After messing up my GuruPlug (writing the wrong U-Boot to my GuruPlug, and thus ending up with a bricked device), I finally managed to make it run again. I also started to test Amahi, which looks vers promising.

I wrote two new articles, one on how to Unbrick (flashing with JTAG), and one on how to boot from microSD. However, those two articles are only written very quickly. Hopefully they are useful for some of you, since the described information was hard for me to find anywhere else.

Finally, my semester is over and I have time to continue my GuruPlug setup. Today I connected my DAS via eSATA to my GuruPlug. I hope this will give some more speed to file transfers, I will run some tests later.

GlobalScale Technologies recently released a new Plugcomputer, called the DreamPlug. It is basically a GuruPlug Server Plus in an new enclosure, with additional features like audio and a 2GB on-board microSD. Hopefully, the enclosure is well designed and there are no heat problems (quote: "with no internal moving components"). Without any heat problems and no fan, I would really consider it a dream plug.

So far, I'm still busy with my GuruPlug Server Plus as long as I have some time for it (which is not the case recently). I'm excited to see reviews if anyone got a DreamPlug.

• Be aware that if you got one of the first DreamPlugs, it might have a clock which is too slow. Read this post to get more information about it.
• Here are some pictures of the inside of the DreamPlug and more information about it

I just figured out that the GuruPlug Display is available! No announcements in the news from GlobalScale and also not under their GuruPlug-Menu in the products-section on top of the page (so a little hard to find :p).I have no idea since when it is available. NewIt does not sell it yet.

Here are some of the specifications:

• Marvell ARMADA™ 168 800MHz
• 512MB DDR2-800
• 1 x Ethernet 10/100 Mbps
• 4 x USB 2.0 ports (Host)
• 1 x USB 2.0 OTG micro-AB port (Device/Host)
• 1 x Micro SD Slot (w/ 4GB card)
• 1 x Micro SD Slot w/ JTAG I/F option
• 1 x Internal Micro SD card – 8GB
• 1 x Serial Port over USB (for console)
• 1 x HDMI Output Port with CEC
• Power and Interface cables
• Debug Interface board
• Debian Linux Distribution

I am back from vacation but sadly I have to announce some bad news, but don't worry, the good ones will follow.

The bad news first: I still did not get my GuruPlug back and Global Scale has removed their statement about the upgrade kit which should, from the date of the release of their news, be ready "in the coming weeks (not months)". The mentioned upgrade kit should include a small fan and the equipment to connect it - on request and free of charge. I am wondering what the removal of these news could mean, but the good news followed soon after. Not from Global Scale, but from NewIt (where I got my GuruPlug). NewIt has two despatch dates, September 10th and 15th. A few days later the units should arrive in the UK and forwarded to the customers. However, they are still waiting for the upgrade kits or any news about it. Let's hope it all works out. If it does, I should get a new/fixed GuruPlug at the beginning of October.

Finally, my last exam is over and I can enjoy the summer time! This means a lot of relaxing time for me, but also no updates for the next 6 weeks.

When I am back, I hope I finally have time to finish some things with my GuruPlug. These things are torrent download (transmission), wuala, samba, firewall and setting it up as a gateway (which I already wanted to do a while ago). I will also take the chance and send my GuruPlug back to NewIt where I purchased it and get a replacement because of the broken USB-ports. I just hope I have it again when I get back from vacation. I don't know yet if I will get one from the new ones or just a replacement.

So far, my GuruPlug is running for 4 days and 5h without any problem (cooled with the usb-fan). The load average is very low of course since I am not really using it yet, but I am very happy because the housing of the Plug feels very cool (even though the environment temperature is near 30°C).

Since yesterday, my GuruPlug is accessible over the internet and I will also let it run as long as possible to see how reliable it is. So far, the uptime is 1 day and about 2h. No special services are running except dyndns-updater, webserver and samba.

So far I did not want it to be accessible from the "public" because I was concerned about security. I then followed a few steps to ensure at least basic security, hopefully I can set up a firewall soon to improve the security a little. The next step was to use DHCP on one of the network interfaces (eth1) which is directly connected to my ADSL-router. The router is set to IP-forwarding for eth1 which gives the public IP-address to my GuruPlug at eth1. eth0 is manually configured with a local IP-address and used for local access like ssh and samba. The last step was to configure DynDNS locally and on www.dyndns.com to have a easy way of accessing my GuruPlug (tutorial will follow). During these steps, I also changed the hostname which then caused some problem after setting my basic security, thus I wrote a short tutorial about how to change the hostname on the GuruPlug (or any Debian system).

