From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Received: from [194.106.48.114] (helo=tim.rpsys.net) by linuxtogo.org with esmtp (Exim 4.61) (envelope-from ) id 1GNHIe-0001V2-BA for openembedded-devel@openembedded.org; Wed, 13 Sep 2006 01:04:16 +0200 Received: from localhost (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by tim.rpsys.net (8.13.6/8.13.6) with ESMTP id k8CN0eCe028349; Wed, 13 Sep 2006 00:00:40 +0100 Received: from tim.rpsys.net ([127.0.0.1]) by localhost (tim.rpsys.net [127.0.0.1]) (amavisd-new, port 10024) with LMTP id 28201-05; Wed, 13 Sep 2006 00:00:38 +0100 (BST) Received: from max.rpnet.com (max.rpnet.com [192.168.1.15]) (authenticated bits=0) by tim.rpsys.net (8.13.6/8.13.6) with ESMTP id k8CN0Za5028343 (version=TLSv1/SSLv3 cipher=RC4-MD5 bits=128 verify=NO); Wed, 13 Sep 2006 00:00:35 +0100 From: Richard Purdie To: Using the OpenEmbedded metadata to build Linux Distributions In-Reply-To: <4506F6A1.2030201@am.sony.com> References: <200609121228.26077.openembedded@hrw.one.pl> <4506F6A1.2030201@am.sony.com> Date: Wed, 13 Sep 2006 00:00:39 +0100 Message-Id: <1158102039.5552.80.camel@localhost.localdomain> Mime-Version: 1.0 X-Mailer: Evolution 2.6.1 X-Virus-Scanned: amavisd-new at rpsys.net Subject: Re: Paid support offer X-BeenThere: openembedded-devel@lists.openembedded.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.8 Precedence: list Reply-To: Using the OpenEmbedded metadata to build Linux Distributions List-Id: Using the OpenEmbedded metadata to build Linux Distributions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Tue, 12 Sep 2006 23:04:16 -0000 Content-Type: text/plain Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit On Tue, 2006-09-12 at 11:04 -0700, Tim Bird wrote: > I am interested. The CE Linux Forum is using OE for our Test Lab, but > we have some difficulties with it. Maybe you can help us solve some > of these difficulties. > > Here are some specifics: > * we wish to create our own distribution with fairly minimal footprint > but including a number of test packages. Specifically, we have added an > LTP package to our system, but have not (to my knowledge) pushed this > upstream to OE. We would like assistance with adding, modifying and maintaining > packages: > * would like an X11-less python package - to support test scripts on target > written in python (but where the target does not have any graphical support). OE's python does not require X11. Some of the python sub modules need it so a standard python build will build X11. Python itself will not require it at runtime. Only the particular python modules which need X11 will have that dependency. If you don't install/use those particular pyton modules, you won't need X11 and that won't get installed. If you wanted to avoid building X11 at build time, that is slightly different you could easily remove the X11 modules from the python build but building a few extra things at build time hasn't been seen as much of a problem when it doesn't affect the runtime dependencies. > * would like a drop-bear that supports root access with no password > (There's a patch for this, but we have not integrated it into our system yet) As you note, that functionality already exists. > * would like to add several test packages (here are some candidates, in no particular order): > aiostress fio kernbench reaim sleeptest tbench > bonnie fsx lmbench scrashme unixbench > dbench interbench selftest stress I agree these would be very nice to have. > * we would also like to set up and maintain a source snapshot mirror. > I have a sources fetch running nightly now on a dedicated machine in > our test lab (grabbing the sources for a 'bootstrap-image' distro. But I > have not yet set up the rsync to move the snapshot files to a large server > where I can publish them on the web. I don't think much remains to finish > this effort, but I don't have time to do it myself. There have been several people working on different bits of that puzzle. This functionality is something that will be discussed at OEDEM and I will post a separate email with some thoughts on this subject. Recent developments to allow concurrent task execution in bitbake should also help with this. Hopefully, we can put something together quite quickly to enable people to do this. > * an RPM package with minimal elements that can be used to begin working > with our OE-based distribution. I have found that OE has a very large list of > pre-requisites, and is very difficult to set up on my local machine. An installer > program which resolves these difficulties would be very useful. Users of my testlab > will download and build OE software on their local machines, and this needs to be > turn-key if possible. The issue is this is very distribution dependent. I know I could relatively easily write a list of packages to apt-get on ubuntu but that won't help your average redhat user. Are all your testlab users using the same distribution? With my company hat on for a moment, depending on your needs, I should also mention OpenedHand (http://www.o-hand.com/) is available for support of OpenEmbedded and/or Poky (http://projects.o-hand.com/poky). Poky is basically a stabilised subset of the OE metadata which we offer direct support on. Its currently undergoing development with a number of new features that aren't on the website yet such an ARM development and emulation environment through QEMU as well as x86 support. Its synced with OE so OE gets benefits from poky and vice versa. Note that I don't want to poach work from Marcin, or be seen to be trying to do that. Marcin is probably in a good position to help Tim but perhaps there are other people out there Poky might appeal to. I think the services on offer are different and will appeal to different people with different needs and in a way the offerings more compliment each other. This kind of information is something we really need to add to the OE website. I agree with some of the other posts about needing a plan for the future and for communication between various parties to make sure we all know where things are going and everyone's needs are accounted for. Speaking personally, at present I do a lot more unpaid work in my spare time on OE/bitbake/Zaurus Kernels than I do on paid projects like Poky and with time I'm hoping that will change. I think the future is bright and I have a lot of ideas of how things can grow but finding time to implement them all is proving tricky! :) Regards, Richard