Seagate Dockstar Discussion and Tutorial Thread

Sei

Skilled
Since we were having most of the discussions in the IC thread made by Varkey, I've made a separate thread for the same.

Some posts from there:

varkey said:
Just came accross this awesome deal for a Seagate Freeagent Dockstar for $29.99 + Shipping

FreeAgent DockStar Network Adapter | Seagate

The Seagate Dockstar is a stripped down version of the Sheevaplug and will make an excellent download server. Uses less than 5-6w.

Here are the specs

Few tutorials on how to hack it and get it ready

Installing OpenWrt on Seagate DockStar HOWTO

How to brick your DockStar and void the warranty

One issue is that it doesn't have a Real Time Clock, but that wouldn't be a big problem.

You can get it through ICCWorld for approx 2.5k ( Maybe lesser with eBay Coupons ) I think it will make an excellent download box!
varkey said:
Got another pendrive and this time it worked fine! :) The installation is very easy thanks to Jeff - Install Debian Linux on your Dockstar

After that, followed these instructions to prevent it from booting into the Pogoplug install. Without this fix, the dockstar alternates between Debian and Pogoplug everytime it boots.

So now I have a working debian install on my dockstar, now will proceed with transmission and other stuff! :)
varkey said:
Installed transmission also, everything working fine, webui is great. Haven't tried an actual torrent download but will update the status soon.

Also installed Webmin to manage the dockstar easily, provides a good web interface, its really helpful.
varkey said:
Btw came accross a good http downloader with webinterface - pyLoad - Download Manager - pyLoad :) Supports many file sharing hosts like rapidshare, megaupload etc too. Trying it out now! :)
varkey said:
The write speeds are pathetic when using a NTFS formatted drive, I am getting 3-4 MBps. Read speeds are good and its able to max the USB speed, about 30-32 MBps. So you will need to use a drive formatted as ext3 for better write speeds.

There is one problem if you have multiple USB drives connected at the same time, as it will fail to boot. Will post here if I find a working solution. So at present for it to work properly you can have only one drive connected at boot time.

Yes will check multiple torrents this weekend, but I don't think there will be any issues as the CPU utilisation for transmission is minimal, only the ntfs-3g driver is using the CPU. So if you use an ext3 file system it should be Ok. :p

!
techie_007 said:
Questions:

1. I am guessing a smaller partition formatted to ext3/4 will also do?

Ans. If the data partition is ext3/4 then it should be ok.



2. Does the NTFS driver max out the CPU? Or does it take some resources but still bottleneck in terms of speed?


Ans. Yes it maxes out the CPU, I tried doing a dd file transfer to the ntfs partition and the CPU utilization was 90%+

3. So long as it can give 3-4 Mbps and I have a 1 Mbps connection at max, I assume torrents shouldnt be affected, right? Only trying to write/copy larger files over the network etc should cause issues?

Ans. While downloading, the CPU usage by the ntfs-3g driver is less than 15-20% but I have set transmission to preallocate the space at starting itself and yesterday when I tried a 6.5 GB torrent, it took close to 40 minutes just to allocate the data. And reading from the ntfs partition is fine as I didn't notice any speed difference.

4. This includes the USB pen-drive being used to boot from? So that means I need to install the OS on a normal HDD if I want unattended downloads with auto power on when there are electricity outages?

Ans. Yes only 1 drive which includes the OS flash drive so you need to install the OS on the normal hard disk. There is a solution posted here, but it didn't work for me. Maybe you can try it.

5. Can I install Debian on Normal USB HDD instead of pen drive?

Ans. Yes it can be installed on a normal hdd as well. But I am not sure if a initial startup delay which may be there for a normal hdd will prevent it from booting properly. But you can always add a 10-15s delay in the bootloader if that happens.

6. Else install/download everything on a pen drive?

Ans. But then you will have to keep moving the data from the pendrive frequently. Try installing the OS on the normal HDD itself.
dheerajjotwani said:
my observations...

1. using ext3 f/s works best when running these linux embedded systems... read/write off ntfs causes a lot of orphan sectors on the disk...

2. i never get CPU bumping beyond 25%... even while i am running transmission, copying data and running a 720p mkv on my laptop using wifi...

3. booting from the first partition of the external HDD, works best... the drive should power on manually with the dockstar/plug else the plug will boot from the internal flash...

4. attaching a usb hub with multiple drive can be achieved but boot order and mounting order remaining the same at every boot is still an unsolved issue. they are trying a workaround on the forums...
 
Well, so long as everyone comes over. especially Varkey ;)

Another query: If NTFS has issues, wont FAT32 also be an alternative? That way one still gets both Linux/Windows support.
 
