From tylernt at gmail.com Wed Aug 4 04:36:24 2010 From: tylernt at gmail.com (Tyler T) Date: Tue, 3 Aug 2010 22:36:24 -0600 Subject: [ARMedslack] A few questions on kirkwood initrd In-Reply-To: References: <4C4FC69B.9010204@gmail.com> <4C506986.7040904@gmail.com> Message-ID: If any of you wanted a happy ending, or at least closure, here it is: My serial cable finally arrived but I still could not get the kernel to boot. My first false start was loading the kernel to the same location as on the SheevaPlug, 0x8000000, which put the kernel beyond the DockStar's 128MB of installed RAM, which means Stuart correctly diagnosed my issue. With the u-Boot load address altered, I still got errors though until I tried an uncompressed kernel -- and now Armedslack 13.1 is installing as I speak! Here are my u-Boot commands for the installer: setenv arcNumber 2097 setenv mainlineLinux yes setenv bootargs console=ttyS0,115200 root=/dev/ram rw usb start fatload usb 0:1 0x1800000 uinitrd-kirkwood-installer fatload usb 0:1 0x6000000 uImage-kirkwood bootm 0x6000000 0x1800000 The aforementioned "mkimage Load Address 00008000" turns out to work fine, as I assume this is actually an offset from whereever the kernel got loaded by u-Boot. I even got the stock, unaltered initrd to boot though of course I had to recompile the kernel to get an uncompressed version of it (maybe the compressed Armedslack kernel could be decompressed, but I don't know how). I'm now using the patched u-Boot from http://jeff.doozan.com/debian/uboot/ installed to mtd3 and chainloaded from the stock crippled u-Boot. The PlugApps bootloader I mentioned earlier was quite limited (no initrd or 'saveenv') so once this fully-functional u-Boot became available (thanks Jeff!), there was no reason to use the PlugApps' and no reason to lump the kernel and initrd into a single file as I had originally envisioned. Though I am using a serial cable, it's theoretically possible to do this without the serial cable by using the fw_envset commands to alter the mtd3 u-Boot from within the DockStar' stock Linux install in NAND. Though the armedslack installer initrd startup scripts look like they should launch dhcpcd and dropbear, neither actually happens on bootup so I still had to run those commands via serial. If this were fixed, then no serial cable would be necessary and the install could be carried out purely via SSH. Anyway, I think I may be the first to boot Slackware on this hardware platform, which is kind of cool. :) Thanks again for the help Stuart and Andrzej! From thenktor at gmx.de Fri Aug 13 11:44:45 2010 From: thenktor at gmx.de (Thorsten =?iso-8859-1?q?M=FChlfelder?=) Date: Fri, 13 Aug 2010 13:44:45 +0200 Subject: [ARMedslack] Hello Message-ID: <201008131344.46027.thenktor@gmx.de> Just wanted to say a short hello to the list. I'm one of the developers at Salix OS (salixos.org) and as I'm in contact with Linux based ARM devices at work I'm just interested in what's going on here. Probably I'll buy a little ARM board for playing with it at home, because I'm tired of having to use Debian ARM :-D Greetings Thorsten From tylernt at gmail.com Sat Aug 14 16:20:45 2010 From: tylernt at gmail.com (Tyler T) Date: Sat, 14 Aug 2010 10:20:45 -0600 Subject: [ARMedslack] Hello In-Reply-To: <201008131344.46027.thenktor@gmx.de> References: <201008131344.46027.thenktor@gmx.de> Message-ID: Hello and welcome! There doesn't seem to be a lot of traffic on this list, I guess because Armedslack "just works". Salix looks perfect for netbooks, maybe an ARM port of it is in order. ;) ___ ?/yler From thenktor at gmx.de Sun Aug 15 10:53:40 2010 From: thenktor at gmx.de (Thorsten =?ISO-8859-1?B?TfxobGZlbGRlcg==?