Chris Shenton wrote:
>
> In message <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Wes Peters writes:
>
> > We have several NIC's around here (the New Internet Computer, see
> > http://www.thinknic.com/ for details) and will be adding a couple of these
> > so we can boot FreeBSD or NetBSD on them in the next little while. A NIC
> > running FreeBSD on a silent CF disk strikes me as an ideal bedroom computer;
> > you can leave it on all the time and just let the screen sleep when you're
> > not using it.
>
> Been thinking seriously about buying a couple of these; hard to beat
> the $200 price point. Chat on one of the NIC lists indicates they had
> two fans and will now ship with three fans; this seems like it will
> make it rather noisey -- especially since they're diskless and should
> be quiet.
They are quiet. I didn't notice any fans in the ones we disassembled at
work. The Geode processor runs QUITE hot, though. They make good hand-
warmers when it's snowing outside.
> Since I prefer FreeBSD to Linux, I'd rather run BSD than the Linux on
> the CD it runs from. Is it possible to create an ISO of a bootable
> and runnable FreeBSD? What happens with stuff like /tmp and /var/log?
You wouldn't want it; performance running off the CD-ROM is terrible.
Get a 2.5" hard drive and stick it to the case top with double-sticky
tape.
> Failing this, I'd probably net-boot the NICs off a bigger FreeBSD
> machine, and NFS mount /home dirs and /usr/local type of software.
That would probably give you better performance than the CD-ROM. The
NIC has a small flash disk in it as well; you could probably put the
boot loader and enough /boot filesystem on that to autoboot.
> That way when I built a tool or package it would be available to any
> of the FreeBSD boxes in the house. Seems like a great bang/buck
> ratio. Any comments on this approach?
Sounds good to me. Maybe I should setup a netboot server at work and
have a hack at it. We've got a couple of IDE->CompactFlash adapters
I could play with without scrogging the NIC-standard flash device.
--
"Where am I, and what am I doing in this handbasket?"
Wes Peters Softweyr LLC
[EMAIL PROTECTED] http://softweyr.com/
To Unsubscribe: send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
with "unsubscribe freebsd-hackers" in the body of the message
