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

[Joshua Newton]

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 at 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 at ironhavoc.org>
> To: NoVALUG <novalug at 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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