I have not used my GLANTANK for quite a while. Now it has a new purpose: I use as a server for lsync. lsyncd is what I was looking for for a while: it synchronizes directories a la rsync (it’s actually using rsync for that), but it is using the inotify feature of the Linux kernel which informs a process that a file has changed. So instead of scanning every (say) 1h thousand of files, it copies the ones which are modified much sooner and does not need a full scan of all files except on startup.
The old Debian installation was outdated, so I wanted to re-install Debian Linux on the GLANTANK first. I used the same instructions in the past and it worked as expected. So I was hopeful this time too. ssh never started up though.
The only way to see something happening then is to use a serial console. See also here for some pictures. Pins are 1:3.3V, 2:RxD, 3:TxD, 4:GND. 115200 bps and 8N1.
And the problem is that the latest kernel 2.6.32-5-iop32x has no driver for the GLANTANK disk interface, and that stops the installation process. The fix is on the Debian bug list and that solves it.
Next problem are the not-so-quiet fans. There’s a program to control them called fanctld. Needs kernel header files and gcc-4.3 to create a working fandrv.ko kernel module.
Update: Plugging in and out of disks with a cable which is soldered to the mainboard is a bad idea: the cable broke and no disk worked afterwards. Well, it was fun while it lasted. Which was until now.