3) re: uClibc... my poor communication skills. Originally first post said I was looking at it but I am not now due to the reasons in the editted first post.
I agree this will be my learning curve. if I brick the device thats my $45 loss. Actually it looks like I can build a generic ARM kernel using buildroot as per image after running.
tce-load -i compiletc ncurses-dev
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I am getting exciting just thinking about it.