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I CC this to gentoo-embedded since it is related to both. |
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Mike Noyes wrote: |
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>On Mon, 2005-08-22 at 10:25, Homer Parker wrote: |
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> |
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> |
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>>The Gentoo Network APpliance (GNAP) is an embedded distro using 2.6 and |
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>>initramfs. |
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>> |
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>> |
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> |
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>Homer, |
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>It looks like Bering uClibc for kernel 2.6. The only bad thing I see is |
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>GNAPs 16MB footprint. This is probably caused by the kernel and lack of |
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>busybox in GNAP. |
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> |
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> |
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FYI. |
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I have been working on a proof-of-concept distro lately that I would |
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like to describe as something in between GNAP and Bering uClibc. The |
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codename is Alpine. |
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It is similar to leaf-bering in the way that it runs from RAM, it |
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unpacks packages, runtime modules, at boottime into RAM, just like |
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bering. The package format is apk, a homebrewn package format very |
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similar lrp. The biggest differences are that it compresses the metadata |
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files (/var/lib/apkdb/*.list etc), that it can pull packages from http |
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and that it has simple dependency handling (apk_add -r tcpdump |
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will also install libpcap). I think I have mentioned apk-tools here |
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before. Since then, I have registered apk-tools as a sourceforge |
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project: http://sourceforge.net/projects/apk-tools/ |
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It is similar to bering because its uses uclibc/busybox |
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It is similar to GNAP in the way that it is based on gentoo ebuilds and |
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that it uses 2.6 kernel, otherwise it is more like leaf. |
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It uses inird and not initramfs (I havent really seen the point in |
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initramfs yet) |
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The purpose is a Bearing uClibc like distro that is scaleable, that can |
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update packages without rebooting (you would need to reboot GNAP if a |
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flaw is found in a package) and tha should be able to run from disk if |
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needed. It uses awfully much RAM if you compare to Bearing uClibc, but |
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on the other hand, it should support more hardware out of the box. |
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Other things that can be said about Alpine: it uses udev and hotplug for |
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autodetection of hardware. |
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It uses many gentoo init scripts nativly by using a port of |
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runscript/runscript.sh that works with busybox (actually it uses dash |
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because busybox ash is awfully slow for scripts) |
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It is built on gentoo hardened, so everything is build with SSP, PIC |
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etc. and kernel uses grsec patches. I have also a non-hardened branch |
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but main focus is on hardened. |
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There are over 250 packages compiled. (including mdadm, lvm2, squid, |
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samba, gdb, strace etc...) |
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There is virutally no documentation. |
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The cd is still alpha but current version can (currently) be downloaded |
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from http://jv.lmdata.net/alpine/testing/isoimages/ |
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oh... there is also some livecd's for compiling uclibc/hardened stuff |
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with distcc that I have been using for this. |
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http://sourceforge.net/projects/distcc-livecd |
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This is a temprary site until I have found a proper bandwith sponsor. |
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-- |
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Natanael Copa |
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-- |
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