Very newbe help/pointers required about building a distribution from scratch
Ok I'm quite a newbe to both Linux and PC development, however I know what I want to do but don't know where to start! What I'd like to know is how do I build a distribution entirely from scratch/source like the pro's do. ie. Get all the debian source for the latest arm port (just the source) and then compile/build it till I have a working system. Why would I want to do this? Well first of I want to optimize the final code to specific processors (OMAP3530 and ARM926EJ-S) and also customise the builds to use different application/graphic components such as gnome, E17, samba, etc. I also figure this is a great way to learn about Linux/debian and fixing any bugs will give me some insight into the various languages (C/C++ specifically) I'm sure there must be some product or methodoligy that the pro's use to build debian distributions with different tweaks where the code has to branch (eg, Ubuntu desktop V NBR) so that all the common code remains common and some kinds of config files then set the options (some kind of global system makefile? or .config file?) Surely its not a case of downloading each package source manually, checking that all the dependents are downloaded, then manually doing a make config / make / make install for each and every package and having one directory structure for each distribution? Any pointers would be welcome as google is not my friend as I can't find anything about taking a current distribution and compiling the whole. (it did find stuff about making packages, and rebuilding an already installed distribution, both of which are not what I want, lol) JonXx -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-arm-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org Archive: http://lists.debian.org/blu0-smtp589ce1ec813b4cac037faa98...@phx.gbl
Re: Very newbe help/pointers required about building a distribution from scratch
Could Linux from scratch provide you with at least some of the information you need? http://www.linuxfromscratch.org/ On Wed, Mar 10, 2010 at 19:10, Jonathan Wilson piercing_m...@hotmail.com wrote: Ok I'm quite a newbe to both Linux and PC development, however I know what I want to do but don't know where to start! What I'd like to know is how do I build a distribution entirely from scratch/source like the pro's do. ie. Get all the debian source for the latest arm port (just the source) and then compile/build it till I have a working system. Why would I want to do this? Well first of I want to optimize the final code to specific processors (OMAP3530 and ARM926EJ-S) and also customise the builds to use different application/graphic components such as gnome, E17, samba, etc. I also figure this is a great way to learn about Linux/debian and fixing any bugs will give me some insight into the various languages (C/C++ specifically) I'm sure there must be some product or methodoligy that the pro's use to build debian distributions with different tweaks where the code has to branch (eg, Ubuntu desktop V NBR) so that all the common code remains common and some kinds of config files then set the options (some kind of global system makefile? or .config file?) Surely its not a case of downloading each package source manually, checking that all the dependents are downloaded, then manually doing a make config / make / make install for each and every package and having one directory structure for each distribution? Any pointers would be welcome as google is not my friend as I can't find anything about taking a current distribution and compiling the whole. (it did find stuff about making packages, and rebuilding an already installed distribution, both of which are not what I want, lol) JonXx -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-arm-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org Archive: http://lists.debian.org/blu0-smtp589ce1ec813b4cac037faa98...@phx.gbl -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-arm-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org Archive: http://lists.debian.org/3005d6291003101108g32166979vaf02b5de6dfba...@mail.gmail.com
Re: Very newbe help/pointers required about building a distribution from scratch
On Wed, Mar 10, 2010 at 6:10 PM, Jonathan Wilson piercing_m...@hotmail.com wrote: Ok I'm quite a newbe to both Linux and PC development, however I know what I want to do but don't know where to start! What I'd like to know is how do I build a distribution entirely from scratch/source like the pro's do. ie. Get all the debian source for the latest arm port (just the source) and then compile/build it till I have a working system. Why would I want to do this? Well first of I want to optimize the final code to specific processors (OMAP3530 and ARM926EJ-S) and also customise the builds to use different application/graphic components such as gnome, E17, samba, etc. I also figure this is a great way to learn about Linux/debian and fixing any bugs will give me some insight into the various languages (C/C++ specifically) yeah - i'd like to know how to do this, too. i installed buildd (and wannabuild) but there appears to be some manual steps involved, and i was kind-of expecting it to be automatic and recursive. what i was expecting was that there was a simple way - e.g. grab all the packages of a task - and just shove them at buildd, and i was expecting it to just... go ahead and recursively grab all build dependencies and all source dependencies, right down to coreutils and build them all from the top down. a bit like openembedded. ... but there's absolutely nothing that can be found, like that: it seems more that buildd is designed to be a half-way house, which is kinda useless for this sort of task, creating entire specialised rebuilds (a la gentoo) for specific architectures. yes, basically, i want to rebuild an entire suite of debian packages for the arm cortex A8 processor (the S5PC100). l. -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-arm-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org Archive: http://lists.debian.org/ced5f0f61003101120x4b185b45k2e6791e243918...@mail.gmail.com
