[Novalug] Need embedded distro recommendation; also possibly free parts to be had

Jay Hart jhart@kevla.org
Mon Oct 19 21:05:37 EDT 2009


How are you at OpenBSD?

Secure, Free, Functional.

Jay

> Um... all good distros, I'm sure, but I don't want to *develop* an
> embedded distro.  I want to *use* one.  That means not pulling Fedora or
> whichever out of the box and fiddling about with tmpfs and symlinks and
> figuring out what bits of /var need to be nonvolatile and that.  I
> *could* do all that, but I'm only going to if it's going to look really
> juicy on a resume later.  Or, if I'm completely missing the inclusion of
> something nifty and Swiss-army-like ("mkembed(8)"?), let me know...
>
> And my experience with Gentoo-- just x86, much less ~x86/~amd64 (the
> entire point of *using* it) --is that the project is dying.  Or in fact
> undead.  I say this as someone with a Gentoo ~x86 server (with overlays,
> even) and a newly Ubuntuificated workstation.
>
> On Mon, 19 Oct 2009 16:08 -0700, "Bryan J. Smith" <b.j.smith@ieee.org>
> wrote:
>> I love Gentoo (or any ports-centric software release model) for this,
>> unless
>> my client has a Montavista[1] and/or TimeSys[2] subscription (which I
>> would
>> take full advantage of).
>>
>> Debian is also a good basis if you absolutely want a packages-based
>> distro,
>> as Debian offers a number of cross-compilers and targets out-of-the-box.
>> Debian also has an extended update[1] period more than other distros
>> (especially versus ports-centric where ABI breakage, and even API
>> changes and possible regressions, can result in 6+ months), without
>> paying for such.[1]
>>
>> Fedora is an additional consideration if you're only doing ARM, PPC
>> or x86, with a few caveats in the case of ARM and a few more on PPC.
>>
>> -- Bryan
>>
>> [1]  Montavista Hard Hat Linux is a 3-year update cycle with a 1:1 SRPMS
>> base on Red Hat Enterprise Linux.  I.e., their releases are based on Red
>> Hat
>> Enterprise Linux for various embedded architectures, although only with a
>> 3 year subscription model (possibly up to 5 years of updates), compared
>> to
>> Red Hat's standard of 7 years (and options for 10+).
>>
>> I like Debian when I don't have money because you can easily get 2+ years
>> out of their typical releases, if not 3.
>>
>> [2]  TimeSys doesn't ship a distro, but a reference distro based on
>> Fedora.
>> I.e., if you prefer Fedora, but want more targets, TimeSys is likely of
>> more
>> interest.  They also have an on-line build system and other, hosted
>> development features.
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> ----- Original Message ----
>> From: Joshua Newton <joshua.newton@ironhavoc.org>
>> To: NoVALUG <novalug@calypso2.tux.org>
>> Sent: Mon, October 19, 2009 6:50:53 PM
>> Subject: [Novalug] Need embedded distro recommendation; also possibly
>> free parts to be had
>>
>> I need a recommendation for a solid distribution for use in embedded
>> systems from, say, PC Engines through Mini-ITX systems.  Something with
>> a pretty good package selection and decided attention to security, but
>> updated more recently and less heavily commercial than OpenWRT or
>> DD-WRT, for example.  Mostly, I need something that will run happily on
>> bitty ARM or x86 processors (I'm looking at PC Engines ALIX, Freescale,
>> Ubiquiti RouterStation, and maybe VIA boards in Mini-ITX or smaller) and
>> is already configured to boot off flash media of various forms and
>> execute without undue flash wear.  I'm thinking CompactFlash in >= CF3,
>> running in UDMA, if I can find the necessary parts.
>>
>> Ideally, I'd use something like pfSense, but it's less than flexible and
>> the radio support is kind of... amusing.  I'm not just building a WAP,
>> but that's one of the goals.
>>
>> If there's an Ubuntu respin for embedded that I've missed, that sort of
>> thing would probably be ideal.  I can always try to add a pretty web
>> management interface later, or do without.
>>
>> Also: about to start throwing away a lot of gear from what I'll call The
>> PCI Era, including a couple of Intel 865 boards and associated Celerons,
>> (at least some) RAM, sound cards, some AGP video, at least some of my
>> Intel 82559 stash, and so on.  Just email me directly if you have some
>> great hunger for outdated junk. :D
>>
>> I'm keeping my Matrox (Yes, Matrox-- I'm not confused.) QFE board and my
>> DB25-DIN RS-232C adapters, because you just never know.  (If anyone has
>> a DB9-DIN adapter, or knows where I can get some without paying
>> Cables-To-Go prices... ?)
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