USB NAS, Snake OS and Linux

DealExtreme NAS is based on STR8100 processor which is an ARM architecture capable to run Linux. This processor is used in cheap USB NAS servers which is available on ebay for nearly $40 and due to Linux usage it is capable to do a lot of things.

NS-K330: USB LAN NAS device

I've bought NS-K330 device which is very similar to WLX-652 (beware of WLX-651, it is not in fact Linux device, see http://groups.google.com/group/dealextreme-nas-/msg/e1b1b021f05e9142? for more info). It has 30 MB of RAM, 250 MHz processor and without connected USB drive it consumes ~3 watts. With an USB HDD powered only by USB (NS-K330 is capable) it takes approximately 5W. It's fan-less, so completely silent.

Snake OS (1.0 version) is an alternative firmware for NS-K330 and WLX-652 devices. Currently it is based on Linux kernel 2.6.16, using BusyBox and containing a lot of services. For file access there is FTP and Samba daemons. To access into device SSH or web interface written in cgi-bin can be used. It allows to download torrents by Transmission client (by using its web interface). The problem with a lack of memory is partially solved by swap file which can be created on connected HDD or flash disk. If you are able to compile sources into ARM platform you can run almost anything on it.

This low-power device is cheap and capable of lot of things. I'm going to publish here my experiences with it as I'll get them.