That’s awesome, basically a cheap ($30 on amazon) file server/NAS box? Useful and cheap, just the way hackers like it!

Bet you could just use a buspirate instead of a serial cable, too.

Someone get this running along with a Hak5′s pineapple!

@walt,

This is a quality project and a great writeup. Now we all know its fun to criticize… but honestly stop being such a whinny b**ch.

-sM10sM20

…just conned my wife into letting me buy one.

I just ordered 3 pcs from Rueducommerce website in France.
They have a special discount for it, 15.90 Euros.

This is probably the deal of the year ; -)

So, is there enough power to run
* iptables
* 3G USB network Ethernet router
* NFS
* apache or something?

If so, I’ll buy one!

I’ll answer to myself: It has enough power, so I’ll buy one :) Happy hacking to me :) Thanks for the ad, HaD.

American hackers, please buy some Dockstars and sell them on eBay with some realistic shipping & handling. Those Dockstars are far too expensive here in Europe compared to USD 25 prices out there. Thanks :)

I got one of these on woot a while back, as soon as it showed up I cracked it open, mounted an internal memory stick into it, and installled Plugbox Linux on it. Its cool, a little 1.2mhz cpu, boots from flash… worth the investment if you are looking for a cheap, sufficiently powerful cpu unit.

@M4CGYV3R

http://tldp.org/LDP/abs/html/

“”"This tutorial assumes no previous knowledge of scripting or programming, but progresses rapidly toward an intermediate/advanced level of instruction . . . all the while sneaking in little nuggets of UNIX® wisdom and lore. It serves as a textbook, a manual for self-study, and a reference and source of knowledge on shell scripting techniques. The exercises and heavily-commented examples invite active reader participation, under the premise that the only way to really learn scripting is to write scripts. “”"

@M4CGYV3R:

You script in OpenWRT just like you do in any other Bash environment. MAN pages are your friend… :)

OpenWRT is, at this point, much more of a generic embedded linux distribution than just a router OS – although it still does the router work extremely well (if you know what you are doing). If your development process builds an image and then uploads it to the device, it’s worth a look. Using their build system, buildroot-ng, it’s a bit less work than setting up a gentoo system without changing defaults, and you can control what goes into the image quite tightly. There is provision for building stuff as packages, as well, which can be insalled after the fact.

Someone needs to set up a US store that undercuts all the other stores.

Things like La Fonera, Dockstar etc

International HaD visitors: Is there really that much demand for these outside the US? I’d be happy to buy a couple for cheap here and send them along, but I don’t have any idea what the shipping would be, or if it would be worth your money.

Check your local office depot stores. they have these on clearance (probably very hard to find, as its hit sites like slickdeals months ago) for $1. This is probably why you see these going so cheap on ebay. dont bother asking the employees if you cant find it on the shelves, find a kiosk and query sku 434466. HTH

from UK to NY shipping cost me under £10 for 0.5kg, just for a ballpark figure. maybe ebay can give you a better idea.

The instructions are based on the Sheevaplug target of OpenWRT, modded into running on the Dockstar. Hopefully he’s working on an OpenWRT patch to create a proper Dockstar target; that would make it a lot easier for people to build it.

Doesn’t take anything away from the coolness, though!

===Jac

Where is the cheapest place to buy one of these? I’m trying to get one in a couple days time without going through ebay. I haven’t been able to find these things for $20 but I have found them for $40 shipped.

Walmart has them for around $14 and you can order online with shipping at less than a dollar.

That’s awesome, do any of you US hackers fancy firing one over to the UK?

Any idea from where to get it the cheapest? The lowest I found is on eBay for $43.88.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=290452177200

Please post here if you find anywhere cheaper.

Ok these are back in stock @seagate.com for($40).tigerdirect($35) or Amazon.com …Hurry

What are the specs of http://www.seagate.com/www/en-us/products/home_entertainment/freeagent_theater_plus/ ? Is it possible to install Linux on those? They are ~50 Eur/USD in some places.

now dockstar full debian support
self compiled kernel 2.6.35.3 with full led/mdt support

this device rocks …. lower than 20€
i use it as oscam server
its also possible to flash debian on the internal mdt without a stik ….

Hi have a rosewill docking station witha wed 10ears 1.tb hardrive in it. It won’t sleep while plugged inot the dockstar. Is it possible to get this drive to stop spinning?