looks like good reading, and it's recently updated! <3
embedded openbsd by daniele mazzocchio
she mentions the soekris boards. but she also mentions one of which i hadn't heard: the alix boards. they look way cooler.
embedded openbsd by daniele mazzocchio
she mentions the soekris boards. but she also mentions one of which i hadn't heard: the alix boards. they look way cooler.
They're both the same basically
the alix is less expensive and their cases look cooler (no huge, ugly logos).
i like them!
i like them!
no one carries their new black case, yet, so i ordered directly from pcengines.ch:
nny, do you have a recommendation for an 18 V wall wart? i can't find one for a decent price.
1 alix2d2 ALIX.2D2 system board 109.00 ea, 109.00 1 case1d1blku Enclosure 2 LAN, black, USB 10.30 ea, 10.30 1 db9cab1 Cable DB9F-DB9F null modem 2.00 ea, 2.00 2 pigsma Cable I-PEX -> reverse SMA 1.75 ea, 3.50 2 antsma5 Antenna reverse SMA 5 GHz 2.60 ea, 5.20 1 wlm54g23 Compex WLM54G23 miniPCI card 17.30 ea, 17.30 Shipping + handling USD 44.30 VAT USD 0.00 Total USD 191.60
nny, do you have a recommendation for an 18 V wall wart? i can't find one for a decent price.
check out mpja or all electronics to see if there are any there. any electronics surplus store usually has bins you can rummage through.
Let me know who that little guy works for you.
i got the invoice from pcengines.ch, and i guess they gave me some sort of discount! :D
i wouldn't be able to even buy a soekris board and case for that price, let alone a wifi adapter and antennae.
i bought this 18V 0.8A 2.1mm center-positive adapter for $14 shipped. i also got this sandisk 8GB 60MB/s CF for $53 shipped.
total cost: $242.95
1 alix2d2 ALIX.2D2 system board 99.00 ea, 99.00 1 case1d1blku Enclosure 2 LAN, black, USB 9.30 ea, 9.30 1 db9cab1 Cable DB9F-DB9F null modem 1.30 ea, 1.30 2 pigsma Cable I-PEX -> reverse SMA 1.50 ea, 3.00 2 antsma5 Antenna reverse SMA 5 GHz 2.20 ea, 4.40 1 wlm54g23 Compex WLM54G23 miniPCI card 15.70 ea, 15.70 Shipping + handling USD 43.40 VAT USD 0.00 Total USD 176.10
i wouldn't be able to even buy a soekris board and case for that price, let alone a wifi adapter and antennae.
i bought this 18V 0.8A 2.1mm center-positive adapter for $14 shipped. i also got this sandisk 8GB 60MB/s CF for $53 shipped.
total cost: $242.95
let me know how this thing works. my bad experience with the soekris kind of soured me on embedded stuff like this.
What bad experience?
They may be expensive, but in general I heard nothing but good things about Soekris machines.
They may be expensive, but in general I heard nothing but good things about Soekris machines.
my soekris was kind of flaky.
I see you sold it do dannyp, did you have further problems?
in #bsd the other day dp mentioned that he did have some similar issues.
:(
Did you have problems from the start or after a while? I see soekris only offers a 1-year warranty, that's kind of disappointing, I would have expected something like 2 or 3 years.
Did you have problems from the start or after a while? I see soekris only offers a 1-year warranty, that's kind of disappointing, I would have expected something like 2 or 3 years.
it went unused for a while and I didn't notice the problems during install, configuration, etc. it was only when I finally tried to use it as a router/firewall that it starting eating shit. it was over a year after I bought it, so out of warranty.
Yeah, I had the same problem with a Opteron dual-cpu machine I bought ... Left it sitting for a year and then found out it was flaky/unstable ...
I almost went embedded but I want to put my 1tb sata drive to use so I bought this cheap atom board and cpu and this cheap case
I don't know what to do with my atx tower :(. can't justify the electricity cost of running it all the time and I don't really have much use for it anyway. anyone want this ?
i would consider it if it didn't have a celeron :p
Possibly, asemi. How much you looking for?
oh, caveat: I'm keeping the 1tb drive. and no optical drive is included. but I could throw in 2 500gb ide drives.
$175, free shipping?
$175, free shipping?
My wireless router has host mode USB so i can attach storage to it. And it's running wrt derivative that I built... so that works dandy. Love it. Power use is super low.
asemi: Could be doable. We may be needing a server at my new place, so I'll talk it over with them. :)
ok. let me know soon! I want to make my money spent on this atom box back.