Re: Very newbe help/pointers required about building a distribution from scratch
2010/3/10 Björn Wetterbom bjohv...@gmail.com: Could Linux from scratch provide you with at least some of the information you need? is that available for debian? does it rebuild _debian_ packages, entirely and recursively, recreating a debian mirror with a specific set of architecture-specific compiled packages? l. -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-arm-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org Archive: http://lists.debian.org/ced5f0f61003101121q581d59c7p40601d977e8b8...@mail.gmail.com
Re: Very newbe help/pointers required about building a distribution from scratch
It was a while ago since I did any reading on LFS, but as far as I can remember it simply gives you instructions on how to build a custom Linux OS from scratch by downloading all the sources one by one yourself. I guess that means that the answer to all of your questions is no. 2010/3/10 Luke Kenneth Casson Leighton l...@lkcl.net: 2010/3/10 Björn Wetterbom bjohv...@gmail.com: Could Linux from scratch provide you with at least some of the information you need? is that available for debian? does it rebuild _debian_ packages, entirely and recursively, recreating a debian mirror with a specific set of architecture-specific compiled packages? l. -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-arm-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org Archive: http://lists.debian.org/3005d6291003101131v192169fbrcab97928a8ac5...@mail.gmail.com
Re: Very newbe help/pointers required about building a distribution from scratch
On Wed, Mar 10, 2010 at 07:20:04PM +, Luke Kenneth Casson Leighton wrote: yeah - i'd like to know how to do this, too. i installed buildd (and wannabuild) but there appears to be some manual steps involved, and i was kind-of expecting it to be automatic and recursive. what i was expecting was that there was a simple way - e.g. grab all the packages of a task - and just shove them at buildd, and i was expecting it to just... go ahead and recursively grab all build dependencies and all source dependencies, right down to coreutils and build them all from the top down. a bit like openembedded. ... but there's absolutely nothing that can be found, like that: it seems more that buildd is designed to be a half-way house, which is kinda useless for this sort of task, creating entire specialised rebuilds (a la gentoo) for specific architectures. yes, basically, i want to rebuild an entire suite of debian packages for the arm cortex A8 processor (the S5PC100). A number of packages have circular dependancies. These have to be resolved manually by either temporarily using packages built elsewhere or by manually building parts of a package to solve the dependancies. You better have a good understanding of the debian packaging system and how dpkg-buildpackage works. It only really becomes automatic with wannabuild once you have a working base system. -- Len Sorensen -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-arm-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org Archive: http://lists.debian.org/20100310201803.gq4...@caffeine.csclub.uwaterloo.ca
Re: Very newbe help/pointers required about building a distribution from scratch
On Wed, Mar 10, 2010 at 8:18 PM, Lennart Sorensen lsore...@csclub.uwaterloo.ca wrote: On Wed, Mar 10, 2010 at 07:20:04PM +, Luke Kenneth Casson Leighton wrote: yeah - i'd like to know how to do this, too. i installed buildd (and wannabuild) but there appears to be some manual steps involved, and i was kind-of expecting it to be automatic and recursive. what i was expecting was that there was a simple way - e.g. grab all the packages of a task - and just shove them at buildd, and i was expecting it to just... go ahead and recursively grab all build dependencies and all source dependencies, right down to coreutils and build them all from the top down. a bit like openembedded. ... but there's absolutely nothing that can be found, like that: it seems more that buildd is designed to be a half-way house, which is kinda useless for this sort of task, creating entire specialised rebuilds (a la gentoo) for specific architectures. yes, basically, i want to rebuild an entire suite of debian packages for the arm cortex A8 processor (the S5PC100). A number of packages have circular dependancies. These have to be resolved manually by either temporarily using packages built elsewhere or by manually building parts of a package to solve the dependancies. or by using e.g. debian armel packages a la cross-debootstrap (rootstock under the dreaded ubuntu), that gets you into a position where each of those dependencies can be replaced one at a time. You better have a good understanding of the debian packaging system and how dpkg-buildpackage works. It only really becomes automatic with wannabuild once you have a working base system. excellent. ... where is all this documented? has anyone actually done this - documented and automated e.g. how the debian-armel port was created, when previously there was only the debian-arm one? because it really does make sense to have a way to do automated total recompiles for e.g. the cortex a8, and if debian won't officially add that as an architecture, at least having a well-documented and automated process by which a random person can just... set some machines compiling for a month, would be good. -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-arm-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org Archive: http://lists.debian.org/ced5f0f61003101308n133ec20dha948b52410c2d...@mail.gmail.com
Managed to brick my sheevaplug -- not getting any serial output
Hi, I was about to install debian on my sheevaplug. Since I was going to do it from an usb stick, I had to upgrade my UBoot. I followed the instructions from http://www.cyrius.com/debian/kirkwood/sheevaplug/uboot-upgrade.html. I did a reset and verified my UBoot indeed got upgraded. However, after that one timeI have not been able to access the serial port on my sheevaplug. I get no output whatsoever. Any ideas?
