DSL and SolarPC

Forum: User Feedback
Topic: DSL and SolarPC
started by: monkymind

Posted by monkymind on Nov. 24 2004,07:52

Anyone want a $100 PC?

< http://www.cbronline.com/article....FF5B090 >

Here's a piece from the article :-

The SolarLite will be based on VIA Technologies Inc long-life chipset technologies and is designed to run on 12-volt power via solar panels, car batteries, or even human-powered generators. The software for the SolarLite is provided by the DSL (Desktop/Damn Small Linux) project, a bootable Live CD Linux distribution.

SolarPC also announced plans to give away a million SolarLite computers to schools in emerging countries around the world via the Global Education Link project.

Posted by ke4nt1 on Nov. 24 2004,08:03

That is incredible..

Another "milestone" for DSL..

A " million " computers.. WOW !!

In a few more years, the world will never be the same...
I'm happy to be involved at such an early time in DSL history..

I wonder how many NFP's will follow suit..

" I want a solar powered model !

73
ke4nt

Posted by caulktel on Nov. 24 2004,15:30

I want one also. We can go DSL mobile now (12 volts). Woo Hoo!

Posted by ico2 on Nov. 24 2004,16:41

i am sure i already posted in this thread :s obviously not, so here goes: WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!

Posted by SaidinUnleashed on Nov. 24 2004,17:46

sweet...

Posted by caulktel on Nov. 24 2004,17:46

A somewhat dark picture of the Solar Lite PC.
< http://solarlite.org/index2.html >

Posted by guni on Nov. 24 2004,19:00

damn I´ve been looking for such kind of a pc in a long time and now it seems to come with DSL as well O_o. Gotta be the best of everything :>

but where are the specs :s

-----
guni

Posted by AwPhuch on Nov. 24 2004,20:20

Yup..ill buy one of those for sure!!

No doubt in my mind...

Dude DSL sooooo freeking rocks!

Way to go John, roberts and the whole DSL team, you have created a distrobution that will now be classified as one of the great classics 50 years from now....you just watch!

Brian
AwPhuch

Posted by caulktel on Nov. 24 2004,21:02

This would be so cool for my streaming audio (shoutcast) server. I would even come up with my own CF card at that price.

Posted by ico2 on Nov. 25 2004,16:46

hmmmmmmmmmm, when BT give my area broadband i am going to make a nano-ITX pc and use as a web/email/ssh server

Posted by ico2 on Nov. 25 2004,16:47

as usual forgot something and cannot be bothered to edit post:

i will be using dsl for this server but it could be years before BT get their arses in gear

Posted by henk1955 on Nov. 25 2004,20:32

< DSL gets famous >

Posted by AwPhuch on Nov. 26 2004,00:27

After this DSL is gonna be HUGE!

Probably moreso than some of the larger "bloatware" distros out there

I just hope John and roberts dont hear the "cashregister in the sky"

Brian
AwPhuch

Posted by John on Nov. 26 2004,07:21

AwPhuch, what do you mean?

Posted by caulktel on Nov. 27 2004,04:35

After looking at Linux Gazettes site,http://linuxpr.com/releases/7357.html regarding the Solar PC, it says that they will be $100.00 ea., but the minimum order is 100,000 units, which means we will never see them at that price.

Posted by ico2 on Nov. 27 2004,12:11

anyone got a million bucks? you could resell for more on ebay and to john for the store.

Posted by jmhayes on June 24 2005,18:26

Ok, so I got one of these things. But I can't seem to find a way to install DSL onto a CF card, because I can't boot from CD-ROM or floppy on this thing. Can I just make a CF image somewhere else? All the HOWTOs seem to presuppose booting first. Help?

Posted by ke4nt1 on June 24 2005,18:38

I use a cf-2-ide adapter..

Plug it into any PC box as hda1,
and use the cdrom to bootup the DSL LiveCD..

Partition and format your CF card, just like it was hda1.

Then use the menu option " install frugal ",
select hda1 as your drive, and let it do it's thing.

Then, after the process is finished,
put the CF back into your miniPC..

The adapters are cheap, and are really handy-to-have..

