Gentoo Archives: gentoo-embedded

From: Marcelo Coelho <marcelocoelho@×××××.com>
To: gentoo-embedded@l.g.o
Subject: Re: [gentoo-embedded] ADSL router + firewall + PoPToP....
Date: Wed, 28 Jun 2006 14:03:39
Message-Id: 20c6f18e0606280701k19bfba27t5606009c0420a94e@mail.gmail.com
In Reply to: Re: [gentoo-embedded] ADSL router + firewall + PoPToP.... by Natanael Copa
1 > I have been playing with the thought of a hybrid (...) mounted as noexec.
2
3 That, i think, is a great idea. I'd only prefer to have the config
4 files on disk (read-only) also.
5
6
7 > I want to save space but dont expect to reboot so often. We are solving
8 > different problems. :)
9
10 Yap!
11
12
13 > Do you have the firmware (and drivers) in gentoo portage? what ebuilds?
14
15 It works fine if the system is working for a while after boot up.
16 Ebuilds required are:
17 hotplug; ueagle-atm and the ADSL and ppp related: br2684ctl, ....
18
19
20 > busybox should be enough.
21
22 Then maybe i won't play with it this night, but maybe one of these
23 days. Have to learn how-to play with busybox first... :)
24
25
26
27 Thanks for the help!
28
29
30
31 2006/6/28, Natanael Copa <natanael.copa@×××××.com>:
32 > On Wed, 2006-06-28 at 14:28 +0100, Marcelo Coelho wrote:
33 > > > Its designed for routers, firewalls, small servers without harddisk.
34 > >
35 > > I need the disk for p2p temp files... But the idea of having all the
36 > > software in ram is very appealing...
37 >
38 > I have been playing with the thought of a hybrid. You load all runtimes
39 > (binary executables) into RAM and run them from RAM. But you mount
40 > a /var partition on disk (maybe an encrypted partition?). You have your
41 > software on readonly cdrom, your configuration on floppy/usb and your
42 > data (/var) on disk, mounted as noexec.
43 >
44 > > Also, the usb ports come from a
45 > > pci card that i bought so i think (never tested it) that it won't boot
46 > > from usb, only floppy.
47 >
48 > There are floppy images on the iso image for booting from both cdrom and
49 > usb. usb.flp has drivers needed to load the system from usb.
50 >
51 > > >They are slow. For fast boots, i'd try to make initng work. (but its big)
52 > >
53 > > I don't mind, i still have space :)
54 >
55 > I want to save space but dont expect to reboot so often. We are solving
56 > different problems. :)
57 >
58 > > But i still have a problem: my ADSL modem is USB, and when i boot the
59 > > pc the modem requires a firmware to be downloaded into it.
60 >
61 > Do you have the firmware (and drivers) in gentoo portage? what ebuilds?
62 >
63 > > The normal
64 > > baselayout doesn't do that (or the pc takes too long and the modem
65 > > times out or maybe a bug??) in due time, so it's a question that i
66 > > have to cover, nevertheless, i'll try your baselayout.
67 > >
68 > > Do i have to install anything besides the source package?
69 >
70 > busybox should be enough.
71 >
72 > > > You can probably reuse parts of it. The source package is here:
73 > > > http://tanael.org/alpine/baselayout-alpine/baselayout-alpine-0.9.6.tar.gz
74 > >
75 > >
76 > >
77 > > Thanks!!
78 > >
79 > >
80 > >
81 > > 2006/6/28, Natanael Copa <natanael.copa@×××××.com>:
82 > > > On Wed, 2006-06-28 at 13:56 +0100, Marcelo Coelho wrote:
83 > > > > What about a bootchart? Is there one available?
84 > > >
85 > > > no sorry.
86 > > >
87 > > > > My system is a normal stripped down gentoo install (for now). I'm
88 > > > > making some scripts to make the build process automatic in a build
89 > > > > host and create a tarball with it. My pc doesn't boot from cd-rom...
90 > > > > :(
91 > > >
92 > > > Does it boot from usb?
93 > > > http://tanael.org/alpine/v1.1/usbdrive/
94 > > >
95 > > > Does it boot from floppy? there are floppy images on the iso that will
96 > > > load the kernel from floppy, cdrom drivers and then load the rest from
97 > > > cdrom.
98 > > >
99 > > > > (When i'm satisfied with the results i'll post an how-to at
100 > > > > gentoo-wiki. :) ). So what i want is stability and boot up speed.
101 > > > > I don't test initng for a while, and when i did i didn't had good
102 > > > > results, but for what i want it _may_ be good enough, but if the boot
103 > > > > time is similar to your baselayout, i'll use it instead...
