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HomeAppliance: General Client

General Client 1. Client Hardware

I looked up a local pc-store found following components (April 2000):

• Shuttle HOT-599, All-In-One microATX board:
  • Socket 7 (e.g. AMD K6/2/3 400..500MHz) with SiS 530 chip-set
  • 3x DIMM, PC-100
  • on-board sound (YMF740C pdf, ALSA sound-drivers)
  • on-board AGP (SiS 5595), XFree86 supports SiS-530
  • 2x EIDE
  • 2x USB
  • 2x PS/2
  • Serial (16550 comp., FIFO) & Parallel (SSP/EPP/ECP)
  • Line 1xIn/1xOut, 1xMic-in, 1xGame/Midi
  • 3 PCI / 1 ISA slots
  • 24cm x 20cm
  • more details (Super7.net).
  mainboard, ~$80

• SOHO Basic 10/100 Ethernet ~ $15 (low profile, take off slot-plate)

• 64MB DIMM, ~$60 or
  128MB DIMM, ~$120

• AMD K6/2 500MHz, ~$60

• Wireless (Radio) Logitech iTouch Desktop, ~ $95 or
  Wireless (IR) Silitek: SK7100 aprx. $45 or
  noname KB & mouse aprx. $40

• Power-supply (150W min) ~$40
• Generic case (245x220x60 mm) ~$20

  Total: $320 (128MB $360)

General Client 2. Assembling

Memory

I used PC-133 memory, and the board didn't recognize the memory at all (didn't boot at all). Remove the memory, boot without memory, and turn off the machine, put in the memory, and reboot. Then the memory should be recognized just fine.

Linux

I usually used SuSE but 6.2 I had didn't really work to recognize and init the RealTek 8139 10/100, and I realized I had a Mandrake-CD somehwere, which worked quite fine. So, whatever you have, just give it a try. I enabled nfsd/mountd on my server, edited /etc/exports and /etc/inetd.conf as I run the mountd via inetd.

PCI

The slots won't be used and if then via rubber-cable for the PC-TV (PCI) card

HardDisk

Normal 3.5" disk with max. 12mm height. My current CPU-fan determines the total height of 50mm

X11

Use XFree86 3.3.6 or better, earlier version make problems. Don't expect great quality, max. resolution is maybe 1280x1024 as bandwidth of the DAC lies arround 140MHz (not at 220MHz has the mainboard booklet claims, remember it's a cheap board with ~$80).

Network & NFS

Use 10/100 SOHO Basic (RealTek 8139), low-profile (take off slot-plate), this helps us to maintain max height of 50mm. NFS was enabled on the server (read man-pages of nfsd and mountd), and on the client (with a disk in this case) in /etc/fstab the nsf import was added. For the diskless booting things are bit more complex, you need a boot-PROM which tells the ethernet card to download the kernel to boot from the server itself, and carefully setup on the server local directories which represent the root for each client (determined by their useage). More details follows later.

Case

I found a plastic-case at my local store (distrelec.ch, Switzerland) with 272x220x63mm outside, 248x209x56mm inside (#30 02 67, cost $30): Some adjustments are required to have the connectors available from the outside. As ATX power-supply are quite large, MicroATX power-supply or 1U 19" ATX power-supply can be used, Amtrade: Switching Power Supplies.

                                                                                                                                   

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