=) Date: Sun, 15 Aug 2010 12:53:40 +0200 Subject: [ARMedslack] Hello In-Reply-To: References: <201008131344.46027.thenktor@gmx.de> Message-ID: <20100815125340.31984404@pinkfloyd.tm-net> Am Sat, 14 Aug 2010 10:20:45 -0600 schrieb Tyler T : > Hello and welcome! There doesn't seem to be a lot of traffic on this > list, I guess because Armedslack "just works". Salix looks perfect for > netbooks, maybe an ARM port of it is in order. ;) Yes, this probably is something I'll try to do in the future. But first I have to check how to build a suitable cross compilation environment. I've already built small tools, that did not need any deps, but I've never build complete packages, yet. So are there any information how the armed slack packages are build? Thorsten From m-lists at biscuit.org.uk Sun Aug 15 11:42:13 2010 From: m-lists at biscuit.org.uk (Stuart Winter) Date: Sun, 15 Aug 2010 12:42:13 +0100 (BST) Subject: [ARMedslack] Hello In-Reply-To: <20100815125340.31984404@pinkfloyd.tm-net> References: <201008131344.46027.thenktor@gmx.de> <20100815125340.31984404@pinkfloyd.tm-net> Message-ID: > So are there any information how the armed slack packages are build? Yes there is a readme file in the source directory with instructions. -- Stuart Winter Slackware ARM: www.armedslack.org From thenktor at gmx.de Wed Aug 18 15:25:10 2010 From: thenktor at gmx.de (Thorsten =?iso-8859-1?q?M=FChlfelder?=) Date: Wed, 18 Aug 2010 17:25:10 +0200 Subject: [ARMedslack] Hello In-Reply-To: References: <201008131344.46027.thenktor@gmx.de> Message-ID: <201008181725.10247.thenktor@gmx.de> Am Saturday 14 August 2010 18:20:45 schrieb Tyler T: > Hello and welcome! There doesn't seem to be a lot of traffic on this > list, I guess because Armedslack "just works". Salix looks perfect for > netbooks, maybe an ARM port of it is in order. ;) Now I've managed to get Armed Slack working on an Olimex SAM9-L9260 Board (http://www.olimex.com/dev/sam9-L9260.html). Got this thing very cheap from eBay. It features a 180 MHz Atmel AT91SAM9260 CPU, 64 MB RAM and 512 MB Flash. I've used some Atmel tool to program boot loader and kernel to the NAND and then I could boot the mini rootfs from an USB stick. Biggest problem was: The Olimex board is supported by vanilla kernel, but it won't work unless you'll add the patch from Olimex homepage, too. This mademe headaches for some time :-) BTW: I've used the toolchain from Codesourcery to compile the kernel. Now I wonder if I should buy an IGEPv2 board. It seems very promising. This indeed would be a nice thing to start a Salix port. Does anybody have experience with this one? I did not do any more research on the IGEPv2, but perhaps somebody knows how to program a boot loader and a kernel on it? It features a micro SD slot which I would use as data or even as root partition. Regards Thorsten From tylernt at gmail.com Wed Aug 18 18:27:14 2010 From: tylernt at gmail.com (Tyler T) Date: Wed, 18 Aug 2010 12:27:14 -0600 Subject: [ARMedslack] Hello In-Reply-To: <201008181725.10247.thenktor@gmx.de> References: <201008131344.46027.thenktor@gmx.de> <201008181725.10247.thenktor@gmx.de> Message-ID: > Now I wonder if I should buy an IGEPv2 board. It seems very promising. This > indeed would be a nice thing to start a Salix port. Does anybody have > experience with this one? Don't know anything about that but here's a forum posting about cheap ARM devices: http://plugapps.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=212. I have a DockStar myself; armedslack runs great on it (from a USB flash drive). I do have to chainload a better u-Boot though, detailed here: http://jeff.doozan.com/debian/uboot/. You'll also want a TTL serial console cable (http://ahsoftware.de/dockstar/). I wonder if USB DisplayLink hardware could work with one of these devices to create a "nettop" computer. From laprjns at comcast.net Thu Aug 19 00:04:57 2010 From: laprjns at comcast.net (Richard Lapointe) Date: Wed, 18 Aug 2010 20:04:57 -0400 Subject: [ARMedslack] Hello In-Reply-To: References: <201008131344.46027.thenktor@gmx.de> <201008181725.10247.thenktor@gmx.de> Message-ID: <4C6C7529.5030301@comcast.net> I have a Dockstar coming directly from Seagate ($39 USD) and would like to run ARMedslack on it. Is there a single site that provides instructions on how I would go about this? Since I am using Salix on my desktops, I want to replace my N2SLU running SlugOS with the Dockstar running Slackware and then build some packages using Salix packaging took, slkbuild. Thanks Rich Lapointe (laprjns) On 08/18/2010 02:27 PM, Tyler T wrote: >> Now I wonder if I should buy an IGEPv2 board. It seems very promising. This >> indeed would be a nice thing to start a Salix port. Does anybody have >> experience with this one? >> > Don't know anything about that but here's a forum posting about cheap > ARM devices: http://plugapps.