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Missing a close tag.
author Rob Landley <rob@landley.net>
date Thu, 30 Nov 2006 17:02:46 -0500
parents f8c588578fa1
children 3e2c3a3095d8
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9b6afefcc082 Whee, a mercurial repository!
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1 <html>
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2907d5193cf6 A real web page, and description of the build process.
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2 <title>Firmware Linux</title>
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3 <body>
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4 <h1>Firmware Linux</h1>
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2907d5193cf6 A real web page, and description of the build process.
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6 <b><h2>What is it?</h2></b>
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7
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8 <p>Firmware Linux is an embedded Linux distribution builder that creates a
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9 bootable single file Linux system, based on uClibc and BusyBox/toybox. It's
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10 basically a shell script that builds a complete Linux system from source code.</p>
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12 <p>FWL builds a cross-compiler and then uses it to build a minimal system
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13 containing a native compiler, BusyBox and uClibc. Then it runs this minimal
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14 system under an emulator (QEMU) and natively builds the final system. Finally
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15 it packages the resulting system (kernel, initramfs, and root filesystem) into
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16 one big bootable file.</p>
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2907d5193cf6 A real web page, and description of the build process.
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18 <p>Here is a description of <a href=design.html>the design of Firmware
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19 Linux</a>. That's the new (QEMU-based, capable of cross-compiling for non-x86)
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20 design I'm working on now. The old (UML-based, x86 only) design is described
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21 below.</p>
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2907d5193cf6 A real web page, and description of the build process.
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23 <b><h2>Download</h2></b>
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24
2907d5193cf6 A real web page, and description of the build process.
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25 <p>The current stuff is available from <a href=/hg/firmware>the mercurial
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26 repository</a>. That's the new (QEMU-based, capable of cross-compiling for
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27 different hardware platforms) design I'm working on now, and where new
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28 development happens. To use it, download the tarball and run "./build.sh".</p>
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2907d5193cf6 A real web page, and description of the build process.
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30 <p>The old (UML-based, x86 only) design is still available from <a href=old>the
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31 old website</a>, which is hideously out of date but contains a working
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32 (ancient) version.</p>
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2907d5193cf6 A real web page, and description of the build process.
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34 <b><h2>Documentation</h2></b>
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35
2907d5193cf6 A real web page, and description of the build process.
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36 <p>Here's a quick <a href=build-process.html>overview of the Firmware Linux
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37 build process</a>.</p>
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38
2907d5193cf6 A real web page, and description of the build process.
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39 <p>Here is a description of <a href=design.html>the design of Firmware
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40 Linux</a>.</p>
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41
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42 <p>As always, read <a href=/notes.html>my development log</a> to see what I've
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43 been up to on this project.
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44
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45 <b><h2>History</h2></b>
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46
2907d5193cf6 A real web page, and description of the build process.
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47 <p>I've been working on this project on and off since 1999, it's what
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48 got me into BusyBox and uClibc and compilers and so on. Now it's where I put
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49 together everything else I'm doing (like toybox and tinygcc) to see what
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50 actually works and give it a good stress-test. (Eating your own dogfood,
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51 and all that.)</p>
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53 <p>When the Firmware Linux project started, busybox applets like sed and sort
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54 weren't powerful enough to handle the "./configure; make; make install" of
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55 packages like binutils or gcc. Busybox was usable in an embedded router or
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56 rescue floppy, but trying to get real work done with it revealed numerous
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57 bugs and limitations.</p>
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58
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59 <p>So I spent about 3 years improving Busybox (and pestering other people into
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60 improving their bits), and along the way accidentally become the BusyBox
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61 maintainer (at least until the project's crazy-uncle founder showed up and
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62 <a href=http://lwn.net/Articles/202106/>drove me away again</a>). The result
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63 is that in Firmware Linux, Busybox now functions as an effective replacement
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64 for bzip2, coreutils, diffutils, e2fsprogs, file, findutils, gawk, grep,
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65 inetutils, less, modutils, net-tools, patch, procps, sed, shadow, sysklogd,
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66 sysvinit, tar, util-linux, and vim. I was in the process of writing a new
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67 shell to replace bash with when I left.</p>
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68
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69 <p>Firmware Linux stalled while I was BusyBox maintainer (2005-2006) due to
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70 lack of time, and since that ended most of my spare programming time has gone
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71 into launching toybox. But one of the main goals of toybox is to replace
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72 BusyBox in Firmware Linux, so as toybox matures it'll naturally lead to more
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73 of my time spent working on FWL.</p>
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74
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75 <p>My server does not currently run on Firmware Linux. Making it do so
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76 is a TODO item. After that, I'd like to get it to the point where I can
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77 use it on my laptop. :)</p>
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79 <h2>Contact</h2>
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81 <p>My name is Rob Landley and my email address is rob@landley.net.
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82 My <a href=notes.html>development log</a> is probably the best way to keep
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83 track of what I'm working on, although I'll start a mailing list if enough
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84 people pester me.</p>
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86 </body>
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87 </html>