Today I needed a device that beside being a wired switch can also act as a DHCP server. I dug into my treasure trove of abandoned devices and pulled out an old D-Link DSL-G624T wireless router.
Holding down the reset button defaulted it almost exactly into a state of my expectations. I was able to connect to the device of interest from my Ubuntu laptop. Except that DSL-G624T also pulled up an insecure WLAN connection.
Naturally it also provides an admin web interface. Except that I was greeted by a blank page. The router also provides a Busybox server over a telnet connection but this is perhaps an adventurous for a different time.
Instead I connected to the router with another laptop running Windows. Behold, the familiar interface loaded on the first try.
After while I thought that I blow some life into my Pogoplud (v2).
First there was decision between Arch Linux and Debian. Arch Linux looks nice but as I’m using Ubuntu on my laptop then the choice was Debian because it will look more familiar.
I found really nice guide how to put Debian on Pogoplug.
It is fairly easy and it is even more easy when you do not follow too strictly.
For example I did not use fdisk to create needed partitions. I just took my USB stick and used GParted on my Ubuntu laptop to do the job.
How to get back your original Pogoplug installation? Just take the USB stick out and reboot.
Edit:
Command lsusb does not work out of the box. You need to install usbutils to get it to work.
apt-get install usbutils
From “The Return to Shenzhen – Part 1 – News – SparkFun Electronics“:
The average wage on the production floor is 1800 to 2200 RMB per month ($275 to $336 per month).
Noodles and dumplings for 8RMB ($1.25).
SparchFun did visit Shenzhen and did share some interesting information with us. So they are able to buy 275 meals. In comparision the same meal would cost about 6-10 euro in Western-Europe. This means that Chinese workers value of the wage in comparision is about 1650-2750 euro.
I received my Pogoplug today with a hope to dive into the embeded devices world. It’s nice, does not require an additional adapter for the power, is quite affordable (55 pounds in UK Amazon) and does have quite many nice connections like ethernet port, 4 USB ports and also a serial port like I had to find out.
After some hours playing with my new toy, I bricked it. I had a hope that when I break it open I would find some serial interface inside. This was true and there were also other folks with the same problem. So now I have to acquire a proper cable for it…
Let the adventure begin.
pogosensor 