[ALUG] SheevaPlug

[Steve Fosdick]

On Fri, 2010-02-12 at 11:25 +0000, Mark Rogers wrote:
> Has anyone played with a SheevaPlug or variant (TonidoPlug, for example)?
> 
> Arm CPU, USB and network connectivity, running Ubuntu-derivative on 
> 512MB built in flash (with 512MB RAM), all in a "plug" design.

Interesting.  I believe this is based on the Marvell Kirkwood SOC which
includes the ARM processor, the same as the NAS I bought a couple of
weeks back (a QNAP TS-419P).

Many of the devices run kernel 2.6.22 because, I think, Marvell produced
a fork with some specific code for the Kirkwood.  More recently support
for the Kirkwood had been integrated into the kernel mainline and my NAS
is now running 2.6.30.6.

> Looks like they can be had in the UK (ie with UK plug) for just over £60 
> but with £30 shipping (and 2-3 week delay) from the US. I think I will 
> probably get one to play with, so I don't know if anyone else wants to 
> combine shipping.

Excluding the shipping that is around what my first ZX81 cost so given
the ZX81 would have been bought in 1981 "in real terms" it is rather
less.

> But first off I'd like to know if anyone has played with one already. 
> Obviously with it being Arm based there won't be many binary packes to 
> install on it but the obvious suspects should cross-compile OK I would 
> think. The obvious question is whether 512MB on-device storage is enough 
> to achieve anything useful, but then I have relatively low aspirations 
> anyway!

I did look round the Debian website but I can't see any mention of how
many of the Debian packages are built for ARM.  There are bound to be
some that don't build on ARM but I would hope most would.

I have also been meaning to investigate the possibility of cross
compiling for my NAS but I haven't had the time so far.  If you beat me
to it then please let us know what you had to install/build.

Regards,
Steve.