On 02/10/2010 07:21 PM, Brian Kelley wrote:
maybe an sdcard install would be better to get around the 512 megs of nand,,
then 16gigs+ is possible
--- On Wed, 2/10/10, Wybrand Lohman<[email protected]> wrote:
From: Wybrand Lohman<[email protected]>
Subject: Re: [ARMedslack] mini root fs&& Openmoko Freerunner
To: "Slackware ARM port"<[email protected]>
Date: Wednesday, February 10, 2010, 5:11 AM
Stuart Winter wrote:
I'm really curious about people will use ARMedslack for. For me, ARM has
always been for Desktop machines (since ARM CPUs were manufactured for the
Acorn archimedes range), so I consider ARMedslack aimed at desktops and
server usage on those machines rather than hand held gadgets.
ARM processors are used for embedded devices worldwide. If only
ARMedslack fits onto specified board, it could be used for manufacturing
processes control, etc. All in all it's Linux and Linux is used very
much on embedded devices for any purpose you can imagine (even toaster
if you want;)) ARMedslack isn't worse than any other Linux and for us,
Slackers, it seems to be the dreamed solution. For example, I'm planning
to build some intelligence into my home. ARMedslack + my board will be
kind of bridge, that interconnects CAN, RS-485, RF and also provides the
WWW access to control the building.
Two things really. I intend to use it as a server platform. Now that the
GuruPlug Plus (with two NIC's) comes out in April, it offers everything I need
to replace my x86 server. And once those ARM based netbooks hit the market, as
they've been promising for sooo long now :-( ARMedslack will find it's place on
one of those.
I also see some good possibilities in the SheevaPlug&ARMedslack combo. One
thing for example is as an update server on the other side of a VPN, so to safe
bandwidth. I know several locations where they use an x86 desktop running 24x7 for
that. ARMedslack running on a SheevaPlug will offer greatly more efficiency and
reliability and yet keep the price point below €100,- TCO. How cool is that? :D
Brian Kelley wrote:
the openmoko freerunner is another good choice
I tried that, but I found it was not without difficulty. I have been able to
get /something/ going on the Freerunner, but the device is so limited in terms
of disk space, while it's also exotic in terms of hardware and method of
install. A bit like what Stuart now did with building a mini rootfs
(interesting development there) I build a roofts of my own to act as a sort of
bridgehead allowing me to interface with the Freerunner.
The thing is, you can't really install a very limited version of ARMedslack on
a device like that. With all you can shave off, it'll still be too big. I took
the initrd from the ARMedslack installer, which offers a busybox environment
with dropbear and a nice collection of networking, maintenance and diagnosis
tools in under 25MB or so.
The stock kernel, although it didn't panic and kept booting, was spitting out
errors like crazy. It needed some hefty adjustments, and the quickest route was
to just 'steal' a kernel and it's modules from another Openmoko distro and put
that in the image.
But then you have a Freerunner that boots in 3 minutes or so, draining the
battery and still does nothing more than offer an ssh login. For X, you need
something like tinyX or one of it's variants. This needs to be compiled to
accept the touch screen as it's primary input device. And then a WM on top that
is capable of being steered by the touch screen. Neither of which I had any
success in.
But even if you do succeed in that, you still have no telephony capability on
the Freerunner. Let alone that you can start optimizing it for the HUGE power
efficiency that's needed. (Is there such a thing? Somehow 'huge' and
'efficient' seem contradictory to me)
My personal opinion is that it /can/ be done. I was interested in it not so
much for the smartphone side of the Freerunner, but more because as a handheld
embedded device it could do all sorts of tricks. I wanted it to act as a sort
of thin client, mounting a network share and pull it's software from there.
That would negate the limited disk space, and offer maximum flexibility
(perhaps at the cost of mobility). But you'd need to get the touch screen
going, no mather what.
To conclude. It's possible to start with ARMedslacks initrd, steal or recompile
a kernel (+modules), add something like tinyX and a WM and get the device
going. It's a tremendously good learning opportunity, if nothing else. But it's
not really ARMedslack anymore by then, more ARMedLFS without a manual.
I think the strength of Slackware is that it offers a very complete environment
that allows you to build whatever you want, be it a router, headless server,
multi-media system or a desktop as lean or bloated as you can imagine. But to
cramp all that power and flexibility into an embedded device as the Freerunner
wont be without difficulty.
Sorry 'bout the long read. And with that, we return to the order of the day.
Greets,
Wybrand
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--
Pozdrawiam,
Andrzej Telszewski
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