Re: success report, armel on nslu2
I don't see what that would buy us since a) you'll still need to do
some manual steps and b) it would only work if the size of the usb
stick / hard drive was known.
I was imagining that one could use a 2GB disk image. That is probably
plenty of space for Debian, given nobody is going to be installing
open office on the arm. The flash drive folks will probably be happy
because 2GB is perfectly reasonably price point compared to the cost
of the nslu2. For the rotating hard drive folks, I can imagine them adding
a data partition after installation. The hybrid storage folks (Debian on
the flash drive, hard drive for data storage) are also well served.
As for the manual steps, I think they would be cut significantly. Which
might make a real difference. I think it was Stephen Hawking who was
told every equation included in a Brief History of Time would cut down
book sales by 50%. Don't know if that is actually true or not, but the idea
is simplified installation might significantly increase the user base. Maybe
that is a bad assumption.
Anyway, one still has to flash the nslu2 firmware, but after that it
is just the
dd operation, and you have a fairly working system. Bonus points for making
the timezone and password prompts automatic root login, packaging the disk
image up so it is just an apt-get install away (just like upslug2 is)
and getting
all this stuff into knoppix for the unwashed masses.
Again, this is all armchair quarterbacking and I'm sure once I get my hands
on an nslu2 again I'll find out why this can't possibly work. Or given my luck,
once all problems are overcome Linksys would coincidentally decide to
discontinue selling the nslu2.
Jeff
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