Of course, I will not publish my IP-address or the dyndns-domain since my GuruPlug is not a public server (yet) ;)

GlobalsScale Technologies, the provider of the GuruPlug and the Sheevaplug, made an announcement a few days ago regarding to the GuruPlug overheating problems. Unfortunately, there will be no replacement of the daughter board as stated in my last post. They came to the conclusion that the main problem is the load on the CPU which can be caused by running the GB-Ethernet, Wireless and other interfaces at the same time. Their recommendation is to run the network interfaces at 10/100MB to reduce the CPU load. In a few months, they will release a "Professional Upgrade Kit" to solve the problem. How this upgrade kit is going to look like is not published yet.

Some users of the Sheevaplug also faced a problem, but with the power supply. It is now possible to buy a new power supply and replace it with the old one. Here is a guide on how to do the replacement.

Many people face the problem that their GuruPlug gets very hot. There have been many attempts to cool the device by adding a fan, a heat sink, or as I solved it by using an external fan. However, this can't be a good solution since people want to buy a device which works and which does not have to be modified. The developers at GlobalScale are now revising the GuruPlug. So far, it is not sure how the replacement will be realized. Either the people with a faulty unit will just get a new one, or the customers/resellers will get a replacement board (the daughter board) with a new power management chip (and most likely some other improvements).

As mentioned previously, my USB-ports are broken and my GuruPlug gets quite hot. Luckily, the reseller where I got my GuruPlug (NewIT from the UK) is very cooperative and they will advise their customers as soon as GlobalScale defines a delivery date for the replacement board. This means that I can keep my GuruPlug until they get the 2nd batch with the applied upgrades, and I will get a new one from the 2nd batch. Right now, I actually do not have much time for developing because I have my semester finals within the next three weeks, but whenever I have some time, I'll move to the next step: Using the GuruPlug as Gateway between the ADSL-router and my home network. The main thing I am struggling here is to find the right setting for the ADSL-router and to understand the IP-forwarding and DHCP-functionality for the LAN, but since Debian has it all within the packet management, it is only a few commands away ;)

To see if my GuruPlug works fine (since I heard about rebooting issues and network problems), I just let it run over night, of course with my USB-fan running to assure a good air flow. The next day, everything was fine as far as I remember but when I tried to connect to my USB hard drive, I figured out that my USB ports don't work any more. There is no 5V power and also an external USB-drive does not work, neither does the SD card.

Now I am wondering what could have happened. Did the constant 80mA of the USB-fan destroy the USB-interface? That should be impossible since the USB specification requires a current up to 500mA, and it's running on my PC's USB for a few days now without problem. Is it a heat problem which made my USB die? or did I mess up some configuration? Since I do not want to loose warranty I did not open my plug yet. It might just have burned some part which is easily replaceable, but if I can't fix the problem without opening the case, I will first try to return it before I do anything else.

To figure out if I messed up the configuration, I decided to re-flash my GuruPlug. This is also a great possibility to get to know the boot process better and get some insight into the file system. The tutorial I am following is the reflashing-tutorial on plugcomputer.org. It seems to work, but I am having some troubles getting the root file system to the plug using tftp. Here are my experiences with tftp and the installation process. I also added a short tftp-tutorial.

One project that I came across just recently is the Amahi Home Server. It seems to be some free alternative to the Microsoft Windows Home server (WHS) and it just looks great. The requirements are a 800MHz CPU, 512MB ram and Fedora 12. It would be really great to have Amahi it on my GuruPlug, since it includes DHCP, VPN, VNC, backup, file sharing, web applications like wordpress or joomla and much more exciting stuff.

So far, there is a beta version available for download after registration. One problem is of course, that it is based on Fedora and it is not ported to the ARM yet. This forum thread indicates that there are some attempts to make it run on a Sheevaplug, and here is a tutorial how to install Fedora 12 on a GuruPlug.

Cooling your GuruPlug might be an important criteria if you have one of the recent ones. It seems to be a problem with the design since there is no heat sink and not enough space for air exchange. I hope we would get further information from GlobalScale. It seems like they are redesigning a few things. This post shows some e-mailed information from GlobalScale.

Here is another interesting thread on the NewIT forum, since it describes some problems people have and there are also some solutions with some interesting pictures (it seems like you have to be logged in to see the pictures...).

My solution so far is to cool the GuruPlug housing from the outside with a 12cm 12V fan using the 5V of the USB-interface. Of course, I share my idea and wrote a small tutorial about my USB-fan.