Linux device for rooter/server?

neok · 2008-12-08 14:36:24

Hi

Although I have been using Linux for a long time on a personal
workstation, I have no hands-on experience of Linux devices and
small systems etc. I had a look at linuxdevices.com to get an
idea but I was really bewildered at the large variety and
quantity of all those Linux devices there (and this is a good
sign for Linux, no? :-)

My requirement is for a low-power device that can be left
switched on continuously and be able to do at least the
following tasks for me:

Be connected permanently to the Internet via my adsl modem and
be able to be used for downloading large files either using
wget/ftp or transmissioncli/torrent.

Be able to run as a server for my webpage using apachee or
other perhaps simpler web-server program.

Be able to act as a router to share my adsl connection with my
desktop and laptop (at home), possibly by wireless means.

Be able to run Linux programs, some of which use the sound
system for Ham Radio digital communications like PSK31 and
Hell Schreiber.

To have some USB ports (preferably USB 2.0) and at least one
IEEE1394 firewire port or at least an expansion slot for a card.

I expect a processor of 800-1000 MHz and memory of 512Mb-1Gb
will be more than enough. I definitely prefer a fanless system
with no mechanical parts (e.g. hard disk) so the ability to
accept a small SSD (8-16 Gb) is a must. I don't expect to need
a CDROM drive since I can use USB flash drives.

I would be grateful for any hints on what class of Linux
devices such a system would belong so I can hopefully find
what I need. Also any particular device you have had positive
experience with would be of interest.

My thanks in advance.

dav7 · 2008-12-26 15:02:54

You might consider a RouterBoard; their website is nigh-unnavigable but it's possible to cope with using it. As a last resort, you can always google for terms such as "site:routerboard.com <query> ...".

Routerboard's RB1000 might sound good, but it doesn't appear to officially support Linux, and its documentation (which is not on the website and hidden away in PDFs, which Google thankfully index anyway) only mentions Linux twice: once as a brief overview of what a boot image is likely to be and again as a reference for what programs Linux supports for connecting to the serial port.

I could be simply reading the documentation wrongly, but it sounds like Linux is likely to work on this device but RouterBoard want to push their proprietary "RouterOS" closed-source OS instead.

All of that aside, the 1000 has some pretty nice specs: it has a 1.3GHz (1333MHz) PowerPC processor, 512MB of SODIMM DDR RAM, 4 Gigabit Ethernet (10/100/1000) ports, dual CF slots (which support "TrueIDE Microdrive", whatever that is), a serial console port, and it only requires 12V.

However, RouterBoard are a little more forthcoming with their Linux support on some of their other (albeit less capable ) models, for example their RB500 model (which interestingly has its own page, unlike the 1000). This has a 266MHz MIPS CPU overclocked to 400MHz (poor thing ), 32-64MB DDR, soldered-on, unupgradeable RAM (the 532 has 32MB, and the 532A has 64MB), 128MB of onboard NAND flash for storage, two mini-pci slots, and three ethernet ports (one of which is a different model to the other two). However, it officially supports Linux 2.4, has a daughterboard connecter, through which it's relatively upgradeable (you can send the amount of ethernet ports to 9 and mini-pci slots to 6), and also has a user-controllable LED on the board.

However, neither of the 1000 or the 500 (532/532A) offer wireless.

Another site you may wish to peruse (if only for the information) is Soekris Engineering; their product line doesn't come anywhere near your specifications but their products look pretty good anyway (although I'm not endorsing them). SE appear to mostly appeal to applications where mobility is more of a requirement; their boards require less power/amps, some offer wireless, and one of their models offers a hardware encryption accelerator.

However, Soekris say they will introduce the net6501 "during 2009" which will offer "a faster and more advanced mainboard, up to 1.5 Ghz CPU, 2 Gbyte DRAM, 4 Gigabit Ethernet ports and PCI Express expansion".

1.3GHz for the RB1000 vs. 1.5GHz for the net6501? I say wait, especially considering that Soekris officially support all of the BSDs AND Linux on ALL their devices.

But that's just two possibilities. I've used neither of these devices, so can't speak of their success/failure.

-dav7

Last edited by dav7 (2008-12-26 15:07:17)

string · 2008-12-26 15:45:00

It doesn't meet all your requirements but some (most) would be satisfied by something along the lines of: Asus WL500g Premium + OpenWRT (which is currently what I sport on my home network).

