$100 PC using Puppy becoming a reality

Message

#21 Post by **Flash** » Thu 21 Jul 2005, 04:48

raffy wrote:<snip>
Please correct the link to NTAVO:

http://www.ntavo.com/ntaterminal.php

(the closing parenthesis was included in the previous link)

Thanks, raffy. I fixed it in the original post.

flamesage · #22 Post by **flamesage** » Thu 21 Jul 2005, 05:23

Diskless PC

Lobster · #23 Post by **Lobster** » Thu 21 Jul 2005, 06:01

sverdy wrote: Since this is a prototype, the configuration and price may change accordingly and I will keep you apprised as it evolves.

Hi Stephane

- good luck with the prototype

Well hopefully we will have a few more forum readers as I have placed your info here (it is on a wiki so you can edit it)
http://www.goosee.com/puppy/wikka/LatestNews

Hope that is OK

Would you be able to flash upgrade to 1.0.5?
What is the boot up time?
I suppose you could use an external USB harddrive OK?
Do you have the resources to create a Puppy on PCI card (that starts booting BEFORE any graphics - or has graphics on board)?
Does it go "woof woof"?

I was quite intrigued by the NTA 6015L which seems close to my future ideal - does it come in solar powered?

(Dream on Crusty - Dream on . . .)

BarryK · #24 Post by **BarryK** » Thu 21 Jul 2005, 11:05

I'm playing with the NTA-6010A tonight, first chance I've had to take a good look at it.
I think I already mentioned that the boot process needs to be improved, as it currently isn't creating a home pupxxx file, just running in ramdisk.
...but that should be fixable.
...i never had this ide - cf card configuration before.

The 433MHz Eden CPU isn't the latest, and RAM is only SDRAM, one RAM socket with a 256M RAM module, USB 1.1, not version 2.

There's one ide socket and a ide cable to the cf card. Let's see if I can insert a photo... have attached it.

The cf card is mounted in a bracket that looks like it would take a laptop hard-drive -- now that's interesting as I happen to have one, will try that soon. There's a spare power plug, the large kind. Those laptop hard drives need an adaptor to plug onto a standard ide cable and power plug -- readily available, cost a few dollars.

The pci socket has a 90-degree adaptor so that a pci card lies flat. It has to be a "short" pci card, that doesn't extend beyond the end of the socket -- the snapshot shows me holding a wifi card, trying to indicate how it will fit on the case, 90-degree adaptor has been removed.

I'll report back on progress with improving the Puppy installation, and this weekend will try the hard-drive install.

[/img]

dvw86 · #25 Post by **dvw86** » Thu 21 Jul 2005, 15:42

I think that this is great. I really linke the case. One of the best looking Mini-ITX cases that I've seen. It certainly fits my idea of the "Ultimate Puppy Machine" It cost me a little under $300 US to build mine, so it is wonderful that they can offer these for under $200 US and still donate $10 of it to Barry (although mine was 800MHz and 512MB of DDR RAM). I hope that Barry can perfect the CF to IDE configuration since I am currently installed on a HD and would like to go to CF. I would like to thank the people at DEVON IT for supporting Puppy and Barry. It's great to have them as members of the community.

cygnus · #26 Post by **cygnus** » Fri 22 Jul 2005, 16:12

If a laptop-style hard drive could fit in that system, it would make a great mini-Linux desktop. A distro like Vector or Minislack would run well, I should think.

I don't have a lot of experience with IDE CF cards, but I think Puppy on one of those would be sweet. Once Barry gets the boot sequence to his liking, I just may get one of those Puppy boxes. I also like that they're based in King of Prussia, PA (my home state).

BarryK · #27 Post by **BarryK** » Sat 23 Jul 2005, 15:53

Howto boot Puppy from an internal CF card posted here:

http://www.murga.org/~puppy/viewtopic.php?p=7182#7182

Note, the preinstalled Puppy supplied on the NTA PC was not quite right, and the howto fixes it -- the NTA guys are monitoring this thread, so will fix it!

I can post the modified image.gz, if necessary.

danleff · #28 Post by **danleff** » Sat 23 Jul 2005, 22:02

This is great!

I have a Travala mini-itx case, bout the same size. Yes, the CF disk requires an ide/cf adapter and is seen at hdb. I have it as my primary slave.

Flamesage, you use the Compact Flash card as a hard drive, or just use a slimline cdrom drive to boot off a cd disk. Mine allows installation of a hard drive, either regular ide, or a laptop drive.

I'll have to give this a go soon on a Cf card.

BarryK · #29 Post by **BarryK** » Sun 24 Jul 2005, 00:35

If you boot a live-CD with the modified image.gz,
I think if you plug the CF card into a usb CF reader, then do the normal install-to-usb, except edit syslinux.cfg with PHOME=hdb1 instead of sda1, that should do it.
Then transfer the CF card to the target thin PC.

raffy · #30 Post by **raffy** » Sun 24 Jul 2005, 03:18

Great work going there for the use of flash cards with Puppy.

