What happens if you run Perl on a Soekris box?
Well, just to give you some numbers and a quick idea how it will look
like:
rhaen@arkanum.pkgbox.org:Soekris $ time -p perl -MDBI -e 'print "$DBI::VERSION\n"' 1.601 real 1.56 user 1.38 sys 0.19That's just 1.5 seconds for loading a Perl module to detect it's version. I thought the Soekris 4801 might be able to run a small blog with MovableType - but without a chance. It's perfect to run a small webserver which only serves static html pages but it's horrible slow if you decide to run dynamic cgis. However I haven't tested it with PHP but the results might be similar. In the next days I will work on a small workshop how to setup a blog on a Soekris running blogtools and such. Stay tuned :)
Oh, and all you need is NetBSD, that's nice, eh?
Communication Settings
The Soekris 4801 usually uses the following setting for serial
connections: 19200 no parity, 8 databits, 1 stop bit, no-flow-control.
The NetBSD kernel is usually set to 9600 baud, no parity, 8 databits, 1
stop bit, no-flow-control. You have to make sure that your bootloader
and your kernel (for the Soekris) and the Soekris are talking at the
same speed or you'll see alot of garbage on the screen. E.g. if you have
set the Soekris at the correct speed but it differs with the bootloader
your screen starts with the usual boot messages from the Soekris BIOS
but will get garbled once it runs the NetBSD bootloader.
To adjust these settings just enter the Soekris BIOS menu by pressing
Ctrl-p at boot time. The parameter for this setting is:
set ConSpeed=9600Make sure to install the bootloader with the correct speed with the following command:
installboot -m i386 -oconsole=com0,ioaddr=0x3f8,speed=9600 \
/dev/wd0d /usr/mdec/bootxx_ffsv1
In order to get the correct kernel settings you have to rebuild your
kernel with a small configuration change. Just locate the following
line:
options CONSDEVNAME="\"com\"",CONADDR=0x3f8,CONSPEED=9600and make sure it's not commented out. Rebuild you kernel and you are ready to go.
It's alive...
And it's booting. NetBSD 4.0 of course - more to come