P.S.: router, although I like the idea of a rooter, perhaps it would automagically gain unauthrized root access to machines on the internets -- I'd buy it.

Last edited by string (2008-12-26 15:48:16)

whukes · 2008-12-26 20:46:50

string wrote:

It doesn't meet all your requirements but some (most) would be satisfied by something along the lines of: Asus WL500g Premium + OpenWRT (which is currently what I sport on my home network).

+1 for this solution.

I have an Asus WL500g Premium + Tomato and absolutely love it.

kludge · 2008-12-26 21:49:26

personally, i'd go shopping for a used laptop, maybe look at "for-parts" sales with busted screens... this box can go headless anyhow, right?

with on-board wireless and nic, two cardbus slots, and at least two usb ports (plus a hub if necessary), you should be able to meet all your needs for cheap.

i have no experience with ham radio stuff, so i can't speak to that, but the first fully-functional linux systems i built was a router/firewall box on an old p1. as long as the hardware meets your needs and runs linux, the rest is just software and setup. let us know what you come up with, eh? i've been thinking about putting together a d.i.y. home network appliance for a while now, meself.

Ruckus · 2008-12-26 23:09:29

kludge wrote:

personally, i'd go shopping for a used laptop, maybe look at "for-parts" sales with busted screens... this box can go headless anyhow, right?
with on-board wireless and nic, two cardbus slots, and at least two usb ports (plus a hub if necessary), you should be able to meet all your needs for cheap.
i have no experience with ham radio stuff, so i can't speak to that, but the first fully-functional linux systems i built was a router/firewall box on an old p1. as long as the hardware meets your needs and runs linux, the rest is just software and setup. let us know what you come up with, eh? i've been thinking about putting together a d.i.y. home network appliance for a while now, meself.

Yeah same here, I'd just find an old quiet sub ~1ghz machine to play with. You could probably find one some one is giving away for practically nothing. However, if power consumption is really that much of an issue, a router type board might be better.

daf666 · 2008-12-26 23:20:42

Arch runs on this quite nicely http://www.fit-pc.com/new/

Dieter@be · 2008-12-27 00:33:08

Eeebox?

Kirurgs · 2009-01-12 08:25:12

I have recently made a so called router for myself...
Requirements were modest, but tricky:
1. it should serve Internet for my LAN
2. as my provider here is cheating with packets (they made packets unrootable) I need mangling on packets, so no standard router is going to help me
3. it should do at least 100mbits (example: as I literary have that speed downloading torrents or things from my country (like linux ISO))
4. power consumption should be as less as possible

Config is as follows:
*) 1.2GHz Tualatin (Celeron)
*) some intel motherboard with integrated lan+video
*) additional LAN card
*) additional 1G flash card for OS

This boots Arch from flash, so only mechanical part is cooler on the CPU and PSU. I fitted videocard cooler on the CPU as standard intel cooler was really noisy, but this cooler is making quite less noise and it seems it's doing his job nicely...
I didn't test this for running for weeks though, but I will, starting today or so Without any cooler CPU was getting hot, I could still touch it, but I don't want to risk... PSU has thermal control, therefore it's really quiet and not noticeable at all, so the loudest part still is that video cooler... Some day I might find really big radiator instead of video cooler...
That 1G flash card seem to be slow, but that's non issue as it will only write kernel logs...

I used firestarter for firewall, as it gave me easy configurable firewall + dhcp for LAN. I installed it w/o dependencies (all that graphical stuff), it works as a daemon as long as you have configuration for it (it seems that UI is what generates config)...

I have not measured power consumption, I don't really know how, but that should be low...
Do anyone have suggestions what can I do more power friendly or any other suggestions like why firestarter should not be there
Anything without a proof is not considered as strong point...

