ 20 seconds. The transfer speed through samba, provided that it downloads and distributes about 10-15 torrents, is 5-6 Mb / s, this is quite enough for me. Additionally, about 100 MB of RAM remain free. Just a fairy tale.
I think it’s quite possible to put on the eBox the notorious FreeNASif you can rebuild its core with support for FPU emulation. Unfortunately, I'm not strong with freeBSD, so I don’t know if this is actually possible. Yes, and I do not need all the functionality of FreeNAS.
Also, it seems to me, after a similar finish, it will be possible to put the eBox platform . Ebox on ebox, it will be great :)
In addition, there is also the usual eBox-3200 , without the SX prefix. The configuration there is about the same, with one significant exception - the processor has an FPU, which means that no tricks are needed. Only one thing - this model is a little more expensive and more difficult to find.
Thank you for your attention, I hope not only I want to get what I really need for a reasonable price and this material will be useful for someone.
Useful links:
X-Linux manual
Driver for ethernet controller
Topic for launching PuppyLinux on eBox-2300SX
PS Taking this opportunity, I wantto say hello to thank people thanks to whom I ended up in the hub
I determined for myself the relative criteria:
- the price is up to 5000 rubles
- noiselessness
- functionality
- small sizes
Having walked through the range of available models, I realized one very important thing - at a price of up to 5000 rubles, not a single NAS can mentally download torrents. First of all, because the hardware platform of these models is very weak, and torrents are known for their voracity (relative to direct data transfer).
And if you also add the cost of the hard drive to this, then it becomes straight quite bad.
And then I became interested in thin clients.
Thin clients, of course, are not intended for NAS organization at all. Such machines are mainly used for users to work through the terminal. Having studied the possible options, I settled on the Vortex86SX platform , manufactured by the Taiwanese company DM&P.
This platform is used in the eBox-2300SX thin client model .
Features:
Processor - x86-compatible MSTI PSX-300, 366MHz
Memory - 128MB DDR2
Video - XGI Z9S with 32MB DDR2
USB 2.0 port - x3
Type I / II Compact Flash slot - x1
10 / 100Mbps LAN port - x1
PS / 2 port - x1
Passive cooling, dimensions 115 x 115 x 35 mm.
There are several models of eBox-2300SX. These ones are worth highlighting:
SX - the standard version with all of the above - 140 $
SX-H - the standard version with the ability to connect 2.5 HDD - 160 $
SX-M - the standard version with mini-PCI slot - $ 160
Poking around at home, I found the Transcend 250GB usb-hard lying around. Therefore, it was decided to take the standard model and save 20 bucks, and connect hard via usb.
It is worth noting that in Russia both the eBox-2300SX itself and its clones, for example Norma-TS С36D and WTPRO Easy2Use, are sold . They cost a little more.
The decision is made - I order, pay and wait. In parallel with this I buy a 4GB CF card from Transcend for 600 rubles to install the system.
Now the bad news - the MSTI PSX-300 processor does not have FPU. In general, this processor is an Intel 486SX clone with a significantly increased frequency. So far from all OSs can work on it. The developer officially announces support for three systems - WinCE, DOS and Linux. Of course, the first two are of no interest. DM&P introduces its own version of Linux - X-Linux .
Here is a short list of its components:
Kernel - 2.6.24
Shell - BusyBox
FTPD - vsftpd
HTTPD - WN Server
SSHD - Dropbear
It’s clear that you won’t get far on this. There is no package manager, not even standard gcc / g ++ and make. However, the developer positions it only as the basis for building anything. From this we will build on.
In fairness, I must say that on the eBox-2300SX it is quite realistic to run any Linux distribution at all. To do this, you just need to assemble the kernel with the CONFIG_MATH_EMULATION = y parameter :) However, modern adult distributions are not designed to be used in a small amount of memory and a weak processor. Therefore, and only therefore, I decided to bring to mind X-Linux. But more on that later.
Here it is, the treasured box.
And here is the eBox itself.
All as stated, though I could not imagine that he really is so small.