Re: Managed to brick my sheevaplug -- not getting any serial output
You can always use openocd through the jtag, and test or reflash whatever you want. A new uboot, for example. The plugcomputer.org wiki or places like that will give you information on how to do that. 2010/3/10 Shiva Bhattacharjee shiva...@gmail.com: Hi, I was about to install debian on my sheevaplug. Since I was going to do it from an usb stick, I had to upgrade my UBoot. I followed the instructions from http://www.cyrius.com/debian/kirkwood/sheevaplug/uboot-upgrade.html. I did a reset and verified my UBoot indeed got upgraded. However, after that one timeI have not been able to access the serial port on my sheevaplug. I get no output whatsoever. Any ideas? -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-arm-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org Archive: http://lists.debian.org/45219fb01003101341s286b935fw68e44a755033f...@mail.gmail.com
Re: Managed to brick my sheevaplug -- not getting any serial output
* Lluís Batlle virik...@gmail.com [2010-03-10 22:41]: The plugcomputer.org wiki or places like that will give you information on how to do that. Exactly. Search for installer v1.0. -- Martin Michlmayr http://www.cyrius.com/ -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-arm-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org Archive: http://lists.debian.org/20100310214823.gb32...@jirafa.cyrius.com
Re: Very newbe help/pointers required about building a distribution from scratch
On Wed, 10 Mar 2010 21:08:30 + Luke Kenneth Casson Leighton l...@lkcl.net wrote: (When replying, please shorten the CC list, preferably only to the debian-embedded list.) a bit like openembedded. It's much easier to not do things like OE and to actually build incrementally, putting dependencies into a local repository to make them available as build-dependencies of the subsequent packages. That's how Emdebian did it for Emdebian Crush 1.0. ... but there's absolutely nothing that can be found, like that: it seems more that buildd is designed to be a half-way house, which is kinda useless for this sort of task, creating entire specialised rebuilds (a la gentoo) for specific architectures. Debian is a binary distribution, it's designed to be built incrementally and to use dependencies as binaries. Where others use a staging area, Debian uses a repository which can be local. emdebian-tools has scripts to do this but it's complicated and cross-building Debian currently is hard. yes, basically, i want to rebuild an entire suite of debian packages for the arm cortex A8 processor (the S5PC100). armel? Use Emdebian Grip. http://www.emdebian.org/grip/ Why rebuild? What changes are you making to the packages? (Answers to questions like this should go to the debian-embed...@lists.debian.org mailing list, not debian-devel.) (IMHO - and possibly a lot of other DD's - the benefits of building packages for a specific machine ala gentoo with no other changes is often heavily over-rated.) A number of packages have circular dependancies. There is some work going on to fix those (nod to Holger and piuparts) but finding a path through the dependencies is VERY VERY hard. The only sane way is to start with the toolchain packages, work up gradually, make mistakes, retrace your steps, go back and try another route then make some progress until you reach the next impasse. EVERY time you even think about changing any package during this process, you have to recalculate the entire path from there on. It is seriously painful. These have to be resolved manually by either temporarily using packages built elsewhere or by manually building parts of a package to solve the dependancies. Precisely. or by using e.g. debian armel packages a la cross-debootstrap (rootstock under the dreaded ubuntu), that gets you into a position where each of those dependencies can be replaced one at a time. Correct. ... where is all this documented? It's not. Documenting it means keeping it correct and that's just too much work. has anyone actually done this Yes. Me - I was cross-building the entire chain too. It took me the best part of a year to get through 200 packages. i.e. SERIOUSLY reconsider precisely how many packages you want to rebuild and how many NEED to be rebuilt. Unless you are making changes to the packages - indeed, unless you're making FUNCTIONAL changes to packages - do not rebuild. Use Emdebian Grip which provides smaller versions of existing Debian packages without binary changes. Please discuss this further on the debian-embedded mailing list. - documented and automated e.g. how the debian-armel port was created, when previously there was only the debian-arm one? Native ports start at the toolchain and work up, gradually, putting aside packages that build-depend on stuff you haven't built yet and occasionally going back over the list. It takes time, lots of time. because it really does make sense to have a way to do automated total recompiles for e.g. the cortex a8, and if debian won't officially add that as an architecture, at least having a well-documented and automated process by which a random person can just... set some machines compiling for a month, would be good. *Precisely* what changes do you need for that architecture - is it really a different architecture from armel? (Answers to debian-embedded please.) -- Neil Williams = http://www.data-freedom.org/ http://www.nosoftwarepatents.com/ http://www.linux.codehelp.co.uk/ pgpehnc5PBOs7.pgp Description: PGP signature
Re: Help needed to debug an armel build/unittest failure
On Mon, Mar 08, 2010 at 12:18:49AM +, Martin Guy wrote: On 3/7/10, Iustin Pop iu...@k1024.org wrote: Second question would be if it's OK to use agricola to test this Well u can use the 600 MHz 512MB box here if that would help. You access the armel-sid chroot by saying armel-sid :) Thanks, in the meantime I realized I can use qemu to test this, and I managed to get a sid VM running. iustin, struggling with C++ now -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-arm-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org Archive: http://lists.debian.org/20100310221509.ga16...@teal.hq.k1024.org
