raspberry PI as a data server connected via GPRS USB to the internet?

[floppy]

hello,
I am thinking about using a raspberry board a colleague will give to me:
- usb gprs modem connected to it (udev, usb_modeswitch, wvdial or pppd)
- ssh on it
- setup with text mode only (no X) for use as a data server (iptables)
Do you think this is valuable?
And: how to install TinyCoreARM on that board with my TinyCoreLinux knowledge? (I did not find any install advice in the wiki).

[bmarkus]

Most of the extensions you are referring are missing in the repo. So at the moment you must add them to your installation.

[curaga]

With the completely unreliable USB of the Pi, I wouldn't expect such a box to have a stable connection.

[bmarkus]

In 3.8.y USB behaves much better than in the early time. I have friend using Raspbian with an USB attached hard disk as a server without any problem while he is having issus with SD cards. With diofferent SD cards system is freezing frequently while no stability problems with the HD.

[bmarkus]

Just an articel you my find interesting:

How to Add USB Storage to the Raspberry Pi

[keksl22]

HI!
I see there wasn't any activity on this topic, but my question is related to that: Are there any updates on pppd?

Or are there any other tools I can use to send AT commands and get a ppp0 back for iptable calls?

Some more details:
I use Tinycore on an x86 industrial board as a small samba server & internet router for roughly 4 years now. It runs rock solid - no troubles so far. I connect to the internet using an USB UMTS dongle (HUAWEI E180) with usbserial and pppd. There are two files i copy to /etc/ppp/peers/
one for chat and the other for ppp. ETH0 is my network card towards the Windows and Linux Clients, iptable scripts filter for allowed clients and ports, etc.

Now I'd like to exchange that box with RPI running piCore with SSH for maintenance etc. I downloaded several TCZ extensions, piCore happily detects the HUAWEI E180 and creates the /dev/ttyUSB0...ttyUSB2 entries. I can send AT commands using microcom. So far no troubles during detection.

But how to continue? Do you have any tool names that are available in the repository (did not see a "pppd" extension...)

Any help highly appreciated!

** Thanks folks!  TinyCore and piCore is so much fun!

cheers,
Axel

[bmarkus]

I can add pppd if you are ready to test it, as I do not have hw to play with.

[keksl22]

Great news!
Yes, of course, I'm happy to test it! I have everything in place!   

[keksl22]

Hi bmarkus,

any news about the pppd? How's it going?

Thanks!