Can't help but note that the IDE cable and power supply plug seem ready to support a thin hard disk, such as those supplied for thin clients. In fact, an old 420-MB hard disk I used for a Celeron 333-Mhz fitted a thin client from Japan, from a friend's junk collection

BarryK · #31 Post by **BarryK** » Mon 25 Jul 2005, 01:46

I got the SVGA 3.3.6 X server working on the NTA-6010A, see howto:

http://www.murga.org/~puppy/viewtopic.php?p=7295#7295

this would probably also apply to other VIA motherboards.

ljones · #32 Post by **ljones** » Fri 09 Sep 2005, 22:49

Can this computer be bought outside the USA? I don't live in the USA, I'm in the UK - are there any resellers?

Also what about the power supply -- if it only has a 120V PSU, plugging it into the UK mains = *BANG* ! (UK mains = 240V). Then there's the 50hz/60hz mains problem too x.x .

ljones

BarryK · #33 Post by **BarryK** » Sat 10 Sep 2005, 00:34

ljones wrote:Can this computer be bought outside the USA? I don't live in the USA, I'm in the UK - are there any resellers?

Also what about the power supply -- if it only has a 120V PSU, plugging it into the UK mains = *BANG* ! (UK mains = 240V). Then there's the 50hz/60hz mains problem too x.x .

ljones

I don't know about outside the usa, you would have to contact them.

The one they sent me has an automatic power supply, works from 110 to 230V.
We have 240v here in Australia, and it works fine.

babbs · #34 Post by **babbs** » Sat 10 Sep 2005, 01:02

When I was younger, instead of pulling the wings off bugs, I'd take USA electronics and fit them with the round power plug adapter for German power outlets... I did it to see just how big a bang I'd get by putting 110v/60hz devices into the 220v/50hz sockets...

shagpile · #35 Post by **shagpile** » Thu 10 Nov 2005, 04:21

Hate to put a downer on this thread. In the hardware compatibility page it clearly states that sound will not work on the VIA motherboards. Which is kind of a passion killer for me given my part time job.

Or am I wrong and the hardware works just the page has not been updated?

Could you let me know if anybody has any experience with ITX boards and specifically which boards they have used it on.

Also they mention that they put it on a 128mb CF. How is this done? I have a 128mb DOM and would love for puppy to be on it for a lightening fast machine.

Thanks,
Shagpile
----------------------------------------------------
Epiacenter.com
Admin, Moderator and Case Reviewer

shagpile · #36 Post by **shagpile** » Thu 10 Nov 2005, 04:31

Surely this is the ultimate puppy drive to end all puppy drives though.

Ted Dog · #37 Post by **Ted Dog** » Thu 10 Nov 2005, 04:34

The sound is actually quite loud. The default setting is off in bios for good reason, I nearly had a heart attack since both the inboard buzzer and sound card go off together at bootup buzzing EXTREMELY!!!

I moved my CF to a 1G version and copied a mp4 withit. Sound worked fine but video playback was very choppy. Not a multimedia machine

but good for web surfing.

raffy · #38 Post by **raffy** » Thu 10 Nov 2005, 10:22

Here are other candidate multimedia machines. At one time, the owner was curious if Puppy can be used in a webpad device he is developing for MPEG2 streaming. If I may quote Michael Barnes,

Our MicroClient is very low cost and it works pretty well with Puppy. If you need for sound to work, then you need to compile the driver with the kernel but this shouldn't be a big issue.

We have a Web Pad that is based on the same chip platform as the MicroClient. I would like to see it run Puppy. The challenges would be to compile the MPEG2 driver support. If that were possible, then the Puppy Linux would be a very good platform for advertising as it is quite expensive and we are working with a Taiwanese company that does streaming MPEG2.

Puppy folks were quite busy with other things at the time (remember the long IRC sessions), but I guess now people can have spare time for this

Karyyk · #39 Post by **Karyyk** » Thu 09 Mar 2006, 00:16

Hmmm...

I just recently "discovered" Puppy Linux looking for more information on the NTAVO Thin Clients (thinking of implementing them instead of WYSE Winterms on my company's network due to the significant cost savings that would be involved). What I was wondering is whether or not it's possible to boot from a USB flash drive device. The capacities of these are growing very quickly (4GB) and it would be useful for me to just be able to pop in the flash drive in a random terminal and have it boot to my Linux desktop.

I have to admit that I'm very much a Linux newbie (using Ubuntu a bit now, but it's rather slow on older machines), but I'm definitely interested.

dvw86 · #40 Post by **dvw86** » Thu 09 Mar 2006, 05:08

Karyyk wrote:What I was wondering is whether or not it's possible to boot from a USB flash drive device.

Short answer is "yes it is". Your BIOS has to support it but the Mini-ITX based computers such as the NTAVO have no trouble with this. The biggest drawback I see with USB botting is that the boot up time is very slow compared to a CD or hard drive boot.

(old)Puppy Linux Discussion Forum

(old)Puppy Linux Discussion Forum

$100 PC using Puppy becoming a reality

Re: Link correction and No HD

Re: Terminal as Puppy PC

Thin Hard Drive

SVGA 3.3.6 X server (for other Via motherboards too?)

sound worked on mine.

Other fancy products

Question...

Re: Question...