Strongbolt v2 news and info

[TimSB]

Hi all,

OK some great news....Strongbolt v2 is almost here.....!

There are THREE news items to tell you about:

1) A new firmware will be available shortly...

2) A new kernel (2.6.18-53.el5.sb) will be available shortly...

3) A new ISO will be available soon....this downloads onto a USB stick (min size: 1Gb), plugged into the USB socket on the back of the RaQ, saving all that hassle of burning a CDROM and then using a x-over cable to "boot" the RaQ from a vanilla PC. Currently, the new ISO reformats the HDD and so this is only suitable (at present) for NEW installations.

4) A script has been created that enables the USB port to be accessed and then formats the USB stick to the correct type, to allow the RaQ to save data to it.

At some point, it is hoped to offer an upgrade ISO, which will install onto existing production servers.

How to get hold of these:

For steps 1, 2 and 4, these will be available via direct download from the osoffice.co.uk website.

For step 3, the ISO will be made available via the osoffice shop, as it will be a paid-for download. So, while certain elements of Strongbolt are indeed open-source, the installer is NOT.....

James and his team have spent many months developing this new code, which is significantly better than previous versions - the entire process of burning a CDROM and then booting your RaQ via the ethernet port has been eliminated and now, the installer runs from the USB stick.....

As part of the testing phase, I've now been provided with access to the relevant files and I can tell you now, it works like a dream....talk about EASY.

No one should mess up a Strongbolt installation now....it is a complete breeze....!

The release date has yet to be announced.....but no doubt James will be sending out an email to all registered users of Strongbolt real soon...!

regards

Tim

[macwunder]

Yes, I had the distinct pleasure of spending a few days (in a virtual sense) with James as he gave it a try on my Symantec XTR device. From what I saw, it will be very nice!

And... Dare I say... Multi-processor support!!

[Konstantin]

will people that recently purchased strongbolt going to have to either buy a full copy of v2 or an upgrade copy or will this be available as a free upgrade (or new install, depending if an upgrade is possible)

[TimSB]

will people that recently purchased strongbolt going to have to either buy a full copy of v2 or an upgrade copy or will this be available as a free upgrade (or new install, depending if an upgrade is possible)

Hi Konstantin.

I believe James is sorting out what will happen as relates to recent purchases....

The NEW version is much easier to install and hence in time, I'm sure it will become the default....

On the other hand, v1.6.3 is still pretty good so you won't be losing out too much on overall performance.....

More news as soon as I know.

regards

Tim

[ninjapirate]

ooo i can't wait!! , just wondering, will there be support for hot-swapping the hdds now for the XTR?, that and will the front panel leds be supported in this version? (i miss my illuminations , and i know its not really a priority)

haven't been able to see v2 'live' yet but am really interested to see what its like, jimbob, you got a free xtr tester here lol.


keep up the good work team!

Mike

[plasticuser]

It would be interesting to see if this SI SATA support works with my prototype SATA cards that I still have. I like the idea of having two laptop drives on the card in the PCI slot. I note it's not being actively developed, but it would be interesting to play with.

As a side note, Raq 3 and 4 servers which do not have the internal PCI slot do have all the supporting electronics - all they need is a right-angle PCI header. I have placed these headers in five different Raq 3s [1] which were used as "sacrificial testbeds" and NONE of those ever exhibited the odd behavior I saw in the 3i.

Please consider my SATA project dead and I defer entirely to Jimbob & Company who I am sure will do something spectacular.

[1] These five servers were upgraded to have internal PCI, 500MHz or 550MHz processors, 2x IDE and 768 MB.

[macwunder]

Bump...

What is the status? Pricing? Going to get my second xtr running and want another shot!

[gemm]

same questions from my side....waiting for info.
got a qube3 recently and need some serious upgrade...

[sesullivan]

Hi,

Please supply periodic updates on the status of strongbold2. I am quite interested. I see servers are available but the iso isn't.

As a current strongbolt client I would like to know what the plans for upgrade pricing.

Anyway, giving regular status updates would be a kindness and probably help keep interest alive in SB2. It help me keep my hopes alive.

Thanks,
-Stephanie

[zheka]

Very excited about SBv2 as well.
I've got a question though. What equivalent of CentOS does it run?
Is there php5 support?
Will we have a chance to see it by the end of this year?

Eugene

[Mad Professor]

I am also very intrested in Strongbolt v2, as I would hate to buy Strongbolt v1 and then a few days / weeks later Strongbolt v2, and have to wipe the system clean and start again.

[jimbob]

Hi Guys,

Its finally here. After several months of polishing and tweaking Strongbolt2 has arrived. The new version is currently available as an upgrade from SB1 to SB2, but we hope over the coming weeks to develop some other install versions to jump directly from Cobalt OS to SB2.