104 > > >
105 > > > They are slow. For fast boots, i'd try to make initng work. (but its
106 > > > big)
107 > > >
108 > > > Might be that its fast enough for you if you dont need the
109 > > > coldplugging.
110 > > >
111 > > > > In the mean time, what you want to say with "But its designed to load
112 > > > > binary packages to ram
113 > > > > during boot, LEAF style." ?
114 > > >
115 > > > It means that is pulls in runtime packages during boot to a tmpfs. All
116 > > > runtimes (binary pacakges) are loaded into ram during boot instead of
117 > > > the classical livecd approch where you mount a squashfs or uninonfs on a
118 > > > cdrom.
119 > > >
120 > > > The drawback is long boot times (you need to install all your packages
121 > > > every time you boot)
122 > > >
123 > > > The benefit is you prevent delays caused by cdrom spinning up
124 > > > (everything is in ram so responsetimes should even be faster than from
125 > > > disk) and you can do (security) updates without rebooting.
126 > > >
127 > > > Its designed for routers, firewalls, small servers without harddisk.
128 > > >
129 > > > >
130 > > > > Thanks!
131 > > > >
132 > > > >
133 > > > >
134 > > > >
135 > > > > 2006/6/28, Natanael Copa <natanael.copa@×××××.com>:
136 > > > > > On Wed, 2006-06-28 at 07:46 -0400, Ned Ludd wrote:
137 > > > > > > On Wed, 2006-06-28 at 11:09 +0200, Natanael Copa wrote:
138 > > > > > > > On Wed, 2006-06-28 at 09:53 +0100, Marcelo Coelho wrote:
139 > > > > > > > > > no not at all. the baselayout-lite one does not depend on bash what so
140 > > > > > > > > > ever and includes pretty much no init/conf scripts. You get to hack on
141 > > > > > > > > > your own init scripts, which is a trivial task.
142 > > > > > > > >
143 > > > > > > > > Well, i have to use a different baselayout. The boot time is far too
144 > > > > > > > > long to be acceptable and there is a problem with hotplug (an error
145 > > > > > > > > appears that the firmware isn't available). But i don't know if it's
146 > > > > > > > > easier to make my init scripts or use initng.
147 > > > > > > >
148 > > > > > > > I have made a baselyaout with a stripped down version of runscript that
149 > > > > > > > will run the many init.d script from gentoo out of the box.
150 > > > > > > >
151 > > > > > > > Let me know if you are interested and I'll send you the sources
152 > > > > > >
153 > > > > > >
154 > > > > > > Does not depend on bash?
155 > > > > >
156 > > > > > no
157 > > > > >
158 > > > > > > Works with ash? :)
159 > > > > >
160 > > > > > yes :)
161 > > > > >
162 > > > > > or... I'm actually using dash currently because coldplugging takes like
163 > > > > > 3 minutes with ash and 5 seconds with dash. (its fixed in next release
164 > > > > > of busybox so I'll drop dash)
165 > > > > >
166 > > > > > > If so I think we would all be interested in moving fwd in that
167 > > > > > > direction. Feel like putting together an updated baselayout-lite ebuild?
168 > > > > >
169 > > > > > I have one already. But its designed to load binary packages to ram
170 > > > > > during boot, LEAF style.
171 > > > > >
172 > > > > > rsync://tanael.org/alpine-portage/sys-apps/baselayout-alpine/
173 > > > > >
174 > > > > > You can probably reuse parts of it. The source package is here:
175 > > > > > http://tanael.org/alpine/baselayout-alpine/baselayout-alpine-0.9.6.tar.gz
176 > > > > >
177 > > > > > I kind of immitate runlevels, (using rc0.d, rc1.d etc) but the big
178 > > > > > difference from normal sysv is that *all* runlevels or "boot stages" are
179 > > > > > executed.
180 > > > > >
181 > > > > > I had to patch some of the init.d scripts. Typically it was replacing:
182 > > > > >
183 > > > > > if [ expr && expr ] ...
184 > > > > >
185 > > > > > with:
186 > > > > >
187 > > > > > if [ expr ] && [ expr ] ...
188 > > > > >
189 > > > > > If we could get the init.d script writers to try to not be too bashish,
190 > > > > > it would be great.
191 > > > > >
192 > > > > > If there is interrest I could dump my patches somwhere.
193 > > > > >
194 > > > > > If you want to see it in action, try:
195 > > > > > http://tanael.org/alpine/v1.1/iso/alpine-1.1.3_beta8-060622-i386.iso
196 > > > > >
197 > > > > > Its 125Mb
198 > > > > >
199 > > > > >
200 > > > > > --
201 > > > > > gentoo-embedded@g.o mailing list
202 > > > > >
203 > > > > >
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