Re: [SIG-ARM] Has somebody got interest in Raspberry Pi?

[Michael Tremer <michael.tremer@ipfire.org>]

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Hey,

I felt that there was need to proceed the discussion on the topic.

So I wrote a short-ish post on the planet about how I feel about the
Raspberry Pi port at the moment:

  http://planet.ipfire.org/post/the-raspberry-pi-dilemma

Please feel free to share thoughts...

Michael

On Tue, 2012-03-06 at 00:17 +0100, Michael Tremer wrote:
> Hello,
> 
> thank you for joining the discussion.
> 
> Yes, it is true that there is only one NIC. But I was rather thinking
> about using the board as a gateway for 3G connections and not for cable
> or DSL (--> toy).
> 
> I think the new box from Iomega looks pretty interesting, but it is
> based on the kinda old Kirkwood architecture by Marvel. I considered
> using them in the build cluster but it would be much better to save up
> some money and go with proper powerful hardware like the Pandaboard.
> Supposedly, we will need about 4 or 5 of them.
> 
> Back on the Raspberry Pi: I can't really say yes or no. It depends on
> the amount of work we need to do. If it would be just to compile the
> kernel, I would say yes. It seems we cannot get the hardware, so no.
> 
> I was expecting some newcomers this year because Windows 8 is coming up
> for ARM in 2013 (as is currently believed). It would create more demand
> for ARM-based desktop hardware and actually there is nothing. Not a
> single bit.
> I am planning to attend CeBIT on Friday together with Arne and we'll see
> if we can get some statements from a couple of vendors. I did not find a
> lot of them on the exhibitors list and that's why I do not expect a lot
> of new information either. But feel free to send me names of companies
> which could possibly be interested. If you like to search for yourself
> head over here for that:
> 
> http://www.cebit.de/en/about-the-trade-show/programme/exhibitors-products/search-exhibitors-products
> 
> Michael
> 
> On Mon, 2012-03-05 at 07:52 +0000, Arne Fitzenreiter wrote:
> > Hi Rod,
> > 
> > you are correct that the Raspberry Pi has only one interface.
> > You need an additional USB Dongle or has to use VLAN's. (Not
> > implemented in the
> > WebIF but the needed tools are present.)
> > 
> > The onboard nic on the PI is also an USB-Nic (same SMC-Chip as on the
> > Panda Board)
> > 
> > I'm testing an Iomega iConnect box (1Ghz Kirkwood, 256MB RAM)
> > that have also only one onboard lan-nic so i use a usb-lan for red.
> > This box is cheap to get in Germany at the moment (45€)
> > 
> > Arne
> > 
> > 
> > On Sun, 04 Mar 2012 19:53:17 -0600, "R. W. Rodolico"
> > <rodo(a)dailydata.net> wrote:
> > > Michael,
> > > 
> > > The only Rasberry Pi's I've seen only have one NIC in them. Is there a
> > > version with at least two? If it only has one NIC, that means we'd have
> > > to create an alias (eth0:0) and run the firewall off one physical
> > > device, or use some kind of USB ethernet dongle.
> > > 
> > > I looked at the Pi and thought, as you mention, it is too low end for
> > > much, though I do think it might make a good home router if it had two
> > > NIC's in it.
> > > 
> > > Tell me I'm wrong about the single NIC. I'd love that. But, my vote is
> > > no if it only has one NIC.
> > > 
> > > Rod
> > > 
> > > On 03/04/2012 08:03 AM, Michael Tremer wrote:
> > >> Hello,
> > >>
> > >> it has been a little bit quite on this list, so I am going to start a
> > >> new conversation about Raspberry Pi, a cheap board with an ARM SoC.
> > >>
> > >> Originally, there has been a request on the forums whether IPFire will
> > >> support this hardware. I would like to pass this question on to the SIG.
> > >>
> > >> On the pro side of the equation:
> > >>
> > >> The Raspberry Pi Foundation is a charity and is trying to bring small
> > >> PCs to poor countries and people who can not afford any. I'd like to
> > >> support that.
> > >>
> > >> Usable software is still missing, but I guess the major distributions
> > >> will come up with such very soon. However, among them, there is a
> > >> router/firewall distribution missing, and as IPFire is the only Open
> > >> Source firewall which has support for ARM, we should consider to enhance
> > >> this support for the Raspberry Pis as well. We could bring firewalls to
> > >> poorer countries which is quite nice with IPFire: ISPs are planning to
> > >> provide LTE (which works with IPFire) and providing a connection to the
> > >> internet to small networks like in schools. I suppose that is what the
> > >> R-Pi-Foundation is aiming to do.
> > >>
> > >> On the technical side: The hardware should be powerful enough for
> > >> connections to a couple of MBits/s but too weak for powerful services
> > >> like the filtering proxy and the intrusion detection system won't work
> > >> well.
> > >>
> > >> The userland of the ARM port should run without any major modification.
> > >> Maybe we need to make some amendments on tools like the bootloader
> > >> (U-Boot) or others, but we should not expect any trouble there. The left
> > >> thing that is to do is to build a new kernel for that device. It uses a
> > >> Broadcom chipset which is supported by the Linux kernel and does not
> > >> need any patches unless we want to use the GPU.
> > >>
> > >> The contra side:
> > >>
> > >> The Raspberry Pi Foundation apparently messed up the launch. It is not
> > >> possible to get one and a lot of blokes are going to buy the few that
> > >> were already built to create home servers and stuff like that. That's
> > >> bad for us, because we cannot test any created code without the
> > >> hardware.
> > >>
> > >> The hardware is weak. As mentioned earlier, it will work for a lot of
> > >> things, but not all of the features IPFire provides. I consider the
> > >> project rather a toy than a serious piece of computing hardware, so
> > >> supposedly the amount of interest will decrease soon when people realize
> > >> that they cannot really do what they intended to do with the boards in
> > >> the first place.
> > >>
> > >> -----------------------------------------------------------------------
> > >>
> > >> The question now is, if it should take the effort and build a new kernel
> > >> for the Broadcom SoC and support the Raspberry Pi boards. Is somebody
> > >> willing to do this? Has someone already tried something out? Did you try
> > >> to order a board?
> > >>
> > >> Please mail me your thoughts.
> > >>
> > >> Michael
> > >>
> > >> _______________________________________________
> > >> SIG-ARM mailing list
> > >> SIG-ARM(a)lists.ipfire.org
> > >> http://lists.ipfire.org/mailman/listinfo/sig-arm
> > 
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