Kurowiki News

KuroBox Pro documents pre-releaseed
Kurobox Pro US release delayed until May. But in the meantime......

Revolution has provided some documentation on the Kurobox Pro. This is preliminary documentation so translation errors may be fixed but the detail is good.
 * 1) KuroboxPro User's Guide in English
 * 2) Kurobox Pro specification document
 * 3) Kurobox Pro microprocessor interface specifications

KuroBox Pro pre-announced
The Kurobox Pro will be available in the US soon. It has been confirmed that Revolution will be selling Kurobox Pros and hopefully accepting orders in April. The Kurobox Pro has been extremely popular in Japan since it was released this year. Hopefully the rest of us will get to play soon! Here is a quick spec of the hardware: http://akihabaranews.com/en/en/news-13302-Kuro-Box+PRO,+the+small+Linux+server.html

And yes the PCI-Express 1X slot WILL drive a video card or disk controller!

In related news
And just to get ahead of the wave, the LSPros were promised BEFORE this next entry.

Revolution apologizes for Contest
Due to some internal upheaval in and around Revolution, the contest was never fulfilled by Revolution They have sincerely apologized for the botched contest. After hearing that we provided prizes to the winners, Revolution has sent me some Linkstation Pros for a new contest. Stand by...

Revolution Bails on Contest
It's official. We've given up on trying to get a response from the organizer of the Kurobox Contests. John Causey hasn't responded to multiple voice messages, emails, and even a message through one of his employees; although, he did respond to an email regarding a Kurobox order. More than 8 weeks without a response from anybody at Revolution. What can I say except that Buffalo Linkstation products are almost identical hardware and come with a 250 GB drive for not much more than a Kurobox without the drive and once flashed with a telnet enabled firmware, are indistinguishable from a Kurobox save for the color of the case.

Revolution Missing in Action?
Or is that inaction? We haven't heard from anyone at Revolution since the last contest closed on November 20, 2006. Not only have no results been posted for the contest, but Linuxnotincluded has not received his Terastation Pro which was offered up by Revolution for winning the U-Boot bounty. Could it be that with Buffalo moving to the ARM based devices for their Linkstation Pro and Terastation Pro (and discontinuing most of the PPC based devices that Buffalo now has no need for Revolution?

More agressive forum spam control
We've been receiving about 20 spam postings in the forums a day lately. I've been deleting them as fast as I can. I have also been banning IP addresses associated with spam. It hasn't worked as well as I had hoped so I have had to get more aggressive. I have started banning IP address ranges that appear to be associated with spam. If your IP address is wrongly banned, please send an email to dtaylor at kurobox dot com and I'll unban your address.

Sorry for any inconvenience this may cause.

Linkstation U-Boot port working on Kuro HG
Linuxnotincluded has done it again. This time he has ported U-Boot to the Kurobox HG. In fact, the same patch works with the Kurobox and Kurobox HG. This port works very well. It includes full network support and a minimal console that is controlled using the power and red buttons on the Kuro. It should also come as no surprise that this port has been submitted for the U-Boot bounty. Sylver, Timtim, and I (Dave) have been testing this port on both standard and HG versions of the Kuro Box and it has worked flawlessly. Head on over to the instruction page and give it a shot.

Linkstation U-Boot port working on Kuro Standard
I've been testing the latest port of u-boot which includes network support on my Kuro Standard. I've tested everything but the network and so far it all works. Check out the discussion at the Linkstation Forums for more information. Watch this topic closely. Although it doesn't yet work with the Kuro HG, a port to the HG would likely win the bounty as it contains network support. Even better is that the author is working on a port for the Linkstation HD-HGLAN which he believes will work on the Kuro HG.

OpenContests announced
Check out Open Contests to see the next wave of Kurobox challenge. Let's open up what we are doing for the contests and see if the world stops.

The Third Kurobox Contest Has Ended. Another Contest is Ongoing
Judging for the third contest has been completed. First place goes to Sylver's Sekuro-box, a USB video camera installation that takes photos and video and stores the files for access over the internet. This is a very cool use for a kuro. Second place goes to John's Suggested MP3 Player. For a brief description read rule 4 on the Revolution Contest page. For the unabridged version go to the contest entry's wiki page. Third place goes to leenuxg33k's Fedora Core 5 port for the Kuro Box. More operating systems means more options for you.

Check out the Contest page for information about past contests. For those of you not aware, prizes for these contests are listed at the Revolution Contest page

Kurobox Forums upgrade
On August 1st and 2nd, the Kurobox forums software was upgraded. Two upgrades were done.

1) Upgrade to phpBB 2.2.21 - Keeps us current on the security front.

2) Install a mod to remove zero posters from the memberlist. Do not be afraid that you no longer have an account. You still do it is just until you post you will not be on the memberlist. I had to do this because of the large number of spammers using our site to pump web pages. It became too time consuming to hand prune.

'''NOTE: You may need to clear your cookies to access the site. The cookie format changed in the upgrade to 2.0.21 cause SQL errors to appear until you clear cookies. Sorry for that.'''

Kurobox Bounty Claimed?
It's official. Revolution is currently evaluating one contender for the U-Boot Bounty. With a bit of Luck The Nijino bootloader will pass the evaluation and win the prize. Several of the brave Kurobox owners have used the Nijino Bootloader with success. Some have not been quite as successful due to improper installation. The good news here is that there are many JTAG cables out there to test it and some that are available for unbricking any unlucky owner's boxes.

JTAG Cables are Working
It is official. the JTAG cables described in the Building a JTAG Interface page were tested by waite on the evening of July 13. Head on over to the instruction page and start working on one for yourself. There are a limited number of kits available so if you want one, don't wait. With one of these you won't have to worry about bricking your Kuro ever again.

Finally Fedora Core 5 Available
FC5 is available to those who are brave enough to install U-Boot. Install Fedora

U-Boot 1.1.4 port available
A Japanese named Nijino has successfully ported Das U-Boot for the Kurobox architecture! This is great news for the community, and it has been made possible thanks to Revogear's bounty, and Nijino's knowledge! Check HOWTO U-Boot article for more information.

Recent Changes to the Wiki
If you want to edit any page on the wiki you must log on. Registration can be accomplished by going to the Registration and Login page Rest assured you can still read any of the information here without registering or logging in.

15 Minutes to a Gentooized Kuro
If you were thinking about installing Gentoo on your Kurobox, the process just got a whole lot faster and easier. The whole install including the emerge -uD world has been tarred up for your use. An installation and emerge uD world, which used to take a day or two can now be accomplished in very little time. Head on over to the installation instructions and see how easy it really is. Waite's automatic installer did the complete install except for the post installation tasks in about 15 minutes.

Visit the new sponsor page
The Kurobox community now has our second corporate sponsor, Sumo Computer as a thank you I have created a sponsors page where I will list the sponsors that have provided money and services to us. Every person who has contributed to the wiki, formus, or Kurobox itself is more important than the people listed on the page. You keep our community going. They money and services just help us be that much better.

Kurobox sighted at Linux World Boston
leenuxg33k had his Kurobox HG on display at the Fedora booth running Fedora Core 4. Attached to the Kurobox was a watt meter. Can you guess the watt usage on a Kurobox with a 120 Gb disk??


 * Peak: 19 Watts at boot
 * Avg: 15 Watts


 * Leenuxg33k getting tricked into an interview about Fedora
 * Spot The Kuro