[App_rpt-users] Fun with Limey and HP T5710 so far

[Tony KT9AC]

Could someone please post a working combination of Linux distro and 
version of Allstar/Asterisk that is working for them on a Thin Client? I 
currently have the most current version of ArchLinux running nicely but 
can't get past the Allstar compile (tried both ACID and Limey 1.1.5 
tarballs).

I guess I don't care what the distro is, I just have three Thin Clients 
than I need to get ready to deploy.

Thanks,
Tony


On 2/21/2013 7:57 PM, Benjamin L. Naber wrote:
> Limey Linux will only work on a few mini-ITX boards. I was lucky that I
> got mine running on a Neoware CA-22. However, the VIA version did not
> work, so I used the i686 version. Booted up just fine.
>
> I have noticed I've had plenty trouble with the HP thin clients with
> other Linux distros for embedded machines. The older Neowares seem to
> run much better, and faster. I'd like to provide an answer for that, but
> I honestly don't have a clue why.
>
> DO NOT TRY TO RUN ACID ON A THUMB DRIVE!!!
>
> Limey linux, when booted, loads a compresses image to RAM, then
> decompresses it. Limey Linux runs from RAM. ACiD does not. If you try
> it, not only will ACiD be slow to boot on a thumb drive, the thumb drive
> will die because of all the read/write cycles that are meant for a
> spinning hard drive. An allstar user/node owner in Pennsylvania reported
> the slow booting.
>
> When dd'ing to flash drive, for most cases you want to specify bs=16k at
> the end of the line. You may even try "gunzip -c <.img> | of=/dev/sdx
> bs=16k". That is the line I used on DamnSmallLinux console to burn the
> Limey Linux image file to the neoware's flash drive. There is zero need
> to run cfdisk or any of that mess before hand.
>
> If I remember right, svcfg is located in the /usr/bin, or the /usr/sbin
> directory. If it is in one of those two and you cannot do a svcfg from
> the prompt, chances are a path got screwed up somewhere. At the prompt,
> you might be able to do /usr/sbin/svcfg and that should work.
>
> If you want to try running ACiD on thin client, my best advice is to get
> a USB hard drive, and run it from there. You may have to play around
> with the formating on the USB hard drive for it to work correctly. Some
> BIOSs do not like anything other than VFAT or NTFS for booting purposes.
> You may be able to make a double partition and and have VFAT for
> booting, and ext3 for anything else. Have fun with grub or lilo to make
> sure it boots from the correct partition.
>
> If you really want to get crazy with it, use of of your Linux servers as
> a PXE boot server, and have the thin client load the Limey Linux from
> there. Not sure how well save would work though.....
>
> ~Benjamin, KB9LFZ
> allstar node 28569
>
>
> On Thu, 2013-02-21 at 08:51 -0800, Tony KT9AC wrote:
>> Here are some notes from my first attempt to get Limey up and running
>> on a T5710 Thin Client (1.2Ghz Transmeta Efferon, 512MB flash chip
>> board (not drive) and 512MB ram - PM705AA model).
>>
>>
>> It's not as easy as the Drupal page would lead one to believe...Limey
>> is actually ArchLinux and not CentOS like the ACID install is, so a
>> lot of expected stuff doesn't work. I'm comfortable with Linux and
>> willing to work through this, and perhaps a small group could write up
>> their experiences with this tier of hardware on the Drupal site.
>>
>>
>> Notes:
>>        * Downloaded PenDrive and Ubuntu server ISO to make a bootable
>>          4GB USB drive (this allowed persistent storage of the cfimg
>>          files under the /cdrom/doc folder).
>>        * Booted into USB Rescue and ran fdisk to delete two Windows
>>          partitions off of 512MB flash.
>>        * Ran the "dd if=cfimg-1.1.5 of=/dev/sdb" and wrote out 128MB
>>          image just fine.
>>        * Rebooted 5710 and it stuck at "USB Hub detected". Inserted
>>          above USB drive and it proceeded to a login prompt. It does
>>          not see the URI at this point. Tried the 1.1.4 and 1.1.5
>>          version for VIA here. Tried the i686-1.1.5 version and it
>>          didn't even get this far.
>>        * No "This is your first time..." script ran like the Drupal
>>          page says. No eth0 came up either.
>>        * Found out Limey is actually "Archlinux" and found the commands
>>          to get on the internet.
>>        * Ran "ip link set <ip> dev eth0 up" and "ip addr add
>>          <ip/netmask/> dev eth0"
>>        * Was able to ping my default gateway and then
>>          edit /etc/resolv.conf to add "nameserver 8.8.8.8".
>>        * How does one save changes back to the flash? The "svcfg"
>>          doesn't seem to exist...
>>        * Once on the network, I switched to /usr/src and ran "getsrc"
>>          which downloaded Asterisk. I tried to do a "configure" but
>>          that failed. Read the README and did a usbradio_install but
>>          that also failed.
>>        * This is a *really* stripped down version of Linux that uses
>>          128MB of memory after installed. I am comfortable around Linux
>>          and CentOS and realize Limey isn't a beginner's O/S, one that
>>          I'm willing to work through.
>>        * I might buy an 8GB USB drive and use that with a regular ACID
>>          install to get more functionality as a try of Ubuntu Server
>>          didn't have enough disk for an install (it did find all the
>>          devices just fine under Rescue mode since it's a newer
>>          distro), or perhaps CentOS 6.3 and roll my own compile of
>>          Allstar.
>>
>>
>> Comments/suggestions are welcome!
>> Thanks,
>> Tony
>>
>>
>>
>>
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