FreeBSD embedded: TinyBSD

Wed Jul 21 08:33:17 PDT 2004

HI there boys.
I'm writing to Uruguay
I'm interested in TinyBSD, I'd like to know if the term ebeded refers
only to the *size* or if you have been tweking the kernel code.

I'm working with Some GEODE stuff, using linux, I'm using the terminals
just like that, remote PXE booting with nfs-root.

I'd like to have access to your project to give it a try with this
enviroment.

Thanx.

On 21/7/2004, "Jean Milanez Melo" <jmelo-lists at freebsdbrasil.com.br>
wrote:

>On Wed, 2004-07-21 at 08:58, Patrick Gardella wrote:
>> Is there a web page for TinyBSD?
>>
>> patrick
>
>
>Not yet, but we're going to make one if people like the project and it
>  gets well accepted by the community. We're definatelly putting up a
>lot
>  of documentation on that page, though. We haven't done so yet because
>  currently it's way too simple, as you can run it knowing only the
>  information regarding the target device.
>
>  For example, assuming a 32MB flash memory, one could use the following
>  parameters to create an embedded system:
>
> ./tinybsd.sh 62592 4 32
>
> Or optionally the name of the output image you want:
>
> ./tinybsd.sh 62592 4 32 myimage.bin
>
>- Jean Milanez Melo
>
>>
>> On Jul 20, 2004, at 11:48 AM, Jean Milanez Melo wrote:
>>
>> > Hello current,
>> >
>> >   Please allow me to introduce myself, I'm one of the coordinators of
>> >   the Brazilian FreeBSD Users group, coordinator of the official
>> >   FreeBSD documentation's translation group and have been working with
>> >   embedded FreeBSD systems since year 2000.
>> >
>> >   I've been studying NanoBSD ever since Poul-Henning posted about it
>> > on one of
>> >   the mailling lists, and I have been following this project closely.
>> > It
>> >   really is a great project.
>> >
>> >   However, I think it sometimes creates unnecessary partitions, takes
>> >   too long to build the system due to make world and it copies lots of
>> >   unneeded binaries, taking a lot of precious space.
>> >
>> >   So me and Patrick Tracanelli (another active member of the Brazilian
>> >   FreeBSD community) decided to write a new set of scripts to build
>> >   embedded systems. We've named it TinyBSD, and its goal is to be
>> > faster
>> >   at building-time, occupy less space on the target device and to ease
>> >   customization like PicoBSD does.
>> >
>> >   Untar/gzip the tinybsd.tgz file under /usr/src/release.
>> >
>> >   # ls
>> >   TINYBSD            TODO               tinybsd.basefiles  tinybsd.sh
>> >
>> >   We first take the file TINYBSD, which like in PicoBSD we can use to
>> >   define or remove all kernel options to the new system.
>> >
>> >   Then we have tinybsd.basefiles, where we define all binaries
>> > necessary
>> >   to get the system running and anyone can edit it as they will.
>> >
>> >   Finally we have the script itself, tinybsd.sh. It's a simple script,
>> >   yet functional. We based it on NanoBSD's and its idea is to create a
>> >   temporary work directory where the new system's directory tree will
>> > be
>> >   created. Then it'll copy all files listed on tinybsd.basefiles to
>> > this
>> >   tree. This copying process is essential to the speed of the building
>> >   process, as we eliminate the recompiling phase. The reason for this
>> > is
>> >   FreeBSD 5.1' dynamically-linked base system, which take much less
>> >   space than the old statically-linked ones. This way we can also do
>> > the
>> >   copying without affecting the production system in any way.
>> >
>> >   After all this, we compile the kernel using the TINYBSD file and then
>> >   we install the necessary libs using the dependencies' output from the
>> >   binaries. We populate the /etc directory on the temp work directory
>> >   and put in a few important default settings in /etc/rc.conf, like:
>> >
>> >   hostname="tinybsd.freebsd.org"
>> >   sendmail_enable="NONE"
>> >   sshd_enable="YES"
>> >   usbd_enable="NO"
>> >   inetd_enable="NO"
>> >   portmap_enable="NO"
>> >   update_motd="NO"
>> >   varsize="8192"
>> >   diskless_mount="/etc/rc.d/diskless"
>> >
>> >   Lastly, we create the empty image according to the specifications for
>> >   the device passed in as a parameter and copy the entire temp
>> > directory
>> >   to the new image. After that, the user can use dd to write the final
>> >   image to the target device.
>> >
>> >   Booting the system works as embedded systems do, mounting /var and
>> >   /tmp as MFS filesystems.
>> >
>> >   The most interesting point is the space used by default, only 19MB.
>> >
>> >   As you can see, it's pretty simple. But since PicoBSD is practically
>> >   unusable with the 5.x series, TinyBSD could be an interesting
>> >   alternative along with NanoBSD to be put on the base system in future
>> >   versions.
>> >
>> >   Patrick and I have been thinking of enhancing the script and adding
>> >   end-user helping tools such dialog-based menus and the likes, for
>> > more
>> >   details see our TODO file. In case the FreeBSD project has any
>> > interest
>> >   in our project, we can perfectly maintain TinyBSD as an embedded
>> > option
>> >   for FreeBSD users.
>> >
>> >   We would like that the interested parties make tests and then
>> >   report bug, sends sugestions to improve the TinyBSD.
>> >
>> >   Thank you for your attention
>> >   Jean Milanez Melo
>> > <tinybsd.tgz>_______________________________________________
>> > freebsd-current at freebsd.org mailing list
>> > http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-current
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>>
>>
>
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