I'm looking for a device which I intend to use as a wireless router with
atleast following: 1xusb, 2xethernet, 2xmini-pci(e).


I found this :
http://www.freescale.com/webapp/sps/site/prod_summary.jsp?code=MPC8377EWLAN
A bit pricey for what you get - but quite reasonable - would likely be
cheaper if it was for mass market - think they maybe sell 100 a year if
that.


I have looked also at:

- routerboard : mikrotik doesn't really want to help people to load
other OS on it - and it's a mission from what i've seen to do it
- alix : a bit slow - and I don't really like the amd geode (seems
like its not really made for router applications)
- routerstation pro : probably best option price wise - but a bit more
power would be nice - and board layout is bit awkward.


Any other ideas ?

> I have looked also at:
>
> - routerboard : mikrotik doesn't really want to help people to load
> other OS on it - and it's a mission from what i've seen to do it

is that help really needed? I haven't go further than booting this to openwrt,
but if the kernel finds devices, what is the limit?

http://manio.skyboo.net/mikrotik/

> - routerboard : mikrotik doesn't really want to help people to load
> other OS on it - and it's a mission from what i've seen to do it

I think you are maligning routerboard somewhat there.
I have a coworker who is running debian on a routerboard without any major
problem, and looking at the website[1][2] they list linux as running on at
least the 153 and 532 products (both MIPS based).

Don't look at the 200 range, that's SC1100 (geode) and I have to agree just
plain nasty.


[1] http://www.routerboard.com/rb100.html
[2] http://www.routerboard.com/rb500.html
--
Bob Dunlop

On 15/04/2010 08:46, Bob Dunlop wrote:
Don't look at the 200 range, that's SC1100 (geode) and I have to agree
just

plain nasty.




Can you educate the ignorant on what kind of problems I might be about
to run into if I'm using a geode for my next project (Alix)?


Cheers

Ed W

Ed W wrote:
> Can you educate the ignorant on what kind of problems I might be
> about to run into if I'm using a geode for my next project (Alix)?

I have great experience from using ALIX boards in various projects,
and I also know them well hardware-wise from work in the coreboot
project.

I think they're really good value for money, and they can be set up
in cute little boxes.

The Geode is really a non-PCI architecture, which uses some tricks in
order to implement a PCI bus. It's PCI compliant, but some functions
are virtualized using system management mode. This means that you may
not be able to rely on very precise timing in the system, if you're
planning on running a RTOS.

Other than that there's not much. They work well for me. There's also
a blog or two with some posts about adding various little board bits
into a Gentoo system.

http://www.twam.info/linux/gentoo/installing-gentoo-on-alix3d3
(There are more articles. See http://www.twam.info/tag/alix3d3)


//Peter

On 15/04/2010 13:18, Peter Stuge wrote:

Other than that there's not much. They work well for me. There's also
a blog or two with some posts about adding various little board bits
into a Gentoo system.

http://www.twam.info/linux/gentoo/installing-gentoo-on-alix3d3
(There are more articles. See http://www.twam.info/tag/alix3d3)




Thanks Peter, very helpful

Yes I found those blog articles - they are very interesting - was sad to
see that "Twam" didn't post more (I assume this isn't you?!)


All the best

Ed W