Best TinyCore (microcore) alternative for ARM?

[vinnie]

I am available, would be to do a separate post to see who wants to join the development and provide the hardware (If that does not go against the policies of the forum).

For those in a hurry, I read that you can test it with qemu http://www.cnx-software.com/tag/arm11/

[martin]

Interesting! I just installed qemu, I'll see about re-setting up the cross-compiler and having a play with this.

[bmarkus]

I have an ASUS WL-500 router on the desk for application development. OpenWRT runs fine so if someone comes up with a minimal Core for ARM I can play a bit with. It is an old first generation release with 32M RAM. Flash is also low, but I'm using an external USB stick as a sorage so storage space is not a limitation.

[curaga]

btw would it be ok to use Sourcery G++ for compiling tinycore on ARM? I've compiled some kernels for my private use, but I don't know anything about licenses or such.

If you're allowed to use it, the output cannot be restricted. I recall their "lite" toolchains were free to use?

[bmarkus]

One possible target hardware is a RouterBoard. Usually you can find a second hand board sold by an ISP for reosanable price. No video, no GHz CPU, but there are LAN ports, depending on model USB master ports, flash card socket, etc. They are perfect to play with Core on.

See http://routerboard.com/

Oh, forgot to mention. They are MIPS, not ARM

[hiro]

btw would it be ok to use Sourcery G++ for compiling tinycore on ARM? I've compiled some kernels for my private use, but I don't know anything about licenses or such.

If you're allowed to use it, the output cannot be restricted. I recall their "lite" toolchains were free to use?

Yes, the lite version is free and what I use. I hope to have some more time for this in March or April perhaps.

[curaga]

IMHO, MIPS wouldn't be bad either. It too has chinese factories making cheap cpus (I have a MIPS tablet actually), but suffers from much the same issues as ARM - cpu fragmentation, and binary blobs for much of the drivers. Though I think the cpu situation is not nearly as bad there as on ARM.

[vitex]

I recently purchased a Pogoplug POGO-B01 for $19.99:

• Dual-core ARMv6 processor
• 128 MB RAM
• 128 MB Flash
• 5 USB ports
• 1 Gigabit Ethernet port
• 1 SATA port (internal; must open the case to access)
• 1 serial port (internal; must open the case to access; requires TTL to USB converter or equivalent)

This is a server system; it has no video display hardware. The processor is apparently rated at 700+ MHz but underclocked to about 300 MHz by the Pogoplug software.

See Pogoplug Pro/Video/v3 for installation of Arch Linux.

See Debian on a Pogoplug Pro (the easy way with ALARM kernel) for installation of a Debian root file system with the Arch Linux kernel. 

Much non-kernel development can be done on an x86 system with a kernel that has binfmt_misc support: Running ARM Linux on your desktop PC: The foreign chroot way.

[vinnie]

I hope to see sooner or later run tinycore on this or something similar http://wiki.laptop.org/go/XO-3

[hiro]

How long does it take to fully charge this thing in the sun?

[vinnie]

I do not know, I read that they provide twice the running time of loading by hand (1min charge 2min activiry)

then it remains to be seen, the xo2 (which I think was better than that) is not released and xo3 for their old projects had to operate at electromagnetic waves ...

[mb0]

hiro: 'I'm still running a debian and two ubuntus on them and have not yet found a justification to change or reinvent anything about that.'

TinyCore's boot speed? have you achieved that in debian?

Martin C (or anyone else interested in developing for rPi).. is this useful -- http://russelldavis.org/2012/01/20/new-raspberry-pi-development-vm-v0-2/ ??

[hiro]

cross linux from scratch

I read a bit on their web site, but whats the point of cross linux from scratch? Sorry if this sounds lazy, not intended.

[Juanito]

Cross-compiling means compiling for one architecture on another, different, architecture - one on which the finished product will not run.

So for example, you can use the instructions to build a working system for ARM using tinycore on an Intel machine.

I used the instructions to compile tinycore for a ps3, finishing about one week before sony effectively forced users to remove linux from their ps3...

[Yleisajattelija]

I have (at least) got localized that Xorg, and I hope Samsung printer & CUPS is "easier", so:

GuruPlug ARM-miniserver next. I think microcore would be best for that.

Strategy is "standard TC" stategy, everything not absolytely necessary -> out of the system.

MMU problems may occur with kerner, so kernel port may be diffulcult.

Have to be done, anyway. Volunteers?