Various details on Ultra 4

fastfwd wrote:
repvik wrote: I'm going to see if I can find a USB header cable and get the port working. It'll just be another USB port, nothing special. You can get the same effect by plugging a hub into one of the existing ports.

I'm not expecting it to be "special". But I'm hoping for an internal USB port, since there's enough room to store a USB stick there - allowing me to keep a complete and full-featured OS off of the RAID. And that without having something external that my kid can yank out at any given time. I could remove one of the external ones and solder wires on, but that'd be ugly.

fastfwd wrote:
repvik wrote: If not, I guess I'll have to trace the pins and see if there are any resistors missing (which seems to be a pretty common way to disable usb headers on production boards). It's not exactly a way to "disable" the header; if the pulldown resistors are missing, it's because they're unnecessary when the USB connector is missing.

Imprecise, sorry. English isn't my first language. It's pretty common for the pulldowns to be missing when the headers are missing, but not always. I'm hoping they're still there, since soldering on the tiny buggers can be a bit of a pain.

fastfwd wrote:

repvik wrote: A VGA cable has been ordered, crossing my fingers that that'll work. That'll make more of a difference than the USB port. If the necessary components behind the VGA header are present, you'll be able to attach a monitor and a USB keyboard to change BIOS settings. But I think you can do that with the serial port, too, so if it were me, I'd probably start with the serial port only. If you can use it to get into the BIOS settings, there's no need to solder a VGA header onto the board.

There is no need, strictly speaking. But I'm going to try because I can. It does make it a tad easier to install and debug issues with a custom OS however.