marvell plug computer

[pete_c]

Interesting read about Port knocking. BB in general doesn't play very well with almost any kind of tunneling.

But - in the late 1990's I did set up some small offices with multiple "terminals" in very rural parts of Alaska with VPN tunnels via some DSL lines. It worked for what I needed it to do.

 

[drozwood90]

Ok, a lot of success last night. I play with all the suggestions you both provided. I can now make shares and mount them in Windows.

I just have to figure out the security stuff. For some reason, the account I made only has read permission. I can't write anything (although copying anything from the Dockstar to the drive directly will show up on the share).

So, I'm guessing I missed something somewhere, where I need to assign write permission. I guess that's what I get for following a Ubuntu guide on sharing! That or I missed something when I was 1/2 tired!

--Dan

 

[pete_c]

Good news Dan!

I tried again last night to bring back the bricked one and trashed the bootloader (a memory write here and there caused that). I am still waiting for the 16Gb microsd cards. Try doing a

mount / -o remount,rw

for root or whatever directory rw access.

 

[drozwood90]

Pete,

Will that help the "Windows" machine? I can read / write to the file, if I remote into the Dockstar, and just do things like cp, or rm a file.

I.e. I did a cp on a file I found, to /mnt/c (Fat16 according to fdisk...so there shouldn't be USER access rights on the files), which then immediately showed up on the Windows machine's explorer window. Windows could NOT delete the file.

However, I then did rm <filename> and the file deleted from the thumbdrive + disappeared in the Windows Explorer windows (which was looking at the share).

I assumed it was some security thing I didn't do to samba, to allow my new user access (thanks damage for finding smbpasswd!!).

I'll see if the command has any affect as soon as I can (now that I can remote in from my cellphone...gotta love putty for Windows mobile!)

I should probably find a putty-like program for Android...as I keep flipping between the two operating systems.

--Dan

 

[damage]

Dan, i also used an ubuntu guide for setting up samba. this one worked for me http://goo.gl/UrDvt OTOH, none of the spin down methods are working for my usb drive. i have another case lying around but of course i can't find it now!

 

[drozwood90]

Dan, i also used an ubuntu guide for setting up samba. this one worked for me http://goo.gl/UrDvt OTOH, none of the spin down methods are working for my usb drive. i have another case lying around but of course i can't find it now!

damage,

Thanks! That's different then the one I was using. Will give it a try later.

--Dan

 

[pete_c]

Dan,

I use nano, joe via putty to edit (Vi is kind of a pain). I also use WinSCP with SSH. Very explorer like/fast (cheating a bit) it lets you copy, change rights, and edit files looking at everything at once.

It'll let you open up a Putty session within itself.

Typically (relating to PBO), watch the HDMI output on the LCD in the office while configuring and rebooting via Putty SSH and running WinSCP for the overview. (and have a JTAG serial connection watching the output )

The web/HDMI gui lets you change rights to samba shares - then I look at the samba.conf to see what changes it made. I am having problems with one PBO where it gets "stuck" while Samba copying HD movies (4-12GB) while another same version Samba (think its 3.23) which never gives me any problems - configs are the same but base OS is a bit different. Earler versions of Samba running on FreeNAS did similiar with huge multifile copying. BUT on a similiar note your router to the WAN is the bottleneck (keeping the rate of transfer to what your ISP provides you relating to down/uploading bandwidth). Cable (CC) and Verizon (FIOS) both cap upload speeds. I seeing bursting on the downloads but only for a few seconds.

 

[drozwood90]

This web GUI, is this SWAT?

As much as I like being able to do things through commandline, I will say, I won't remember 90% of this the next time I need to add a user to the dockstar...

--Dan

 

[pete_c]

It looks like explorer except that it works with SSH and lets you make adjustments, etc. Its called WinSCP - windows program for Linux.

SWAT is a Linux SAMBA management tool. The WebGUI for the PBO is "SWAT" like but primitive letting you configure shares, rights and links.

Unless you install editors or whatever its usually very light. The challenge for me was using Vi in that I had not used it for many years (Sun Solaris boxes). The old airport FIDS displays used to use these boxes. It was a hodpodge of very old BB video mixed with a very simple cryptic configuration. Cryptic at best. Funny (but not) remember one of the programmers testing one (it was like 20 feet wide) live and for whatever reason sticking her hand inside of the box and getting a shock that threw her about 10 feet away for the FIDS (Giant Betabrite) display. Thing was she was tiny and it look worse than it actually was.

 

[pete_c]

After the "screw up" of the bootloader wrote and got an RMA and decided to send the first one back while I wait for my 16Gb microSD. I asked for a replacement and I am on a wait list for a couple more.

I was actually looking to use one in the PBO such that I could just keep storage on the 1Tb drive and the OS (which I filled up right away with programs) on the microSD. I purchased the small dongle such that I could just solder inside of the box.

