NSLU2 Update

After the previous post on my NSLU2’s mysterious demise, I spent a few days considering further options and gathering feedback.

Among a few charitable offers to replace the little critter, I got a few suggestions regarding replacement hardware - mostly stuff you can find listed at NAS Central, but since I have no real need for a NAS¹, none of it seemed quite right (although I was quite taken with the simplicity and power of some gadgets - like the QNAP TS-219, for instance).

An interesting alternative I’d like to single out (since it’s dirt cheap) is the Iomega iConnect, for which a fellow countryman is making available kernel and module binaries for running Debian².

Nevertheless, I was able to get both my NSLU2 going again by the rather simple (and very cheap) expedient of ordering a couple of new PSUs from eBay - which showed up a few days after I established (via a loaner) that it was the PSUs in fact which were (again, mysteriously) at fault.

I reinstalled Debian on a new USB stick (always a good idea to reset environments now and then, and this guide makes it a snap), mothballed the spare unit, and everything seems to be OK again.