NSLU2 has been unslung

March 26, 2005 — dlkinney

I’ve purchased a new NSLU2 and installed Unslung 3.x. A couple of notes:

  1. The instuctions are excellent. Follow them exactly and the operation is a cake walk.
  2. Unslinging an NSLU2 (”slug”) requires a real hard drive — a flash drive does not work. Or, it does not work with the amount of tinkering I was willing to perform.
  3. Install OpenSSH as described before the final reboot, while you are still logged in to telnet. Otherwise you have to unplug the drives reboot (again) to regain telnet access.
  4. Mac OSX does not have arping installed by default (and it’s not a package on fink), so accessing RedBoot is a really frustrating matter of exact timing. (It does appear to be available through OpenDarwin’s Darwin Ports project.)

Installing a Java JVM was simple too, thanks to these instructions, but JamVM does not run Jetty out of the box, so I’ll investigate running Tomcat and Resin next. If necesary, I will then compile Kaffe on the slug and try all of the containers again.

Posted in Community, HowTo. Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , . 2 Comments »

NSLU2 as Linux Servlet Server

March 21, 2005 — dlkinney

With my new, static IP addresses, I’ve started kicking around the possibility of running a public server. I don’t know for what exactly I’d run the server. Possibilties include running Subversion, an OpenLaszlo project gallery, an Echo2 project gallery, or a Confluence knowledgebase for the Echo community. Since I don’t need to run a server — I just want a server — I don’t want to spend a lot of money. In fact, I want to spend as little money as possible.

I donated all of my old computer equipment to a local school system last year, so a new server means new kit. Thinking of a Linux server, I looked up Dell’s offerings, since I get an employee discount with them. It would be $420 + shipping for the lowest-end box they offer. That’s close enough to the price of a Mac mini (with my employee discount) that I seriously contemplated that angle. Still, the $400+ price range is more than I want to invest in this project at this time.

Then I recalled that the Linksys NSLU2 can be hacked to upgrade its Linux kernel and services. I want to keep my current NSLU2 as a file server for my home network, so I would need a new NSLU2 ($80) and a small, external USB2 hard drive ($80). That’s more in line with my price range. Looking over the NSLU2-Linux sites, it certainly runs Web servers serving static content just fine. But does it run Java?

The NSLU2 runs on an Intel IXP425 Xscale CPU. I was unaware of any Java runtimes for the processor until I came across Kaffe. This is not the first time I’ve heard of Kaffe, but it is the first time I’ve seriously considered it. This thread indicates that the newest versions (1.1.4) should build on NSLU2-Linux. Kaffe’s compatability reports indicate that it should be suitable for server-side applications. Intrigued, I dug further and found some hope that Tomcat will run on Kaffe with minimal tweaking.

So I’ll sleep on it a while and revisit the idea of setting up a Servlet server on an NSLU2 “soon”.

Posted in Community, Personal. Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , . No Comments »

My New DSL Provider

March 20, 2005 — dlkinney

I have switched to SpeakEasy’s 6Mb/768Kb OneLink DSL service through Slashdot. The service provides 8 static IPs — all usable — and lets me drop my home phone line. I’ve been using the new connection for a couple of weeks now and it is fast. So far, SpeakEasy’s service and communication has been top notch.

Possibly of interest to some is that Covad seems to be responsible for running the line from the SBC central office to my home. SpeakEasy does everything except “the last mile”, I guess. I haven’t read the forums enough to look behind the curtain on this matter.

The only caveat I have is that the connection is bridged, not routed. The up side is that all of the static IPs I get are usable, and I can add more for a fee later. There are two downsides to this, though.

The first downside of the bridged configuration is that I’m stuck using their equipment instead of my nice Cisco SOHO 97. At least until I determine how to configure it. I have picked up a CCNA study guide and started working through it, so maybe I’ll get the Cisco setup at some point. There are also threads on DSLreports.com about configuring IOS for SpeakEasy/Covad.

The second point, which is more serious in many ways, is that all of my network devices actually have public IP addresses and are on the same routed subnet as 200+ other people. I would rather have all of my home network on a private IP subnet (e.g., 10.x.y.z) and have an appliance (*cough* Cisco SOHO 97 *cough*) configured to allow transparent public-to-private IP NAT for specific hosts. This allows me to place hosts that I trust and want publicly accessible (Mac laptop, PS2) on the Internet while still allowing them to easily communicate with hosts that I don’t trust (WinXP desktop) or don’t want publicly accessible (file server, Tivo).

While I’m learning enough IOS to determine the feasibility and implementation of using my SOHO 97 to perform the NAT, I would like a simple appliance that I may configure for the same purpose. Perhaps a Linksys WRT54G (or GS) with the firmware from Sveasoft or others posted on LinksysInfo.org.

Posted in Personal. Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , . 1 Comment »
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