SmallNetBuilder

Features and Setup

The KB is essentially a developer's version of Buffalo's consumer NAS product, the Linkstation. The main hardware difference between the Linkstation and the Kuro Box is that the Kuro Box comes without a hard drive. So KB purchasers will first need to install an IDE hard drive of their choice.

Internally, the Kuro Box has a 200 Mhz PowerPC processor with 64 MB of RAM and 4 MB of flash running a Linux 2.4.17 kernel, and sports a single USB 2.0 port and one 10/100 Ethernet port. Kernel developers will be happy to learn that there's an internal connector for a serial port that will be handy for debug and watching the boot-time messages. A small fan is used to keep the box cool.

Setup of the box is a bit different than a product one would pluck off the shelf at the local discounter. Following the PDF instructions downloaded from the Kuro Box web site, the box has to be almost totally disassembled in order to install the hard drive. Also note that in order to keep the device as small as possible, the disk is a tight fit in the box.

Figure 2: Kuro Box exposed!
(click on the image for a larger view)

To show you what I mean, Figure 2 shows the KB with one of its covers removed. In order to reach the hard drive, you need to flip up the circuit board and remove the metal bracket clearly shown in Figure 3. The hard drive (which is unfortunately black so doesn't show well) is nestled under the bracket.

Figure 3: The unfolded view
(click on the image for a larger view)

The result is that it takes a little bit of effort to get everything in the right place, but this shouldn't be a problem for anyone attracted to a do-it-yourself box like this one. Once the drive is installed, the box can be plugged into your local network and is ready for initialization.