Options are simply amazing. The eBox itself, an adapter to it and 4 bolts for the VESA mount. It's all. Saved even on paper, no manuals or warranty cards. Well, yes, in principle, probably this is not so important.
The first thing I climb inside. There are no fillings on the road, so you can safely open it. The lid sits on four long bolts; you do not need to unscrew anything else.
Interesting ... Everything is so small and such a healthy battery. I look at the bottom:
Oops ... Port for connecting HDD. Very interesting. It turns out that an additional $ 20 is paid for the cable for the connection? Looking ahead, I will say that in the BIOS this port is freely configurable. Probably in the SX-H modification, a cable for connection was simply added and the bottom cover was made removable for more convenient connection.
Another interesting feature is the small lever near the CF slot, which serves to determine the CF card. He has two positions - Master and Slave.
It is also worth considering that those who wish can easily unsolder another USB port and as many as two COM ports.
BIOS is standard and poorly functional. In some sections, there are some interesting options that I have never encountered before. But there is no manual and you can only find out what they are doing empirically. I did not begin to do this, everything works out of the box.
Proceed to install the OS. DM&P honestly warned that for “installation” it is better to use image recovery through Symantec / Norton Ghost. We connect the CF card to the main computer through a card reader and in 3 clicks we restore the image to the CF card (Local> Disk> From image). The main thing here is not to make a mistake in choosing the destination disk.
Well, now we insert the CF card into the corresponding slot on the eBox and you can boot.
Download time is good - from the moment of switching on to full load it takes about 12 seconds.
The default username and password is root: password.
And now the fun begins - you need to make a NAS out of this.
As a donor, I chose the ZenWalk 5.2 Core distribution , mainly for two reasons:
- ZenWalk is built on the basis of Slackware and all the packages in it are built under i486, which is just suitable for the eBox platform
- its image was found on my screw :)
First of all, I installed the following:
autoconf
automake
bash
binutils
cvs
cxxxlibs
db44
dialog
expat
g ++
gcc
gdbm
gettext
gettext-tools
glib
glibc
gzip
libtermcap
m4
make
ncurses
netpkg
openssl
perl
perl-pvfilter
pkgtools
python
readline
sed
tar
zlib
Of course, all this had to be done with pens, but with standard Slack packages in tgz this is not very difficult. In time, it took me about an hour.
That's it, now you can safely use netpkg to install everything that your soul desires. With the ability to compile, I got a little broken off. The processor is so weak that even mc was going to take about an hour. If there is no hurry, then this is not a problem. I preferred to build software for ZenWalk in VMWare on the main computer.
Yusb devices are seen and so. I calmly was able to connect my usb-hard and usb-dvd.
We put samba and transmission with a web interface:
netpkg samba
netpkg transmission
Configured, everything is as usual. Add both of them (smbd, nmbd, transmission-daemon) to /etc/init.d/rcS for startup. There is no service manager in X-Linux, but I decided not to bother and do as they suggest.
That's basically all - I got what I wanted - a silent and small rocking torrent with the possibility of unlimited expansion of functionality. The download time from the start with all services is ~ 20 seconds. The transfer speed through samba, provided that it downloads and distributes about 10-15 torrents, is 5-6 Mb / s, this is quite enough for me. Additionally, about 100 MB of RAM remain free. Just a fairy tale.
I think it’s quite possible to put on the eBox the notorious FreeNASif you can rebuild its core with support for FPU emulation. Unfortunately, I'm not strong with freeBSD, so I don’t know if this is actually possible. Yes, and I do not need all the functionality of FreeNAS.
Also, it seems to me, after a similar finish, it will be possible to put the eBox platform . Ebox on ebox, it will be great :)
In addition, there is also the usual eBox-3200 , without the SX prefix. The configuration there is about the same, with one significant exception - the processor has an FPU, which means that no tricks are needed. Only one thing - this model is a little more expensive and more difficult to find.
Thank you for your attention, I hope not only I want to get what I really need for a reasonable price and this material will be useful for someone.
Useful links:
X-Linux manual
Driver for ethernet controller
Topic for launching PuppyLinux on eBox-2300SX
PS Taking this opportunity, I want