For more details on the new release of Strongbolt, have a look at the screen shots here:
http://www.osoffice.co.uk/ospanel.html

A press release here:
http://www.osoffice.co.uk/news/49-sb2-u ... eased.html

The general SB2 section is here:
http://www.osoffice.co.uk/products/strongbolt2.html

And the product page is here:
http://www.osoffice.co.uk/shop/product_ ... ucts_id=29

Jimbob

[atorox]

Stupid question why is upgrade price same 35 £ as standard edition?
I would have thought that upgade would be a tad cheaper than standard edition.

atorox

[gnetwerker]

Congrats! From the info it looks great, and well worth GBP 35, even at the current exchange rate from the U.S. peso. I'm travelling, but will download and try when I return in a few weeks.

[Garball]

I was about to de-commision my Cube 3 Pro till now. I'm running SB1 however I'm finding the processor too slow when accessing web pages (openwebmail/webmin for example). Is there a way to upgrade the processor to speed things up to make this upgrade worth while?

Also, I noticed 'spamassasin' on a screen shot. Does the OS include mailscanner/spamassassin? Please tell me yes....

Also, can you tell me which PCI SATA cards work.

It would be great if I can squeeze more life out of this box.

Cheers,
Gary

[jimbob]

Hello Garball,

Unfortunately spamassassin is not included in the update bundle.
However the covercial add-ons from nuonce.net are compatible.

The new Strongbolt2 kernel has drivers for so many things that it is hard to list.
Booting from SATA drives is still under development, but has proven to be possible (project teraqube). Supported SATA cards are Silicon image PCI SATA cards that use the sata_sil driver.

jimbob

[dudematters]

Hi Jimbob,

I've just purchased the upgrade 1.x -> 2.x and want to install this now. I get 4 .pkg files. Are there any how-to or install instructions available? Is it possible to create a ISO or USB version so when I need to reinstall I can do this directly?

[jimbob]

Hi Dudematters,

Have a look at the url here:
http://www.osoffice.co.uk/sb2-install-guide.html

That should have all of the required info.

Let me know if there is anything missing.

Jimbob

[Garball]

Any idea what can be done for a processor upgade for a Cube 3 Pro stock?

[arthusice]

upgrade went great but know I can not connect via serial cable. any thoughts?

[jimbob]

Hello arthusice,

The update should not affect the comms ports or the serial port configuration.

Are you using a windows or Linux terminal emulator?

Jimbob

[gemm]

Good to see things are moving on. Congratulations for the sb2 RC.
For me as a new strongbolt user, a standalone installation of sb2 from USB or from CD via netboot would be highly desirable. Maybe for the meantime a bundle licence of sb2 containing sb1 for installation purposes only would be an option ? Apparently i am not interested in running sb1 any more...

[Molasar]

Hello,

Is there a SB2 Install from Cobalt OS yet (or fresh SB2 Install from zero for that matter)? I urgently need this... My RaQ4i is dead in the water (won't boot) and SB1 won't install.... Cobalt OS is broken...

I know my RaQ4i is healthy hardware-wise... it's just the software that's gone puff!

Thanks!

Mike

[arthusice]

Hello arthusice,

The update should not affect the comms ports or the serial port configuration.

Are you using a windows or Linux terminal emulator?

Jimbob

I was using Putty on windows, 115200 and it was working just fine, then i went to 9600. I was running a re-install via usb then once it was loaded the serial port stop responding.
I was trying to connect with my ibm x60 but I don't think fedora core likes my docking station serial port.

[Konstantin]

After updating my 550 to v2 the machine now kernel panics with this error:

Code: Select all

VFS: Cannot open root device "<NULL>" or unknown-block(3,1)
Please append a correct "root=" boot option; here are the available partitions:
0300   78150744 hda driver: ide-disk
  0301    2000344 hda1
  0302    2000376 hda2
  0303    1000440 hda3
  0304          1 hda4
  0305    2000344 hda5
  0306   71149144 hda6
1600   78150744 hdc driver: ide-disk
  1601    2000344 hdc1
  1602    2000376 hdc2
  1603    1000440 hdc3
  1604          1 hdc4
  1605    2000344 hdc5
  1606   71149144 hdc6
0906   71149056 md6 (driver?)
0905    2000256 md5 (driver?)
0902    2000256 md2 (driver?)
0901    2000256 md1 (driver?)
Kernel panic - not syncing


attempting to reinstall 1.06 to try and update again results in an LCD not found error which stops the install from occurring. any help with this issue would be greatly appreciated.