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annotate www/index.html @ 31:3e2c3a3095d8
Update web page.
| author | Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> |
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| date | Sun, 10 Dec 2006 23:31:28 -0500 |
| parents | bed493dc4358 |
| children | 21e058fa3676 |
| rev | line source |
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| 0 | 1 <html> |
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A real web page, and description of the build process.
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2 <title>Firmware Linux</title> |
| 0 | 3 <body> |
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4 <h1>Firmware Linux</h1> |
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| 31 | 6 <b><h2>News</h2></b> |
| 7 <p><a href=http://landley.net/hg/firmware?cl=27>Changeset 27</a> builds | |
| 8 a relocatable armv4l cross-compile toolchain! Download the tarball, | |
| 9 run ./download.sh, then run ./build.sh, then grab the "build/cross-compiler" | |
| 10 directory and use "bin/armv4l-unknown-linux-gnu-gcc" out of that (which | |
| 11 I admit is a bit of a mouthful, for which I blame the FSF).</p> | |
| 12 | |
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13 <b><h2>What is it?</h2></b> |
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14 |
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15 <p>Firmware Linux is an embedded Linux distribution builder that creates a |
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16 bootable single file Linux system, based on uClibc and BusyBox/toybox. It's |
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17 basically a shell script that builds a complete Linux system from source code.</p> |
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18 |
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19 <p>FWL builds a cross-compiler and then uses it to build a minimal system |
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20 containing a native compiler, BusyBox and uClibc. Then it runs this minimal |
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21 system under an emulator (QEMU) and natively builds the final system. Finally |
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22 it packages the resulting system (kernel, initramfs, and root filesystem) into |
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23 one big bootable file.</p> |
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24 |
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25 <p>Here is a description of <a href=design.html>the design of Firmware |
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26 Linux</a>. That's the new (QEMU-based, capable of cross-compiling for non-x86) |
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27 design I'm working on now. The old (UML-based, x86 only) design is described |
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28 below.</p> |
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29 |
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30 <b><h2>Download</h2></b> |
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31 |
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32 <p>The current stuff is available from <a href=/hg/firmware>the mercurial |
| 12 | 33 repository</a>. That's the new (QEMU-based, capable of cross-compiling for |
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34 different hardware platforms) design I'm working on now, and where new |
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35 development happens. To use it, download the tarball and run "./build.sh".</p> |
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36 |
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37 <p>The old (UML-based, x86 only) design is still available from <a href=old>the |
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38 old website</a>, which is hideously out of date but contains a working |
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39 (ancient) version.</p> |
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40 |
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41 <b><h2>Documentation</h2></b> |
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42 |
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43 <p>Here's a quick <a href=build-process.html>overview of the Firmware Linux |
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44 build process</a>.</p> |
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45 |
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46 <p>Here is a description of <a href=design.html>the design of Firmware |
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47 Linux</a>.</p> |
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48 |
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49 <p>As always, read <a href=/notes.html>my development log</a> to see what I've |
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50 been up to on this project. |
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51 |
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52 <b><h2>History</h2></b> |
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53 |
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54 <p>I've been working on this project on and off since 1999, it's what |
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55 got me into BusyBox and uClibc and compilers and so on. Now it's where I put |
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56 together everything else I'm doing (like toybox and tinygcc) to see what |
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57 actually works and give it a good stress-test. (Eating your own dogfood, |
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58 and all that.)</p> |
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59 |
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60 <p>When the Firmware Linux project started, busybox applets like sed and sort |
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61 weren't powerful enough to handle the "./configure; make; make install" of |
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62 packages like binutils or gcc. Busybox was usable in an embedded router or |
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63 rescue floppy, but trying to get real work done with it revealed numerous |
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64 bugs and limitations.</p> |
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65 |
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66 <p>So I spent about 3 years improving Busybox (and pestering other people into |
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67 improving their bits), and along the way accidentally become the BusyBox |
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68 maintainer (at least until the project's crazy-uncle founder showed up and |
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69 <a href=http://lwn.net/Articles/202106/>drove me away again</a>). The result |
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70 is that in Firmware Linux, Busybox now functions as an effective replacement |
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71 for bzip2, coreutils, diffutils, e2fsprogs, file, findutils, gawk, grep, |
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72 inetutils, less, modutils, net-tools, patch, procps, sed, shadow, sysklogd, |
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73 sysvinit, tar, util-linux, and vim. I was in the process of writing a new |
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74 shell to replace bash with when I left.</p> |
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75 |
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76 <p>Firmware Linux stalled while I was BusyBox maintainer (2005-2006) due to |
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77 lack of time, and since that ended most of my spare programming time has gone |
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78 into launching toybox. But one of the main goals of toybox is to replace |
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79 BusyBox in Firmware Linux, so as toybox matures it'll naturally lead to more |
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80 of my time spent working on FWL.</p> |
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81 |
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82 <p>My server does not currently run on Firmware Linux. Making it do so |
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83 is a TODO item. After that, I'd like to get it to the point where I can |
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84 use it on my laptop. :)</p> |
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85 |
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86 <h2>Contact</h2> |
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87 |
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88 <p>My name is Rob Landley and my email address is rob@landley.net. |
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89 My <a href=notes.html>development log</a> is probably the best way to keep |
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90 track of what I'm working on, although I'll start a mailing list if enough |
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91 people pester me.</p> |
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92 |
| 31 | 93 <p>I need to reorganize this web page.</p> |
| 94 | |
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95 </body> |
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96 </html> |