Measuring high-speed network performance with CubieTruck
Truckin'

© Lead Image © Konstantin-Sutyagin, 123RF.com
The CubieTruck small-board PC is a measuring instrument that copes well with Gigabit networks and offers a surprisingly affordable and efficient solution.
Any network infrastructure on which LTE connections are used quickly reaches its limits. The project in this article includes throughput tests; however, because LTE technology supports bandwidths of more than 100Mbps, my MacBook Air was ruled out, because it only has a 100Mb USB Ethernet adapter. The various Raspberry Pis, with 100Mbps interfaces, are not fast enough either, so my task was to find an affordable alternative that ran Linux.
Two single-board computers (SBCs) were on my shortlist: the CubieTruck [1] and the Wandboard [2]. Both small PCs have newer versions – the CubieTruck is the third generation of the Cubie family [3], and versions of the Wandboard also exist with more CPU (performance and cores) and more RAM; both boards offer Gigabit Ethernet. However, I couldn't find a retailer offering the Wandboard, so I finally decided on the CubieTruck (Figure 1).
CubieTruck
Figure 2 shows the CubieTruck package: The board comes with a small, ultrathin heat sink, a SATA cable for connecting hard drives, an OTG cable, a USB cable, a power cable, and a case or mounting plate; the microSD card and the console cable, which proved very valuable for experiments with self-made kernels, come separately.
[...]
Buy this article as PDF
(incl. VAT)
Buy Linux Magazine
Subscribe to our Linux Newsletters
Find Linux and Open Source Jobs
Subscribe to our ADMIN Newsletters
Support Our Work
Linux Magazine content is made possible with support from readers like you. Please consider contributing when you’ve found an article to be beneficial.

News
-
Linux Kernel 6.17 Drops bcachefs
After a clash over some late fixes and disagreements between bcachefs's lead developer and Linus Torvalds, bachefs is out.
-
ONLYOFFICE v9 Embraces AI
Like nearly all office suites on the market (except LibreOffice), ONLYOFFICE has decided to go the AI route.
-
Two Local Privilege Escalation Flaws Discovered in Linux
Qualys researchers have discovered two local privilege escalation vulnerabilities that allow hackers to gain root privileges on major Linux distributions.
-
New TUXEDO InfinityBook Pro Powered by AMD Ryzen AI 300
The TUXEDO InfinityBook Pro 14 Gen10 offers serious power that is ready for your business, development, or entertainment needs.
-
Danish Ministry of Digital Affairs Transitions to Linux
Another major organization has decided to kick Microsoft Windows and Office to the curb in favor of Linux.
-
Linux Mint 20 Reaches EOL
With Linux Mint 20 at its end of life, the time has arrived to upgrade to Linux Mint 22.
-
TuxCare Announces Support for AlmaLinux 9.2
Thanks to TuxCare, AlmaLinux 9.2 (and soon version 9.6) now enjoys years of ongoing patching and compliance.
-
Go-Based Botnet Attacking IoT Devices
Using an SSH credential brute-force attack, the Go-based PumaBot is exploiting IoT devices everywhere.
-
Plasma 6.5 Promises Better Memory Optimization
With the stable Plasma 6.4 on the horizon, KDE has a few new tricks up its sleeve for Plasma 6.5.
-
KaOS 2025.05 Officially Qt5 Free
If you're a fan of independent Linux distributions, the team behind KaOS is proud to announce the latest iteration that includes kernel 6.14 and KDE's Plasma 6.3.5.