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=212. I have > a DockStar myself; armedslack runs great on it (from a USB flash > drive). I do have to chainload a better u-Boot though, detailed here: > http://jeff.doozan.com/debian/uboot/. You'll also want a TTL serial > console cable (http://ahsoftware.de/dockstar/). > > I wonder if USB DisplayLink hardware could work with one of these > devices to create a "nettop" computer. > _______________________________________________ > ARMedslack mailing list > ARMedslack at lists.armedslack.org > http://lists.armedslack.org/mailman/listinfo/armedslack > > From tylernt at gmail.com Thu Aug 19 00:45:55 2010 From: tylernt at gmail.com (Tyler T) Date: Wed, 18 Aug 2010 18:45:55 -0600 Subject: [ARMedslack] Hello In-Reply-To: <4C6C7529.5030301@comcast.net> References: <201008131344.46027.thenktor@gmx.de> <201008181725.10247.thenktor@gmx.de> <4C6C7529.5030301@comcast.net> Message-ID: > I have a Dockstar coming directly from Seagate ($39 USD) and would like to > run ARMedslack on it. ?Is there a single site that provides instructions on > how I would go about this? http://jeff.doozan.com/debian/uboot/ has the basic procedure. Rather than run the script, I just ran the important commands from inside the script, to the effect of (this from within the stock DockStar OS in NAND) cd ~ mount -o remount,rw / wget http://jeff.doozan.com/debian/uboot/uboot.mtd3.bin mount -o remount,ro / flash_eraseall /dev/mtd3 nandwrite /dev/mtd3 uboot.mtd3.bin Since I have a serial cable, I didn't mess around with blparam or fw_envset, I just rebooted and broke into the mtd0 u-Boot, altered the bootcmd to be "nand read.e 0xc00000 0x2500000 0x80000; go 0xc00000", ran saveenv, reset, and broke into the mtd3 u-Boot. Here's where things get interesting: I was not able to get the stock compressed armedslack uImage to boot, no doubt because I'm clueless about what RAM address to load it in to. So, I simply made an uncompressed kernel and that one loads just fine. I made a small FAT partition on my USB stick with the new uImage and the installer initrd, then from the mtd3 u-Boot ran setenv bootargs console=ttyS0,115200 root=/dev/ram rw usb start fatload usb 0:1 0x1800000 uinitrd-kirkwood-installer fatload usb 0:1 0x6000000 uImage bootm 0x6000000 0x1800000 I didn't 'saveenv' though as you should only need to do this once. After installing armedslack from NFS to /dev/sda2 and rebooting, I again broke into mtd3 u-Boot and this time ran setenv bootargs console=ttyS0,115200 root=/dev/sda2 ro usb start fatload usb 0:1 0x1800000 uinitrd-kirkwood fatload usb 0:1 0x6000000 uImage bootm 0x6000000 0x1800000 Later, I used mkimage to combine an uncompressed kernel and initrd into a single 'multi' file and set my mtd3 u-Boot environment variables thus: setenv bootargs console=ttyS0,115200 root=/dev/sda2 ro setenv bootcmd usb start; fatload usb 0:1 0x6000000 uImage; bootm 0x6000000; reset saveenv I remember I had to put some quotes in that setenv bootcmd but darned if I can remember exactly what where. ;) If you would like a copy of my uImage w/ initrd just let me know (they are bone stock as distributed with armedslack); I find them easier to deal with than the two separate files. The regular one is 12MB and the installer is 19MB. I can also give you a copy of the uncompressed kernel by itself (4MB) but really someone needs to figure out out to boot the stock compressed one and then tell me how they did it. :) ___ /yler From thenktor at gmx.de Thu Aug 19 06:02:30 2010 From: thenktor at gmx.de (Thorsten =?ISO-8859-1?B?TfxobGZlbGRlcg==?