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FreeBSD 10.0 on Ubiquiti EdgeRouter Lite

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Re: FreeBSD 10.0 on Ubiquiti EdgeRouter Lite

#31
post #30
post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah; reworked TP-Link 703s are cheaper, though. Missing a couple of things I want, though.

Reworked how?

Someone who is less bad at surface mount soldering than I am can take a 702/703, pop the 2MB flash and 8-16M RAM chips off, and replace with 16/64. There are people in China who do this commercially, and some eBay stores.

I've bricked (well, melted) 2 of them so far doing it myself.

Re: FreeBSD 10.0 on Ubiquiti EdgeRouter Lite

#32
post #12

I've been running Gentoo Linux on my EdgeRouter Lite for a long time now. " rel="nofollow">https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/MIPS/ERLite-3> I must say: the ERL is terrible hardware. You can get some performance out of it if you're using Ubiquiti's kernel, because it ships with a series of highly specialized proprietary modules that offload packet handling to hardware accelerated modules, for their custom proprietary netwo…

It's a $100 box. I've been happy with mine as a replacement for an AirPort Extreme. It handles my 30/5 broadband while doing QoS for my VoIP at no more than 10% CPU. Anyway, what would you recommend instead at that price point?

Re: FreeBSD 10.0 on Ubiquiti EdgeRouter Lite

#33
post #12

I've been running Gentoo Linux on my EdgeRouter Lite for a long time now. " rel="nofollow">https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/MIPS/ERLite-3> I must say: the ERL is terrible hardware. You can get some performance out of it if you're using Ubiquiti's kernel, because it ships with a series of highly specialized proprietary modules that offload packet handling to hardware accelerated modules, for their custom proprietary netwo…

I also do not like Vyatta's weirdness. It looks like Linux, acts like Linux, but then you have to use all of the awful Vyatta commands to actually do anything.

If you are expecting a Linux distribution then yeah, it is weird. If you are expecting a network appliance then it's par for the course and you are grateful that you can drop to shell to do other things. JunOS is pretty much the same way.

Re: FreeBSD 10.0 on Ubiquiti EdgeRouter Lite

#34
post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Right, but they weren't designed to be fast routers. They make awesome single-purpose servers, though (DNS recursors and NTP, in my case).

Yea, for something like a single-purpose DNS recursor or NTP server, any cheap hardware will do. You got your terminal server for what? 15 dollars? Much more reasonable than the 100 bucks an ERL costs.

That $100 is funding the ongoing development of EdgeOS though. It doesn't seem to make much sense to buy an ERL if you're just going to put another OS on it. Shrug.

Re: FreeBSD 10.0 on Ubiquiti EdgeRouter Lite

#35
post #13

The downside of this right now is that there are no binary packages for mips64 and there is no space on the device to store a ports tree so you need to cross compile everything. I am running gentoo on mine at the minute, I did have FreeBSD on it for a bit. I tried a larger flash drive but the driver doesn't like it and won't mount the root partition, need to find one it likes. Or use nfs/smb but that is a pain.

I successfully connected a USB hard drive to mine. If you're interested enough, email me and I'll go look up which inexpensive model of enclosure I'm using. The bootloader is indeed finicky but I guess I got lucky enough to have a HDD enclosure that just worked.

I must have some lying around, will give them a go. The bootloader works with my USB stick, but Linux doesn't like it. Will see if FreeBSD does or not.

Re: FreeBSD 10.0 on Ubiquiti EdgeRouter Lite

#36

The downside of this right now is that there are no binary packages for mips64 and there is no space on the device to store a ports tree so you need to cross compile everything. I am running gentoo on mine at the minute, I did have FreeBSD on it for a bit. I tried a larger flash drive but the driver doesn't like it and won't mount the root partition, need to find one it likes. Or use nfs/smb but that is a pain.

Could you store the ports tree on a network share, mount that share on the device, and compile that way? Seems like that would be easier than cross-compiling, if it'll work.

In theory, though nfs and me/my network setup don't get on.

Re: FreeBSD 10.0 on Ubiquiti EdgeRouter Lite

#38
post #23

In general for small hardware I go with two options. Qualcomm-Atheros AR9331 based systems, with 64MB ram and 16MB flash (kind of hard to get in that config cheaply). You can get decent performance, potentially hang a 5.8/2.4ghz radio on it too, and power it off a single laptop USB port (200mA normal power use, and with stuff, still less than 500mA.) Can put second ethernet, wifi, 3G, etc. there. There's no current c…

FWIW, staples.com is selling the (discontinued) WD My Net N750 for US$30. It's an AR9344 box w/ 16 MB of flash, 128 MB of RAM, a 5 port GigE switch, 2 USB 2.0 ports, and a 0.1" pitch TTL serial header already installed on the PCB. It's supported by OpenWRT trunk, and most of the bits to support it are in FreeBSD, so that might be a "just works" option one day.

Re: FreeBSD 10.0 on Ubiquiti EdgeRouter Lite

#39
post #38
post #23

In general for small hardware I go with two options. Qualcomm-Atheros AR9331 based systems, with 64MB ram and 16MB flash (kind of hard to get in that config cheaply). You can get decent performance, potentially hang a 5.8/2.4ghz radio on it too, and power it off a single laptop USB port (200mA normal power use, and with stuff, still less than 500mA.) Can put second ethernet, wifi, 3G, etc. there. There's no current c…

FWIW, staples.com is selling the (discontinued) WD My Net N750 for US$30. It's an AR9344 box w/ 16 MB of flash, 128 MB of RAM, a 5 port GigE switch, 2 USB 2.0 ports, and a 0.1" pitch TTL serial header already installed on the PCB. It's supported by OpenWRT trunk, and most of the bits to support it are in FreeBSD, so that might be a "just works" option one day.

Yeah, I care about being USB powered though.
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