The Sect of Rama

Just finished a longer than expected upgrade of my SLUG to the latest Unslung distro:

   Server Name:  	Slug
   Version: 	V2.3R63-uNSLUng-6.8-beta
   IP Address: 	192.168.0.1
   USB Port 1:	Not Installed
   USB Port 2: 	Ready, 375331MB (100% Free)

Although it took a while-- mostly reformatting the disk twice-- it went very smoothly. If you're putting off doing the upgrade (like I did for the past year!), don't fret. The instructions look daunting with all the don't-do-X-or-you'll-brick it warnings, but it was really easy.

While it was down, I took the time to measure how much wattage the thing burns, since I like to leave it on 24/7. The Slug draws between 2-3W at idle (pre and post de-underclocking), and the Seagate Barracuda 7200.8 400GB (ST340083) in an external USB enclosure draws 12W at idle and 32W on power-up. Pretty sweet- thats about a third the power consumed by a fanless mini-ITX. Albeit not nearly as powerful, it more than serves its purpose.

When I initially installed the thing some time ago, I was less concerned about the fact that it was underclocked than I was with just getting it up and running, and never got back to de-underclocking it. (I see the newer units are shipped uncrippled now.) After waiting for the ssh keys to generate during the reinstall (~3 minutes), it seemed like a good time to do so. The razor blade trick documented in the wiki was effortless- a couple swipes at the solder joint, and the resistor popped free:



A quick boot up confirmed the new processor speed:

login as: root
root@192.168.0.1's password:

Welcome to Unslung V2.3R63-uNSLUng-6.8-beta

   ---------- NOTE: THIS SYSTEM IS CURRENTLY UNSLUNG ----------


BusyBox v0.60.4 (2005.03.22-06:52+0000) Built-in shell (ash)
Enter 'help' for a list of built-in commands.

#
# cat /proc/cpuinfo
Processor       : XScale-IXP425/IXC1100 rev 1 (v5b)
BogoMIPS        : 263.78
Features        : swp half thumb fastmult edsp

Hardware        : Intel IXDP425 Development Platform
Revision        : 0000
Serial          : 0000000000000000
#

W00t. A few quick package adds and a data transfer, and I'm off!