Evaluating an EBox 4863 for OLPC XS server

I’m in the process of evaluating a really awesome little machine called the EBox 4863.They are small, have no fans or moving parts (apart from when you put a laptop hard disk in), and will likely suit both urban and remote implementations as well as humid Pacific conditions.

I’m still testing so I don’t have a final verdict (will post soon) but so far I really love these little boxes 🙂 They do seem a little warm, but they are designed to be basically just one big heat sink 🙂 If you get one, make sure you get the 4863S as it comes without an OS (and in Australia, the only OS you can get is Windows).

EBox 4863 - back
EBox 4863 - back
EBox 4863 alongside my IBM T42
EBox 4863 alongside my IBM T42

Specifications

  • VIA Esther 1.2GHz
  • 1GB DDR2
  • MPEG4/WMV9 decoding accelerator
  • Dual LAN
  • Compact Flash slot
  • Mini PCI socket
  • 2 x USB 2.0 ports
  • Support 2.5″ HDD
  • PXE diskless boot
  • Wireless LAN (option)

Cost

Approximately $550-$600 (AUD).

Installing the hard disk

Requirements: small Phillips screwdriver, IDE laptop hard disk (3 1/2 inch). Some time 🙂

Firstly you need to use the Allen key that comes with the box to open the bottom of the EBox, that is the side that doesn’t have the VGA and power. Then undo the two screws on the back (where the devices plug in) and loosen the back cover so it doesn’t inhibit the top motherboard being removed.

Once open you need to undo the four screws in the top section of the motherboard and you need to lift the top board straight up as below. Note that there are two sets of pins, one on each side underneath the top board, so you need to lift straight up to get it off:

Remove the top board

Lift off the top motherboard
Lift off the top motherboard, straight up off the two sets of pins.

Turn the top board over and you’ll see the pins. Take the very short IDE cable. Join the IDE cable to the top board, and to your IDE hard disk. Then you’ll have to align the HDD with the holes in the board which ends up squishing the HDD up close to where the IDE cable plugs in.

Add the IDE cable to the top board
Add the IDE cable to the top board
Secure the HDD to the top board.
Secure the HDD to the top board.

Now carefully put the board back in place ensuring you line up the pins correctly on the underside of the board. Then screw the backplate on like below.

Screw the backplate back on.
Screw the backplate back on.

Final step – replace the cover and ensure you put the correct screws into the correct side. The side without the board gets the long screws 🙂

Ensure you put the long screws into the correct side.
Ensure you put the long screws into the correct side.

And there you have it, below is a picture of the EBox with a great little 9.2″ monitor alongside my rather large looking IBM T42 laptop and an XO. Welcome to my workbench today 🙂

The EBox, XO, screen and my laptop
The EBox, XO, screen and my laptop

Installing the XS software

Requirements: Internet access, USB key (at least 700MB)

Firstly,you need to make it bootable from the USB key. Delete will get you into the BIOS, and you have to have to USB plugged in when you turn it on to choose USB as a boot option and to move it to the top of the boot options.

Then you have to make the bootable USB key with the XO image. At this stage I’m still on XS 0.4 for deployments and testing 0.5, but the process is generic. You can following the directions for 0.4 here, or the most recent image here.

I’ve tested XO 0.4 and am testing 0.5. All looks pretty good! Only problem so far is that on 0.5 the graphic card didn’t seem to show the Fedora boot screen, so I just pressed enter to a blank screen which worked fine (as I knew the question would be whether to install).

Update: 0.5 doesn’t appear to work on it, and neither does Ubuntu Hardy. Am trying to come up with work arounds. Input welcome! Error on XS 0.5 (Fedora 9) installation is GrubbyPartitionName. It finishes copying the packages and then fails.

Update II: To make 0.5 work I had to a) ensure it was referencing the correct location for the ks.cfg file, and b) comment out/delete an option in the ks.cfg which for some reason causes it to crash. I’ve updated the 0.5 install page and now have successfully installed 0.5 on the eebox! Yay!

VideoChat – OLPC Activity

I am working on a really interesting OLPC XO/XS trial (all to be revealed soon!) where the main lynchpin demonstration is the VideoChat activity. We are certainly looking at the educational benefits, the interesting impact on truancy, and opportunities for disadvantaged kids, etc. However, the VideoChat offers a great way to provide support to remote kids including speech therapy, behavioural therapy, counselling, health services and of course distance education. So we have been working hard to get the VideoChat activity working. It now works online, but not with an XS (unless you disable Squid and have no firewall), so more work to go.

Anyway, I temporarily uploaded the xo to my website knowing I wanted to have it hosted elsewhere fairly quickly. Luckily one of the wonderful Telepathy guys (hi Cassidy!) offered to host it, so it’s all good. Thing is, in the 3 days I was hosting the 8mb file, I had 534 downloads. Woohoo! That is a lot of bandwidth in a very short time 🙂 I guess it is of interest to a lot of folk out there.

Check out VideoChat. It is very cool but it still needs a lot of work including some prettying up!

Anyway, this is a short one. I have several blogs to catch up on, so sorry everyone!