=) Date: Thu, 19 Aug 2010 08:02:30 +0200 Subject: [ARMedslack] Hello In-Reply-To: <4C6C7529.5030301@comcast.net> References: <201008131344.46027.thenktor@gmx.de> <201008181725.10247.thenktor@gmx.de> <4C6C7529.5030301@comcast.net> Message-ID: <20100819080230.20c89a59@pinkfloyd.tm-net> Hi laprjns, what CPU/RAM/flash does the Seagate Dockstar have? Am Wed, 18 Aug 2010 20:04:57 -0400 schrieb Richard Lapointe : > I have a Dockstar coming directly from Seagate ($39 USD) and would > like to run ARMedslack on it. Is there a single site that provides > instructions on how I would go about this? Since I am using Salix on > my desktops, I want to replace my N2SLU running SlugOS with the > Dockstar running Slackware and then build some packages using Salix > packaging took, slkbuild. > > Thanks > > Rich Lapointe (laprjns) > > > On 08/18/2010 02:27 PM, Tyler T wrote: > >> Now I wonder if I should buy an IGEPv2 board. It seems very > >> promising. This indeed would be a nice thing to start a Salix > >> port. Does anybody have experience with this one? > >> > > Don't know anything about that but here's a forum posting about > > cheap ARM devices: > > http://plugapps.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=212. I have a > > DockStar myself; armedslack runs great on it (from a USB flash > > drive). I do have to chainload a better u-Boot though, detailed > > here: http://jeff.doozan.com/debian/uboot/. You'll also want a TTL > > serial console cable (http://ahsoftware.de/dockstar/). > > > > I wonder if USB DisplayLink hardware could work with one of these > > devices to create a "nettop" computer. > > _______________________________________________ > > ARMedslack mailing list > > ARMedslack at lists.armedslack.org > > http://lists.armedslack.org/mailman/listinfo/armedslack > > > > > _______________________________________________ > ARMedslack mailing list > ARMedslack at lists.armedslack.org > http://lists.armedslack.org/mailman/listinfo/armedslack From tylernt at gmail.com Thu Aug 19 06:39:19 2010 From: tylernt at gmail.com (Tyler T) Date: Thu, 19 Aug 2010 00:39:19 -0600 Subject: [ARMedslack] Hello In-Reply-To: <20100819080230.20c89a59@pinkfloyd.tm-net> References: <201008131344.46027.thenktor@gmx.de> <201008181725.10247.thenktor@gmx.de> <4C6C7529.5030301@comcast.net> <20100819080230.20c89a59@pinkfloyd.tm-net> Message-ID: > what CPU/RAM/flash does the Seagate Dockstar have? 1.2GHz ARMv5TE (Kirkwood), 128MB DDR RAM, 256MB flash. From sam.albuquerque at gmail.com Thu Aug 19 11:31:59 2010 From: sam.albuquerque at gmail.com (sam.albuquerque at gmail.com) Date: 19 Aug 2010 17:01:59 +0530 Subject: [ARMedslack] Stop a nuclear disaster Message-ID: <20100819113159.4030.qmail@greenpeace.in> An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From thenktor at gmx.de Tue Aug 24 20:24:44 2010 From: thenktor at gmx.de (Thorsten =?ISO-8859-1?B?TfxobGZlbGRlcg==?=) Date: Tue, 24 Aug 2010 22:24:44 +0200 Subject: [ARMedslack] Hello In-Reply-To: References: <201008131344.46027.thenktor@gmx.de> <201008181725.10247.thenktor@gmx.de> <4C6C7529.5030301@comcast.net> <20100819080230.20c89a59@pinkfloyd.tm-net> Message-ID: <20100824222444.231022c1@pinkfloyd.tm-net> I've ordered one of these Dockstars now. I cannot get any cheaper thing here (25 ? incl. shipping). Let's see what I can do with it. Am Thu, 19 Aug 2010 00:39:19 -0600 schrieb Tyler T : > > what CPU/RAM/flash does the Seagate Dockstar have? > > 1.2GHz ARMv5TE (Kirkwood), 128MB DDR RAM, 256MB flash. > _______________________________________________ > ARMedslack mailing list > ARMedslack at lists.armedslack.org > http://lists.armedslack.org/mailman/listinfo/armedslack From thenktor at gmx.de Sun Aug 29 15:38:48 2010 From: thenktor at gmx.de (Thorsten =?ISO-8859-1?B?TfxobGZlbGRlcg==?=) Date: Sun, 29 Aug 2010 17:38:48 +0200 Subject: [ARMedslack] Hello In-Reply-To: <20100824222444.231022c1@pinkfloyd.tm-net> References: <201008131344.46027.thenktor@gmx.de> <201008181725.10247.thenktor@gmx.de> <4C6C7529.5030301@comcast.net> <20100819080230.20c89a59@pinkfloyd.tm-net> <20100824222444.231022c1@pinkfloyd.tm-net> Message-ID: <20100829173848.150a7040@pinkfloyd.tm-net> OK, I've received my Seagate Freeagent Dockstar. I've flashed a new U-Boot loader to it. A description can be found here: http://www.plugapps.com/index.php5?title=PlugApps:Pogoplug_Setboot http://plugapps.com/os/pogoplug/uboot/ The board boots fine when the kirkwood kernel is used, that comes with the mini rootfs. Here