1. Home
  2. Embedded Linux
  3. Sheevaplug - pure Linux geek juice!!!

Sheevaplug - pure Linux geek juice!!!

Sheevaplug - pure Linux geek juice!!!

-------------------------------------

formatting link

Not very often you get a high end distro like Ubuntu 9.04 and a cheap embedded Linux developer system that is also capable of running a high end distro.

The $99 Sheevaplug is very much it.

You get a mains adapter size box with a plug to plug into mains. It has ethernet link, SDCard, USB and a mini USB serial port.

Nothing else.

No monitor port, no keyboard, no mouse port, no nothing. Its also running on an ARM chip!

So what does it do except sit there and do nothing?

Welll..... its the ultimate food from the gods sent to geeks!!!

Since it has 'nothing' you have to bring it alive yourself and mold it to your whims!!!

It is pure geek wallowing in Linux from here on in...

First connect the mini USB serial port to your Linux Ubuntu desktop USB port. Running dmesg in a console window shows it has been recognised and installed as /dev/ttyUSB1 The mini-usb plug is very flimsy and such small connectors are utterly dodgy! If the ftdi serial port chip is not recognised then manually install the driver: sudo modprobe ftdi_sio vendor=0x9e88 product=0x9e8f (My desktop is Ubuntu.)

You now need some software to talk to the Sheevaplug. Install minicom with apt-get install minicom in a console window.

Then run minicom -s to and change set up for 115200 baud 8 bits, N for no parity, 1 stop bit. Change the default serial device to /dev/ttyUSB1 Press return to save changes. Press save changes as default Then Exit minicom. Then run minicom again, and now you are connecting OK to the Sheeva plug through the serial port.

Login as root with password nosoup4u (yup that is the default password!)

First off change the password to something you like with the passwd command.

You can issue command like shutdown -r now and see the computer shutting down and rebooting like a real computer through minicom.

Log back in, connect up the ethernet, give it a few seconds and then enter ifconfig It shows the IP address of the Sheevaplug.

Now you can abandon the minicom console and start another bash console window and connect via ssh!!! ssh root@ipaddress_of_sheevaplug So now you are in and looking around.

If you have konqueror installed on your desktop computer, you can also get in by opening konqueror and entering in the URL fish://root@ipaddress_of_sheevaplug to snoop around to see what other software has been pre-installed.

First thing to do is to get the existing OS of the internal flash chip (to avoid wearing it down) and run it off an SD Card formatted with EXT2 to minimise wearing down the SD Card.

The instructions are here

formatting link
(Choose from all the howto available in that document and don't use EXT3, use EXT2 - EXT3 will wear down your SD Card. I used a 16Gb SD card and set aside 1Gb for swap space - excessive because I didn't want to risk running out of space for later parts of the experiments)

Having transferred everything off the internal flash and booting off the SDcard allows you the freedom to install lots of new software.

First off tried to get this useful utility installed apt-get install wget

But it came up with error message - the issue is that two directories are always in RAM and can get filled - so it forgets to create them whenever Sheevaplug boots. So create these two directories to get apt-get working

mkdir /var/cache/apt/archives mkdir /var/cache/apt/archives/partial

Then I test downloaded a file using wget. I then copied out the file from the sheevaplug using scp command. So in effect the sheevaplug has just become my downloader device consuming 5W that can be left running all night if need be.

and then installed away more stuff like the following

apt-get install lynx apt-get install rsync apt-get install youtube-dl apt-get install sqlite3 apt-get install bash apt-get install xterm

(If your /var/cache/apt/archives gets full, then reboot the sheeva plug and recreate the directories again)

(installing bash might have been redundant - but even if redundant, you can see how it reacts to the command to see if updates are available)

then I did

apt-get update apt-get upgrade

to upgrade the Linux to the latest version (but you may have to do that before installing anything if some of the packages got updated).

Then tried to get VNC server working

formatting link
Got that working. (Be weary if you follow instructions to recompile from source in that link to get xterm working Your dependency checking may go out the window.)

And then got vncserver finally working!!!! So even through Sheevaplug has no graphics card, I can still get a VNC session on it going!!!

Then installed more complex software

apt-get install firefox apt-get install pan apt-get install openoffice.org apt-get install mysql-server apt-get install qcad apt-get install konqueror apt-get install xpdf apt-get install dillo apt-get install gnumeric apt-get install abiword apt-get install apache2 apt-get install dosbox (yes! and it works well!) apt-get install kmail apt-get install synaptic apt-get install onboard (on screen keyboard) apt-get install kwrite

All in all 2Gb of software got installed. Your luck will vary as the software is constantly being updated (and broken) so wait a day if something doesn't work and try again. [My current install has problems starting X and crashes first time but second time its OK when running applications like firefox.] Some things like gambas2 and its libs are not in the arm repositories yet, so not everything can work just yet anyway.

GUI software like firefox I can use ssh -X root@ipaddress_of_sheevaplug and then run firefox to get it to run as a remote X session.

Same with pan, open office, konqueror, gnumeric, abiword, xpdf, qcad and dillo.

Apache server and mysql server is running! Its turned the sheevaplug into a powerful server.