Don't lemme hold you back from selling it if you can, though, just saying I may buy it.
just got the atom box put together tonight. it's so quiet! now I either need a sata cd-rom drive or to install openbsd via usb/pxe/something else. argh.
you could have bought an alix, used the headers to power the sata drive, then installed a minipci sata controller.
I installed via usb flash. it was easy.
that sounds like it would have been more expensive.
that sounds like it would have been more expensive.
i wrote this to the cf, then booted it.
then nothing else shows up. maybe it quit using the serial console. i don't know.
meh
PC Engines ALIX.2 v0.99h 640 KB Base Memory 261120 KB Extended Memory 01F0 Master 848A SanDisk SDCFX-008G Phys C/H/S 15525/16/63 Log C/H/S 974/255/63 LBA Using drive 0, partition 3. Loading...... probing: pc0 com0 com1 pci mem[640K 255M a20=on] disk: hd0+ >> OpenBSD/i386 BOOT 3.02 boot> booting hd0a:/bsd: 6039964+1059784 [52+336688+318896]=0x7657ec entry point at 0x200120
then nothing else shows up. maybe it quit using the serial console. i don't know.
meh
how do you guys install openbsd in such a situation?
Put the cf card in another computer.
Boot bsd.rd.
Install to cf card.
Boot bsd.rd.
Install to cf card.
oh, so you do the whole install process with another computer?
i was going to try this:
1. boot openbsd on another computer with the cf attached
2. put bootblocks and bsd.rd on the cf
3. boot the cf from the embedded computer
4. follow the typical installation process
here was how i was going to do (2):
i don't know if it works, though. i'll give it a try.
i was going to try this:
1. boot openbsd on another computer with the cf attached
2. put bootblocks and bsd.rd on the cf
3. boot the cf from the embedded computer
4. follow the typical installation process
here was how i was going to do (2):
fdisk -i sd2 disklabel -B sd2 disklabel -e sd2 newfs sd2a mount /dev/sd2a /mnt cp /bsd.rd /mnt/bsd.rd
i don't know if it works, though. i'll give it a try.
disklabel -B doesn't exist.
also,
-19200 on soekris
-38400 on alix
also,
-19200 on soekris
-38400 on alix
i didn't know that all i needed to boot was bsd.rd and some bootblocks! bsd.rd is pretty cool.
also:
:]
also:
OpenBSD/i386 (kharon.wingedleopard.net) (tty00) login:
:]
Aw. Charon was the planned name for my new server. :(
Go with Juan Pablo Martinez.
Joseph Goebbels!
PC Engines ALIX.2 v0.99h
640 KB Base Memory
261120 KB Extended Memory
01F0 Master 848A SanDisk SDCFX-008G
Phys C/H/S 15525/16/63 Log C/H/S 974/255/63 LBA
Using drive 0, partition 3.
Loading...
probing: pc0 com0 com1 pci mem[640K 255M a20=on]
disk: hd0+
>> OpenBSD/i386 BOOT 3.15
switching console to com0
>> OpenBSD/i386 BOOT 3.15
boot>
booting hd0a:/bsd: 8254588+1100008 [61+372432+358069]=0x99e4c8
entry point at 0x200120
[ using 730980 bytes of bsd ELF symbol table ]
Copyright (c) 1982, 1986, 1989, 1991, 1993
The Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved.
Copyright (c) 1995-2011 OpenBSD. All rights reserved. http://www.OpenBSD.org
OpenBSD 4.9 (GENERIC) #671: Wed Mar 2 07:09:00 MST 2011
deraadt@i386.openbsd.org:/usr/src/sys/arch/i386/compile/GENERIC
cpu0: Geode(TM) Integrated Processor by AMD PCS ("AuthenticAMD" 586-class) 499 MHz
cpu0: FPU,DE,PSE,TSC,MSR,CX8,SEP,PGE,CMOV,CFLUSH,MMX
real mem = 268009472 (255MB)
avail mem = 253493248 (241MB)
mainbus0 at root
bios0 at mainbus0: AT/286+ BIOS, date 11/05/08, BIOS32 rev. 0 @ 0xfd088
pcibios0 at bios0: rev 2.1 @ 0xf0000/0x10000
pcibios0: pcibios_get_intr_routing - function not supported
pcibios0: PCI IRQ Routing information unavailable.
