Re: [gentoo-embedded] Howto guide or something?

[Ned Ludd]

On Wed, 2004-11-10 at 14:48, Tyler Akins wrote:
> Hi!  I'd ideally like to get X and a few apps on an Aquapad (x86
> instruction set).  I like the idea of Gentoo embedded, so I installed it
> on a box.  Thus, I am a newbie to this flavor of Linux, but I still have
> experience with other variations.  I've been hanging out on this list
> and I see the stage tarballs here and there (lost the URLs at the
> moment, but they are around somewhere), but I'm so amazingly new to
> Gentoo that I don't know what to do with them besides "tar xvfj".
>
> So, now that I have a nearly blank hard drive and the most basic
> components of Gentoo installed, I was wondering what I should do next.
> Is there a howto document or something laying around?  Or, perhaps
> people could show a few sample instructions and provide a few steps to
> get me started?  Some sample commands for compiling a library or one of
> the things that X requires?
>
> Ideally, I would like to create an image for other poor souls who are
> using the Aquapad.
I would be interested in knowing what patches you have to add in order
to support the Aquapad. I've not worked with these yet. But I know it's
a matter of time before I'm making something with them.


> I would like to get firefox going at the very
> least.

that might take some time.

> Once that works, everything else should be a downhill battle.



> If there is no documentation, maybe a wiki could be started so that
> people can share their instructions with the world, or information could
> be dumped into gentoo-wiki.com.  I, for one, would be very appreciative
> of some sort of documentation that I could refer to and possibly enhance
> when snags get hit and whatnot.

Sounds fine. You should start posting what you know there/here..

>
> If I missed this information in the past few months that I've been
> subscribed to this list, please forgive my inability to read and kindly
> remind me where the documentation is.

Nobody has joined the project that is interested in documenting the misc
processes.


> Additionally, I was wondering what the definiton of "embedded" was for
> this list.  I am working with a laptop (more or less) with CF instead of
> a hard drive and a touchscreen instead of a keyboard/mouse.  Is this
> meant more for routers and other hardware without much of a user
> interface, or would kiosks and cheap-cheap computers possibly fit into
> this category?

I don't think this list can really define what "embedded" is as
"embedded" means nearly something different to everybody and what they
are building. I'd say it's a pretty safe bet to assume most of us are
working with SBC's vs say micro controllers.

> On an unrelated side note, my Gentoo box locks up after X minutes of
> inactivity (me not touching the keyboard).  As long as I'm there to tap
> the space bar or something every 20 minutes, it is fine.  I think that
> 30 minutes is the magic number for the lockups.  The screen is blank
> (setterm didn't keep the screen on for some reason) and the computer is
> completely unresponsive (from both the keyboard and from the network).
> Any idea what I have misconfigured?

perhaps check that your apm is all setup correctly and supported by the
device your using and that xscreensaver is disabled.



> Oh, I also wonder if there are any good programs that a tablet computer
> should have.  I've been thinking of festival, a lite X client (icewm?
> matchbox?), a read-only filesystem (ext3? reiserfs? JFFS2? cloop?),
> firefox, handwriting recognition, etc.

I would not use ext3 on any embedded device.
A few weeks ago a very informed user posted to this list about file
systems for CF and he was very willing to explain in detail to anybody
that wanted to know. So perhaps you want to find that thread and Re: to
it and ask your questions there.

> Thanks a bundle for any advice offered!!
>
> -- Tyler
>
>
> --
> gentoo-embedded@g.o mailing list
-- 
Ned Ludd <solar@g.o>
Gentoo (hardened,security,infrastructure,embedded) Developer