Subject: The future of the Unslung distribution - msg#00016

List: misc.nslu2.devel

Date: Prev Next Index Thread: Prev Next Index

Mike (our Unslung distro manager) just wrote an important message, as a
reply to a "Newbie help please" thread discussing telnet vs ssh as the
standard interface for new users.

I thought it was important enough to repost more widely under a more
appropriate subject heading. I fully agree with and support everything
he has written below.

-- Rod Whitby
-- NSLU2-Linux Project Lead

Mike (mwester) wrote:
> When I joined the Unslung development team, quite frankly the hard work was
> done -- Unslung 5.5 was out and was a huge success. Unslung 6.8 (and
> beyond) have instead focused on the user-experience. I've been watching the
> email lists, and taking careful note of not just the problems, but rather of
> how it came to be that the user ended up in that situation. By way of
> analogy, I certainly see the benefits of providing users with a solid fire
> department (and this mailing list, along with the IRC channel, has done a
> great job at extinguishing fires), but rather I would prefer to solve the
> issues that led to the fire department's summoning in the first place.
>
> From that perspective, the Unslung openssh package offers the following
> benefits:
>
> - it takes care that the user's PATH is set appropriately. Sounds trivial,
> but there are still regular emails from folks who's first experiences with
> Unslung have turned into unqualified nightmares -- because they tried to set
> the PATH variable for the root user, and for one reason or another ended up
> locked out, or with a SLUG that wouldn't boot, etc. Welcome to Unslung -
> NOT!
>
> - it ensures that the new user has a Real(tm) terminal emulator. We all
> know from experience that the Windows Hyperterminal is an absolutely
> horrible telnet client. Again, for a new user struggling with the
> eccentricities of Unslung versus standard Linux, the very last thing they
> need to add insult to injury are screen formatting troubles, etc.
>
> - it eliminates that need to enable telnet. Now it's no big deal to enable
> telnet from the GUI. But my watching of the email lists has convinced me
> that sooner or later most users get sick of it. And then they search the
> wiki, and discover diversion scripts - which may or may not work, and if
> done wrong render telnet non-functional completely. This is a good learning
> experience on a box with a console -- but on a device that has nothing but a
> few LEDs and an on-off switch to communicate in the absence of a working
> telnetd, this is a bad problem to end up with. And just try looking up
> "diversion script" in any Linux reference manual! Again, a very poor
> introduction to the world of Linux and Unslung. (I won't even mention the
> recent trend, which seems to involve folks trying to mess with thhtpd, and
> killing the Linksys GUI -- without openssh, they now have nothing at all to
> use to attempt to regain control of their device.) (Or even more recent,
> where the new users end up installing xinetd in order to get ftp running,
> because the wiki tells them do to so -- they end up unable to do anything at
> all with the device.)
>
> - it can transfer files. When all else fails, if you can ssh to openssh,
> you can also use scp to upload or download files. It's saved me countless
> hours of pain when I've totally botched something.
>
> I know this email is long-winded, but there's a point to it -- SlugOS has
> matured beautifully, and is an excellent solution for Linux on the NSLU2 and
> similar devices. As soon as a few installer issues get ironed out, Debian
> on the NSLU2 will be another excellent alternative. Unslung will settle
> into its role as a NAS+ distribution, and future developments with Unslung
> will be focused on the "+" part, with an emphasis on making the add-ons
> simple and and easy. One of the first things I envision in this effort is
> the development of a "base" ipkg package, that would install a known,
> standard set of tools onto a newly Unslung system. This set of packages
> could then be relied upon by application, script, and documentation
> developers to provide a reasonable set of functionality that hitherto had to
> be provided bit-by-bit, ipkg by ipkg, by the end user.
>
> I'll be it doesn't come as a surprise that openssh is part of that initial
> base package.
>
> We'll be looking for application developers to assemble other "solution
> packages" -- reading the email lists, it seems clear that there's a need for
> a "application web server package" with a suitable web server, php-capable,
> and related packages, to replace the mess that we currently force people to
> wade through in order to assemble something as simple as a web server that
> can handle common php and other scripting solutions. Another would be the
> media server - meta-packages that contain all the tools and programs, tested
> together, documented as a whole, and easily installed and configured. Some
> of these are easy - a couple of packages assembled into a meta-package, with
> some testing and a wiki page. Others are a real challenge.
>
> There are always costs, and in order to do the above, there are some things
> that just aren't going to happen with Unslung. I think SlugOS is more than
> ready for users who wish to do things above and beyond Unslung. So advanced
> device support, RAID disks, ALSA support, and suchlike are probably not on
> the list (beyond what works at present). We'd love to see if some
> developers can build a SlugOS preparation package for those who outgrow
> Unslung, though -- something that can help a user identify their
> customizations, and migrate them to SlugOS. I have no idea what it might
> look like beyond that.
>
> In summary then, OpenSSH versus telnet -- not for technical merit, but for
> the side-effects. And OpenSSH is just one of may similar "strong
> recommendations" that folks will start seeing with Unslung.
>
> Volunteers are needed!
>
> Thanks,
> Mike (mwester)

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2 hd's conected with 1 usb cable to the NSLU2 firmware update ?

Hi, i got a big problem with my NSLU2, been posting the problem to many forums, but till now still no replay. I recently bought the SNLU2, and a twin external hardrive console from sharkoon. (Sahrkoon Twindrive - bought it at www.hiq24.de , you can see details) http://shopv2.hiq24.de/product_info.php? cPath=25_125_253&products_id=10680&osCsid=665f3c45fca58c6c9d5fe0af8a65 da75 This is a console that has room for 2 IDE hd's and comes together to 1 usb cable that will go to the NSLU2 I installed 2 hardrives in the console, 1 - 400GB & 1 -120GB So the console is connected with 1 usb cable to the SNLU2. It had the firmware : NSLU2_V23R72 All was good, both hardrives are detected. Thet were formated with windows under NTFS. Now i did a firmware update, installed this one : Unslung 6.8 Beta. Firmware update went all good. To use the hd's under UNslung, they got to be formated under EXT3. Did that, Now only 1 hardrive is recognized, the 400GB (master) if i disable the 400GB (unplug the IDE cable) and restart the SNLU2 it recognize the 120GB (slave) I reconnect both hd's, and only the master 400GB is recognized, there is nothing to see from the 120GB hardrive. I also try to conect to the port 1 or port 2, both same problem only that on port 2 he see only the 120GB, and port 1 the 400GB. I think i'm one of the first people wo connects a twin drive to the NSLU2. What can i do to get my both hd's to be recognized. ? Is there somwhere a newer firmware that is not open for public, or are there people who can help with this problem, i'm getting realy dseperated here, don't know where to search anymore, on the http://www.nslu2-linux.org/ there is no answer to be found, also try'd many more pages and forums. I hope it's not a big problem that i contact you in person, can't find help anywhere. Best Regards , Sammy ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> Yahoo! Groups gets a make over. See the new email design. http://us.click.yahoo.com/hOt0.A/lOaOAA/yQLSAA/CFFolB/TM --------------------------------------------------------------------~->

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Re: controlling buttons and LED on FSG-3?

Rod Whitby schrieb: > I expect to get a serial cable for my FSG-3 this week or next (it's been sent > from the US), so the leds and buttons will work shortly after that :-) And and? Any news on that? :) -- Tomasz Chmielewski http://wpkg.org ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> Check out the new improvements in Yahoo! Groups email. http://us.click.yahoo.com/4It09A/fOaOAA/yQLSAA/CFFolB/TM --------------------------------------------------------------------~->

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