Guruplug: first impressions
Yesterday, after three months waiting, I finally received my little "blackbird" (GuruServer of GuruPlug Plus) from European distributor. I really didn't have enough time to go deep into that (Merphy's law, it comes on a day you can't afford to play), so I can only share my first impressions.
The heat within
This thing indeed goes hot. Seems like sandwich-factor affects heat disposal (it's fanless, solely relying on ventilation holes for its cooling purposes). You can find several threads around the net describing its fury (even thermal camera shots), not to mention recorded cases of people witnessing their GuruPlug dying of overheat.
Reports on overheat issue vary; some people consider it extremely hot for receiving an approval for consumer use while others consider it emitting "normal" heat. When it comes to my individual unit, it goes hot. However, working so many years on the IT era, I've met many devices going even hotter. This one, I can hold it on my hand, and if I ignore initial "it's-hot-shock" of my nervous system, within 15 seconds I don't feel it that hot any more. I can compare its emitted heat with a badly implemented AC/DC converter which most of our cheap electronics carry as a "tail".
As an exception, touching metal housing surrounding USB and ethernet ports beyond 5 seconds could lead to an injury. Though, this one statement applies to my CPU & GPU MIPS bloated desktop system as well.
Seems like manufacturer looks for a solution to some issues already risen. My sense is that device indeed has issues which are capable of drastically limiting MTBF, and even users who do not yet face a problem, will eventually face one. Problem is under the hood, waiting a moment to appear.
I can only advice you not to buy it before manufacturer has found a real/working/reliable solution to these problems.
Another brick in the wall
This little birdie relies on uBoot for booting (instead of BIOS and usual boot loaders normal PCs do). I managed to accidentally make my own un-bootable (bricked) within 5 minutes after taking it out of enclosure. It is just too easy to break it, and so much impossible to recover it back without the JTAG board. Unlike SheevaPlug, this one offers debug port through a board sold separately. Do not even think about buying it without the JTAG board.
Could be cheaper
Guruplug is rated as "development kit", that is, it is mostly targeted to people who know what they are doing. Manuals are not included, and there is really nothing wrong with that. But what I really hate is "development kits" being shipped in expensive enclosures. This one is shipped in a fancy enclosure which uses light magnets for remaining closed. To my opinion, an honest "development kit" oughts not to waste bucks on useless aspects.
No squeeze
Guruplug is (had been) advertised to be shipped with Debian Squeeze. However, it is a Debian Lenny, running a Sid kernel. To my opinion, this is a step towards stability (only problem I find on this one, is Apache's mod_ssl in Lenny, not allowing to server virtual hosts overs https, but this fixable). Apt-get update does not work before you comment out a not publicly available repository accidentally left within /etc/apt/sources.list. Other than that, notice that factory setup mounts /var/cache/apt on a tmpfs filesystem. Downloading packages and installing them later is not possible unless you change that.
Myself, I mount /var/cache/apt on tmpfs on all my systems. I am relying on an apt-cacher proxy running within house. This relieves me from needing to "apt-get clean", at least in theory; I don't reboot often anyway.
Tick-tack
I hate systems with their clock being wrong. So, my first actions on GuruPlug's user-space had been:
apt-get install ntp
dpkg-reconfigure tzdata
Wireless
Its wireless adapter, by default, is running in AP mode. Guess what: No security (WPA, WEP). What's even worst, it already runs a web server which announces root password over an insecure wireless connection. You need to follow these steps:
- Change root password.
- Disable wireless network, until you establish required security. ("ifconfig uap0 down" should do the trick until you either permanently disable it, or properly secure it)