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ACNS (Linux) hacks?

I have a couple of older CE-560 units with ACNS 5.3 on them. Previous versions of ACNS, from what I have been told, had an actual linux command line capabilities. In the version I have now these seem to only allow Cisco proprietary commands.

Here is my question. Does anyone know of a method to maybe use these devices to run something other than the ACNS software? I was thinking that if I was able to install either Linux or FreeBSD I could use these as a firewall, Snort IDS, and even better a network attached storage units. I see opening up the units there is 1 PCI slot, and what appears to be an IDE connector, although I have yet to really take a closer look to see if anything can in fact be used.

Basically can these units have a dual-use? I know some Linksys wifi routers are popular because people have been able to install Linux. But before I possibly waste a lot of time I would like to know first if I will be going on a pointless adventure.

Reply to
George
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I have a 507 collecting dust in the garage, i hope i can find the time one of these days to do similar experiments

Reply to
Joop van der Velden

I will let you know what I find out this weekend when I get the time to thoroughly play around with this. Someone did mention to be something about the need to bypass the flash component, but sadly they were not specific and I have not been able to gather any more info. I do see however that in the Symbios you can select whether to boot into the flash, as well as select the boot device. Whether I can get this to boot to say a IDE CD-ROM is another thing though. I might also try just putting a boot image on a drive and then inserting that. If I can get that far I could at least do a network/ftp install.

I am really interested to see if I can get FreeNAS installed

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or possibly something like Endian or m0n0wall firewalls on.

Reply to
George

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