Guide for installing a Full Debian install on a $33 PogoPlug

[chuck2002]

Did you see the JTAG and serial pinouts in yours?
http://www.pogoplugged.com/forum/thread/12366/Pins-for-the-two-connectors-on-the-v2-Pink-board./
I'd bring the serial out of the case if you have some hardware laying around.

Yes I did see those pinouts when I took mine apart. I didn't think much of them. I guess I was looking for a nice SATA cable connector.

 

[TBSN]

I got mine in the mail today, I'm installing debian to it right now. I have to say honestly I'm a little overwhelmed, I don't know if I'll be able to set up samba/file-sharing/ etc. I might try the stock software first (when I'm done installing debian) and see what I can do with that. If I run into limits there I'll switch to debian. Maybe, we'll see. :shrug:

 

[chuck2002]

I think the main thing you may find with the stock pogo is that you can't create multiple users that can all share their own files.
You can manage Samba from Webmin once you install it, so you will have a nice GUI for configuring your file shares, etc..

 

[chuck2002]

I wish they took the whole "plug" computer thing less literally because wallwarts can be a PITA.

/[/url]

Still had the web page up and they have a different adapter available for this thing to take it off of the wall.
See the last photo on the page:
http://www.globalscaletechnologies.com/t-guruplugdetails.aspx
It snaps in and uses a power cable like the pogo's, but still would be a bit awkward I think.

 

[chuck2002]

Ok I got LAMP going on the Pogo and have a joomla sample site working on it if anyone wants to see it in action.
I figured Joomla would be a good test for the box. I do not have Joomla's built in caching enabled for the site, so it is doing the database querys and building the page for each visitor.
This is coming off of my comcast connection.
http://chuckdickey.com/joomla/

It is also serving the html compressed, so that is another little hit on the device to compress the page before delivering it.
Apache and php do this html compression by default nowadays. If you want to learn more about it, here is a company that sells http compression for older Windows servers:
http://pipeboost.com They have a realtime acceleration report where you can view the benefits of html compression with a web site that you choose.

--Incidentally, I learned about html compression way back when -from the anandtech web page. Anandtech was a high profile customer of Pipeboost.

Using htop to monitor the CPU of the Pogo, (more informative than the standard linux top utility) I get a 100% utilization spike when accessing a joomla page for about 1 second and then the CPU goes back to 1-2% utilization.

I now have 100 MB of ram utilized of the 256 megs thus far.

 

[TBSN]

I'm trying to get samba share working with windows on this thing but haven't had luck. I am using this tutorial: http://www.unixmen.com/linux-tutorials/1524-standalone-samba-in-debian-squeeze

The shared directory isn't visible on my windows machine, and I'm not sure what I have to do to see it. It also isn't able to connect by putting in the IP address that's mentioned in the article.

I have webmin installed but for some reason samba share is listed under unused modules. I'm pretty sure that it is running however.

Any help at all would be appreciated!

 

[skyking]

win 7 needs some tweaking to play with samba. That may be your problem. IF not,
open a shell and type in ps ax
Near the bottom you should see nmbd and smbd. If not, then samba is not running.

 

[TBSN]

maybe I will start a new thread for my samba issues, I don't want to clutter this one up. Thanks I'll look into the issues it has with win7

 

[AnonymouseUser]

Buy.com via Ebay has the Pogoplug File Sharing Solution - Black for $34.99 with free shipping. I'm very tempted...

Deal is dead

 

[chuck2002]

Keep in mind that this model you linked may, or may not work with the guide I posted. You will want to do some research first to be sure that it will boot Debian off of a flash drive.

 

[AnonymouseUser]

Is this device capable enough without installing Debian? It looks like one could install Optware on it just fine, so maybe Debian won't be far behind. At any rate, if it's decent in it's original configuration, I could use it like that until debian is possible, or may even consider Optware.

FWIW, this device is selling for $111 shipped on Buy.com.

 

[AnonymouseUser]

Went ahead and ordered one. According to some reports, this model (P02) is WiFi-capable, though the descriptions on Ebay and Buy.com don't mention it. I guess I'll know in a couple of weeks.