pcibios0: PCI bus #0 is the last bus
bios0: ROM list: 0xe0000/0xa800
cpu0 at mainbus0: (uniprocessor)
pci0 at mainbus0 bus 0: configuration mode 1 (bios)
pchb0 at pci0 dev 1 function 0 "AMD Geode LX" rev 0x33
glxsb0 at pci0 dev 1 function 2 "AMD Geode LX Crypto" rev 0x00: RNG AES
vr0 at pci0 dev 9 function 0 "VIA VT6105M RhineIII" rev 0x96: irq 10, address 00:0d:b9:22:85:88
ukphy0 at vr0 phy 1: Generic IEEE 802.3u media interface, rev. 3: OUI 0x004063, model 0x0034
vr1 at pci0 dev 11 function 0 "VIA VT6105M RhineIII" rev 0x96: irq 15, address 00:0d:b9:22:85:89
ukphy1 at vr1 phy 1: Generic IEEE 802.3u media interface, rev. 3: OUI 0x004063, model 0x0034
ath0 at pci0 dev 12 function 0 "Atheros AR2413" rev 0x01: irq 9
ath0: AR2413 7.8 phy 4.5 rf 5.6, FCC2A*, address 00:80:48:6e:56:2f
glxpcib0 at pci0 dev 15 function 0 "AMD CS5536 ISA" rev 0x03: rev 3, 32-bit 3579545Hz timer, watchdog, gpio
gpio0 at glxpcib0: 32 pins
pciide0 at pci0 dev 15 function 2 "AMD CS5536 IDE" rev 0x01: DMA, channel 0 wired to compatibility, channel 1 wired to compatibility
wd0 at pciide0 channel 0 drive 0: <SanDisk SDCFX-008G>
wd0: 1-sector PIO, LBA48, 7641MB, 15649200 sectors
wd0(pciide0:0:0): using PIO mode 4, Ultra-DMA mode 2
pciide0: channel 1 ignored (disabled)
ohci0 at pci0 dev 15 function 4 "AMD CS5536 USB" rev 0x02: irq 12, version 1.0, legacy support
ehci0 at pci0 dev 15 function 5 "AMD CS5536 USB" rev 0x02: irq 12
usb0 at ehci0: USB revision 2.0
uhub0 at usb0 "AMD EHCI root hub" rev 2.00/1.00 addr 1
isa0 at glxpcib0
isadma0 at isa0
com0 at isa0 port 0x3f8/8 irq 4: ns16550a, 16 byte fifo
com0: console
com1 at isa0 port 0x2f8/8 irq 3: ns16550a, 16 byte fifo
pcppi0 at isa0 port 0x61
spkr0 at pcppi0
npx0 at isa0 port 0xf0/16: reported by CPUID; using exception 16
usb1 at ohci0: USB revision 1.0
uhub1 at usb1 "AMD OHCI root hub" rev 1.00/1.00 addr 1
biomask 79e7 netmask ffe7 ttymask ffff
mtrr: K6-family MTRR support (2 registers)
nvram: invalid checksum
vscsi0 at root
scsibus0 at vscsi0: 256 targets
softraid0 at root
root on wd0a swap on wd0b dump on wd0b
clock: unknown CMOS layout
Automatic boot in progress: starting file system checks.
/dev/rwd0a: file system is clean; not checking
/dev/rwd0g: file system is clean; not checking
/dev/rwd0d: file system is clean; not checking
/dev/rwd0f: file system is clean; not checking
/dev/rwd0e: file system is clean; not checking
setting tty flags
pf enabled
net.inet.ip.forwarding: 0 -> 1
starting network
starting system logger
starting initial daemons: ntpd.
savecore: /dev/wd0b: Device not configured
checking quotas: done.
building ps databases: kvm dev.
clearing /tmp
starting pre-securelevel daemons:.
setting kernel security level: kern.securelevel: 0 -> 1
creating runtime link editor directory cache.
preserving editor files.
starting network daemons: sshd sendmail inetd.
starting local daemons:.
standard daemons: cron.
Sat May 21 02:53:24 MDT 2011
OpenBSD/i386 (kharon.wingedleopard.net) (tty00)
login:
it was a cool idea to have the embedded system also be the access point. but the bsds don't support 802.11 n cards, yet. i've decided that i need the bandwidth, though.
i currently have a gigabit switch so i can use a cable to get good speeds. i think i'll replace that switch with this device. it is an access point (802.11n) and includes a four-port gigabit switch. perfect little high-speed network solution!
i currently have a gigabit switch so i can use a cable to get good speeds. i think i'll replace that switch with this device. it is an access point (802.11n) and includes a four-port gigabit switch. perfect little high-speed network solution!
this is why i use openwrt on my wap
openwrt doesn't run openbsd. :(
can you run pf on it?
can you run pf on it?
sadly no. which sucks. but i am starting to get used to linux bridging... and tbh it can be fun.
