NSLU2 joined under-desk machines

May 15th, 2007 | by Marcin Juszkiewicz

Today I bought Linksys NSLU2 machine. It is small, ARM based NAS and it is running Linux out-of-box. Unpacked, connected to home network and after checking that it is working I reflashed it with OpenSlug 3.10. So now it runs 2.6.16 kernel (instead of old, hacked 2.4.something) and opensource system (built with OpenEmbedded).

What for I bought it (other then taking space under desk)? I plan to run few services on it:

  • NFS server with DL_DIR contents (all sources used by OpenEmbedded builds)
  • TFTP server (to server kernels, rootfs images for miscelanous devices on my desk)
  • SMB server (music, movies)
  • Bluetooth access point for my Neo1973 phones and other devices

Too bad that small embedded PCs are harder to get that such gadgets. I hope that one day I will be able to buy machine which will replace my WiFi AP/router and NSLU2 (NAS, BT AP) in one.

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  1. 7 Responses to “NSLU2 joined under-desk machines”

  2. By cu on May 16, 2007 | Reply

    Asus wl500g, wl700g are wireless routers with similar capabilities as NSLU2. For me, wl500g serves as wifi router, smb server, daap server.

  3. By fl0 on May 16, 2007 | Reply

    I was going to tell the same thing :)

    They can run debian too: http://wiki.wl500g.info/index.php/Debian%20Distribution?action=TerugLinks

  4. By Marcin Juszkiewicz on May 16, 2007 | Reply

    cu, fl0: I know that NSLU2 is good supported and I know guys which support it from OpenEmbedded project. Each time when I looked at ASUS wl500g I saw ‘OpenWrt’ to often and this is team which I prefer to avoid.

    Not that I do not like OpenWrt distro - I use one of older versions on my wrt54gs but I like to have something which is upgradable in easy way not by reflashing etc.

    I know one thing - in next house I will make network more organized and probably I will build something based on VIA Epia or other ITX board instead of NSLU2/WRT54GS.

  5. By derekp on May 29, 2007 | Reply

    Can’t you plug a usb hub into the nslu2? Then plug in a usb wifi adapter, and run it in access point mode? Combine with an ethernet switch on the ethernet port, and you should be able to use the nslu2 as your wifi access point / router.

  6. By Marcin Juszkiewicz on May 31, 2007 | Reply

    derekp: and add another ethernet card and combine software to get it working etc? Too much not needed work - wrt54gs works and do that good.

  7. By bloo on Jun 6, 2007 | Reply

    I’d be interested in how you set up your NFS exports and client mount options. Are you going to document any of the setup details you do to your NSLU2? I’m getting not-so-great performance from an OS X client and am looking for ideas. Care to run a benchmark when you’re setup? (see the bottom of the page: http://www.nslu2-linux.org/wiki/Optware/Nfs-utils?from=Unslung.Nfs-utils)

  8. By Marcin Juszkiewicz on Jun 7, 2007 | Reply

    bloo: I would test but I do not like to register to yet another web service just to get one file. But I will write more about it.