The experiment with this Dockstar would be to kind of make it a miniature HA box with just 1-wire stuff (for a weather station) for FL. I have most if not all the cabling in place for 1-Wire stuff on one side of the house (it would be a do all weather station).

 

[pomprocker]

I'm using mine for home automation running Heyu. I also serve up a front-end for heyu with lighttpd. If you want an out of the box solution for these follow NewIT's methods, they have images you can 'dd' onto the SD Cards.

 

[drozwood90]

Neat idea using HeyU on there!

I never thought to do that.

Although, I guess I would have had to know about this Dockstar quite a few years ago, to choose this over HS. I'm...fully vested now!

I might go with a lower power unit at some point, but the server is my monster that runs the house, serves all our files, etc.

Trying to convince my wife to allow that machine also be the print server...to help her machine out...but I'm thinking that's a no go. She makes these MONSTER print jobs, and her PC just can't handle it. So, she manually makes smaller print jobs. I believe the server can handle it...but we'll see.

--Dan

 

[pete_c]

I received my microSD cards yesterday.

I'm thinking maybe of a 9097 / small 1-wire network.

Dan, my wife almost "broke" the NEC postscript printer one day (very difficult to do). I purchased a smaller Samsung Laser printer. Its sitting right next to her PC in her home office.

The dockstar is a great learning experience for me no matter what I do with it.

 

[drozwood90]

Pete,

Just bought two of those Nokia USB cables. Got them from E-bay for $2.68 each...free shipping. Not too shabby! The only one I've played with, that works, just really works 100%, never had any issues, is the Sabrent one at pcconnection ($9.99 on sale right now). Usually $15.99 + sh, well worth the cash. At $2.68 each, it'll be worth it if this thing doesn't work too well...although you seem to have good success with them!

I think I'll convert one to do JTAG. The other, I'm going to experiment with.

{tangent}
with my new Touchscreen configuration (still working on the details of it), I will need a way to turn the screen on and off, but leave the Touchscreen running. Might tie in the DTR pin to a relay to "simulate" pushing the power button on the screen. It's only necessary on my HTPC's touchscreen, or I have to use two UPB modules (one to control the power to the screen, one to control the power to the VGA extender box...which powers the touchscreen). I'd prefer something cheaper (as I don't want to spend $70 just to turn the screen off). Also, not such a problem with Windows XP, but the new driver for Win7 doesn't seem to like when you unplug and replug the screen AFTER it has already been registered (i.e. the first time I connect power to the VGA extender, the touchscreen comes up, with the proper calibration...the IF the PC is still running, the second time I plug in the monitor (i.e. cut power the re-apply power to the VGA extender)) , the calibration is all goofy.

So, just a thought...if I don't use it for this, I know I can use it for something else.

For the other touchscreens, my plan is: I have a script that I need to modify, using UltraMon, which will allow me to "turn" the sleep line on and off to the touchscreen...which the VGA extender will pass through to the actual monitor, leaving the USB on. Then I just monitor my server for mouse position. If it ends up on a monitor that is asleep (i.e. someone touched the monitor), I have the server turn that monitor back on. Sorry for the HUGE tangent!

{/tangent}

--Dan

 

[pete_c]

Dan,

Thank you for the details about your touchscreen configuration. For the older TS's in the house I utilize the wired PIR sensors to wake up the screen and for the Mimo I created a "push button" to sleep the computer and I just touch the screen to turn it on. I am having problems though that the Mimo drivers are very fussy relating to the powered Hub. Sometimes working and other times I have to reboot and unplug the USB cable and plug it back in.

Not sure if its worth the effort of 1 USB cable versus three VGA TS cables. Same thing you describe happens with the Mimo Monitor where it doesn't see the TS piece. I have to go in and tell it; then I have to readjust.

So are you thinking of using the JTAG DTR pin to power the screen?

Found out there are differences in JTAG cables. Historicallly I've only known it to be a serial cable - like the one you bought. The little CPU boots up and you interrupt the boot process and you are at a prompt. It works well with the Seagate. BUT there's another JTAG device which uses voltage or ground pins in connection with the serial cables. This lets you get into the computer if there is no bootloader by breaking the CPU boot process, do a couple of memory writes back to the memory. A bit more to it than I wanted to know.

Finished the setup on the micro SD card - only thing is that it keeps defaulting to booting the Dockstar. I do see it reading a bit from the MicroSD just not booting. I've read of issues relating to timing and such about booting off SD. It worked with the notebook/USB drive thing.

Here's what my reads look like (slow).

Pogoplug:/bin$ hdparm -tT /dev/sda

/dev/sda:
Timing buffer-cache reads: 970 MB in 3.00 seconds = 323.05 MB/sec
Timing buffered disk reads: 18 MB in 3.04 seconds = 5.92 MB/sec
Pogoplug:/bin$
Pogoplug:/bin$