Green Tech Girl

As I’ll probably say here 100 times, it is much better to rescue an old computer and make it useful than to simply toss it out into the garbage. Linux makes this easy - er, well, kind of easy, depending on the distribution and your tolerance for troubleshooting. While more and more Linux versions are requiring more and more computing power, thankfully, not all of them suffer from the never ending quest for software progress.

Puppy Linux is one of the lean, mean Linux distributions specifically designed to work well on older as well as newer hardware. There’s an extremely small version without a lot of added software, and a more “bloated” version that includes Seamonkey browser and email suite.

I read with some amusement the CherryPal review over at TG Daily - the author’s biggest gripe was that she felt the CherryPal was really ugly because the ports faced in front. (Turns out, the direction of the cherry logo confused her, which is funny to me because I never even noticed the logo’s direction. I just set up the box with the ports facing back. Big deal!) There was also a complaint about the box seeming “flimsy,” which is not my experience whatsoever. And, oh, horror, there’s no CD/DVD drive!

Such reviews are truly missing the point of the CherryPal, which was conceived to be a low-power green computer that did not require moving parts or fans. Let’s just try to envision the world in maybe as little as five years, where DVDs are becoming obsolete with the increased use of digital downloads and flash drives. Let’s look ahead to a time where electricity costs are increasing due to increased power consumption and lowered reserves of natural gas. Perhaps at that time, a small desktop computer that consumes only 2 watts and doesn’t need a DVD drive would be ideal? Perhaps. (more…)

It’s kind of funny to me that there are actually computer conspiracy theorists out there who think the CherryPal really doesn’t exist and those of us reviewing it are making it all up because we don’t have actual video of the computer in action. Well, pardon me, but I don’t have a video camera - I’m a writer, not a cinematographer! (I’m a doctor, not a mechanic, Jim!)

The CherryPal is slowing getting shipped out to those “on the list” - whether Brand Angels or those ordering the machine. There have been some other reports of glitches - people not being able to login or other bugs. Most people who get one seem to have no problem with it out of the box, fortunately, but this is definitely a machine that has some kinks to be worked out.

My thoughts on the CherryPal upon further use:

Pros: I love how absolutely quiet the machine is. I love the small footprint and the “green” aspect of saving on electricity. I love having a no-nonsense Linux box without hassling with Windows or a lot of bloatware. So on the whole, I’m really hoping that we see more machines like this in the future.

Cons: The CPU is woefully underpowered for the software. Upon testing, I discovered that the CPU often runs at about 100% just to load a large web page. Really complicated web pages can freeze the machine, even when using a leaner browse such as Epiphany. I have yet to test video on the box, but I’m not hopeful what with the current performance. I’m wondering why they went with Xubuntu as the OS instead of a more optimized Linux distro such as Puppy Linux.

Given the limitations of the CPU, I would not be able to replace my regular computers with the CherryPal at this time. I do plan on using the CherryPal, however, for writing and checking online email. I often leave my computer on all day as I like to go back and forth from the computer, and I’d much rather leave on the low-powered CherryPal than my laptop, so I don’t burn out the laptop earlier than I need to.

As for a cheap computer, though, it might be better to get an old computer and put Linux on it. I have a Pentium III I run Linux on. I just put Puppy on it and it is 10x faster than my CherryPal.

So if you want a second machine to save power with, the CherryPal might be a good option. It is not a replacement for a full-powered desktop just yet.

I’ve managed to “unbrick” my CherryPal - hurrah! - but it’s still not out of the woods yet. As I mentioned in my last post, I had tried the reset hole on the bottom of the machine, but it did not seem to do anything. Then Max Seybold told me to try the reset hole on the CherryPal boards, not knowing I’d already tried it. So I decided to try it again. Ah! There is a trick to it. I have discovered the secret of the CherryPal reset hole. Here it is:

Using a paperclip, push down in the hole right when you turn the machine on. Hold it there until you start seeing a bunch of boot-up information appear on the screen. This installs the Linux recovery firmware in the box.

For some reason, my machine hangs when “inetd” is being started, but if you press CTRL-C you will get to a prompt. This is not your actual CherryPal filesystem. It is a virtual filesystem and any changes you make to it will disappear when you reboot. There is a huge lost+found folder in there that obviously has the CherryPal data on it, but it’s inaccessible.

In order to rescue your CherryPal, you must mount the flash drive onto your virtual filesytem. Follow these commands:

mkdir /mnt/hda1
mount -t ext3 /dev/hda1 /mnt/hda1

Then you can go into the /mnt/hda1 directory and make any changes as necessary. PLEASE BE CAREFUL, because deleting anything important here will ruin your operating system!

