Sheevaplug

This article is about installing Debian on a flash disk, like SD card, flash disk, Solid State Disk etc. The goal is to have the data on a hard disk. This will increase the lifetime of the flash disk. Assumption of this article is that Debian is already installed on a flash disk in the root “/”-directory. In the article Installing Debian on the Sheevaplug there is also a separate “/boot” ext2 partition, because U-Boot is unable to read from ext3 partitions.

After installing Debian on SD card, it was booting successfully with the ‘run bootcmd’. But when I switched off the power and plugged in again, I was getting the following error messages: Error! cmd : 8, err : 0201 Error! cmd : 1, err : 0201 Error! cmd : 1, err : 0201 Error! cmd : 1, err : 0201 Error! cmd : 1, err : 0201 Error! cmd : 1, err : 0201 Error!

The next step in this SheevaPlug guide is installing Debian on the SheevaPlug. Default on the SheevaPlug, Ubuntu 9.04 is provided. Ubuntu 9.04 will not be supported for a very long time any more and a Ubuntu 9.10 or higher is not available. That is why I want to install Debian on the Kingston 4GB SDHC card. Please read first the article Building the system with the esata sheevaplug, if you did not do that already.

The architectural setup The following list I want to connect to my eSATA SheevaPlug: Flashdisk 4 GB SDHC class 4 (for the Debian root filesystem) Eexternal USB or eSATA hard-disk 2GB or 4GB (for datastorage and variable data) Network cable (supplied in kit) miniUSB cable for serial access to the SheevaPlug (supplied in kit) power cord (supplied in kit) Explanation of this setup Flashdisk SDHC 4GB At Amazon.

I ordered the eSata SheevaPlug at New IT in the UK and received it 4 days later in the Netherlands. Here are some photos of the SheevaPlug, the box with all contents. And that, I was curious about the build quality of my SheevaPlug. Therefore I needed to break the warranty seal. I was surprised about the mechanical quality, I read so many bad stories about nearly broken wires and broken power supplies.

Update 3-4-2012: The solution that I would choose this moment is the CuBox, it is not available in every country yet. If it is available, it will be added to the list. I am using the Linksys NSLU2 with SlugOS installed. See my posts in Dutch about the NSLU2 arjanwooning.nl/tag/nslu2/. The pros of the NSLU Reliable Low power consumption (5W) Inexpensive No problem to run 24x7, it does not get hot Fanless 2x USB 2.