my atom board now lives in the micro atx case that used to house my celeron. it's about a million times quieter. anyway, just updating this thread to say that I'm installing openbsd yet again. I think I'll set up pf and make my wrt54gl into a dumb access point.
i'm building a new embedded openbsd system using new hardware i recently ordered from pcengines.ch:
i'm just gonna use an sd card i have lying around. i'll also use the two pigtails and antennae from my old alix2d2 for the wifi card. i'm gonna ditch my consumer-grade access point. i'm losing trust in commercial networking product firmware security.
i don't care too much about upgrading the hardware. but i think some of the new board's features will be handy. also, i might try to use a cellular modem as my primary internet connection. should be fun.
old board is the alix2d2
new board is the apu3c4
but mostly, i desperately need to upgrade my os, and it's much easier to get a new system working and swap it out.
apu3c4 APU.3C4 system board 4GB $111.30 case1d2redu6 Enclosure 3 LAN, red, USB, 6 SMA $ 9.35 ac12vus2 AC adapter 12V US plug $ 4.05 wle200nx Compex WLE200NX miniPCI express card $ 18.55 Shipping + handling $ 16.40 Total $159.65
i'm just gonna use an sd card i have lying around. i'll also use the two pigtails and antennae from my old alix2d2 for the wifi card. i'm gonna ditch my consumer-grade access point. i'm losing trust in commercial networking product firmware security.
i don't care too much about upgrading the hardware. but i think some of the new board's features will be handy. also, i might try to use a cellular modem as my primary internet connection. should be fun.
old board is the alix2d2
new board is the apu3c4
but mostly, i desperately need to upgrade my os, and it's much easier to get a new system working and swap it out.
on reflection, this new board is pretty impressive. my web server runs on a t2.small instance on aws ec2, which only has 2 GiB of RAM. my web server does much more than my home router.
Yeah, the apu3c4 is a pretty impressive board! If I had the cash, I'd shell out for one. Let us know how it goes!
"us?" you mean you and whoever is at your computer with you? ;)
i think it's just the two of us on here lately...
i think it's just the two of us on here lately...
I want to know how it goes, too!
I'm considering getting an edgerouter lite with openbsd, mostly just for having a mips system
I'm considering getting an edgerouter lite with openbsd, mostly just for having a mips system
I haven't even seen a MIPS system in I don't know how long -- good call, bluet!
I wrote OpenBSD amd64 install66.fs to Sandisk 4GB microSD card in a Lexar microSD USB reader using Win32DiskImager. I connected a USB-to-serial dongle to my laptop, added a null-modem cable, and launched PuTTY on COM10 at 115200 baud, 8N1.
then it hangs and reboots. i probably just need to tell it to boot to serial console. (ref)
PCEngines apu3 coreboot build 20170302 4080 MB ECC DRAM SeaBIOS (version rel-1.10.0.1) Press F10 key now for boot menu Booting from Hard Disk... Using drive 0, partition 3. Loading...... probing: pc0 com0 com1 mem[638K 3582M 496M a20=on] disk: hd0+ >> OpenBSD/amd64 BOOT 3.45 boot> cannot open hd0a:/etc/random.seed: No such file or directory booting hd0a:/6.6/amd64/bsd.rd: 3732171+1537024+3885432+0+598016 [376562+128+455544+303577]=0xa648d0 entry point at 0xffffffff81001000
then it hangs and reboots. i probably just need to tell it to boot to serial console. (ref)
i'm running 6.6 on a teeny tiny nanopi neo2.
i like that board's antenna connector.
at the end of my post, i meant to say that it hangs/loops. more to come in the next 3-6 months ;)
at the end of my post, i meant to say that it hangs/loops. more to come in the next 3-6 months ;)
boot> stty com0 115200 boot> set tty com0
this did the trick. that was easy to install!
I've been running one of the apu2 boards from pcengines for years now and I love it. upgraded from an alix to get gigabit. syspatch is awesome too, saved me from running a hacky shell script that parsed the errata page for the latest patches. I love openbsd <3.
cool. seems like openbsd on pcengine's apu is a best-in-class solution
i kinda wanna install one with some solar panels on a tree in a field in some remote place that has line-of-sight to some cell tower, and use it as a weird ghetto webserver
a concept webserver, i guess it would be. it'd have a webcam, naturally
i kinda wanna install one with some solar panels on a tree in a field in some remote place that has line-of-sight to some cell tower, and use it as a weird ghetto webserver
a concept webserver, i guess it would be. it'd have a webcam, naturally
my throughput using the athn card on openbsd is like ~500 KiB/s, with a rare burst to 1 MiB/s.
