Finding the "right" media server

I Keep "Slugging" Away on my NSLU2

The file sharing and UnSLUG setup on my NSLU2 seems to be working fine. I have been installing optware packages and have made a few attempts to configure imagegallery on Apache with no success.

I Finally settled on lighttpd for a webserver and have moved on to make my music accessible throughout the house.

I especially want to serve out the music to my house stereo without spending much additional money, or by stringing any more cables and wire. After-all the whole setup is intended to be wireless, thats the main fun anyways!

As I experimented with media servers I decided I wanted to expand the USB ports on the SLUG. I had read in the UnSLUG Wiki that UnSLUG had some trouble with USB Ports. Several brands were suggested and I found one close to what was recommended at a local computer store.

I thought that the Targus PAUH217U worked fine and I was able to hang the USB drive and a flash drive off the hub and have room for two more connections. It seemed to work at first, but after a while, things got flaky.

I could not see both drives without logging into the admin user, so I think I will go back to two dedicated USB ports. So much for hanging a printer off of a hub, not this hub anyways.


Perhaps I will get brave enough to solder on a couple of more USB ports. I guess the NSLU2 supports five USB ports. So, get out the solder iron, some wire, a few USB ports and hack away. I would create an attached hub with a hole for the wires to come out, rather than the way these guys went about it.

Good instructions though, just kind of crude cover in the end.



I found the Netgear Wireless Digital music Player MP101 had what I was looking for. It was made a few years ago and did not take off like wildfire. I found it on sale for $39 including shipping, did some temp credit card offer with Amazon and will end up only paying $9 once I get the credit they promised.

Once I get the unit, play around with the firmware, I will install it and see if I can play my music collection on my main stereo from any computer on our wireless network. Kind of Nifty if you ask me.

The next project will focus on installing a printer on the print server port and getting some fancy way of accessing all those digital photos I have sored on the various hard drives around the house.

Stay tuned.....

Discovering the "Slug"

Modify The Linksys NSLU2 and Reflash with Linux Unslung

I have been experimenting with a wireless network at home and have grown accustomed to the features of the Linksys WRT54G -L and S. I have worked with the DD-WRT firmware and have had a lot to work with on that project. Lately I wanted to have some central hard-disk storage and began to look around for some cheap way of backing up my computers and storing photos and music. That's when I discovered the "SLUG".

Around Winter Solstice time I was home on some time off from work and looked around for a used Linksys NSLU2. I found one to bid on on Ebay and won an auction for $46 total. I was excited to take another Linksys product and expand features with Linux firmware.

I was excited to begin and after a few days the Linksys NSLU2 arrived at my doorstep. I went online and found volumes of sites and support to do a million different projects with this little device. I decided to go simple and my initial goal was to learn more about Linux and develop a central storage deposit on my home network.

At first I thought I had bought a brick. The original linksys software did not seem to work. Since so many people have been contributing to this Project, I found the tools and instructions to bring a brick back to life.


I did the RedBoot bootloader and I recovered the SLUG box and reflashed into a successful upgrade to unslug. I Reflashed the SLUG with Unslung 6.8 Beta.




Next, I read about how the earlier units were underclocked and a "simple" hardware modification could be made made to basically double the speed. One just had to remove a resistor and the speed would increase two-fold. I looked around and found a German site that had some pretty good photos of this process. So I went back to the NSLU2-linux howto pages, opened up the box and I removed the R83 resistor and TurboSlugged my Slug.


I used a small jewelry wire cutter and a magnifying glass and a small CRUNCH doubled the speed of the processor.

There are other hardware modifications one can make also.

http://www.nslu2-linux.org/wiki/HowTo/OverClockTheSlug

I Formatted a 250 Gig WD Essential My Book in the ext3 format. I also had a 1 Gig flash drive I decided to use. I also Formatted a 1 Gig Verbatum flash drive in the ext3 format.

At first try, I "unslung" the filesystem to the WD hard drive, but it never would spin down while everything was idle. I was concerned because I wondered how log the IDE drive would last spinning all the time. I looked around and all the solutions were too complicated for me to handle at this point.

At some point, in my late night trance of slug obsession, I found I could redo everything and "unsling" onto a flash drive. So I found out that I was able to move the entire file system to a 1 Gig Flash Drive., so, I did!

The Flash Drive was continually blinking though, so I found a way to quiet down the activity.

All this stuff is on the web and easy to find by google searches. Also much of the details are at: http://www.nslu2-linux.org



After I "Unslung" to a 1 gig verbatum usb flash drive on port 2, I read about packages and learned howto use ipkg. I decided to move beyond telnet and set up openssh.

I tried the TwonkyMedia Server and installed a 30 day so-called "Free" version and decided I did not like it, nor wanted to pay for it.

Much to my dismay, the only way to remove the server was to reconfigure the SLUG. What a Pain! Back to square one! Re-format, re-unsling, do not pass go, do not collect $100.

My goal this week is to install a media server to serve out our photos, mp3's and possibly video.

Stay tuned for more.......

My access point setup--Linksys WRT54GS running DD-wrt and the happy SLUG fam.