On Wed, 12 Mar 2003 14:15:57 +0000 (GMT) Wookey <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> On Mon 10 Mar, Liberty Young wrote: > > I'm very excited about using emdebsys for generating, and having our > > customers, generate their own mini-OS. I like how it will automate the > > compilation, gathering, and generation of an OS suitable for an > > embedded product. There were a few things that i'm unclear about with > > emdebsys: > > > > What is happening to it? > > Not much at the moment. It got updated to kernel 2.4.16 and to work with > ARM as well as x86, and had some useful docs done just over a year ago, > and I gave a talk about it at the UKUUG conference last June but I never > got round to updating the website so you can only get the current > version from CVS. In practice very few people (no-one?) seem to be using > it so there isn't much action. I am using it: http://lomb.abeille.com And I am very thankfull that you are not updating CVS too much often ;), so it is not hard to keep up to date the few modifications I did :). > > I'm doing a project right now for which I am going to try using it which > might induce some activity > > > Specifically, what is going to happen to the front end configuration, > > and are there plans to move away from CML2? > > There is a feeling that we probably ought to move away from it as it got > the thumbs-down from the kernel developers and is no longer maintained. > It also has a rather un-beatiful front end. yes, but it is pretty usable for my point. > > I haven't had time to look at the more recent kernel config stuff > (kbuild?) to see if it could be used or not. I'd be interested to hear > if anyone has any suggestions of good ways to do this or if in fact > sticking with this general-purpose config language is the best thing to > do - at the expense of less-close integration between the filesystem and > kernel configuration sections. > > I note that something called Qplus is a similar config system that also > uses CML2 and is therefore in a similar spot. It may be somewhat more > developed than emdebsys (it certainly has a nicer front-end :-) - again > I haven't had a chance to check. We should almost certainly compare > notes with them. > just a personal point of view: for me since it is 'Emdebian', so what I would like to see is a far more tight integration between this project and the Debian project. Usage of Debconf ??, an 'apt-get build' ability, general rules for removing unwanted files from Debian packages (docs, locales...), a general comprehension of the Debian dependancy system (how to make it interact with the dependancies of say: the kernel?), usage of make-kpkg (and of the '/usr/src/linux' kernel tree of the system), ... even if this might force the Emdebian user to have a Debian installed on its workstation too. I see the Debian system of the developper (the user of Emdebian) like some kind of 'toolkit' that Emdebian would use, so that we get a "Debian compatible" system generated at the end. One for example that could be used and improved by itself later, by usage of apt-get. But I have to recognize that my customisation needs are not really high, since I generate embedded systems for standard PC platforms with system on a flash disk (not really different of an absolutely normal PC). One that needs to create a system for a very specific platform, like a PDA, would probaly loose from it at the bginning, but I think we will see more and more PDA that are just in fact tiny computers... with more and more storage ability and just a different processor (for now). So the target platform could be normal computers only, it would not matter for me :). May be we are loosing time trying to get the things small and 'ultra-integrated', since it could no be an issue anymore in a near future... > So in short, no there isn't a plan yet. Suggestions welcome. Like I say > once I've had a real-life attempt to use it in a project I may have some > more solid opinions. We're getting real money for this job so it should > happen pretty soon :-) great news. And thx for the work already done. Damien > > Wookey > -- > Aleph One Ltd, Bottisham, CAMBRIDGE, CB5 9BA, UK Tel +44 (0) 1223 > 811679 work: http://www.aleph1.co.uk/ play: > http://www.chaos.org.uk/~wookey/
