Build Log: Wizard's Sleeve (FreeNAS ITX Project) :D

randal24 said:
Hey hey, sounds good. How are you finding the dual core atom with FreeNAS? Any problems? I doubt you'll get any with performance, the single core version I've got heardly breaks a sweat with day-to-day file serving and proxying.
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It's more than enough, and definitely overkill for basic file sharing like you said. The only time I see any benefit of the extra core is during PAR2 repair on incomplete usenet downloads, as that's the only job this box does that's limited by CPU rather than network/disk I/O.

Also that's one of the main reasons I opted for FreeNAS - the simplicity of adding packages with the added security of BSD was enough to win me over. Sure Windows software is easy to install, but having everything presented in a web page or on a command line is much nicer and better for my needs. Setting up torrents with an iPhone remotely etc.. Or logging in via SSH to start stuff up/shut stuff down. Again, do-able over the iPhone whereas a Windows setup would take a lot more jiggering or need VNC/TS running.
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I'm a total noob to FreeBSD, but it's very similar to Linux (including the package management) so didn't take me long to feel at home with it. I'm really impressed with SABnzbd+ too. As a longtime Newsbin (Win32) user, I was concerned that I would find it lacking in some way, but as it turns out, it meets my needs perfectly.

I'll have to look into SSH via iphone. Only ever used VNC/RDP via my iphone in the past. What SSH client are you using?
 
isoToxin said:
It's more than enough, and definitely overkill for basic file sharing like you said. The only time I see any benefit of the extra core is during PAR2 repair on incomplete usenet downloads, as that's the only job this box does that's limited by CPU rather than network/disk I/O.
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Ah cool. I can't really think of anything that's going to stress it out, short of zipping on the command line. Everything else is major low CPU usage territory. Unsurprising that the FreeNAS devs say a P2 is more than enough to run it!

Are you running yours at 100mb? I'm seriously tempted to upgrade my home network to gb/wireless n now I'm using a wireless laptop instead of a cabled desktop.

isoToxin said:
I'm a total noob to FreeBSD, but it's very similar to Linux (including the package management) so didn't take me long to feel at home with it. I'm really impressed with SABnzbd+ too. As a longtime Newsbin (Win32) user, I was concerned that I would find it lacking in some way, but as it turns out, it meets my needs perfectly.

I'll have to look into SSH via iphone. Only ever used VNC/RDP via my iphone in the past. What SSH client are you using?
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There's not a huge amount in it, although BSD purists will strongly distance themselves from any form of linux! It's x86 UNIX dammit! :D I'm gonna have to give newsgroups a good going over, I had a look at it a couple of years back but I couldn't decide who to subscribe to or what client to use etc.. It was all a bit of a minefield. Any recommendations?

RE: the SSH/iPhone, I just installed the OpenSSH bundle from Cydia and the Terminal App. Once it's jailbroken of course. :)
 
randal24 said:
Are you running yours at 100mb? I'm seriously tempted to upgrade my home network to gb/wireless n now I'm using a wireless laptop instead of a cabled desktop.
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I'm running on a gigabit wired network, and 802.11g wifi router (all netgear kit). Neither mine or the gf's laptop supports anything above 802.11g, so until I'm in the market for a new one, there doesn't seem much point spending on a new wifi router. I've tested throughput on the D945GCLF2's integrated Realtek NIC on both FreeNAS and Windows XP. XP has better network performance using CIFS/SMB, but I'm putting this down to typical stuff like driver maturity, and the fact that I haven't started playing around with kernel tuning etc yet. This whole thing is more of a hobby project than anything else, so no pressure to get it optimised just yet. Network speed is still plenty fast enough to stream the highest bitrate 1080p mkv files I have to my HTPC, so there's no rush for me to get it working any faster.

There's not a huge amount in it, although BSD purists will strongly distance themselves from any form of linux! It's x86 UNIX dammit!
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LOL. I'd better have my flame shield ready if I ever let that one slip on the FreeBSD forum. :)

I'm gonna have to give newsgroups a good going over, I had a look at it a couple of years back but I couldn't decide who to subscribe to or what client to use etc.. It was all a bit of a minefield. Any recommendations?
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I signed up to NewsDemon a couple of years ago, and they've been perfect. They offer all the usual stuff (good retention, SSL connections, good completion etc). Think the price has gone up a few quid since I started with them though. For a client, SABnzbd+ definitely. Really pleased with it, and I can confirm it works perfectly on a FreeNAS box. It really does automate *everything*, you just feed it a NZB file, and it works through the whole chain of downloading the files, decoding them, error checking, repairing, and extracting, all completely unattended. And it's free. :)

RE: the SSH/iPhone, I just installed the OpenSSH bundle from Cydia and the Terminal App. Once it's jailbroken of course. :)
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Cool. Will look into that.
 
Still got mine running XP at the moment and it's doing what I want. Not really into all the command line/linux stuff so always a bit wary about going with anything that uses it!

