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[wierd]

I don't know if any of you are old enough to remember old classic computers, or the communities they created, but a staple if those communities as they still exist today revolves around floppy diskette image dumping, and by-mail services to do the imaging. Basically, the floppies and an sdcard are mailed to the person who still has a working disk drive, they dump all the disks to image files saved on the sdcard, and mails them back to the sender.

These services are typically done for free, and without warranty, but are a staple in such communities.

Recently, a thread about hosting a game server for Minecraft that came up.  That got me wondering.

How many of our forum users play networked games, and how many would like convenient settop server boxes, and if those, how many would make use of a by-mail service to repurpose old routers and NAS boxes? I know how to set up chroot sandboxes on these devices so that they can run game server daemons along side whatever the appliance normally does, and even how to get these chroots to auto update themselves.

Just about any network or internet game that has a Linux daemon available can be run this way, as long as min reqs are met. 

I could hunt down a list of Linux daemons, and cobble together a list of compliant devices, and offer the service, if there was a want for it.

Do you guys think there is enough demand to make it worthwhile, and or, do you think it is a good idea?

I have no interest in other peoples networks or data, I just know how to make those old routers I see at garage sales do useful things, and would be willing to hook people up.

[feelotraveller]

That sounds like a really cool thing to do.   

No idea if you'll find a demand for it but it is far more likely to get decent feedback/exposure in the 'Other Games' forum.  (Personally I never play games on servers, but I knoe there are a number of bay12ers who do.)

[wierd]

Alright, I will ask there later.

[TheBiggerFish]

It sounds pretty cool.

[eerr]

So you configure a router to run a low-powered linux server, then send it back?

[wierd]

essentially, yes.

I set up a chroot running a debian based minimal distro with opensshd running inside on a custom port number, with unique 4096bit keys, and a post-it stuck on top for what root's password in the chroot is. Otherwise the router will still act like a router. I can configure it to automatically start a game host daemon from that chroot using a limited user account-- or any other linux network daemon you want, like a cups server, or whatever. The opensshd instance is to give you access to the chroot's administration shell. It will be console only, but if you are a linux junkie, you can do all kinds of stuff with that. I would need to set it up to configure the desired deamons and the like anyway, and pass on the functionality as a friendly service.

In the case of a router, since I would have to recompile from router source anyway to get the boot hook to stick, I would also give you a nice selection of loadable kernel modules built as well, and turn on anonymous paging (swapfile use). It makes compile time take forever, but lets you load some of the more exotic USB device drivers if you want. Normally not enabled in stock systems due to space constraints, but with a chroot, we have all the space on the usb stick stuck in it. Means you could attach a USB audio device and use it like an internet radio if you want--- or put a linux supported USB video adapter on, and (try) to drive a GUI, or native shell. Also lets you support more filesystem types than the default ones that get baked in, so if you want EXT4, or XFS, or even Reiser (for some reason), you can get them.

Just keep in mind that routers tend to have very little memory, and would be abusing the shit out of swap if you try to load them down hard. The CPUs in them tend to be weak kneed as well, so daemons with heavy requirements arent really well suited.

NAS boxes on the other hand, tend to have a much more useful complement of RAM and CPU, (512mb and 800mhz on the low end), and have a real spinny disk inside for swap. They can run more aggressive daemons.