(Note: When finished with your edits, you might want to unmount your drive manually to be on the safe side, so before rebooting, type in: umount /dev/hda1)

I discovered that in trying to add a new CherryPal user with the graphical interface, somehow my entire passwd file got hosed. The gdm user had been deleted, which is why I could not login. I manually entered in a gdm user (copying what was in my passwd, shadow, and group files from a Mint installation on my laptop). I rebooted and voila! I was able to login and see my CherryPal desktop again.

Unfortunately, I still have some clean-up to do. I only added the gdm user during my rescue and apparently all the users were hosed, including those automatic users that run important things like networking. Additionally, my default limeos user now no longer has sudo priveleges so I can’t make any changes to anything. I am going to go back into the failsafe Linux (using the reset hole) to manually reconstruct my passwd, shadow, and group files following what’s in my laptop Linux files. This may be painstaking but it should fix things. I’ll post an update when I have it all working again.

Moral of the story: Do not add users to CherryPal using the graphical interface!

UPDATE: I asked for copies of the default passwd, group, and shadow files on the CherryPal Ning boards. A kindly Brand Angel posted them and I used them to reconstruct my default files. Everything is working again. Phew! I am actually typing this update from my CherryPal.

Well, not one day into it and I managed to brick my CherryPal. (For those of you who aren’t in the know on the slang, that means, I’ve broken the machine and turned it into a “brick.”) I am pretty good at exposing any vulnerabilities in a Linux distro in my first day or two of use - without meaning to. It’s a special talent I have. This is potentially a major bug, and CherryPal users should be warned about it, until they have a solution for it. (more…)

Yes, believe it or not, I am typing this from an actual CherryPal computer. It arrived today in a small black box similar in style and size to a classic iPod box. It is extremely small! The carefully folded CherryPal t-shirt took up most of the box. There is supposed to be a single sheet of directions (to save on paper) but I did not receive any with my package. Fortunately, I had gotten an email from CherryPal telling me how to login.

The CherryPal machine itself is super small and compact. It could have been a PDA circa 1995. (Remember the Apple Newtons?) It has two USB ports, a monitor port, and a headphone/speaker output. (Alas, no line-in or microphone input.) No CD/DVD or any other extras (this is, after all, supposed to be a lean, mean green machine).

When you first plug in the machine, a somewhat unfriendly looking login prompt greets you. This is where it’s helpful to have the email that tells you what the login is! Once logged in, you are greeted by a very plain Linux desktop. This is a apparently a specially-built Xubuntu distribution, which uses the lightweight Xfce desktop. The background is just a plain blue. Given the cute CherryPal packaging on the box and the machine itself, it would have been nice to carry that theme over to the desktop (a small wallpaper graphic would not have sacrificed too much disk space), but it’s not a deal-breaker. I’ll put my own background on there soon enough.

I immediately tried to break the machine by using not only a USB hub but a wireless mouse. The USB hub works fine; the wireless mouse does not. I have heard other reports that wireless mice and keyboards do not fare well with the CherryPal, so be forewarned. Perhaps there’s a setting or something; we shall see.

What did work right out of the box was the wi-fi. I immediately got the machine to recognize my wireless network and it connected very easily. I have to say, after fiddling with wi-fi on my various Linux laptops with much pain and grief involved, this was nothing short of miraculous to me. Score one for the CherryPal.

Using a USB hub, I was actually able to plug-in my digital camera and download the photos I just took of my new CherryPal onto the CherryPal. The operating system mounted the digital camera automatically and I was able to move the photos over manually. Not bad.

I have yet to try out any of the installed applications other than Firefox, but a good assortment of software is preinstalled, including Firefox (obviously), games, and a word processor. As with the Xubuntu distribution, AbiWord is the word processor provided and not OpenOffice.org’s word processor (my preference), but maybe I’ll give good ole AbiWord a try for once.

Firefox appears to be a bit slow on the CherryPal. I’m not sure if that’s my Internet connection or the memory that Firefox can take up. Some pages I’ve tried have been excrutiating to load. I’ll probably install another browser to see if it’s Firefox that’s being a memory hog: I find myself using Seamonkey on my Linux machines more often than Firefox lately due to the bloat. Firefox, for whatever the reason, is just not as good on Linux as it is on Windows.

I have yet to see any evidence of the “cloud computing” advertised with the CherryPal, but perhaps I’ll find out more about that later. One thing I was happy to see installed was the Synaptic Package Manager, which means I can easily install most open source software with the click of a button. With a Linux box, 8 gigs is more than enough to install most needed programs and still have some space left over for basic documents.