But also desktop features available too...

I ran pan (newsreader) and change pan to use dillo (webrowser) instead of firefox and I get near full speed reading newsgroups and browsing links even through I am running remote X session.

Running firefox or dillo with remote X session is also a safer bet - I can move all the dodgy website browsing to the sheevaplug and change the SD card if some dodgy infection is suspected.

For $99, the sheeva plug is 1.2GHz ARM with 512Mbytes of RAM and 512Mbytes of flash and from the above you can see it runs a full version of Ubuntu very well!!! The hardware is open and the sofwtare is all open source so you can go make your own hardware and install as much software as the repositories and memory chips/hard disks can carry.

This post is brought to you from the Sheevaplug running knode through a remote x session on the main desktop computer :-)

Reply to
7
Loading thread data ...

formatting link

For the $99 one gets the cross-compiler development package, too, in case one doesn't want to compile natively (gcc) on the Plug. Note also the Ethernet is Gigabit.

Can connect USB devices such as HDs and thumb drives:

One important fact: it uses very little power. Note the power stats on this web page which is powered by a SheevaPlug:

But if you need them (including 7 USBs, RS-232, audio I/O,

1280x1024 VGA, two GiGE ports, etc.) get the Open_RD_CLIENT:

Quick tour of the SheevaPlug:

root@debian:~# date Sun Aug 23 20:18:06 UTC 2009

root@debian:~# uptime 20:18:10 up 21 days, 10:54, 1 user, load average: 0.52, 0.23, 0.12

root@debian:~# uname -a Linux debian 2.6.22.18 #1 Thu Mar 19 14:46:22 IST 2009 armv5tejl GNU/Linux

root@debian:~# cat /proc/version Linux version 2.6.22.18 (dhaval@devbox) (gcc version 4.2.1) #1 Thu \ Mar 19 14:46:22 IST 2009

root@debian:~# cat /etc/issue Ubuntu 9.04 \n \l

root@debian:~# fdisk -l

Disk /dev/sda: 250.0 GB, 250059350016 bytes

255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 30401 cylinders Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes Disk identifier: 0x5b6ac646

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System /dev/sda1 1 30401 244196001 c W95 FAT32 (LBA)

root@debian:~# df Filesystem 1K-blocks Used Available Use% Mounted on rootfs 519168 195036 324132 38% / tmpfs 257816 0 257816 0% /lib/init/rw varrun 257816 272 257544 1% /var/run varlock 257816 0 257816 0% /var/lock udev 257816 12 257804 1% /dev tmpfs 257816 0 257816 0% /dev/shm tmpfs 257816 38712 219104 16% /var/cache/apt /dev/sda1 244136352 119008 244017344 1% /media/usbhd

root@debian:~# cd /media/usbhd/thad/

root@debian:/media/usbhd/thad# ll check_endian

-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 9733 Aug 3 13:02 check_endian*

root@debian:/media/usbhd/thad# file check_endian check_endian: ELF 32-bit LSB executable, ARM, version 1 (SYSV), dynamically \ linked (uses shared libs), for GNU/Linux 2.6.16, not stripped

root@debian:/media/usbhd/thad# ./check_endian This system is LITTLE-ENDIAN

root@debian:/media/usbhd/thad# gcc --version gcc (Ubuntu 4.3.3-5ubuntu4) 4.3.3 Copyright (C) 2008 Free Software Foundation, Inc. This is free software; see the source for copying conditions. There is NO warranty; not even for MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.

Reply to
Thad Floryan

formatting link

Gee... I wonder if I can get mosix running on this and finally have my very own, cheap/affordable cluster!

Awesome!

--

*****************************************************************************
                                       
                             From the desk of:
                             Jerome D. McBride
                                       
   21:14:12 up 34 days,  1:18,  5 users,  load average: 0.46, 0.32, 0.24
 
*****************************************************************************
Reply to
Jerry McBride

That it is. Apparently Debian, Ubuntu and FreeBSD are already running on these, but it's not clear from mosix's page how much work would be required to port to ARM architecture; this page:

claims "Supports both 32 & 64-bit x86 architectures". Here's the CPU info of one of my SheevaPlugs:

root@debian:~# uname -a Linux debian 2.6.22.18 #1 Thu Mar 19 14:46:22 IST 2009 armv5tejl GNU/Linux root@debian:~# cat /proc/cpuinfo Processor : ARM926EJ-S rev 1 (v5l) BogoMIPS : 1192.75 Features : swp half thumb fastmult edsp CPU implementer : 0x56 CPU architecture: 5TE CPU variant : 0x2 CPU part : 0x131 CPU revision : 1 Cache type : write-back Cache clean : cp15 c7 ops Cache lockdown : format C Cache format : Harvard I size : 16384 I assoc : 4 I line length : 32 I sets : 128 D size : 16384 D assoc : 4 D line length : 32 D sets : 128

Hardware : Feroceon-KW Revision : 0000 Serial : 0000000000000000 root@debian:~#

Reply to
Thad Floryan

sheevaplug.jsp

I agree, neat...

