Under a minute is good, 2 minutes not so much. 10-30 seconds would be much much better. I'd probably prefer to sacrifice any kind of GUI for faster boot time, so long as I can still get what I need up and running: Squeezebox server, SAMBA, WiFi in ad-hoc mode.

Squeezebox Server's primary linux version is listed as "Debian/Ubuntu" so I should be able to get a GUI-less Debian install all set up. Which will likely result in posts to the forum since I've never done that before.

EDIT.

I'm going to write down a few things I know I'll want to accomplish with the Debian install so I don't forget and so I might get some feedback or pointers to guides.

In no particular order - re-ordering for ease of installation would be another recommendation I'm open to.

1. Set up WiFi in Master Mode so it acts as an access point instead of a client. Fall-back is to to create an ad-hoc LAN. Specific SSID and a specific IP address

2. Set up DHCP server to assign static IPs to specific devices by Mac address and others dynamically on the WiFi connection.

3. Set up wired LAN port to be DHCP client, allowing me to plug the system into an existing network via this port. This port should obtain DNS and other information via DHCP. The machine would now be hosting its own LAN on WiFi and be part of another LAN on wired.

4. Set up a bridge to allow connections on the WiFi LAN to access the internet. Is this going to be possible?

5. Set up SAMBA and a couple of shares on the hard disk so that I can access them from wireless clients connected to this machine.

6. Set up same shares so I can access them from other machines on the wired LAN. Is this going to be possible?

7. RSYNC so I can create a schedule to back up all the music from my NAS. This box will then contain a mirror of the music share on the NAS. The schedule can be accomplished on the NAS where I already have other scheduled backup tasks.


The machine will only be occasionally connected via its wired port. This is sort of an "at home" or "visiting" use. Normally it would be used in a full portable manner and would only be running WiFi and wouldn't have access to the internet.

I realize that by using such a setup with an iOS device, if one has a data plan on that device, it would in fact be advantageous to run the network from the iOS device in a sharing/tethering mode and run the PC as the client. This would allow both systems to talk to each other while still being able to use the iOS device's 3G radio for internet. iOS can't use its 3G radio for internet when it's connected to a WiFi network as a client itself.