NAS

From Tuxisalive

This discussion/idea started because tux cannot do a lot of standalone things (like waking a desktop up) without some HEAVY firmware tweaking (quite limited in theory). Some people * like me * don't like to keep a computer up all the time (a regular decent computer desktop consumption is between 400 and 600W, constant), so the only solution is to plug tux to an embedded device: silent, power efficient, and always on.

Interesting devices

Linksys NSLU2 (2 usb, 2 ether, 266 mhz) hardware 80€
Asus WL-500G Premium Router (2 usb, ether switch, wlan...) hardware 80€
Neuros OSD 229$ (TV mediacenter)
any usb-enabled old computer
The french Linutop: 280€ (AMD Geode (LX700 x86) 256 Mo RAM 4x USB 2.0 Audio in & out 100baseT Ethernet VGA, 6 watts).

"Dream" devices

AMD's PIC
OLPC
Sony PS3 :) xxxx € (censored)

Why?

multiple usb connectivity, allowing to plug the droid
officially GPLed -> custom firmwares
no sound, low power consumption : the ideal always-on companion
hard drive optional (a 1/2 GB flash device should suffice) -> even lower sound

The best option would be to use a portable packaging system that works with the NSLU2 and other devices (usb-enabled routers), and that is embedded-oriented, using a web interface for controlling the apps. I really think that a web interface would do the job better than GTK bindings, plus it would allow working on non-desktop computers (screenless, from xbox, from anything...), without the resource sharing hassle. Take a quick look at x-wrt (screenshots) or dd-wrt web interface, and you'll know what i mean.

Interesting firmwares: ipkg-based firmwares

NSLU2: unslug firmware
Asus: x-wrt/openwrt/dd-wrt ipkg support is on it's way

Packages:

Interesting packages (for tux interaction):

heyu (X10 home automation): for REAL desktop wakingup (not only from hibernation), lights controlling, etc...
speex
wakelan
attractive web interfaces (dd-wrt / x-wrt...), cgi-bin sys cmd execution (cf openwrt)
mpd and players (mpc, sonata...)
bitlbee: IRC gateway
... python :-p

The tux package would be composed of:

The main package: the daemon + aggregating app + webif addon
Plugin packages: the apps + webif sub-addons

The human interfaces would be:

tux's TTS & speech hypothetical-for-now recognition features
the web interface
telnet/ssh access
the python regular gtk interface, executed on the desktop (connected to the damon, running on the nas)

What misses (TODO/TOPORT/IDEAS)

speech things (flite / pocket sphinx)
webif dev, packaging
daemon porting (ARM, should be trivial)
aria2c frontend (for torrent dl)
....

In fact, it can become something like a real "home server", using tux as human interface ("tux, lights on !") with (very limited) emotions/animation, allowing: