NSLU2

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http://www.andreabeggi.net/wp-content/53006-nslu2.jpg

Intro

  • XScale processor from Intel (ARM) at 266MHz (133MHz before hacking...)
  • 32Mb SDRAM
  • 8Mb Flash
  • 2 USB 2.0 ports

Links

Todo

  • Mine came with
    • Server Name: LKG63472F
    • Version: V2.3RA5
  • Connect USB printer?
  • Install backuppc
  • Connect Tuxdroid dongle

Debian

Installation

To install, follow the howto, here are the big steps:

  • Get Debian 4.0r0 firmware from http://www.slug-firmware.net/ and unzip it
  • Power the NSLU2 and wait a bit (green light) before plugging it to the network if you've a DHCP, so the NSLU2 will choose itself IP 192.168.1.77, otherwise look to your DHCP server logs to find the IP attribution
  • Go to the admin webpage, tab administration, login admin/admin
  • Configure ALL network params if you don't have DHCP
  • Go to the admin webpage, tab administration, login admin/admin, tab advanced, tab upgrade
  • Upload di-nslu2.bin, start upgrade
  • Wait for "upgrading ok" (5mins) -> wait for 3 bips (5-10mins)
  • This is the last moment to plug an external USB mass-storage if you didn't do so yet
  • Login via ssh installer@192.168.1.77 (or another IP got by DHCP...) pwd "install"
    • I did it from an xterm but exported term mode is pure console so it's better to login from a real text console otherwise the ncurses menu is a bit broken (but still usable)
  • Start installation, manually load the following modules:
    • ext3-modules-2.6.18-4-ixp4xx-di
    • partman-auto
    • partman-ext3
    • scsi-core-modules-2.6.18-4-ixp4xx-di
    • usb-storage-modules-2.6.18-4-ixp4xx-di
  • Whatever system you choose to partition your disk, be sure to have at least 128M of swap, I've set up 512M on my 400G drive.
  • In total it took about 100 mins to complete
  • If you need a console, start a second ssh connection and choose to obtain a shell
  • On tasksel, I chose absolutely nothing, I prefer to take only what I need later

After first reboot

  • dpkg --get-selections|wc -l
142
  • du -hs /
179M
  • dmesg:
Linux version 2.6.18-4-ixp4xx (Debian 2.6.18.dfsg.1-12) (waldi@debian.org) (gcc versi
on 4.1.2 20061115 (prerelease) (Debian 4.1.1-21)) #1 Tue Mar 27 18:01:56 BST 2007
CPU: XScale-IXP42x Family [690541f1] revision 1 (ARMv5TE), cr=0000397f
Machine: Linksys NSLU2
Memory policy: ECC disabled, Data cache writeback
On node 0 totalpages: 8192
  DMA zone: 8192 pages, LIFO batch:1
CPU0: D VIVT undefined 5 cache
CPU0: I cache: 32768 bytes, associativity 32, 32 byte lines, 32 sets
CPU0: D cache: 32768 bytes, associativity 32, 32 byte lines, 32 sets
Built 1 zonelists.  Total pages: 8192
Kernel command line: console=ttyS0,115200 rtc-x1205.probe=0,0x6f noirqdebug
IRQ lockup detection disabled
PID hash table entries: 256 (order: 8, 1024 bytes)
Console: colour dummy device 80x30
Dentry cache hash table entries: 4096 (order: 2, 16384 bytes)
Inode-cache hash table entries: 2048 (order: 1, 8192 bytes)
Memory: 32MB = 32MB total
Memory: 25780KB available (1948K code, 496K data, 92K init)

Calibrating delay loop... 132.71 BogoMIPS (lpj=663552)
...
  • hdparm -tT /dev/sda
/dev/sda:
Timing cached reads:    86 MB in  2.04 seconds =  42.20 MB/sec
Timing buffered disk reads:   28 MB in  3.12 seconds =   8.98 MB/sec

Tweaks

  • By default the power button restarts the slug, change the call to shutdown in /etc/inittab:
ca:12345:ctrlaltdel:/sbin/shutdown -h now
  • Ok so our NSLU2 is well underclocked, let's restore its full speed following this howto
Calibrating delay loop... 266.24 BogoMIPS (lpj=1331200)

Much better :-) 

/dev/sda:
Timing cached reads:    90 MB in  2.00 seconds =  44.98 MB/sec
Timing buffered disk reads:   32 MB in  3.03 seconds =  10.56 MB/sec

A bit better but nothing fantastic...

Devel

Be prepared to do some native compilation...

  • apt-get install build-essential

Tuxdroid

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