[ARMedslack] Setting up distcc for cross compiling

[Thorsten Mühlfelder]

Am Tuesday 31 August 2010 12:03:15 schrieb Stuart Winter:
> > is there a good guide how to set up distcc to build to help building arm
> > packages on my x86_64 and i486 hosts?
>
> Yep.  Go back to the FTP site and download the script "dbuild" - I just
> put it there.

Thanks, I'll have a look there today evening when I'm home.

> > PS: Could the 128 MB RAM on my Dockstar be a problem, even if I use
> > distcc?
>
> Depends what you're compiling, but quite possibly, yes.
> For example - compiling ruby on 256MB RAM took days because it was
> constantly in swap; and building KDE is pretty much a no go.

Did you use distcc there, too? What about moving all jobs to the other hosts? 
I know there are still tasks left for the build host (linking?), but no idea 
how much RAM they need.
But I've already thought that RAM will be a problem. Perhaps there may be some 
tricks that can help, e.g. 
http://hostingfu.com/article/compiling-with-gcc-on-low-memory-vps

> In my opinion, for a build host, the best bet at the moment is a
> SheevaPlug or one of the *Plug family -- preferably with an eSATA disc
> attached.

Yes, I wanted to buy a SheevaPlug, but my prefered model seemed to be out of 
stock at the moment. Furthermore the Dockstar was so pretty cheap (20 €), 
that I just wanted to give it a try. And it looks fine in my living room with 
the 2.5" disk attached ;-) hdparm gives me a speed of 26 MB/s which is quite 
OK for an USB drive.