P.S. I have some old P120, but I was not sure they can handle 100mbits
P.P.S. Naah, videocard cooler is not that quiet as I thought, I'm going to buy some bigger coolder and stick it on the radiator

Last edited by Kirurgs (2009-01-13 08:30:07)

kludge · 2009-01-13 03:38:25

ahem:

s/root/route/

silvik · 2009-01-19 23:41:48

i'm planning to build a little headless home router/fileserver/torrent too and i found that ALIX boards are the best for my needs. i'm planning to buy one next month or so...

http://www.pcengines.ch/alix.htm (my option - 2d3 model)

i think that they are enough for your needs too. a 500 mhz CPU/256 RAM system is quite capable... especially for non-X11 stuff.
some of them have USB ports (so you can connect and external HDD), all have CF slots (CF are big these days, > 8G), miniPCI for wireless extension cards, 1 to 3 ethernet ports, one model even has GSM SIM card slot for 3G connectivity extension. they are designed for routing, low power consumption (5W full load) and are fanless. the whole machine with the stock case is something like and AP, size-wise (6'x6'). very compact, sturdy, industrial stuff. and not expensive (eg like soekris) - around E130.

that little AMD Geode CPU is not i686 (probably 586?), so Arch won't do. however most other distros will, BSDs too. this cpu is found also on fit-pc, mentioned above.

compared with the ASUS 500g an ALIX board offers more flexibility and computing power. unfortunately in my country it's hard to find, i will probably need to get it shipped from western europe.

also, look for miniITX boards with Atom CPU. i failed to find one with 2-3 ethernet ports... so it's not good for me. they tend to have 1 eth and can accept wireless cards. usually they're not fanless they look more familiar, like a usual pc, with video, mouse, keyboard etc

hope it helps
sorry for my bad english/spelling

Last edited by silvik (2009-01-19 23:42:26)

neok · 2009-01-20 05:06:30

OK, my thanks for all the replies, even if rather late :-(
I have been rather sick with knee trouble for a few weeks and negelected to reply.

And while I am writing this, I think I have just won my first convert to Arch Linux: A photographer friend who is looking for an alternative to commercial OS/photo software!

Kirurgs · 2009-01-20 07:49:18

Just a note: my router really does great job, but still I think it's too powerful for routing Under a full load like routing 10MB/sec (MegaBytes) CPU consumption is under 2%, can't really measure that small load...
Costs were: CPU (Celeron 1.2 tualatin) + D815EEA2 + 128M RAM + 230W thermal throttling PSU = 25 euros In addition it boots from USB (where OS resides) and has in total 4 USB hubs (not counting ones You get by extending front USB ports if You wish)...
Cheap and quiet (barely noticeable even at night)
At the start CPU temperature was 48 degrees, which was too much for that old crap, so I fitted bigger radiator + renewed thermal grease and it's down to 40, which is acceptable...

So, if You really need cheap and quiet router, just go to computer scrapyard

P.S. In case I'll get hands on some 600MHz celeron for like 1$, I'm gonna fit it there...

Last edited by Kirurgs (2009-01-20 07:49:36)

Dieter@be · 2009-01-20 11:40:41

silvik wrote:

i'm planning to build a little headless home router/fileserver/torrent too and i found that ALIX boards are the best for my needs. i'm planning to buy one next month or so...
http://www.pcengines.ch/alix.htm (my option - 2d3 model)

I have a pc-engines WRAP board (now discontinued)
The powersupply broke after a few years (but it's a pretty common one, I replaced it with one of a cellphone I think). Also in summer sometimes it got really hot and would crash, I've put a heatsink on the cpu myself and that fixed it.

Other then those issues, I'm happy with it. I run m0n0wall on it (but pfsense is also a good option)
OTOH I think atom is a better platform for such things now. performance/consumption-wise (you can use the system as a little server then)

Arch Linux

#1 2008-12-08 14:36:24

Linux device for rooter/server?

#2 2008-12-26 15:02:54

Re: Linux device for rooter/server?

#3 2008-12-26 15:45:00

Re: Linux device for rooter/server?

#4 2008-12-26 20:46:50

Re: Linux device for rooter/server?

#5 2008-12-26 21:49:26

Re: Linux device for rooter/server?

#6 2008-12-26 23:09:29

Re: Linux device for rooter/server?

#7 2008-12-26 23:20:42

Re: Linux device for rooter/server?

#8 2008-12-27 00:33:08

Re: Linux device for rooter/server?

#9 2009-01-12 08:25:12

Re: Linux device for rooter/server?

#10 2009-01-13 03:38:25

Re: Linux device for rooter/server?

#11 2009-01-19 23:41:48

Re: Linux device for rooter/server?

#12 2009-01-20 05:06:30

Re: Linux device for rooter/server?

#13 2009-01-20 07:49:18

Re: Linux device for rooter/server?

#14 2009-01-20 11:40:41

Re: Linux device for rooter/server?

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