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[wierd]

Ok, so--

I have ordered a new WD EX2-Ultra off ebay. (New in box, half price! Liquidation sale)
My old MyCloud Gen2 is now free for experimentation, since it will be replaced with the beefier hardware.

I am in the process of building a new custom kernel (4.14.32) with zram and some other fun things that will let me run this box like it was a straight up debian mini-server.

Here is what it is under the hood:

Marvel Armada 375 SOC (dual core ARM @~1ghz)
512mb RAM
Sata III port
Gigabit ethernet
USB3.0 port

That out of the way, here are some ideas I have had on what I can put it to work doing:

1) DVR box. (I have a USB tv capture device that is linux supported. I am building a kernel already, so I can bake whatever modules I need.)
2) Web development sandbox
3) small minecraft server
4) (this would just be for hilarity ensuing--- I have a spare exagear desktop i386 emulation license, so I could install it, and try to run a dfterm server with df running in emulation over curses output by baking in binfmt_misc support.)

Do you guys have any further fun ideas for a small embedded linux box that can sit neatly on a shelf? Seems a shame to just discard perfectly good hardware.

[wierd]

Nobody has any ideas?

OK, maybe a different direction--- Should I turn it into a minecraft server and make it internet facing, would anyone use it?

Since it has a SATA disk drive and will be sporting zram, it could handle a medium size play area I think.  I would have to give it lots of testing, but would anyone actually use it? 

[Doomblade187]

I would think a webdev sandbox would be fun.

[wierd]

I see that there is supposedly support for my j5  USB2.0 to SVGA dongle in the kernel I compiled. I built the module.  If it works, that opens the prospect of a local display if that improves prospects for ideas.

[Starver]

Connect it (directly, or over IP) to one or more camera/video-sources and have it work as a timelapse and/or sufficient-differences-from-last-frame recorder for either:
a) Security, overlooking door(s)/window(s)/property-boundaries, or
b) Aiming at the skies, or trees, or the stream at the bottom of your garden, or the grass of your lawn, to capture the marvelous changes of the weather/by the weather/across the seasons.

You only need to store one 'now' image (most recently taken), one 'last known changed' image for scripted pixel-threshold comparison against the last triggering time that exceeded the threshhold (and perhaps a parallel once-per-24-hours stream, if you're going for 'natural timelapse), and then build up the last few images into an animated GIF/video file to serve off-box for manual review purposes, at whim, as well as any messaging/alert options you might think to configure in at a later date (through training with all historic pictures to identify people in frames while ignoring the daily progression of shadows of rosebushes/etc), if it's security you're after.


As I didn't have many ideas from 4am to 4:42am (apart from how to drive the car that was part of a convoy being beset by bandits, if I remember last night's dream correctly), I hope this will do for you now. I daresay you could double-up such a simple setup. (Biggest load would be a dynamically-weighted pixel-by-pixel comparisons, building up ready for a possible threshold-breaking value, every time a frame is sampled. You could schedule it for once a minute, or more, or less, and further throttle process priority depending on how it seems to affect your other uses of the hardware.)

[wierd]

Ok, kernel baking complete.

I have a very stripped down linux box, and I have loaded up an (old) version of minecraft server. It gobbled down every scrap of ram in the thing, and ate a little bit of zram pagefile. (still plenty left, and I configured zram to use a backing device, so its all good.)

Now to see if I can connect to the thing.

[heydude6]

Do you have multiple computers? It might be a good idea to set up a local cloud server where you can store files that both computers make use of. I personally would kill for something like that (even though I know I can transmit the relevant files via USB)

[wierd]

uhm...


That's what a NAS does!

A NAS is Network Attached Storage.  With the default software it comes with, (I have removed the factory hard drive and replaced it with a kick-around beater for testing purposes until my EX2-ultra arrives) it is able to do windows file shares, apple file protocol, NFS shares, and (with some hacking) iSCSI target hosting. It also doe DLNA media hosting for devices that use that protocol (smart tvs, several satellite receiver boxes, rokus, amazon fire boxes/sticks, etc)

It is storage that you connect to over the network.  cloud based storage (that you reach over hte internet) is a feature WD tried to add, but to do that effectively you need to have a very fast upload pipe at the site, which I really do not have.

For local computers though, it serves the job OK.  the EX2 is a bigger, beefier version with RAID1 hard disks inside, twice the memory, and much more powerful processors. Mine will arrive some-time around the 16th.

With the modules I have baked, I can attach keyboards, mice, a USB->SVGA dongle, USB soundcards, webcams, TV/FM radio tuner sticks, etc... It is now a small linux box without a monitor, and does not have much of anything running on it. It's a blank slate for experimenting with finding it a new use. (Having two NAS boxes is kinda redundant.)

[Starver]

If you have multiple NASs, make a SAN!

[wierd]

I dont have enough interfaces on the devices to do a SAN, nor the correct types of interfaces.

Typically, SAN hardware is interconnected with a more efficient transport, like FibreChannel, or SAS, and uses a connected fabric switch/router. Ethernet is not nearly as efficient as FibreChannel, which has more in common with TokenRing. Most SAN implementations will use dual terminated loop with fault redundancy, such that if there is a break in the loop, the secondary loop can route the traffic. It is also much faster, as it uses fiber optic cable, and can have interfaces that drive at 10gbit or faster.

Where the SAN connects with the (typically corporate) LAN, there are bonded ethernet connections going to a heavy duty router.

In comparison, my little NAS has a single gigabit ethernet port (So no bonding), and has a single sata disk inside.  I DO know how to administer and operate a SAN, but I also know that the only "SAN-Like" feature this thing has is iSCSI support, and that is over the single little gigabit port. (Again, the iSCSI target hosted by the actual SAN head unit is going to be talking over a bonded ethernet trunk, usually 5 or more gigabit interfaces all bonded together. The speed is closer to that of a connected SATAII device in such circumstances. In most corporate environments, where you will have several such iscsi target luns being hosted, for things like virtual servers, there will be dozens of such bonded interconnects, with huge FC disk trays, and redundant head units in the SAN.  YES, I DO know how to administrate a SAN. The REAL kind.)

I dont really have a need of a SAN though. (Draws too much power, eats too much space, makes too much noise, requires dedicated cooling, etc...)  My NAS is sufficient for my needs.


Now then--
I kinda like the idea of using this thing as a networked DVR.  It has enough ram and processor to capture a channel from a USB TV tuner and write it to disk. I will see if there is suitable software for this. I am thinking something with a web interface, along with a DLNA server, and maybe a shoutcast stream?  That way I could use the box to sling live TV to a connected computer.

[wierd]

OK, I revisited the minecraft server idea, this time using the spigot server instead of the official one.  It runs waaaaaaaay better. Actually playable!

does not touch swap at all even. (but does gobble up every scrap of ram in this thing.)

anyone want to prod at it?