[TriLUG] One Board PCs Like the RPi

[Ken Mink]

On 2/20/13 10:36 AM, Igor Partola wrote:
> Don't forget the SheevaPlug (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SheevaPlug). For
> your use case it might work better since it doesn't sound like you need the
> GPIO ports. Price-wise, it is comparable the the RPi. For my RPi, case, SD
> card, powered hub, and USB Y cable for my hard-drive, I spent about $75.
> The SheevaPlug is about $100 and of those things listed you might require
> only the Y cable. With it you would normally get a faster processor (1.2
> GHz) and GB ethernet. I am not saying it's a better deal, just that it's
> another alternative.
>
> Check out the GuruPlug brand of these:
> http://www.globalscaletechnologies.com/p-31-guruplug-server-standard.aspx
>
> Additionally, I have been curious about PogoPlug, which has lots of
> different versions and can be had for as little as $25.
>
> Igor
I enjoy tinkering with these small linux machines. I have a Sheevaplug 
running as my gateway/firewall. I added a usb nic for it's external 
link. It's been humming along fine for about 4 years. One of my favorite 
features is the built-in JTAG plug. With a mini-USB cable, you get 
access to serial console. I just leave it plugged into another machine 
and I'm never locked out, now matter how badly I screw up the 
networking. It's currently running Fedora17. The SheevaPlug is a real 
nice, polished package. It was made to be tinkered with, so flashing the 
uboot code is easy and it is actually kind of hard to brick.

I also have a PogoPlug V3 running ArchLinux as my asterisk server. The 
Pogos come with a lot of USB connections. You never know which one it's 
going to pick as sda, so booting with more than one drive can be fun. 
The processor on mine is really weak. For $25, though, it's pretty sweet.

I recently bought a MK808B Android TV box for $55 that is the smallest 
machine I've played with. It can be reflashed with 
Picuntu(http://ubuntu.g8.net), which is a Ubuntu derivative. I've just 
started messing with it, but what a powerful little machine. It's a 
1.6GHz dual core A9 with 1G of RAM. If you run linux, you have to use a 
microSD card for storage. There a few versions of it with varying Linux 
support. The builtin WiFi doesn't work under Linux with the version I 
got. A usb nic solved the problem.

For the OP's use for squid/dansguardian, the MK808 would probably be the 
best choice. It's got the most horsepower/memory. It would require the 
most effort to get going, though. The SheevaPlug would be another good 
choice. The GuruPlugs have more power, but they cost more and you need 
to get a JTAG adapter to get the console, and you'll need the console. I 
don't think the PogoPlug I have would be up to the task. I would depend 
on the rule set used by squid and dansguardian.

Ken