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Announcing B3

Announcements from Excito
ctoo
Posts: 23
Joined: 13 Jan 2009, 16:24

Re: Announcing B3

Post by ctoo »

Ok, thanks. I see.

But am I mistaken in thinking that there are alternatives to the two options (divert and custom packages) that will allow you to stay more closely aligned with Debian and hence benefit from an easier access to updates from Debian? For example:

1) debconf may in some cases allow you to configure packages during (unattended) install.
2) A custom script could, when executed, in principle edit the default Debian configuration files to whatever is required by the excito setup. You only need to run this scripts once on the image (right after installation of all packages). And it doesn't even have to be done on the B3 itself as the image could be mounted on a standard PC and modified there, I believe.

Reasoning: The Debian policies require that changes to configuration files should be left untouched during an update, so you only need to do the configuration changes (by means of one of the above two methods) once.
tor
Posts: 703
Joined: 06 Dec 2006, 12:24
Contact:

Re: Announcing B3

Post by tor »

Hi again ctoo,

I'm not arguing against what you are saying I'm agreeing :)

We really do want to track Debian as closely we can. That minimize the work we have to do maintaining packages.

We today, in B2 & B3 at least, uses all the things you mention including preconfiguring packages via debconf etc. If it is some special packages that is causing problems please let us know.

/Tor
Co-founder OpenProducts and Ex Excito Developer
ctoo
Posts: 23
Joined: 13 Jan 2009, 16:24

Re: Announcing B3

Post by ctoo »

Ok,

Good to know. I'm a B1 user (lenny image) and what I found when I checked the B1 Lenny image was that most of the configuration changes had been done by means of repackaging/custom packages. This brought the B1 Lenny image out-of-synch with the Debian Lenny updates. And as far as I remember (it's a year ago), I could find an alternative approach for all the B1 Lenny configuration changes that didn't involve custom packages/repacking.

May I ask what/how many Debian packages you have repacked for B3? And in what/how many cases did you use dpkg-divert?
pcrene
Posts: 305
Joined: 17 May 2008, 15:49

Re: Announcing B3

Post by pcrene »

Hello All,

I did not see any remarks on network behaviour......
What is the network performance?

Can i restore a backup from B2 to B3?

Rene
B3 1T + B-Stor 2T, B2 1T as backup
40 users active....
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tor
Posts: 703
Joined: 06 Dec 2006, 12:24
Contact:

Re: Announcing B3

Post by tor »

Hi pcrene and others,

Regarding network performance. This is dependant on the protocol used. But when using http,ftp, samba etc. You should see about 4-5 times the performance compared to B2. Approximately 45-55MB/S read over samba. This is based on my own experience so don't take this as an official statement. (We will publish some stats on this later)

Further more, note that ssh and encrypted transfers have lower gains against B2 but is still considerably faster.

Regarding backup. If this is a settings backup i would not recommend that. It could work since its the same code for this. The issue is more that many components are upgraded and thus there is a high risk that these fail if you restore a B2 settings backup on B3.

If on the other hand this is a regular backup made with the backup tool in the file manager it should work fine between B2 and B3.

/Tor
Co-founder OpenProducts and Ex Excito Developer
ubbe
Posts: 40
Joined: 09 May 2009, 01:17

Re: Announcing B3

Post by ubbe »

tor wrote:Hi all,

Regarding an HW upgrade plan. This is something that i can't comment at all on. I will certainly bring this up with sales but don't hold your breath on it.

/Tor
Hi
isnt it possible to buy a bubba 3 motherboard as a sparpart :?: :shock:
pcrene
Posts: 305
Joined: 17 May 2008, 15:49

Re: Announcing B3

Post by pcrene »

Hello ubbe,

I asked them already because i have 2 B2 of whitch one is broken...
But they only do the whole B3, and the backplate is not compatible...

Rene
B3 1T + B-Stor 2T, B2 1T as backup
40 users active....
Opensat4all.Com
ubbe
Posts: 40
Joined: 09 May 2009, 01:17

Re: Announcing B3

Post by ubbe »

pcrene wrote:Hello ubbe,

I asked them already because i have 2 B2 of whitch one is broken...
But they only do the whole B3, and the backplate is not compatible...

Rene
Isnt there a backpanel as sparepart aswell :?: :shock:

Maybee have to find a Atom solution insted..
tor
Posts: 703
Joined: 06 Dec 2006, 12:24
Contact:

Re: Announcing B3

Post by tor »

Hi Ubbe and others,

Regarding upgrading the main board from B2 to B3. That of course should be doable. Our main problem here is that we receive the units packed as complete units ready for sale. So we either have to extract the boards from them, leaving us with an unused casing etc. Or we have to do a special order to the factory only for main boards.

Both these scenarios is a lot of extra work and money for us. So for the moment there will be no replacement boards.

That said I wont rule out that we change this further on when we get production up and running.

/Tor
Co-founder OpenProducts and Ex Excito Developer
pcrene
Posts: 305
Joined: 17 May 2008, 15:49

Re: Announcing B3

Post by pcrene »

Hello Tor,

As soon as it is possible for you (as you wil do repair on B3 too)
i will order one......promised.


Rene
B3 1T + B-Stor 2T, B2 1T as backup
40 users active....
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theWebalyst
Posts: 96
Joined: 27 May 2010, 14:53

Re: Announcing B3

Post by theWebalyst »

tor wrote:Hi Ubbe and others,

Regarding upgrading the main board from B2 to B3. That of course should be doable. Our main problem here is that we receive the units packed as complete units ready for sale. So we either have to extract the boards from them, leaving us with an unused casing etc. Or we have to do a special order to the factory only for main boards.

Both these scenarios is a lot of extra work and money for us. So for the moment there will be no replacement boards.

That said I wont rule out that we change this further on when we get production up and running.

/Tor
The issue here is one of priorities - new sales versus supporting existing customers who want to upgrade - because clearly Excito have the same dilemma (canibalising versus ordering spares) in order to rectify units that fail under warranty as they do in deciding whether to offer spares or upgrades.

Its understandable for a company which needs to focus on building its market (i.e. young and small) to prioritise new sales. As the user base builds their priorities will shift and they'll need to focus more on the existing user base, both for reputation and also because there's money to be made there too!

Mark
theWebalyst.com
ubbe
Posts: 40
Joined: 09 May 2009, 01:17

Re: Announcing B3

Post by ubbe »

Sounds good.
I will wait for your annoncment ;-)
asparak
Posts: 173
Joined: 08 Jun 2009, 07:38

Re: Announcing B3

Post by asparak »

Another suggestion. Even if you are not in a position to offer a Motherboard upgrade option now, how about offering your B2 customers a discounted option on a B3 with no hard drives, so that they can just swap their existing drives across to a B3 unit and get the upgrade, with minimum inconvenience to you or them?
pcrene
Posts: 305
Joined: 17 May 2008, 15:49

Re: Announcing B3

Post by pcrene »

Hello Asparak, Tor

I agree to that, and i am/was a good customer:

1x B1
2x B2
1x B Storage

Rene
B3 1T + B-Stor 2T, B2 1T as backup
40 users active....
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johannes
Posts: 1470
Joined: 31 Dec 2006, 07:12
Location: Sweden
Contact:

Re: Announcing B3

Post by johannes »

Regarding the request for upgrading to B3:

http://forum.excito.net/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=2545

/Johannes
/Johannes (Excito co-founder a long time ago, but now I'm just Johannes)
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