Let the flames begin...

Didn't we all know it was a Windows box before we bought it? Sure seems like a waste of effort to convert it to use Linux. Sounds like buying a new car and taking out the motor because you don't like it. If you didn't like Microsoft-based systems, why buy it?

Sorry, just seems such a paradoxical effort...

For some reason it doesn't like to do any sort of large fast transfers (ie, wgetting/scp from another machine on the LAN) with the default MTU of 1500. Setting it to 1492 seems to be the fix.

I am running Debian Etch with working ethernet. I've yet to do any testing with my gigabit switch other than ping and apt-get (which return no errors).

I will have more time next week to test my network performance. Is there any specific test you want me to try?

In the meantime, I'm considering returning my MSS and simply getting a KPC. The MS tax is just too darn high. I love the hard drive expandability and the form factor but hate the fact that I still cannot drive those darn LEDs. I know what to do to get them reverse engineered, I just don't have the time (got wife and kids and a job). My kid came up to me the other day and said "Daddy, can I play with the Linux too?" Too cute.

Anyhoo, it's hard to hold on to an MSS box when I could build two Shuttle KPC boxes for less.

Thanks! As far as testing goes, iperf is my tool of choice; do an iperf -s on machine A, and an iperf -c <IP of machine A> -r on machine B. Should give you the upload/download speeds in Mbps from B->A.

Did Etch require any modification to the sis190 driver? Also, which gigabit switch are you using?

Some more performance observations:

With ZFS-FUSE I'm getting about 17MB/s onto a 4-drive (WD10EACS) RAIDZ with dd if=/dev/zero of=/tank/vault/bigfile bs=32MB count=256. Samba transfers are limited by my 100Mbps swtitch to ~8.5-9MB/s.

I followed the "Installation on Ubuntu 7.10 Alternative from Source" instructions here. Make sure to use /dev/disk/by-id/ to specify drives and disable write caching (via hdparm -W 0 /dev/sd[abcd]) as recommended.

EDIT: Software RAID5 across the same four disks using XFS (didn't want to wait for ext3 to...slowly...write all 22000 inode tables ) and the same dd command gave me ~39.7MB/s.

EDIT2: Re-enabling write caching (hdparm -W 1 /dev/sd[abcd]) brings that up to 130MB/s.

To clarify, I used Etch with a downloaded (vanilla kernel 2.6.24 with PHY update to sis190.c). I used the debootstrap method of installation. Etch comes with kernel 2.6.18 and there were simply too many problems from the default stock kernel and drivers. Upgrading to 2.6.24 fixed most of them and that PHY update got ethernet working. Need to do more testing though.

On another note, I see that this thread is a pretty hot topic since there have been 2500 views of this forum thread. Can this mean that others are interested in putting Linux on their MSS or perhaps exploring the possibility of a home Linux server?

The Ubuntu version I'm using has 2.6.24 by default, so all I needed was the PHY patch too. Still no gigabit love (refuses to send traffic over my switch, ethtool reports only 10/100 support) though. You using i386 or amd64 Debian?

I'm using i386 branch. My switch conveniently broke last week so work on the gigabit network stuff has come to a halt. Working at 100 Mbps now until I can get a new gigabit switch box. Darn Linksys...argh!

Sorry to hear about the switch; as far new ones go I've had pretty good luck with my 5-port Netgear.

Yep, still no gigabit love with i386. Going to try to update the Windows drivers using the official SiS driver set to make sure it works so I can give the kernel or ndiswrapper guys something to work with.

When you had it hooked up to your old gigabit switch and were transferring data was it only hooked up via the onboard Ethernet? I've had the onboard and a USB NIC hooked up before and often the USB NIC would make the onboard look like it was working when in fact the traffic was being passed through the USB NIC.

Ooookay...fresh Debian Lenny 2.6.24 amd64 install with the PHY patch applied, except now it seems willing to talk to my gigabit Netgear switch at 100mbps. The auto negotiation seems to take a while though, ~10-15sec.

I can think of several reasons why one might want or need to wipe the Windows OS and load a Unix alternative. In my case, less than a week after I purchased my unit and deployed it I was approached with a business venture that required me to set up a small web/application server> I could go out and buy new hardware or I can redeploy the hardware I have on hand. Particularly since this is probably going to be a short time venture I am considering buying one or more 500GB drives like the one it came with, load Fedore on one and swap ith with the drive that is in there now. Then I can put the initial drive on the shelp to redeploy later an d use the platform for a completely different purpose tha it was originally purchased for. Since I can download fedora for free as opposed to paying hundreds of dollars for , Sorry I can't resist a small flame, significantly inferior server OS/ Web Server/ App Server. Sorry but if I am going to do serious server development it is *NOT* going to be Windows Anything.

Did Ethernet work out-of-the-box with Fedora?

With the latest kernel.org kernel (2.6.26) and the PHY patch it seems to auto-negotiate faster now, although still no gigabit.

On a somewhat related note, cakalapati's VGA cable rocks!

Yeah, about that flash disk. Don't try to install anything on there unless you want to be the proud new owner of a $600 paperweight.

On a related note, if anyone has any ideas on how to get in to the BIOS after wiping the flash, I'd love to hear it.

the bios is seperate from the on-board flash... (the onboard flash is connected to the system's USB bus)

If you somehow manage to damage/destroy/replace the on-board usb-flash contents, your system will still work you just wont be able to restore WHS to the system anymore.

I don't know if anyone's found a reliable way to backup & restore the contents of the onboard usb-flash disk... should be possible. I'm interested in figuring it out but I haven't made the time to do so...

Edit: It just occurred to me you might be referring to a bad-bios flash... if that happens bring your MSS to a local electronics repair shop and get them to desolder the bios chip and replace it with a PLCC32 socket... then you can hotflash with another computer or alternatively PM me and I'll mail you a working bios chip or something.