i am looking to build/buy either a SFF (like shuttle) or buy a Mini-ITX board and put together a machine. I was looking at the Shuttle SB65G2 because of the built in wireless but dont know if it is supported under linux. Do any of you have this machine...or one like it that runs linux? If anybody can give me some insight on this subject that would be great.

This machine will be built into a router/firewall/access point and maybe some day into an email/web server. I want to keep a very small footprint and be quiet. If anybody has a better machine for me then a SFF go ahead a throw it in with a link and i'll check it out.

Thanks,

Ty

the form factor is just how it looks (size, shape, etc...), what really influences linux compatability is the chipset, most of the recent motherboard chipsets are supported.

about the built in wireless, if its a prism2 chipset you can use the linux-wlan drivers. but if not, then you could try using ndiswrapper which can convert windows wlan drivers into linux wlan drivers. (although it doesnt work 100% of the time), also the converted drivers cant be used to put it into the mode that allows it to run as a server, you have to have a prism2 chipset card to run a wireless server.

post the chipsets of the MoBos you are looking at and we can help you a little more, but for the record; form factor makes no difference to linux, its all about the chipsets.

I've got a Shuttle SN45G with an Athlon 2500+, 512RAM, and an 80G WD drive, running Suse 9.1. I don't use wireless, so I can't comment on that, but this is a great little box. Its expansion options are limited (by definition, obviously) but it's very well designed, with USB and sound ports on both the front and back panels. It's quiet, and runs cool (approx 110 degrees F, approx 42 C) but I'm not OC'ing it either.

In any event, I'd give a big thumbs up to Shuttle. Just my 2 cents -- J.W.

Ok, this is what i am looking into at the moment.

Shuttle XPC SB52G2 (http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProduc...101-409&depa=1)

Specifications:
CPU Support: Intel Pentium 4/Celeron (Socket 478, Max.FSB 533)
Chipsets: Intel 845GV + ICH4
Graphics: Build in Intel 845GV
Audio: AC '97 v2.2 compliant
LAN: Intel 540EM GbE LAN, Intel 551QM 10/100 LAN


This one doesn't have wireless built in, but i have an extra prism2 card that im going to stick a bigger antenna on and use instead...but there goes my PCI slot...i think i'll live though.

How are the chipset and LAN ports on this for linux? will they work?

I'm using a different model than you are, and so I'm using an nVidia chipset -- I have no idea how the Intel may behave, but at least in my experience, I am highly impressed with the Shuttle boxes in general. The LAN port is in the back, and under Slack (running a 2.4.x kernel) I could use the onboard LAN, no problem.

Just FYI, I wanted to try running Suse on this machine, and because I wanted to download the install tree from a Suse mirror to my local disk, I was using the Suse 9.1 boot.iso CD to launch the process. The default 9.1 boot CD evidently does not support the nvidia chipset by default, nor are there any loadable modules for it, but luckily I had a spare 3Com NIC that I could plug into the PCI slot. The boot CD does allow you to load the 3Com 3c59x driver (which is what I needed for that card), and that permitted me to kick off the download. As a result, I've left the 3Com NIC in the box, even though I realize that the forcedeth module (which supports nvidia) is present in the 2.6.x kernel.

Anyhow, the small form factor box is really really cool, and I likewise purchased mine from Newegg. All I can say is I'm stoked about it. Good luck with whatever your decision turns out to be -- J.W.