A few months ago I received my Guruplug server plus, but I only just had time to finish the configuration. Basically it is a small Linux server, equipped with an Marvell 1.2 Ghz (ARM) processor, 512MB of RAM, 512MB of NAND flash, 2 gigabit ethernet ports, wireless, bluetooth, 1x eSATA, 2x USB and 1x microSD. And yes, this is the successor of the Sheevaplug.

Currently my Guruplug is acting as the replacement for my ancient home server (Pentium 450Mhz, 512 MB RAM), which has now been taken offline. I was quite stubborn, since I wanted to do the configuration and installation “my way”. This is what I did:

1. Build and configure the Debian root filesystem using debootstrap (note: make sure your fstab and partitions are set correctly).
2. Copy the root filesystem to the microSD (in my case: Transcend 16GB microSD, class 6, with wear-leveling). Test if it works, by using the pre-installed kernel and your custom root filesystem.
3. Cross-compile a minimal custom kernel (2.6.35-rc3) on another machine (in my case: a quadcore AMD machine). You do not want reboots during your kernel compilation or want to wait a long time before it is finished. Native support for the Guruplug has been added to the kernel since 2.6.35!
4. Update uBoot, so it will correctly recognize/run the original kernel and the custom kernel.
5. Test the custom kernel by putting it on a FAT16 partition on a USB stick (or TFTP server), before permanently writing it to the NAND flash. Unfortunately uBoot did not work with the ext filesystem (ext2load) or from the microSD.

Guruplug pros:

• Low price
• Low power consumption
• Silent operation
• Debian pre-installed
• Dual gigabit ethernet, dual USB, WLAN, eSATA and bluetooth in one tiny box

Guruplug cons:

• CPU heat dissipation. The plug suddenly reboots (probably thermal shutdown) when it gets too hot, which is very nasty. There are some creative solutions on the forum, which will void your warranty!
• WLAN. The wireless chip still is not supported by the kernel, so you will need the Marvell kernel module (uap8xxx.ko) and tool (uaputl) which are shipped with the Guruplug.
• uBoot. Default uBoot version does not support loading the kernel from ext filesystems or the microsd card (but it works from TFTP, USB and NAND flash), but it can easily be updated.

Every once in a while, you buy a piece of hardware which is officially not “supported” on Linux (according to the vendor). Since I have to do presentations regularly, I finally decided to buy a “presenter” to aid me and make my presentation look even better. After reading several reviews about the Logitech presenter R800 and seeing a couple of comments that it appeared to work on the Mac OS, my mind was made up. I picked it up today, immediately hooked it up to my Ubuntu Karmic (9.10, 2.6.31 kernel) desktop and  it was recognized as:

046d:c52d Logitech, Inc.

I tested a couple of presentations with evince (pdf) and openoffice.org impress (odp) and the buttons work perfectly! The available buttons are: next, previous, start/end presentation and blank presentation screen. Furthermore there is an on/off button, a laserpointer button (a frickin’ laser!) and two buttons to set the timer for the vibrating alarm. I still have to test it in the field, but I already know that this was the an extremely good buy.

Since USB is still ‘all the rage’ I thought I might take the time to show you some of my USB devices, which are compatible with Linux and which I personally find useful.

USB – IDE/SATA

Konig Electronic USB 2.0 to IDE / S-ATA adapter (external, CMP-USBIDESAT2)

Just useful if you have some harddrives around which you need to test, format or fill and then want to put away again (or destroy). It ships with an external power supply, so you are all good to go.

swat@decius:~$ lsusb
 Bus 002 Device 008: ID 152d:2338 JMicron Technology Corp. / JMicron USA Technology Corp. JM20337 Hi-Speed USB to SATA & PATA Combo Bridge

USB – RS-232

Belkin USB RS-232 (F5U103v)

RS-232 is still used when you configure switches or as a back-up interface for a server. Unfortunately netbooks do not tend to have a RS-232 port anymore, so this is the perfect solution.

swat@decius:~$ lsusb
 Bus 005 Device 043: ID 067b:2303 Prolific Technology, Inc. PL2303 Serial Port

USB – Ethernet

Apple USB ethernet

If you need more than your standard (one) ethernet port on your laptop, this is a good solution. It is small and just works. The downside is that it is an Apple product and it’s only 100Mbit/s.

swat@decius:~$ lsusb
 Bus 002 Device 012: ID 05ac:1402 Apple, Inc.

Last saturday I visited the cebit again. I go there almost every year (I try to). This year it was a bit smaller than the year before. Not all of the exhibition rooms were completely filled, but it was extremely crowded nevertheless. At the end of the day my feet hurt and I had a memory card full of nice memories. I will share some of them with you:

The good:

• New toys / previews
• IBM sphere (extremely cool)
• Open Source was also represented (even if it was not a huge part of CeBIT)
• Ubuntu-DE stand
• Free/clean toilets and the parking

The bad:

• The weather, it rained a lot and I missed the sunshine.
• Ugly toys like the Hummer housing
• I was only one day at the CeBIT

The ugly:

• Extremely crowded ( a lot of children )

A while ago I found myself in the need of a new keyboard and I heard about this special keyboard, which supposedly would totally rock. I am always careful when I hear that kind of marketing and advertisement talking. After a lot of consideration I eventually bought Das Keyboard (ultimate) and I never looked back since.

Pros:

• Typing comfort
• Black keys, so visually less noisy
• USB hub in keyboard (if you need to charge your media player)
• Huge geek factor
• Compatible with Linux (duh)

Cons:

• ‘Typing sound’ needs some time to get used to. You hear every single keystroke, but after a short while I did not find it disturbing at all.
• The price

What would a geek do without some sort of gadget to keep track of the time, which is so volatile. This is about as geeky as you can get, the binary clock. I got the silver version with the blue LED’s (which are _very_ bright, when it is dark inside a room).

Pros:

• 12 and 24 hour mode
• Binary horizontally or vertically
• 3 Brightness settings
• Looks great

Cons:

• If you need to know the time when it is very early (and your brain did not boot yet) or when you are drunk (and your brain is too lazy to function properly), it takes a while to ’see’ the time.
• Sometimes the LED’s feel too bright in a completely dark room, even on the lowest brightness setting.

De dongel van KPN, wie kent hem nog niet van die ‘grappige’ reclame spot? Afgelopen week had ik even de gelegenheid om met het apparaatje te spelen en ja hoor, het werkt onder Intrepid, maar net niet helemaal out-of-the-box.

Ik sloot het apparaat aan en Ubuntu herkende het meteen.

Bus 004 Device 015: ID 12d1:1003 Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. E220 HSDPA Modem / E270 HSDPA/HSUPA Modem

Vervolgens probeer je via NetworkManager de 3G verbinding tot stand te brengen, maar het werkte gewoon niet. De oplossing was erg simpel. Men neme een simlock-vrije telefoon, stopt de UMTS SIM er in, zet de PIN beveiliging uit en het werkt. Blijkbaar heeft de NetworkManager in Intrepid dus last van een kleine bug (die al gefixed is in nieuwere versies van NetworkManager) waar gelukkig een erg makkelijke workaround voor is.

A few minutes ago two packages arrived which contained precious cargo. I’m now a proud owner of an iPod nano (picture) and Sennheiser CX 300 in-ear headphones (picture). Now I can finally throw out my old MP3 player which had 256MB, a closed source file system (some weird borked up version of FAT) and was Windows only. By the way, the iPod nano looks really nice and slick, great work Apple!