Re: [gentoo-user] OT: PC as USB client

[Alex Schuster <wonko@wonkology.org>]

Stroller has a cool idea:

> On 16 Oct 2009, at 12:58, Alex Schuster wrote:

[I want a Linux PC to act as USB mass storage device]

> The hack that springs to mind is to see if you can pick up an Openmoko
> Freerunner with a broken screen. I'd guess you might be able to pick
> one up for as little as $50 or so. It needs no SIM - you just connect
> it to your office wifi instead, configure it to act as a mass storage
> device and share the appropriate directory by Samba or NFS or whatever.
> 
> http://wiki.openmoko.org/wiki/Using_the_Neo_as_an_USB_Mass_storage_device

Hey, this is a great idea! I'd never have thought about this.

> Configuring the device to boot up and automagically load the mass
> storage device kernel module - instead of the USB networking one,
> which is default - could be a bit tricky with a broken screen. But I
> doubt if you want to spend $200 on this, and I think that's about the
> going rate on a brand new Freerunner. 

Well, even $200 might be okay. I need this for a commercial project anyway, 
and I guess the customer would be happy not to have to move around USB 
sticks.

But even better, I guess already have such a thing! My girl-friend got one a 
year ago, but was not happy with it. I just uses too much energy, has to be 
recharged every day. And there is some bug, when the battery is completely 
dead, it cannot be recharged - the moko needs another battery to start, then 
it can be exchanged with the dead one and recharged.
Maybe there is s newer software, she hasn't looked for that for a while. And 
I thought the project is about dead anyway, but that may also be completely 
wrong. Anyway, the device would be already here, so I can play around with 
it.


> I do feel this is kinda a clumsy suggestion, to use a relatively
> expensive mobile phone - and such little of its functionality - for
> such an ostensibly-simple task.

Clumsy, but also geeky :)  I like it.

> There must be other Linux-based
> devices which will pretend to be mass storage devices, and I wouldn't
> be at all surprised if some of them were quite cheap and readily
> available. But I have no idea what they might be.

There are many Linux-based handhelds or MP3 players, but I did not find such 
thing as a PCI card with USB peripheral hardware. At least now I know that 
an normal PC just cannot be a peripheral, its USB controller can work in 
host mode only.

Thanks again!

	Wonko