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On Wed, 13 Jul 2011 11:54:40 +0100, Ed W wrote: |
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> On 07/07/2011 16:27, Christopher Harvey wrote: |
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>> I was wondering if there was any interest in adding a script that |
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>> could |
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>> generate a bootable linux filesystem from a cross compiled target |
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>> directory. |
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> |
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> I would be happy to work with you on this - however, I also saw on |
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> Planet Gentoo something about a gentoaster project - possibly |
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> related? |
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> http://hexxeh.net/?p=328117725 |
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possibly, but I don't understand the whole web based thing. |
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> |
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> What I have is a very simple portage-a-like to support the case that |
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> I |
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> have several stages to my script. |
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> |
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> - Mounting all necessary sources |
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> - Building a base system |
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> - Copying base to target ready to be imaged |
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> - Image |
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> - Unmount |
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> |
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> Additionally I am trying a packaging system using aufs + squashfs, so |
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> I |
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> am building more than one target image and the whole gets stacked |
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> together at the end |
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> |
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> The scripting is fairly simple, but I guess this could develop into |
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> some |
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> best practices..? |
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yeah my script is a mess, but I still think it useful because it gets |
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all the basic steps down which I know would help some people. |
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> |
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> Arguably this is re-inventing catalyst, but speaking from |
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> inexperience, |
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> catalyst appears to work best when the ebuilds are perfect and need |
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> to |
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> micro patching - for embedded builds some flexibility is very |
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> helpful. |
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Well, catalyst was designed to build a gentoo image. I want to build |
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embedded images that have nothing gentoo specific about them. No |
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portage, no python, no eselect or anything else like that. |
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> |
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> Patching ebuilds in mind: I have been experimenting with |
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> /etc/portage/patches and also the bashrc for broad patching, eg where |
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> some long standing patch or config customisation is necessary (eg |
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> delete |
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> some openrc file which makes no sense, or customise some udev config, |
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> etc) |
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I've never heard of that file, '/etc/portage/patches', and can't find |
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it in man portage. |
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> |
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> I guess if we could get this well written up then it would encourage |
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> others to look at gentoo for embedded development? At the moment |
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> it's |
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> very powerful, but I sense there is a steep learning curve while you |
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> develop your own build environment? |
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> |
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> How do you think we should proceed? |
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There always is a learning curve for embedded and it will be impossible |
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to support every single configuration for every single board. Basically |
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my plan was to try to logically split all the steps in making a |
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filesystem image and put them into a clear well documented bash script, |
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then let users tweak it by calling hooks at each step. Hopefully after a |
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while if people start adding steps and options it would support most |
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base filesystem images people want to boot a machine with. |
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|
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I can drop what a have so far into a git repo and we can go from there |
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taking the best from each of our scripts. Do you want to make the repo |
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or should I? |
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> |
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> Ed W |
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|
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-Chris |