memory overhead and embedded Samba

[Christopher R. Hertel]

On Mon, Jan 24, 2005 at 10:49:20AM +0100, Martin Zielinski wrote:
> Hello,
:
> We've actually made the experience, that the memory is the limiting factor on 
> tiny linux devices. Even a StrongArm110 CPU (comparable to a 200MHz Pentium) 
> can easily handle more than one hundred clients that perform printing and 
> file sharing tasks. But as soon as the system starts to swap-out memory, it 
> breaks everything.

...so a low memory profile Samba would be a great benefit.

> > > a tiny embedded Linux box (something like the Linksys WRT54GS wireless
> > > gateway),
> 
> Not so fancy, but we're printing over one of them (since 2.2.x).
> http://www.seh.de/english/products/net/isd300/isd300txt.htm

The page comes up blank, I'm 'fraid.

> > ...or the Linksys NLU2, which is Samba 2 on X-Scale on embedded Linux.
> > (Not sure if there's an MMU...)
> The XScale CPUs IXP4xx have  MMUs. 

Kewl.  That makes it easier...

> The Speed ranges from 266 to 533 MHz.

The NSLU2 (forgot the 'S' in the previous post) is the 266 variety.  I run 
my household network on a 233MHz PC in the basement so this should be more 
than adequate to do a similar job.

> It supports up to 256 MB SDRAM memory.

There are instructions on one of the sites I posted previously in this 
thread that describe how to add more memory to the NSLU2.  It comes with 
32MB.  My goal, however, would be to run on the stock product.  That way, 
you'd just need to update the flash.

> > > but with a firmware that implements an active directory
> > > domain controller based on Samba4.
> >
> > ...or stripped down to just file or print servers.  There are a handful of
> > embedded CIFS stacks out there, such as the BluePeach implementation we
> > saw at the last CIFS conference.

The NSLU2 has one 10/100 ethernet and two USB2.0 ports.  It should be
possible to hook it to a USB-connected printer, for instance.  Possibly a 
memory stick for a hard drive.

> > There are a whole lot of other possibilities here, including a WAFS
> > back-end.

This is something I think we should be looking at...

> I'll get the Samba-4 code and start playing around on our device. Your idea 
> sounds great.  I hope to have time to do something usefull with it.

Would you be willing to collaborate a bit?  I'm also short on time, but 
this is an area I've been interested in for quite a while.

Chris -)-----

-- 
"Implementing CIFS - the Common Internet FileSystem" ISBN: 013047116X
Samba Team -- http://www.samba.org/     -)-----   Christopher R. Hertel
jCIFS Team -- http://jcifs.samba.org/   -)-----   ubiqx development, uninq.
ubiqx Team -- http://www.ubiqx.org/     -)-----   crh at ubiqx.mn.org
OnLineBook -- http://ubiqx.org/cifs/    -)-----   crh at ubiqx.org