SlimCD on a Nano-ITX Fanless System with USB?

[bullethead]

I ordered one of those fancy fanless (nice and quiet and energy efficient) Nano-ITX Motherboards (getting it this week). The system's only drive will be an external 2.5" USB HDD. I am thinking of installing SlimCD on it due to space/performance concerns (ie. 800mhz processor and 512mb ram). Has anyone done anything similar with Linux and Slimserver?

SlimCD link here: http://www.herger.net/slim/detail.ph...kategorie=slim

Also can anyone recommend other options? I know Gentoo will work but it take me an average of 3 hours to get it setup with GRP (ie. hundreds of pages to print and go though). What other distros install flawlessly with external USB HDDs?

[mherger]

> I ordered one of those fancy fanless (nice and quiet and energy
> efficient) Nano-ITX Motherboards (getting it this week). The system's
> only drive will be an external 2.5" USB HDD. I am thinking of
> installing SlimCD on it due to space/performance concerns (ie. 800mhz
> processor and 512mb ram).

When I created SlimCD I wanted a small Linux installation capable of being
run from compact flash or USB. My target system was a mini itx 600MHz box.
Your plan is absolutely feasible.

I don't know about booting from the external disk, though. This should
imho be possible, but I lack any experience. Have you considered searching
the forum at damnsmalllinux.org?

> Do you think this will work? I was hoping for a USB Pendrive install
> but to no avail it's not supported yet.

If you can't boot your machine from a USB pendrive, then it possibly won't
with an external disk, neither. This must be supported by the machine's
bios.

Is there no internal storage in your machine?

--

Michael

-----------------------------------------------------------
Help translate SlimServer by using the
StringEditor Plugin (http://www.herger.net/slim/)

[bullethead]

I got it working off a pendrive on the laptop. I am setting up everything for when the system arrives. This should work fine. You have it correct. The system will have no internal storage at all

I am now a new SlimCD pendrive user. I figured all I needed was a pen drive, the USB hdd was an initial idea, but since I have all my music on a SMB protocol based NAS, everything should be cool.

Thanks

[slimjim]

I would love to see a quick review of your nano-ITX and its performance using SlimCD once you have set them up. I also have all my songs on an NAS and was looking for always-on, low-power, and fanless solution.

Ken

[bullethead]

NP slimjim. I figure I will be spending this weekend coming up setting it up. Once I get everything working correctly I will post my thoughts.

[bullethead]

As I said I would followup.

Well it works as planned. I have 3 Squeezeboxes hooked up to it.

See here for a little more information:

http://stevevarga.googlepages.com/nano-itx

[Mathiou]

Hello,
I would also like to install SlimCD on an USB pendrive for my Epia800 motherboard but I cannot achieve with the SlimCD.
When I run the installation process, it says that it cannot connect to a server nammed biblio and then it stops.

I have tried to do the same procedure using a standard DSL livecd and it works fine. It asks me to choose a location for files and I can select "livecd" "file" or "internet".

Is there something missing in the slimcd or some files I should add ?

Thank you for any informations and please note that I'm a beginner in linux operations.

Best regards
Mathiou

[mherger]

> When I run the installation process, it says that it cannot connect to
> a server nammed biblio and then it stops.

What kind of install are you trying to do? Frugal?

--

Michael

-----------------------------------------------------------
Help translate SlimServer by using the
StringEditor Plugin (http://www.herger.net/slim/)

[matmbl]

I've got a 800Mhz mini-ITX with 40Gb 2.5 & 512mb ram. I've got 2 x 250Gb USB disks plugged in to hold the music.

When I installed LInux I went down the same road your considering, lets get a really light-weight distro to do the basics and naff all else.

It didn't work ! There was always someone missing or something wrong there (for the motherboard).

I've ended up with the server install of Fedora 4 (5 wasn't out at the time) and I'm very happy. Even though X is installed I'm running at init 3 so it doesn't start up and take all that lovely ram away from me. The servers also headless (and happy) so putty is my only access, which works like a dream...


Matt

[nicketynick]

I've got a 800Mhz mini-ITX with 40Gb 2.5 & 512mb ram. I've got 2 x 250Gb USB disks plugged in to hold the music.

When I installed LInux I went down the same road your considering, lets get a really light-weight distro to do the basics and naff all else.

It didn't work ! There was always someone missing or something wrong there (for the motherboard).

I've ended up with the server install of Fedora 4 (5 wasn't out at the time) and I'm very happy. Even though X is installed I'm running at init 3 so it doesn't start up and take all that lovely ram away from me. The servers also headless (and happy) so putty is my only access, which works like a dream...

Matt

So can anybody put this in dollar terms for me - roughly what will it cost (N.A. $$) for a fanless mini-itx box as described above, configured with only the necessities for running SlimServer? (I'm on a budget, so minimalist is fine!) I can't find anybody in any of the local shops who can help when I describe the functionality I'm looking for, but it looks like you've got it spec'ed right here!

Side questions:
What are X and putty?
I wonder if it would be worthwhile to have a 'Linux Beginners' thread category?

Thanks for any help and suggestions!