https://marc.info/?l=openbsd-bugs&m=151000834802285
it's infuriating and i don't know what to do about it. half of the point of me buying this new hardware was to run hostap on 80211n. sigh
i tried this fix regarding mtu, which didn't do anything. more soon
https://marc.info/?l=openbsd-bugs&m=151000834802285
it's infuriating and i don't know what to do about it. half of the point of me buying this new hardware was to run hostap on 80211n. sigh
i tried this fix regarding mtu, which didn't do anything. more soon
hmm, dmesg is showing these:
it seems like gigabit throughput is bad, and wifi throughput using the athn hostap is awful.
pretty disappointing. i'm guess it's openbsd.
--
NETWORK THROUGHPUT
calliope -> gigabit ethernet switch -> atlas [baseline result]
samba file transfer: 110 MiB/s
ssh file transfer: 27 MiB/s
atlas -> gigabit ethernet switch -> calliope [baseline result]
samba file transfer: 110 MiB/s
ssh file transfer: 25 MiB/s
calliope -> gigabit ethernet switch -> kharon
ssh file transfer: 8 MiB/s
calliope -> gigabit ethernet switch -> kharon -> wifi (athn hostap) -> pink
ssh file transfer: 200 KiB/s
--
DEVICES
calliope - windows 7 home (64 bit)
thinkpad x220
intel core i7-2540m (2.8 ghz)
16 gb ram
samsung 850 pro ssd
intel gigabit ethernet
atlas - freebsd 11.3
intel core2 duo e8600 (3.33 ghz)
4 gb ram
gmirror of hitachi enterprise hdds
intel pro/1000 (em)
kharon - openbsd 6.6
pcengines apu3c4
amd64 quad-core @ 1 ghz
4 gb ram
sandisk extreme pro 128 gb sd
intel i211 gigabit ethernet
pink - raspbian something
raspberry pi zero w
athn0: device timeout athn0: device timeout athn0: device timeout athn0: device timeout
it seems like gigabit throughput is bad, and wifi throughput using the athn hostap is awful.
pretty disappointing. i'm guess it's openbsd.
--
NETWORK THROUGHPUT
calliope -> gigabit ethernet switch -> atlas [baseline result]
samba file transfer: 110 MiB/s
ssh file transfer: 27 MiB/s
atlas -> gigabit ethernet switch -> calliope [baseline result]
samba file transfer: 110 MiB/s
ssh file transfer: 25 MiB/s
calliope -> gigabit ethernet switch -> kharon
ssh file transfer: 8 MiB/s
calliope -> gigabit ethernet switch -> kharon -> wifi (athn hostap) -> pink
ssh file transfer: 200 KiB/s
--
DEVICES
calliope - windows 7 home (64 bit)
thinkpad x220
intel core i7-2540m (2.8 ghz)
16 gb ram
samsung 850 pro ssd
intel gigabit ethernet
atlas - freebsd 11.3
intel core2 duo e8600 (3.33 ghz)
4 gb ram
gmirror of hitachi enterprise hdds
intel pro/1000 (em)
kharon - openbsd 6.6
pcengines apu3c4
amd64 quad-core @ 1 ghz
4 gb ram
sandisk extreme pro 128 gb sd
intel i211 gigabit ethernet
pink - raspbian something
raspberry pi zero w
try iperf to pink instead of ssh file transfer. raspberry pi storage can be horribly slow, and ssh uses some cpu
i'll give that a try... but:
i can't even stream 720p video from atlas to watch on a laptop on wifi
packet loss is bad enough that images fail to load on my phone on wifi when i'm reading news
everything on ethernet works great right now.
so i guess i'll just plus my old d-link access point back in.
--
NETWORK THROUGHPUT
atlas -> gigabit ethernet switch -> kharon -> wifi (athn hostap) -> hera
samba file transfer: 350 KiB/s
--
DEVICES
hera - windows 10 pro (64 bit)
thinkpad x230
intel core i5
8 gb ram
samsung 860 evo ssd
i can't even stream 720p video from atlas to watch on a laptop on wifi
packet loss is bad enough that images fail to load on my phone on wifi when i'm reading news
everything on ethernet works great right now.
so i guess i'll just plus my old d-link access point back in.
--
NETWORK THROUGHPUT
atlas -> gigabit ethernet switch -> kharon -> wifi (athn hostap) -> hera
samba file transfer: 350 KiB/s
--
DEVICES
hera - windows 10 pro (64 bit)
thinkpad x230
intel core i5
8 gb ram
samsung 860 evo ssd