saitoh
June 23rd, 2008, 05:25 PM
I just thought I'd post some information about my experiences with the eBox 2300 (http://www.embeddedpc.net/Default.aspx?tabid=110).
specs: 200Mhz x86, 128 SDRAM, 3 USB ports, 1 IDE CF slot, Internal IDE for a PATA hardrive.
I've done the setup both with an 80GB PATA hardrive and a 4GB CF card.
I tried DSL (http://www.damnsmalllinux.org/), PUPPY (http://www.puppylinux.org/), and last but certainly not least Debian(etch) (http://www.debian.org/).
The slowest by far was Puppy, however Puppy was probably the easiest to install. Puppy's universal installer did have some issues, if you attempt either the install to "CF (IDE)" or the install to "USB FLASH (remove later and run through IDE)" options the installer hangs and never recovers. I ended up installing Puppy to my CF by choosing to install to "USB flash" and when I stuck it in the IDE slot it just worked. The install to the hardrive was painless. Once installed it boots pretty quickly but runs slow. I never tried recompiling the kernel to optimize it as I really didn't care for Puppy(especially the package manager). Also there is an eBoxPup Puplet that has a stripped down kernel with just the drivers you need(This runs pretty fast from what I have heard, however it is still in alpha testing)
DSL was pretty painless, the only issue was that I had to manually configure grub as the installer couldn't seem to get it right(did not try lilo). DSL booted fast, ran fast(really fast in you trim it), and you can install apt. Definitely a good choice for the eBox 2300.
Finally I installed Debian with XFCE for my desktop. Install was smooth, Debian as always is very easy to configure, and grub was installed with no issues. It runs very slow after a basic install, but if you recompile the kernel and use XFCE it is really fast. I ended up using Debian because of my love for aptitude(aptitude > yum).
I thought I might also add that in order to PXE boot the ebox you need to enable ROM support in BIOS, save, reboot, hit shift + F12 and select PXE boot from the list of options. If you have used the eBox 2300 (not any of the others which have different BIOS menus) and figured this out on your first try then you are smarter than I.
specs: 200Mhz x86, 128 SDRAM, 3 USB ports, 1 IDE CF slot, Internal IDE for a PATA hardrive.
I've done the setup both with an 80GB PATA hardrive and a 4GB CF card.
I tried DSL (http://www.damnsmalllinux.org/), PUPPY (http://www.puppylinux.org/), and last but certainly not least Debian(etch) (http://www.debian.org/).
The slowest by far was Puppy, however Puppy was probably the easiest to install. Puppy's universal installer did have some issues, if you attempt either the install to "CF (IDE)" or the install to "USB FLASH (remove later and run through IDE)" options the installer hangs and never recovers. I ended up installing Puppy to my CF by choosing to install to "USB flash" and when I stuck it in the IDE slot it just worked. The install to the hardrive was painless. Once installed it boots pretty quickly but runs slow. I never tried recompiling the kernel to optimize it as I really didn't care for Puppy(especially the package manager). Also there is an eBoxPup Puplet that has a stripped down kernel with just the drivers you need(This runs pretty fast from what I have heard, however it is still in alpha testing)
DSL was pretty painless, the only issue was that I had to manually configure grub as the installer couldn't seem to get it right(did not try lilo). DSL booted fast, ran fast(really fast in you trim it), and you can install apt. Definitely a good choice for the eBox 2300.
Finally I installed Debian with XFCE for my desktop. Install was smooth, Debian as always is very easy to configure, and grub was installed with no issues. It runs very slow after a basic install, but if you recompile the kernel and use XFCE it is really fast. I ended up using Debian because of my love for aptitude(aptitude > yum).
I thought I might also add that in order to PXE boot the ebox you need to enable ROM support in BIOS, save, reboot, hit shift + F12 and select PXE boot from the list of options. If you have used the eBox 2300 (not any of the others which have different BIOS menus) and figured this out on your first try then you are smarter than I.