One thing I will say for the CherryPal - it sure is quiet. Quiet, as in, completely quiet. No moving parts really does mean it’s a silent machine. That may not mean much to some, but I’m one of those strange finicky people when it comes to noise. I have an Acer laptop with an insanely loud fan that likes to turn the laptop into a mini washing machine at times. I truly love the silence of the CherryPal. It’s so much more peaceful.

Well, those are my first impressions. I’ll be posting more here as I go along. If you are willing to plunk money down for a CherryPal, knowing that the company is still a bit unstable and the machine may still have some kinks, you can order one here. Use my promo code CPP235 to get $10 off the purchase price.

P.S. Just as I was getting ready to upload this article, my monitor turned all purple, and I can barely see the desktop with strange bands of darker purple blocking much of the screen. I’m wondering if it’s an issue with my monitor or the CherryPal, or combination of the two: Perhaps my monitor doesn’t like the low power output of the CherryPal. I’ll reboot and post an update soon. Update: Rebooting the machine did not fix the monitor, but unplugging it did. We’ll see if it happens again.

The most enthusiastic CherryPal Brand Angel happens to live close to the offices and she did, in fact, receive her CherryPal green computer today. Alas, despite months of waiting, she was completely unprepared and did not have her USB mouse and keyboard ready to go. (Really? I’m getting rid of my old serial versions since new laptops don’t have ports for them.) Apparently, these CherryPals are really, really small. This is great because my desk is cluttered.

I’m still waiting to receive my CherryPal to review for this blog. Two days ago, I got an email from someone over at CherryPal telling me they’d ship yesterday but needed to confirm my address. I sent my address to them immediately but yesterday heard nothing. No tracking number, no shipment, nothing. Apparently a few other CherryPal Brand Angels have gotten tracking numbers, so some machines have apparently shipped. I’m sorry I was not one of them - I really wanted to see the darn computer after all this time!

Sadly, there are still quite a few angry people over the whole CherryPal debacle, including some folks who claimed they paid for one and never received it or got a refund. We shall see if CherryPal can recover.

Update, 11:40 am PST: I have just received notification from UPS that CherryPal has sent package information to them. I have a tracking number, but the package has not yet been received by UPS so it’s not out for delivery yet. Assuming that all goes well, my scheduled delivery is Friday, December 5. Fingers crossed!

It’s really bad news for a start-up when the press starts writing articles titled: “World hunts CherryPal cloud PC chimera - Have you seen the 2 watt mini machine?” And indeed, the much vaunted CherryPal has yet to materialize. It was flaunted as a green computer taking up only 2 watts of power. It was designed as cloud computer with applications served from the Internet.

I had signed up as a CherryPal Brand Angel, as I wanted to review the computer for this blog. I was excited at the prospect of a Linux-based mini-computer for the masses. Almost six months later, I still do not have the CherryPal that was promised to me back in June. The staff appears to have disappeared. The founder, Max Seybold, has only recently started to communicate with the Brand Angels, many of whom are in active revolt. We were promised that the CherryPals would be shipped on election day (this, after many delays), only to be told recently that they’d be shipped on December 2.

Max complains that an investor pulled out at the last minute leaving him high and dry; however, given that he’s actually asked for mini-investments of only $3,000, I have to wonder if he’s really going after a big enough prize. The company is obviously underfunded. A measly few grand isn’t needed; try a few million.

I would really like CherryPal to suceed, so I am not trying to spread negative rumor just to be unproductive here. But it appears to me that the company will not get off the ground unless someone bites the bullet and gives CherryPal the infusion of cash and talent needed to get it off the ground. This means real investors who will not only put in money but also help create a company structure with good business people running the show.

If CherryPal does manage to make it, perhaps it will be because some forward-thinking company will buy out the company and its fledging product.

As for me, I am not holding my breath any longer for a CherryPal, but if one does magically arrive on my doorstep, I will be happy to give it a fair and honest review. Waiting…

I was fortunate enough to have the opportunity to become a brand angel for the new CherryPal green computer, which will be released within a few weeks. It needs only 2 watts of power, and runs on a flash drive without any moving parts. Linux is the operating system, and many of the apps will be available via free “cloud” computing online.

I will be getting my CherryPal to review soon, at which point I am going to run the computer through the motions to see how well it does. (The nice thing about being a brand angel is that they aren’t censoring honest opinion, though there is a financial incentive to write positive things, since we get a small referral bonus for the use of our promo codes. Rest assured, if I hated it, I would not promote it regardless.)

The CherryPal will be for sale on their website soon - use my promo code CPP235 to receive a discount on your purchase.