TinyBSD Call For Testers

[Patrick Tracanelli]

Igor Pokrovsky wrote:
> On Mon, Jul 18, 2005 at 03:17:52PM -0300, Jean Milanez Melo wrote:
> 
>>Hello gentlemen,
>>
>>In the last saturday a new port has been added under sysutils/ category, 
>>ports/sysutils/tinybsd. TinyBSD is a tool which was meant to allow an 
>>easy way to build embedded systems based on FreeBSD. It is based on 
>>userland copying, library dependencies check/copy and kernel build.
> 
> 
> What's wrong with PicoBSD?
> 
> -ip
> 

PicoBSD is architectural different.

It is a single crunched program which once loaded is kept always in 
memory, while live systems such as TinyBSD, nanobsd, and usually live 
CDs load to memory what it needs from the main storage device (cf card, 
pendrive, cd, whatever). So it is different at all. After that, PicoBSD 
worked very fine before the last releases on RELENG_4, while at RELENG_5 
it became quite hard to build without problems. I personally enjoy 
PicoBSD a lot, but it is not an available choice nowadays, 'cos of 
building issues. On the other hand, Luigi has recently made a number of 
changes which puts PicoBSD back into "yes, it builds" state, which is 
great! But in RELENG_5 it stills not accomplishing its goal stated in 
picobsd(8), which is:

picobsd -- floppy disk based FreeBSD system

..."try to keep them functional and fitting in the 1.44MB floppy despite 
the unavoidable increases in the size of the kernel and its applications"

In fact fs.picobsd has ~ 1.4MB, plus the kernel, which could take it to 
~3MB total size. Maybe in a 2.8 floppy it would fit today, but it is 
somehow different from what used to be in RELENG_4.

Anyway, there is nothing wrong w/ PicoBSD. It is just different.

-- 
Patrick Tracanelli

FreeBSD Brasil LTDA.
(31) 3281-9633 / 3281-3547
sip://316601@sip.freebsdbrasil.com.br
http://www.freebsdbrasil.com.br
"Long live Hanin Elias, Kim Deal!"