RapidDisk LX is currently a custom ARM-based Linux distribution built entirely out of source and inspired by the Cross Linux From Scratch project. Its main and only purpose is to provide RapidDisk functionality as a SCSI Target over a Storage Area Network (SAN). RapidDisk LX is an OIN® Licensee.

RapidDisk LX is not designed to offer many features outside of acting as a RapidDisk enabled target. The image size will always be kept relatively small (currently it is at approximately 10 MBytes). The first official stable release will be designed to export as a target via iSCSI. Currently I am building it for the BeagleBoard-xM, in the near future the image will be ported to x86_64 hardware platform too. Available today, a stable image has been built for and tested in QEMU.

3 September, 2012 - You can now download a limited build of RapidDisk LX 1.1a for the BeagleBoard-xM here. Note that I will finish uploading the open source packages & patches used during the following week.

23 August, 2012 - I just introduced a new package (DrvAdm) for drive management and added a link to a new video [showcasing some functionality of DrvAdm.

23 May, 2012 - You can check out a video I posted of the first test build of RapidDisk LX 1.1a running on the BeagleBoard-xM here. As soon as I have completed testing, I will upload and post all updated packages used to build the distro.

30 April, 2012 - A new image has been released with updates to the rxdsk/rxcache patch and the rxadm administration utility. You can obtain the image here.

29 April, 2012 - As a result of the delays in producing, certifying, and distributing the Raspberry Pi boards, I will not being seeing the one I ordered until August. So instead of sitting on RxLX and waiting for my board to show up to release a stable image for the hardware platform, I decided to order a BeagleBoard-xM and start working with that, and when my RPi eventually shows up, I will get to work on porting my stable image to it.

Log in as root and execute passwd. You will be prompted to enter your password twice.

Primarily because I never build useradd in busybox. This is not meant to be a multi-user distribution. But if you are in desperate need to add a new user, you can always modify the /etc/passwd and /etc/group files and manually add what you need, then modify the newly added user's password with the passwd command followed by the new user ID.

As stated above, this distribution serves one and only purpose; that is, to provide a RapidDisk enabled environment over a SAN as a SCSI Target.

To simplify the creation of an iSCSI Qualifying Name or IQN which conforms to the iSCSI name formats, I created a basic script to randomly generate a new address at each invocation. It is located at /opt/rxlx/iqn-gen.sh. You will need to use this when you define your iSCSI target(s).

 # sh /opt/rxlx/iqn-gen.sh 
  iqn.2012.04.org.rapiddisk:rxlx0001.target-21cc0f05

After you insert the iSCSI module (iscsi_trgt.ko), make sure you define your block device(s) for iSCSI target exporting, then start the service:

 # . /etc/init.d/iscsi-target start