 

[chuck2002]

Took a look at Optware. I think this sounds interesting with the exception of the the fact that this method makes extensive modifications to the core OS as you make it work and install packages.
The Debian installation method I went through just changes the boot priority of the device, and then all changes are only done to the USB flash drive. Reversal of changes is a simple matter of removing the USB flash drive.
There is no firmware reset button on these devices that I know of, so going back to stock firmware will be difficult and the risk of bricking your pogo extremely high.

The device is quite useful stock though.

 

[AnonymouseUser]

There is some hope for the Pro!

We've found that you can boot directly from the SATA port with a little magic, including stage1 bootloader, uboot and kernel in a series of specially marked places, and appropriate partitioning. I am doing this now with my "broken" Pro (more like NAND failure while on vacation). It now boots right up, and fires into ALARM. Makes swapping kernel a cake walk.

Will definitely being playing with this when I get it.

 

[TBSN]

I just got samba to work with the pink version, which was exciting! It could use some configuration though its still pretty basic. It is a pretty little device and it would be more awesome if I were a linux guru, but alas... I'll keep trying to tweak it. Good luck fellas.

 

[TBSN]

Ok I got LAMP going on the Pogo and have a joomla sample site working on it if anyone wants to see it in action.
I figured Joomla would be a good test for the box. I do not have Joomla's built in caching enabled for the site, so it is doing the database querys and building the page for each visitor.
This is coming off of my comcast connection.
http://chuckdickey.com/joomla/

It is also serving the html compressed, so that is another little hit on the device to compress the page before delivering it.
Apache and php do this html compression by default nowadays. If you want to learn more about it, here is a company that sells http compression for older Windows servers:
http://pipeboost.com They have a realtime acceleration report where you can view the benefits of html compression with a web site that you choose.

--Incidentally, I learned about html compression way back when -from the anandtech web page. Anandtech was a high profile customer of Pipeboost.

Using htop to monitor the CPU of the Pogo, (more informative than the standard linux top utility) I get a 100% utilization spike when accessing a joomla page for about 1 second and then the CPU goes back to 1-2% utilization.

I now have 100 MB of ram utilized of the 256 megs thus far.

That is pretty impressive that it all runs on that little pogoplug. I was wondering if it is possible to get access to your drives from outside of the network and what it takes to accomplish that? Do you have to setup a LAMP server to do that? IF so I'll just stay with Samba, which I'm still trying to figure out anyway. Thanks for sharing your stuff

 

[chuck2002]

Sure. I can access them via SSH along with run any commands. You will need to open whatever port you are using for ssh into your pogo from outside of your home firewall. The default is 22.
Then you can run commands, or if you would like a nice GUI interface, download and install the free Filezilla, which will allow you to transfer files to and from any directory on your pogo without the commandline work.
You will want to choose FTPS or SSH as your transfer method.
You can place a portable version of filezilla onto a USB flash drive if you would like to access these files from various computers without the filezilla installation.
Download it from portableapps.com
You will then extract it to your usb flash drive and can run it from any windows computer. Filezilla is also available for Linux and is in the Ubuntu repositories if you are using an Ubuntu desktop.
While you are there, download portable putty as well to use for a portable SSH client without needing to install it.

 

[TBSN]

How do you find the external IP address of the pogoplug? I usually access it via SSH on the LAN at 192.168.1.100

 

[chuck2002]

How do you find the external IP address of the pogoplug? I usually access it via SSH on the LAN at 192.168.1.100

Ok no problem. You will find out your IP address by going here:
http://www.whatismyip.com/

Now, how I do my domain name redirection is through the free afraid dns service:
http://freedns.afraid.org/

If you don't have a domain name, no problem. Just sign up for one of their dynamic domains and then run a dynamic dns updater so that your IP address is always up to date even if your ISP changes it. All the information to do this is available on their site.
Once you are all set, you will need to open your SSH port in your home router. Use a different port than 22 if you want by changing your Debian server's config and then opening whatever port you configured on your router, but either way, be sure your root user (or any user) has a nice long password.
So on your router, allow port 22 (or whatever port you configured on your Debian server) to port forward from any IP to your server at IP 192.168.1.100. Be sure this IP is not DHCP, or that you have made a static assignment for it in your DHCP server so that this number doesn't change.

Then you will enter this dynamic domain into your Filezilla client and you will be able to hit your server from anywhere.