73
ke4nt

Posted by jmhayes on June 24 2005,19:19

Quote (ke4nt1 @ June 24 2005,14:38)

>> Then use the menu option " install frugal ",
>> select hda1 as your drive, and let it do it's thing.

Ok, I have another machine booted, I made two partitions on hde1 (128MB + 128MB swap), but when you say "the menu option" ... which menu are you talking about? I don't see a menu anywhere

Posted by ke4nt1 on June 24 2005,19:43

In DSL , from the desktop, when you right click, you get a menu
of options.. Apt>Tools>Install frugal

73
ke4nt

Posted by jmhayes on June 24 2005,19:51

Quote (ke4nt1 @ June 24 2005,15:43)

Apt>Tools>Install frugal

Ah, okay. It says "this script only reliably works on hda" ... I'm using hde on my laptop. What's the name of the script, maybe I can work on it a little.

Posted by jmhayes on June 24 2005,22:37

Quote (jmhayes @ June 24 2005,15:51)

What's the name of the script, maybe I can work on it a little.

Ok, I found it. frugal_instal.sh ... I made a few changes and was able (after fighting lilo for a bit) to get it to create the right image and it's bootable now. Now if I can just figure out how to keep it from running xsetup everytime I boot ...

Posted by AwPhuch on June 24 2005,22:52

Quote (John @ Nov. 26 2004,02:21)

AwPhuch, what do you mean?

Take da money and run man..heh..

Make zillions of bucks and hit the ground running...or sell your "DSL" to a company that manufactures the SolarPC

I guess I was being paranoid!

Brian
AwPhuch

Posted by AwPhuch on June 24 2005,22:53

Quote (jmhayes @ June 24 2005,14:26)

Where did you get it...can you give pics of it in action?

Brian
AwPhuch

Posted by jmhayes on June 24 2005,23:18

Quote (AwPhuch @ June 24 2005,18:53)

Where did you get it...can you give pics of it in action?

I got it at < SolarPC > just like you might imagine

The config I got was the SB105E [EPIA-M Mini-ITX] for $190, 256MB RAM [$40], IDE->CF [$13] ... I have a 256MB CF in it. The box is bigger than I thought it was going to be.

Posted by jmhayes on July 11 2005,16:30

Quote (jmhayes @ June 24 2005,18:37)

Now if I can just figure out how to keep it from running xsetup everytime I boot ...

Just getting back into this, but I guess I've done something wrong; it's like Groundhog Day: everytime I boot, it's like the first time. I can't seem to quite get the hang of how to persist changes. As I understand it, /KNOPPIX is an image that gets mounted at boot time, and things like /etc are mounted on a ramdisk copied from that image (for instance, /etc/passwd gets copied from /KNOPPIX/etc/passwd ...). I guess it would involve changing the stuff in /KNOPPIX but I've looked around at the various HOW-TOs and I must be missing something.

Brother can you spare a clue?

Posted by UndCon on July 18 2005,12:13

The simplest solarPC setup seems identical to my servers and routers (using epia5000 motherboards)
< http://undcon.no-ip.com > for more info...

to save things i did like this:

make a folder "saves"

edit file filetool.lst (here all files/folders are listed to be saved)
add a new line at the end " home/dsl/saves

thats it...

to start up with saved settings (edit startscripts)
cdrom/syslinux.cfg

2:nd row starts with "APPEND" and its this line to edit in order to automate restoration similar to this:
APPEND ramdisk_size=10000 init lang=us restore sda1 apm=poweroff vga=79 (sda1 might not be your driveletter)

i added GIMP and save all settings...

DL gimp and install
wget < http://dsl.thegeekery.com/mydsl/apps/gimp-2.2.0.dsl > /cdrom
sudo cp gimp-2.2.0dsl /cdrom
mydsl-load gimp-2.2.0.dsl

then edit filetool.lst again
add: home/dsl/.gimp-2.2

BTW - i estimate about 9.3-15W with the epia power calculator

< http://resources.mini-box.com/online....or.html > at www.mini-box.com

a solarpanel creating 15W is enough...

Posted by ke4nt1 on July 18 2005,15:21

WoW!
Those are great links.
Thanks for sharing..

I've got a solar panel that will output that!
Must hookup my epia5000 to it and a 12V reg. soon..

73
ke4nt