On Wed, Sep 28, 2022 at 14:27:48 +0000, Mikolaj Kucharski wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I'm looking for something similar like PC Engines APU board. Preferably
> 4 network cards, 4GB of RAM, low power consumption, no graphic card,
> serial console access, suitable for wired and Wi-Fi and/or LTE router,
> based on OpenBSD.
>
> To give you an example, I have or had in the past, PC Engines with
> OpenBSD as:
>
> - plain simple Ethernet router
> - fiber + Ethernet router
> - Wi-Fi access point via Ethernet uplink
> - Wi-Fi access point via LTE modem uplink
> - WireGuard, OpenVPN endpoint
> - DNS, DHCP, TFTP and PXE server
> - print server and scanner via CUPS and SANE
> - HTTP server, plus some automation daemons
>
> Very typical stuff, nothing unusual I would say. I usually duplicate
> above setups in various locations, like family house, relatives, and my
> own place, but.. I run out of simple and reliable hardware to run it on,
> hence this post. I don't want to run full blown PC, because of
> electricity consumption and graphic card. In case of kernel panic() I
> want to have a system with serial console, by design on motherboard,
> not something additional.
>
> From architecture perspective I think most practical is amd64, but maybe
> well supported arm64 would do. If you want to put RPi in the picture, I
> don't think about it, as it has only one Ethernet interface.
It's more expensive than anything you'll get from PC Engines, but I have
a Protectli VP2410 which meets your requirements for just about
everything except wireless. It's a fanless amd64 board with four em(4)
network cards. It has video out, but also has a serial port[1]. You can
configure it with with up to 16 GB RAM, 8 GB onboard eMMC, and it
supports coreboot. I've been using it as my home router and it's been an
absolute delight to work with. OpenBSD 7.1 runs without any issue on it
(standard and boring boot from USB drive to install on the onboard
eMMC), and I forget it exists unless I'm doing something on it.
Their site says that BSD OSs don't support the wifi module they have,
and as I prefer to use ax anyway, I didn't test this statement. There
is an option for a 4G LTE modem, but again I haven't tested it.
[1] While the machine does have a serial port, it only supports Linux
and Windows for connections due to driver issues. I can understand this
being a significant drawback, but it works fine for me as I have a Linux
workstation right next to it that I have permanently connected to the
router in case I lock myself out with PF or something else goes wrong.
--
Cheers,
luna
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