Re: Recommendations for small NetBSD network box

[Nomen Nescio <nobody%dizum.com@localhost>]

> >>> Requirements are pretty simple:
> >>> - At least two Ethernet interfaces (100base fine)
> >>> - Enough RAM to to run NAT (probably pf), and IPSEC or OpenVPN
> >>> (fortunately not both) for up to about 50 web (or weblike) clients &
> >>> sshd
> >>> - Small (sub mini-itx), and cased (looks like a product)
> >>> - USB port to plug in a 3G dongle would be nice.
> >>
> >> Some of these:
> >> http://www.linux-mips.org/wiki/Fuloong
> >> have two ethernet ports
> >
> > No! None of them have two ethernet ports. That box has 1 gigabit  
> > ethernet
> > port.
> 
> The docs say otherwise.

Well I don't know about you but since I have a Fuloong I just looked at it
again and yep there's only one ethernet port. I am sure of it ;-) 

Now that is a Fuloong. From the rest of your comments it looks like you are
not talking about Fuloongs but anything with a Loongson 2F in it which could
be a lot of different machines but I do not know of a 2F-powered anything
sold outside China that has 2 ethernet ports. So that could be a problem.
And your gdium doesn't have two ethernet ports either, so I have no idea
what you're talking about!

> 
> >> and NetBSD support has been added a few months ago.
> >
> > Really? Can somebody point me to it please?
> 
> NetBSD/evbmips

Last I heard evbmips was not a run and gun setup for Fuloong. Has anything
changed or do you still have to roll your own with evbmips parts? The last
update on the evbmips page is from 2007 so if anybody is interested in
advocacy and Net really does support the Fuloong (or anything else with a
Loongson 2F in it) they should get the word out and explain exactly what you
have to do because there is nothing I have seen that helps.

> >> and it's not too bad once someone with access to
> >> the hardware adds support for CPU clock scaling ( what I added is
> >> Gdium-specific but adapting it to this machine should be trivial -  
> >> all
> >> you need is an external 100Hz timer interrupt )
> >
> > Frequency scaling on these is a waste of time and effort. They run  
> > cool even
> > under load and consume next to no power, what's the point?
> 
> Tell that to my Gdium, which has a 900MHz Loongson 2F. At full speed  
> it gets pretty damn hot. And it's the actual CPU since it runs a lot  
> cooler at lower speeds.

Again, it really looked like you were talking about Fuloong which is a
particular machine and they do run mighty cool btw. A laptop isn't meant to
run 24x7 and they obviously have cooling problems. 

The Fuloong is a great little box for a microserver (headless), aside from
the NIC issue it meets all the OP's requirements.