is the cpuinfo: cat /proc/cpuinfo Processor : Feroceon 88FR131 rev 1 (v5l) BogoMIPS : 1192.75 Features : swp half thumb fastmult edsp CPU implementer : 0x56 CPU architecture: 5TE CPU variant : 0x2 CPU part : 0x131 CPU revision : 1 Hardware : Marvell SheevaPlug Reference Board Revision : 0000 Serial : 0000000000000000 Am Tue, 24 Aug 2010 22:24:44 +0200 schrieb Thorsten M?hlfelder : > I've ordered one of these Dockstars now. I cannot get any cheaper > thing here (25 ? incl. shipping). Let's see what I can do with it. > > Am Thu, 19 Aug 2010 00:39:19 -0600 > schrieb Tyler T : > > > > what CPU/RAM/flash does the Seagate Dockstar have? > > > > 1.2GHz ARMv5TE (Kirkwood), 128MB DDR RAM, 256MB flash. > > _______________________________________________ > > ARMedslack mailing list > > ARMedslack at lists.armedslack.org > > http://lists.armedslack.org/mailman/listinfo/armedslack > > _______________________________________________ > ARMedslack mailing list > ARMedslack at lists.armedslack.org > http://lists.armedslack.org/mailman/listinfo/armedslack From thenktor at gmx.de Sun Aug 29 15:41:24 2010 From: thenktor at gmx.de (Thorsten =?ISO-8859-1?B?TfxobGZlbGRlcg==?=) Date: Sun, 29 Aug 2010 17:41:24 +0200 Subject: [ARMedslack] Error in perl package Message-ID: <20100829174124.665990fa@pinkfloyd.tm-net> There is an error in the perl package: mv: cannot stat `usr/lib/perl5/5.10.0/arm-linux-gnueabi-thread-multi/perllocal.pod.new': No such file or directory WARNING: Post-installation script failed. (256) Actually the dir should be usr/lib/perl5/5.10.1 From m-lists at biscuit.org.uk Mon Aug 30 09:23:53 2010 From: m-lists at biscuit.org.uk (Stuart Winter) Date: Mon, 30 Aug 2010 10:23:53 +0100 (BST) Subject: [ARMedslack] Error in perl package In-Reply-To: <20100829174124.665990fa@pinkfloyd.tm-net> References: <20100829174124.665990fa@pinkfloyd.tm-net> Message-ID: > There is an error in the perl package: > mv: cannot stat > `usr/lib/perl5/5.10.0/arm-linux-gnueabi-thread-multi/perllocal.pod.new': > No such file or directory > WARNING: Post-installation script failed. (256) > > Actually the dir should be usr/lib/perl5/5.10.1 Thanks Thorsten. That's really weird - I don't know how the $VERSION became 5.10.0 in the build script when it got to the part that created the doinst.sh script. A mystery! A rebuild has fixed it though. From thenktor at gmx.de Tue Aug 31 09:32:29 2010 From: thenktor at gmx.de (Thorsten =?iso-8859-1?q?M=FChlfelder?=) Date: Tue, 31 Aug 2010 11:32:29 +0200 Subject: [ARMedslack] Setting up distcc for cross compiling Message-ID: <201008311132.29616.thenktor@gmx.de> Hi, is there a good guide how to set up distcc to build to help building arm packages on my x86_64 and i486 hosts? What I have right now: I've compiled the cross toolchain from ftp://ftp.armedslack.org/armedslack/armedslack-devtools/x-toolchain/ and installed it in /opt/arm/$LOCALARCH I've installed Armed Slack on my Seagate Freeagent Dockstar (1.2 GHz, 128 MB RAM). It should act as building host, so I've installed the needed development packages and already have built some packages there for testing purposes. Works fine, but slow so far. So what would I do next? All distcc how-tos I've found so far are for Gentoo or Debian and setup seems to differ greatly from my purpose. Usually I'd just try and error, but to save some time I first ask here this time. PS: Could the 128 MB RAM on my Dockstar be a problem, even if I use distcc? From m-lists at biscuit.org.uk Tue Aug 31 10:03:15 2010 From: m-lists at biscuit.org.uk (Stuart Winter) Date: Tue, 31 Aug 2010 11:03:15 +0100 (BST) Subject: [ARMedslack] Setting up distcc for cross compiling In-Reply-To: <201008311132.29616.thenktor@gmx.de> References: <201008311132.29616.thenktor@gmx.de> Message-ID: > 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. > 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. 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. -- Stuart Winter Slackware ARM: www.armedslack.org From thenktor at gmx.de Tue Aug 31 12:04:58 2010 From: thenktor at gmx.de (Thorsten =?iso-8859-15?q?M=FChlfelder?