hargoth - Have you built your own kernel or are you using one of the recent pre-made kernels?

After ntpd has set the system time, have you done this:

/sbin/hwclock --systohc

To set the hardware clock to the current System Time?

I'm not sure what you mean by "... something that will support squeezebox/VortexBox."

Do you mean something that runs Squeeze Server or something that runs softsqueeze?  ie. A server or an audio player?

If you want the plug to decode/play audio, you will need to add a USB attached audio card or USB speakers.  If you want the Plug to run Squeeze Server, it will do that; but, without the ability to trans-code.  There are threads about both of these on this site if you search.

Since the Plug doesn't have video or graphics hardware built in, you pretty much need to use a USB attached graphics card.  Some of the mini-monitors from Mimo have touch built in and have been used with a Plug.  Search this site for DisplayLink and you should be able to find a few threads about this.

I have a Plug that uses a USB attached SSD and runs Squeeze Server 24/7.  After initially struggling to get Squeeze Server installed, I haven't had any problems with this setup for ~10 months.

There is a package called SqueezePlug (http://squeezeplug.de/) that is a version of Squeeze Server on Debian that can be loaded onto a Plug.  I have not used it so have no direct experience with it.

abilash2012 - This is a Plug computer.  It has no piezo or speaker and no "beep" codes.

popon - I had problems finding my FM receiver input before.  This is one of the things the ices2 .xml file requires.   I had to look through the /proc filesystem to find the number of the input device.

Another possibility is to use sox and the stdin part of ices2 like this -

You still need to know the number of the input device, though.

Jessica - These appear to be intended to be plugged into the wall mains (AC) so why would lack of GPS be a limiting factor?  Are you thinking this would be good as a car PC?  If so, you probably want to change the power supply since going from DC to an inverter (AC) to DC would be less efficient than DC to DC.

I don't understand what you are asking in your last question.  Sorry.

Yes I have.  I've seen those on display at our local CompUSA store.  I believe that is a "Plug" in a different box with pre-defined software.  While interesting, it is not what we are discussing on this thread.

The time drift problem may be a combination of your late model plug and your kernel version.  Check this link out.

It depends.

Some of the "other installed stuff" may have dependencies on functionality and/or interfaces in your specific kernel version.  Upgrading the kernel without upgrading dependent drivers and/or libraries may cause things to break.

Having made that disclaimer, 2.6.30 (your current kernel) is not far from 2.6.32 (the kernel that supports your device) number-wise and may not have a large change in interfaces.  I don't know for certain, though.  ie. Keep a copy of your current kernel just in case you need to go back after updating.

As for upgrading the kernel, the Plug Wiki may have some entries for that.  The basic steps are: find/get the kernel you want to use, erase the area of NAND where the current kernel lives and copy the new kernel into that NAND area.  You can use u-boot to do these last two steps.

As long as you don't erase u-boot, you should be able to recover by using the same steps to put your current kernel back into the NAND.

EDIT: added link to pre-made kernels and modules

Any application that depends on unique GuruPlug functionality (BT/Wifi/2 ethernet ports/ESATA/etc.) would fail if the same functionality were not added to the original Plug.  However, as tylernt said, binaries should work across both devices since the CPUs are the same.  Again, it comes down to which applications you are talking about.

If you mean all apps that COULD be developed for the GuruPlug, the answer is no.

If you mean all apps that don't depend on specific GuruPlug hardware capabilities, the answer is yes.

Does this help? 

I don't know the answer to the original question.  Sorry.  It all sounds like it will work; but, I don't know for sure.

One idea though, once you toggle the power off/on for the USB drive, maybe you could toggle the power for the plug or enter runlevel 6 to make it reboot?  This would let the standard initialization processing/scripts take care of mounting drives and re-starting the other processes.  Just an idea.

I have been using a USB attached SSD boot/root drive for ~6 months without trouble.  This plug streams audio (SqueezeServer) 24/7 on my home network.  It has reset twice in those 6 months due to power outages; but, has come back up OK both times.  I believe this is because it is a UPS aware (using NUT) device and does an orderly shutdown before losing power completely.

Or ARM 11 or a multi-core Cortex-A9.
Except the version we are talking about has an HDMI port (for digital video and audio).  This implies it could output directly to an HDTV and could make use of a relatively complete OS (including a UI).  I would rather run an Android mid build on this than Ubuntu; but, I can't seem to find out if the integrated graphics support OpenGL ES acceleration.

12 sec/minute is extreme.
Did you install a new kernel or build your own?
Are you running NTPD?

EDIT: Take a look at this thread: http://plugcomputer.org/plugforum/index.php?topic=2002

Does the graphics part of the chipset support OpenGL ES acceleration?  ie. Can I run Android 2.x (mid, not phone) on it with a touch screen?

The Marvell 88F6281 SOC (which is in all the plugs at this point) has hardware-based Cryptographic Engines and a Security
Accelerator.  The hardware does NOT support every encryption algorithm.  Marvell has provided Linux driver(s) to support the hardware and these drivers are in the main Linux tree.  The drivers expose the hardware based algorithms.

It is now a question of whether the software you want to run will use the driver(s) that Marvell has provided.

For more about the hardware, take a look at this document: http://www.marvell.com/products/processors/embedded/kirkwood/FS_88F6180_9x_6281_OpenSource.pdf

Plug (classic and Guru) warts:
- The ARM processor in the plug has no floating point hardware so it can get overwhelmed if asked to do math intensive tasks.
- The Classic plug and non-plus GuruPlug only have USB for attaching mass storage.  I'm getting the Plus for the ESATA port.
- The non-plus GuruPlug comes without a SD slot.
- The already announced plugs will not be PowerPC-based.  They will be ARM based.

Once configured, plugs can serve files easily and well.  Configuring it as a web server might let you get to your data without worrying about the company's firewall settings.  However, you would need to routinely empty your local web cache and use encryption to protect from having your data snooped.

I agree with obarthelemy, a better solution would be to find a different way to access your data not using the company's equipment.