Topic: Geeky question

[Achim]

A random PDF which might just help...

If you fix the link (the ellipsis in the middle breaks it) then the others can read it... (I certainly wouldn't understand half of it.)


BTW, I found there is a variety of Mac software available for FLAC. Any suggestion as to what to consider regarding a codec? Are there possible differences? (Like one of the programs at the linked site mentions "flac binaries developed by Josh Coalson"...)

[RossRoy]

Now would one of our German friends please take a butchers at this PDF? I searched Google for "HP dc5750 FreeNAS" and it was the first result. I think it might be saying something about "don't be a plum. Install it on PATA instead like normal people". Or it might be something about updating the BIOS.

A random PDF which might just help...

Took a quick peek at the PDF (here's the fixed link) and it seems you have to update the BIOS to 2.34 and then make sure the SATA controller is in IDE-Emulation more or something.

[Achim]

Took a quick peek at the PDF (here's the fixed link) and it seems you have to update the BIOS to 2.34 and then make sure the SATA controller is in IDE-Emulation more or something.

While they mention that the SATA DVD drive wouldn't be recognized otherwise, yes, that is the correct translation of the system requirements.

The PDF describes installation based on FreeNAS version 0.69.3281 beta which should be burnt to CD for installation. If you don't have 1TB of storage the next paragraph is not needed.

During installation the first menu is skipped (or let the timer run out...?) and on the second one item 9 (Install/Upgrade to hard drive/flash device etc.) is selected. Then they obviously go for 3 Install ‚full’ OS on HDD + data partition (full means you can add other FreeBSD packages later, embedded will use a RAM Disk to have limited read/write access). The rest seems self explanatory and when asked 100MB of partition space is supposedly suifficient for the OS.

I guess the Network stuff is straight forward too and then the next chapter would be about configuration and fine-tunig.

The key for you, Jon, would be in the little bit that Sebastien translated, I'd hope.

[Najemikon]

Thank you very much you two! I'll take another butchers. The IDE Emulation makes sense. I wonder if the updated BIOS includes another option because I already looked at that and it didn't seem flexible. I certainly wouldn't trust HP to do anything sensible first time out!

[Najemikon]

Woohoo! It worked. Downloaded the BIOS update, ran it, immediately got a new option to set emulation to "Native IDE" and from then on everything I was trying to do yesterday actually worked. OS is installed on a 500mb XD card, which I just find freaky, but it leaves the drives alone for RAID. I now have a NAS! 

Well. Sort of. Two 80gb drives on RAID0 is hardly groundbreaking... But now I know it works I can justify getting three decent sized drives and RAID them properly. Until then, I'll test it and see what it can do. Just about to play with uPnP.

Ta for the translation. 

[RossRoy]

BTW, I found there is a variety of Mac software available for FLAC. Any suggestion as to what to consider regarding a codec? Are there possible differences? (Like one of the programs at the linked site mentions "flac binaries developed by Josh Coalson"...)

What happens is that FLAC being open-source, anybody can take the source and modify it. Usually, all the different builds are optimizations for specific hardware making it run faster (kind of like what happens with builds of Firefox).

Personally, I find that the optimization are mostly unnoticeable, so I usually just download the standard build and be done with it.

[RossRoy]

Woohoo! It worked.

Cool! Guess it's about time I build mine then 

[Najemikon]

Woohoo! It worked.

Cool! Guess it's about time I build mine then 

Yeah, I'm really impressed how quick it was to setup. Take away the time I was fighting HP (not Harry Potter and The Phantom BIOS, but close), and I'd say it was about half-an-hour. I'm just configuring rsync to keep an up-to-date copy of my most volatile data, like email, etc.

[Achim]

What happens is that FLAC being open-source, anybody can take the source and modify it. Usually, all the different builds are optimizations for specific hardware making it run faster (kind of like what happens with builds of Firefox).

Personally, I find that the optimization are mostly unnoticeable, so I usually just download the standard build and be done with it.

So what is the standard website? http://flac.sourceforge.net/? I'll just get their standard build for OS X then and see how that will get me? Seems they have 5 choices with various degrees of a GUI...

[RossRoy]

What happens is that FLAC being open-source, anybody can take the source and modify it. Usually, all the different builds are optimizations for specific hardware making it run faster (kind of like what happens with builds of Firefox).

Personally, I find that the optimization are mostly unnoticeable, so I usually just download the standard build and be done with it.

So what is the standard website? http://flac.sourceforge.net/? I'll just get their standard build for OS X then and see how that will get me? Seems they have 5 choices with various degrees of a GUI...

Yeah, that'd be the one. Don't know which one you should use though. Don't have a MAC to test it out.

[RossRoy]

Well it's official.

I just ordered the motherboard and CPU to replace the broken motherboard, and I decided to change CPU to lower power consumption, along with two 500GB hard drives (to go with the two 320GB I already have).

This will net me a ~960GB NAS (~58.5% usable of total available, which would be 1640GB, if the hard drive were combined into 1), but I have full single drive fault tolerance, and expandability!

I'm still debating whether I should just put the whole drives into an array and be done with it. (this would mean that to actually raise the size of my NAS, I'd have to buy at least 2 drives bigger than 320GB at once).

Or, if I should partition the drives, and build multiple RAID, which would then allow me to upgrade just the smallest drive and still gain additional space.

Guess I just answered my own question.. The partitioning method is longer and will take more administration, but it's much more flexible.

[Achim]

Congrats! Good luck setting it up.

[Najemikon]

I've just had my two new drives delivered. Western Digital 640gb. I'm just going to mirror them for now... 

[Najemikon]

Ok, now entering uber-geek mode. 

I have me 640gb mirrored NAS server up and running. Currently copying music to it as I type. But here's a thing... I just realised that I have a HP Thin Client. A quick hunt through Google suggests it's theoretically possible to use it as a front end! 

Watch this space. Meanwhile if you have any knowledge of turning TCs into dedicated music players, shout up.

[Najemikon]

Right, slight disappointment. The TC front end is still a go, but in my search for tips I dropped across:

SlimNAS

Which allows you to install this into FreeNAS:

SqueezeCenter

Unless you've installed the AMD64 FreeNAS...