[colug-432] small linux hardware

[Joshua Kramer]

Jeff- that Khadas Vim has some really impressive specs!  If I had
extra cash that would be on my "buy it now" list for sure.  The Atomic
Pi that I linked to has somewhat the same specs as the Basic model
Vim, but it's x86-64, and it's a little bigger.  (The Atomic Pi has a
4 core 1.2GHz Atom, 16GB emmc, and 2GB RAM, plus the gigabit Ethernet,
WiFi and Bluetooth with external antenna connectors.  Its price is
$39, or $59 when purchased with the handy breakout board.)

On Thu, Apr 11, 2019 at 9:02 PM Jeff Ricica <jricica2 at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> I have a Khadas Vim 2 that's a similar form factor to the Pi but has more RAM and the ethernet bus doesn't share its IO with the USB bus so performance would likely be better. I'll have to find it but I'd probably be willing to part ways with it if you're interested. It runs several different distros of Linux as well as Android TV or Android OS and LibreELEC and can even be triple booted.
>
> Outside of that, a very popular option would have to be the Odroid HC2 which sounds like exactly what you're looking for in one package. If you wanted more than 1 data drive, the Helios 4 is a great option that will support up to 4 drives but looks like there's a wait list at the moment as they only manufacture once they have a certain number of guaranteed orders.
>
> -Jeff
>
> On Thu, Apr 11, 2019 at 8:10 PM Joshua Kramer <joskra42.list at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> If you search on Amazon for "fanless industrial PC" you'll find TONS
>> of little systems you could use for that.  A unit with quad core AMD,
>> 2G RAM, and 32G SSD runs about $150.
>> https://www.amazon.com/gp/slredirect/picassoRedirect.html/ref=pa_sp_mtf_aps_sr_pg1_2?ie=UTF8&adId=A051461335BBCWLEXPDFW&url=%2FIndustrial-Personal-Computer-Aluminum-1000Mbps%2Fdp%2FB07D14Z7GT%2Fref%3Dsr_1_28_sspa%3Fcrid%3D34YH7YU7U2HLH%26keywords%3Dfanless%2Bindustrial%2Bpc%26qid%3D1555026934%26s%3Dgateway%26sprefix%3Dfanless%2Bin%252Caps%252C178%26sr%3D8-28-spons%26psc%3D1&qualifier=1555026934&id=6233116189927769&widgetName=sp_mtf
>>
>> Here is something else to consider.  (Note that if you're not
>> comfortable doing basic wiring, you should get the version with the
>> breakout board.  Having said that, it is a somewhat frequent
>> occurrence to see the version without the breakout board in the
>> MicroCenter "Open Box" bin at $32.  The wiring really is not that
>> difficult.)
>> https://www.microcenter.com/product/603770/atomic-pi
>>
>> Having said that... there are ways around the "RasPi kills SD cards"
>> issue.  Essentially, you just put /var and /tmp in a RAM disk, and set
>> the root filesystem to remove the journal.  I have details in a blog
>> post here:
>> https://www.joshuapk.net/2019/02/18/how-stop-killing-sd-cards-raspi/
>>
>> I've been running HomeAssistant under CentOS 7 on a RasPi 3B+ for a
>> while.  Average SD card life was about 2 months, but after I did the
>> tricks noted above things seem to have been much better- that was 6
>> months ago.
>>
>> On Thu, Apr 11, 2019 at 7:09 PM Rick Hornsby <rhornsby at ktzr.net> wrote:
>> >
>> > TL;DR - Looking for recommendations for small, low-power (really, low heat) Linux hardware. 1 core, 1GB of memory would be enough. I just want to run a personal nextcloud server on it. RaspberryPi-level power is acceptable, but that's been tried. Buy or build, either is fine. Would like to keep the cost low, since it won’t be doing much.
>> >
>> > --
>> >
>> > For the last few months, I’ve been running Nextcloud and it’s been great. It’s more flexible than Dropbox (I can exclude file types, etc), doesn’t have fees or size restrictions, and I control all of the data. There are some downsides - I’m solely responsible for the server maintenance and application security, but I think those are fair trade-offs. It has let me do things like seamlessly switch between my laptop and desktop systems, by being able to exclude the IDE metadata.
>> >
>> > I’ve been running it on a Pi, but that’s over. I went do to an OS update a couple of days ago and it barfed all over itself. That’s the third time a Pi put into long-term use has gone tango uniform. It’s a great platform, but not for long-term stuff - at least not without setting up the SD card as r/o and using a more appropriate/durable r/w storage medium. The first two died because of irreparable
>> >  filesystem corruption (fsck), and the third doesn’t seem to be that, but the OS is unbootable and unrecoverable. (The nextcloud data was on a separate disk, not on the SD card.)
>> >
>> > I’m started to set up Nextcloud on Dreamcompute (AWS-like, will run around $9/month), but then I thought “why? I’m paying a buttload for a business interwebs connection at home.” I’m used to building full-tower setups, so the other extreme of the market isn’t nearly as familiar to me. Really, the only other requirement is to be able to attach a bit of external storage - one drive via USB is enough - to it.
>> >
>> > Thoughts or suggestions?
>> >
>> > thanks!
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