Hello Martin
Re your first question if you are looking to use uCLinux then pick a
suitable processor. Unless the hardware budget is very, very, very tight
you will save endless amounts of time, energy, thus money using a
processor with suitable hardware resources. You'll get excellent and
free networking, driver stacks, tools, etc etc. There are very low cost
ARM7 solutions.
I'm a Windows developer who started using uCLinux a few months back. The
project required an embedded server and Windows GUI. The target hardware
was a custom board with specs similar to this:
http://www.gridconnect.com/sk16.html
Some observations resulting from the experience:
1. For application development it was significantly faster to
edit/compile/debug vanilla ISO C++ using Visual Studio 2008(*).
2. Once I was happy with the code I set up a VS2008 makefile project
that used the CodeSourcery x86 -> 68K C++ cross-compiler. This meant I
could edit and compile/link whilst still using familiar tools like
Visual Assist etc.
3. I wrote a combined TFTP server and serial-port console app that ran
on Windows which enabled me to download and run the 68K binaries.
4. Embedded debugging was all done with output to the console. No
hardware debugger available in the budget :(
N.B. I did not have to do anything with uCLinux itself. To compile and
confgure custom varieties I would suggest VMWare/Virtual PC or try the
very cool CoLinux. This runs Linux as a Win32 task from which you can
browse your Windows machine. Not great if you need X etc but fantastic
for console mode/server type stuff. Much lighter weight than VMWare.
I consider VMWare to be essential if you end up using a desktop Linux.
No one wants to have to use some 5 year old box for dev work, spend the
150 bucks and get VMWare 7. It will even virtualise your USB2 hardware.
I did experiment with various Linux distros including Ubuntu, SUSE and
the RHEL clone but none of them did it for me. Windows 7 looks way too
good, works way too well and already had all my toys loaded up as well.
* I did try the Dev++ and Codeblocks environments. I actually did try
quite hard. But despite the admirable amount of effort that has gone
into both they are not a patch in the VS IDE, esp. if you are used to
3rd party plugins for code refactoring, cross-referencing, source
control etc (SourceGear in my case).
YMMV. HTH.
Jerry
On 06/01/2010 16:52, Martin Mensch wrote:
Hello,
I am interested in using uCLinux and now there are a number of question I
couldn't find an answer for on uclinux.org:
- how much is the footprint in Flash and RAM for an ARM7TDMI or a
PIC32? Is
there any chance to do it with a single chip micro using only internal
flash
and RAM (as far as I know uCs are available up to 512kB flash and 100k
RAM)
- Will the OS and application program run from flash or will everything
first be copied to RAM?
- I am only using Windows (XP) and there is no experience with Linux on a
desktop. Can I start with uCLinux anyway and what will I need for it?
Thank you for any help
Martin
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