I've used SABnzbd+ before and it was great. Only thing that's really holding me back from going FreeNAS is the ability to upload, don't think you can do it with it but hopefully someone will prove me wrong!

I'm off on holiday soon so I'll be leaving it as it is and then when I come back I'll probably have a play with FreeNAS.
 
randal24 said:
Not as graceful as the web GUI for Transmission or shares, but wget suits me for what I need it for. :)

Code: 
chunky:~# pkg_add -r wget
Fetching ftp://ftp.freebsd.org/pub/FreeBSD/ports/i386/packages-7.2-release/Latest/wget.tbz... Done.
Fetching ftp://ftp.freebsd.org/pub/FreeBSD/ports/i386/packages-7.2-release/All/libiconv-1.11_1.tbz... Done.
Fetching ftp://ftp.freebsd.org/pub/FreeBSD/ports/i386/packages-7.2-release/All/gettext-0.17_1.tbz... Done.
chunky:~# wget
wget: missing URL
Usage: wget [OPTION]... [URL]...

Try `wget --help' for more options.
chunky:~#
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Thanks for that, I may install FreeNAS on mine. But do you know if it can read from a "links" file stored on one of the shares?

I have used wget on windows with batch scripts to launch downloads and read links from a text file im not sure how one would do that - through putty i assume?
 
mod1fied said:
Thanks for that, I may install FreeNAS on mine. But do you know if it can read from a "links" file stored on one of the shares?

I have used wget on windows with batch scripts to launch downloads and read links from a text file im not sure how one would do that - through putty i assume?
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I'd just do something quick and dirty like:

Code: 
#!/bin/ksh
while read downloadlink 
do 

/path/to/wget $downloadlink <yourdestinationfolder>

# Little bit of error checking, if all downloads fine then remove d/l link from file.  
#Else log an error to a file and sleep.  This will loop so long as there's something in the file. 
if [[ $? = 0 ]] 
then
cat /path/to/your/downloadlinksfile | grep -v $downloadlink > /tmp/woo 
mv /tmp/woo /path/to/your/downloadlinksfile
sleep 30 #or however long 
else 
echo $downloadlink >> /foo/logfile
echo "file didn't download properly yo" >> /foo/logfile
echo "" >> /foo/logfile

fi 

done < /path/to/your/downloadlinksfile
*not guaranteed to work first time :D


iraiguana said:
Look at astraweb for usenet downloads as its the cheapest around with good retention and ssl.
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Cheers matey, I'll give it a looking over.
 
Another question for the OP.

Is it possible to fit a 3.5" HDD under the Optical drive? Sideways?

Apparently using the PCI slot may prevent use of the 3.5" HDD space. OR if you do squeeze it in then there is a limit space for thickness of the PCI card.

Getting tempted to buy one of these cases U see. I have a D945GCLF2 already
 
You can fit one 3.5" HDD in the mount where I've got mine, and you can fit a 2.5" HDD in where the optical drive would go. It's really a 1 HDD system though, definitely 1 HDD if you plan on having an optical drive in there permanently.
 
randal24 said:
Intel D945GCLF 1.6GHz Atom Mini-ITX Board Retail Box - £56.35
Silver Noah 3988 Mini-ITX Case & PCI Riser & SATA Power Cable - £67.85
256MB Disk On Module - 40 pin IDE (SMI) - £21.80
1TB Samsung EcoGreen F1 HDD - £58.89
1GB DDR2 PC2-5300 - £8.99
Delivery - £9.20
FreeNAS - Free :D

Total: £223.08

Needed a blank CD, and a CD drive to do the installation onto the HDD flash module. Oh and a KVM obviously to get it setup and on the network.

Obviously can't tell you where I got it from as it breaks the competitor rule, but it's not too hard to find those parts for those prices with a little Google-age.
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Could you not have bought and used the ASRock - ION 330 for the same price :)

http://www.asrock.com/nettop/overview.asp?Model=ION 330

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XgAZ67MuaK0



.
 
They've only just become available, I'm not a fan of the plastic case, and mine as 1TB of storage. Well 1.16TB now I've added a 2.5" drive to dual boot into XP for using it as an HTPC as well :)
 
Atom systems do make good HTPC's, I'm using an ASUS EeeBox for one which is pretty much the same spec. I am using MediaPortal with a modified Xbox remote dongle and remote.
 
pennywise said:
Nice one, I had originally tried to get FreeNAS working on my Atom system but I could never figure out how to get it on a flash pen :(
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Bit of a thread revival, but I've just sussed this out so thought I'd share. The problem is the FreeNAS installer mounts the USB drive at startup as a read only mount point. This is because the boot up sequence detects the volume as space to dump a config directory as it thinks you're running a Live environment off the CD.

Solution: Insert the USB drive after the machine has booted off the CD. Annoyingly simple, yet that's all you need to do. :)

Shameless plug as well, the guts of this project are up in the MM here. Moving to a C2D Celeron board for a bit more oomph. Project updates to follow...
 
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