=) Date: Tue, 31 Aug 2010 14:04:58 +0200 Subject: [ARMedslack] Setting up distcc for cross compiling In-Reply-To: References: <201008311132.29616.thenktor@gmx.de> Message-ID: <201008311404.58604.thenktor@gmx.de> 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. From christophe.lyon at gmail.com Tue Aug 31 12:27:31 2010 From: christophe.lyon at gmail.com (Christophe Lyon) Date: Tue, 31 Aug 2010 14:27:31 +0200 Subject: [ARMedslack] Setting up distcc for cross compiling In-Reply-To: <201008311404.58604.thenktor@gmx.de> References: <201008311132.29616.thenktor@gmx.de> <201008311404.58604.thenktor@gmx.de> Message-ID: > 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 Why wouldn't you completely cross-build? I mean you don't have to link on your ARM box given that you have already installed cross-toolchains on your x86 hosts. > 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. Too bad shipping costs are so high between Germany & France :-( Christophe. From m-lists at biscuit.org.uk Tue Aug 31 12:52:35 2010 From: m-lists at biscuit.org.uk (Stuart Winter) Date: Tue, 31 Aug 2010 13:52:35 +0100 (BST) Subject: [ARMedslack] Setting up distcc for cross compiling In-Reply-To: References: <201008311132.29616.thenktor@gmx.de> <201008311404.58604.thenktor@gmx.de> Message-ID: > Why wouldn't you completely cross-build? I tried when I first started AS back in 2002 and it wasn't a lot of fun. Some will build nicely and easily, but there are some builds which require the just-compiled binaries to be executed in order to create data files or something like that. Also, when packages supply add ruby, perl, python bits are built, they look on the system to find what version you have, and then add them to the correctly versioned directory in your package. I don't know how you'd get this working easily and with minimal overhead in a cross environment. I think since 2002 a lot of work has been done, especially by Debian, to make packages more amenable to cross compiling, but ultiamtely if you have a fast enough native host, it's far easier to build natively and use distcc in the way I do. At least this is my finding. From tylernt at gmail.com Tue Aug 31 12:55:12 2010 From: tylernt at gmail.com (Tyler T) Date: Tue, 31 Aug 2010 06:55:12 -0600 Subject: [ARMedslack] Setting up distcc for cross compiling In-Reply-To: <201008311132.29616.thenktor@gmx.de> References: <201008311132.29616.thenktor@gmx.de> Message-ID: > PS: Could the 128 MB RAM on my Dockstar be a problem, even if I use distcc? I compiled MythTV on my DockStar using distcc so my SheevaPlug could do all the grunt work (not cross-compiling in my case). RAM and CPU consumption on the 'Star were very very low except linking; I had to add 32MB of swap to successfully link during one portion of the compile. So it depends on the size of the software you're compiling -- usually, you will be fine. If you had a hard disk drive, then adding a little swap is probably all you need. If you don't want to set up cross-compiling, you can use a VM somebody else created as a distcc host: http://plugcomputer.org/plugforum/index.php?topic=1928.0 From thenktor at gmx.de Tue Aug 31 16:25:47 2010 From: thenktor at gmx.de (Thorsten =?windows-1252?q?M=FChlfelder?=) Date: Tue, 31 Aug 2010 18:25:47 +0200 Subject: [ARMedslack] Setting up distcc for cross compiling In-Reply-To: References: <201008311132.29616.thenktor@gmx.de> <201008311404.58604.thenktor@gmx.de> Message-ID: <201008311825.47923.thenktor@gmx.de> Am Tuesday 31 August 2010 14:27:31 schrieb Christophe Lyon: > > 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 > > Why wouldn't you completely cross-build? I mean you don't have to link > on your ARM box given that you have already installed cross-toolchains > on your x86 hosts. How would I make sure that all dependencies will be found then? I guess I have to set up some kind of chroot with the arm packages installed in? So far I've only cross compiled programs without any dependencies or kernels. > > 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. > > Too bad shipping costs are so high between Germany & France :-( I've seen it somewhere in France for 19 ?, too. But IIRC this was one of these one-day-offers.