Just received my Dockstar a few minutes ago. Will be setting the thing up tonight :)

@techie_007: Will pm varkey and dheerajjotwani :)
 
Great work Sei! :)

Btw came accross another great deal for this. $23 Shipped But deal expires in 20 hours so have to use the PPO service of ICC World, where you make the purchase yourself and get it shipped to their address and they will handle the shipping to India and final delivery. The site supports Paypal too so making the payment shouldn't be a problem hopefully! :) So final cost should come to 2k only.

techie_007 said:
Another query: If NTFS has issues, wont FAT32 also be an alternative? That way one still gets both Linux/Windows support.

But FAT32 has a file size limit of 4 GB which will affect large downloads.
 
varkey said:
Great work Sei! :)

Btw came accross another great deal for this. $23 Shipped But deal expires in 20 hours so have to use the PPO service of ICC World, where you make the purchase yourself and get it shipped to their address and they will handle the shipping to India and final delivery. The site supports Paypal too so making the payment shouldn't be a problem hopegully! :) So final cost should come to 2k only.

But FAT32 has a file size limit of 4 GB which will affect large downloads.
This recipient does not accept payments from non-US PayPal accounts.

You can not use the non US paypal and CC in 1 sale a Day
 
^ Oh thats bad. I have just now sent a request to ICC World to send a quote asap and if possible in multiple quantities, lets see. My friend also wanted one.
 
varkey, i suggest we should stick to ext3 format... i have sampled this with routers, media players, and now the plug computer... most of these systems gel best with ext3 since they based on ext3 natively. once samba is set properly, media transfer although slowish, is consistent. i get 8-10mbps when on wire and 4-5mbps on wifi from the plug...
 
varkey said:
^ Oh thats bad. I have just now sent a request to ICC World to send a quote asap and if possible in multiple quantities, lets see. My friend also wanted one.

ICC rep just called me & left contact info.I might be able to contact him. how many folks are interested ?
 
i would take one just to sample and try interesting things with it... count me in

--- Updated Post - Automerged ---

@Varkey @ Gaurish...

chk this out... i have been looking at amahi when was planning a home server... which is before i got the plug...

Amahi Plug Edition - Amahi

--- Updated Post - Automerged ---

experts on linux here can help us use this device to host a usb broadband modem like reliance bb+ and tata photon... imagine net sharing... wirefree torrents... deadly combination
 
for 2k + local shipping??..

I am in. but isnt this device slow??.. isnt that what @varkey said by slow write speeds. and besides i also want NTFS.. :S
 
dheerajjotwani said:
varkey, i suggest we should stick to ext3 format... i have sampled this with routers, media players, and now the plug computer... most of these systems gel best with ext3 since they based on ext3 natively. once samba is set properly, media transfer although slowish, is consistent. i get 8-10mbps when on wire and 4-5mbps on wifi from the plug...

Yes will go for ext3 itself. On a Gbit network you should be easily able to get 15-20 MBps with Samba, with my GuruPlug+ I get 40-50 MBps when connected through eSata.
dheerajjotwani said:
@Varkey @ Gaurish...

chk this out... i have been looking at amahi when was planning a home server... which is before i got the plug...

Amahi Plug Edition - Amahi

experts on linux here can help us use this device to host a usb broadband modem like reliance bb+ and tata photon... imagine net sharing... wirefree torrents... deadly combination

Yes, had seen the post in the PlugComputer forum, will check it out! :) :)

That would be a great setup.

Sakis3G - All-in-one script

But only for GSM.
m-jeri said:
I am in. but isnt this device slow??.. isnt that what @varkey said by slow write speeds. and besides i also want NTFS.. :S

If you want NTFS, then it will be pretty slow for write operations. But there is no disadvantage in using ext3 other than for windows usage, but there also you get softwares which would let you read from ext3.
 
i am sure there is a cdma solution too... i can easily use the bb+ modem with ubuntu on my laptop... somebody well versed with linux and arm cross compilation can for sure help us replicate this on the plug... i wonder how it hasnt been already achieved...
 
hmmm... so ext3 it has to be. I will need a whole portable hard drive then, to convert to ext3 and use, right? Cos multiple partitions on the same hard drive would result in boot issues

@dheeraj: ya, forgot about large file support.

As for the new price: @##@$@#$@ had i known, would ve ordered from here... not that 36$ is a bad price :)

Anyway, will have to wait and arrange a portable drive first then. No use installing on a USB drive and then doing the same thing again with the USB HDD. :(
 
see using multiple partitions on the hdd has a workaround... there is a startup script which mounts partitions in a particular order... atleast on the tonidoplug till before they enabled this by default
 
The uboot checks the 1st partition on the drive, so as long as the first partition contains the debian files it should boot fine. So if you want multiple partitions create the debian partition first and then you can create the other partitions.
 
well thats how the plug/dockstar is hard coded to perform... few users on the forums posted issues where the mounting often happened in a haphazard manner... this happened in cases where more than one usb disk or disk with multiple partitions were attached to the plug... there is a script somebody ahd posted to set booting order... if u want i can do a copy paste here for both of you to verify
 
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