But I am a slackware guy. How did you load in modules? Mine won't discover a USB audio device...The instructions are oddly assembled, and I have a lot of trouble understanding these for some reason. I know the language, I know its English, but have to read and re-read and still seem to be missing plenty. Some odd block I have :-)

But this is just plain neat. I need more. First one is up as my secondary DNS box. I do need to get it all onto a SD card. Maybe try the distro called "limey-linux", made for Asterisk...but may work well here. Uses initrd to load the OS into RAM, but stores on shutdown and pulls from CF at startup, if you catch the drift. Might be too thin on RAM, but I won't know till I try it.

GeorgeC

Reply to
George Csahanin

To be frank, I have lots of problems understanding it too. Some real geek gods are letting out the information all over forums and we the mere mortals have to pick up the morsels and try to assemble them into something meaningful and coherent because it is a developer system after all.

I could be 100% wrong here: The reason why it doesn't load modules using the modprobe command is because some dependency information about modules is not in the directory structures. You can recreate it using I think with depmod -ae but I haven't tried it yet.

Another reason I can guess so far is that the kernel needs to be recompiled with:

Start by adding kernel sound support

CONFIG_SOUND=y CONFIG_SND=y CONFIG_SND_TIMER=y CONFIG_SND_PCM=y CONFIG_SND_HWDEP=y CONFIG_SND_RAWMIDI=y CONFIG_SND_SEQUENCER=y CONFIG_SND_HRTIMER=y CONFIG_SND_SEQ_HRTIMER_DEFAULT=y CONFIG_SND_SUPPORT_OLD_API=y CONFIG_SND_VERBOSE_PROCFS=y CONFIG_SND_DRIVERS=y CONFIG_SND_ARM=y CONFIG_SND_SPI=y CONFIG_SND_USB=y CONFIG_SND_USB_AUDIO=y CONFIG_SND_USB_CAIAQ=y

USB sound support:

CONFIG_SND_USB=y CONFIG_SND_USB_AUDIO=y CONFIG_SND_USB_CAIAQ=y

You can google for sheevaplug and some of the keywords above to see what else everyone is saying in order to get sound working.

Also try this link as well:

formatting link

I'm running open office off of the Sheevaplug - look at list above of software installed AND running most items simultaneosly!!!

This post is being sent from knode and there is also open applications such as pan and dillo from the same sheeva plug as well as couple of ssh sessions and apache all running simultaneously!

Despite that top reckons I'm only using 1% of the CPU. I don't know whether to laugh or cry.

Lately I've been using nohup command a lot on the sheevaplug. I log in via ssh to initiate download using nohup command:

nohup wget url_of_file_to_download

and then log out while it continues the download. Come back a few hours later and its all finished - it frees up my desktop computer for other experiments.

Reply to
7

ory:HowTo

nstalling_X11

Reply to
http://books.google.com/books?id=ifqnAAAACAAJ&dq=inauthor:%2

ry

** **

of:

ide

.32, 0.24

** **
Reply to
http://books.google.com/books?id=ifqnAAAACAAJ&dq=inauthor:%2

s
B

nd

he

T2

I used

use I

he

g
t

g may

ite

nd

he

on

s
a

ver

, I

hem

use

ry

F

't

ch

Reply to
http://books.google.com/books?id=ifqnAAAACAAJ&dq=inauthor:%2

d
e
2

sed

I
e
y
d
e
n
r
I
Reply to
http://books.google.com/books?id=ifqnAAAACAAJ&dq=inauthor:%2

s
B

nd

he

T2

I used

use I

he

g
t

g may

ite

nd

he

on

s
a

ver

, I

hem

use

ry

F

't

ch

Reply to
http://books.google.com/books?id=ifqnAAAACAAJ&dq=inauthor:%2

t.

egory:HowTo

/Installing_X11

Reply to
http://books.google.com/books?id=ifqnAAAACAAJ&dq=inauthor:%2

very

**** **

k of:

Bride

0.32, 0.24
**** **
Reply to
http://books.google.com/books?id=ifqnAAAACAAJ&dq=inauthor:%2

d/

p

gh

has

it

USB

and

the

m
o
r

le

so

ip

EXT2

d. I used

cause I

e

the

s

as

ng

lug

if

hat

ing may

g

il

write

ms

g
e

and

ad

I

the

sion

go

ies

h a

cover

a

ge, I

them

cause

t
Reply to
http://books.google.com/books?id=ifqnAAAACAAJ&dq=inauthor:%2

d/

p

gh

has

it

USB

and

the

m
o
r

le

so

ip

EXT2

d. I used

cause I

e

the

s

as

ng

lug

if

hat

ing may

g

il

write

ms

g
e

and

ad

I

the

sion

go

ies

h a

cover

a

ge, I

them

cause

t
Reply to
http://books.google.com/books?id=ifqnAAAACAAJ&dq=inauthor:%2

/
h

as

t

SB

and

the

e
o
p

XT2

used

e I

the

s
g

ug

at

may

l
e
s

and

d
I

the

ion

o

es

a

ver

, I

ry

F

't

Reply to
http://books.google.com/books?id=ifqnAAAACAAJ&dq=inauthor:%2

ElectronDepot website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.