Re: Embedded(/RT) Debian? Embeddian GNU/Linux?
In article <[🔎] 20000315094233.A2578@knorke.in-berlin.de> you wrote:
> does anybody know, wether there are ideas or plans to make
> an Debian GNU/Linux especially for embedded and/or realtime
> systems, i.e. "Embedian GNU/Linux"?
The problem is that "embedded" covers such a huge range these days. I've
built several embedded systems using Pentium motherboards and smallish units
of compact flash for disk... but I've seen systems with large disks described
as embedded based on what they were doing.
The way I've handled this, and the way I think others I've talked with on IRC
have been handling it, is to in effect build a subsetting tool. You install
into a spare partition or something the packages you want, then selectively
copy out of that tree the pieces you need for the actual embedded system. It
would be neat to have such a tool packaged and available as a standard part
of Debian instead of reinventing the wheel each time.
> - packages have to be even more fine-grained, or one does
> need some options to install packages partially.
Nah, this is far enough from the Debian primary target that I think the right
thing to do is leave the current packaging structure alone, and post-process
an installed system to extract the subset of files needed for the embedded
target. Even something as simple as a selective copy with configurable
exclusion lists will do.
> - superior package management;
You really, really, don't want /var/lib/dpkg on an embedded target... it gets
huge quickly. The trick is to get the benefits of a packaging scheme like
Debian's without having to carry that baggage into the actual embedded system.
Bdale
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