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Wyse Dx0Q (5020): Linux 

Overview

Anders: Various points

Applications

Here are some descriptions of what others have been up to with their Dx0Q.

Ammon: File Server
Daniel: File Server
Simon: MythTV
Steve: File Server
Craig: Media Server
Krzysztof: pfSense firewall

In December 2020 I heard from Anders:

I recently got a dirt cheap Dx0Q thin client on eBay, and came across this site. I have put the thin client to good use, using it simultaneously as my main PC and as a software receiver for Airplay audio (using shairport-sync). It has been up and running for around a month as of now. Here is a collection of observations and idiosyncrasies that I've come across:

  • The Dx0Q supports hardware virtualization (though not for direct-IO). There is no setting in the BIOS to enable/disable this; it's always enabled.
  • The Dx0Q's documentation states that it supports up to 8GB RAM, but I have 12GB in mine and everything still works, with all 12GB recognized by the BIOS and my OSes.
    [David: Manufacturers' max figures reflect their configured product offerings. This usually does not match the ultimate capability of the underlying hardware]
  • The 240GB variant of the Sandisk SSD Plus, once out of its housing, also fits into the SATA DOM slot and works.
  • The iGPU in the Dx0Q isn't very powerful and it doesn't have hardware-accelerated decoding of many video codecs. Therefore, in order to watch YouTube without maxing the CPU, an extension such as h264ify needs to be installed. Even with this installed and hardware-acceleration enabled, video above 720p doesn't look very fluid.
  • When running Windows 10, performance can be increased by selecting the "Maximum Performance" power-management plan.
  • Sometimes, the BIOS settings screen becomes inaccessible, though the boot menu always works. So far, I have not figured out exactly what triggers this, but if this happens, it can be fixed by either resetting BIOS settings using the jumper inside, or by booting into a *nix-based OS and using the dd command to zero out /dev/nvram. From there, the BIOS settings become accessible again, and can be set to what they were with the appropriate changes. After saving and exiting the BIOS settings, the setup page then becomes inaccessible again. This bug was present on the 1.x BIOS version that my unit shipped with, as well as the 2.0G version that I updated to. It's not too much of an issue, as the BIOS settings are simple and easy to remember.

All in all, the Dx0Q is surprisingly powerful and makes a good, potentially-cheaper alternative to the Raspberry Pi series for basic general computing uses. It has the advantages of being fully supported by Windows 10 Pro and recent versions of Ubuntu, as well as coming with a case and not relying on microSD cards for running the OS.

 


Any comments? email me. Added December 2020