From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Message-ID: <47EA14F7.7040004@domain.hid> Date: Wed, 26 Mar 2008 10:18:47 +0100 From: Roland Stigge MIME-Version: 1.0 References: <20080325224919.582BD243A7@domain.hid> In-Reply-To: <20080325224919.582BD243A7@domain.hid> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Subject: Re: [Xenomai-core] Xenomai/SOLO - RTOS emulation for standard Linux List-Id: "Xenomai life and development \(bug reports, patches, discussions\)" List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , To: Wolfgang Denk Cc: xenomai@xenomai.org Hi, Wolfgang Denk wrote: >> Is it worth providing a separate xenomai-solo package in Debian right >> now (considering it being propagated to Debian 5.0 and supported there >> in this form until ca. 2010), or should we wait until Xenomai/SOLO is >> integrated into Xenomai mainline? > > Integration into Xenomai mainline means waiting for Xenomai 3, which > seems still a pretty long way to go. > > On the other hand, you need a PREEMPT_RT enhanced Linux kernel for > Xenomai/SOLO to provide real-time behaviour which is probably needed > in most cases when you try and emulate a RTOS. This is probably a > bigger hurdle? I think an RT-patched kernel is quite common, at least if I consider the realtime conscious Debian user community. For other realtime applications such as JACK (though in a completely different application domain), the respective kernels are also often presumed. So if we are talking about Xenomai 3 in the order of years, Xenomai/SOLO as a separate package seems worth considering if it matures reasonably. The other "desktop suitable" approach is the simulator. Both Xenomai/SOLO and the simulator are good candidates for inclusion in the OS distribution since (apart from certain kernel requirements) they can be provided as universal binary packages in userspace. The problem with xenosim is its dependency upon gcc-2.95.6 sources. Since Debian packages must provide the complete sources for building the binary packages or alternatively/additionally have build dependencies satisfied by other (binary) Debian packages in the distribution, this is not an easy task (without gcc 2.95.x being in Debian anymore). One way to go could be utilizing a newer GCC (4.x) instead of 2.95.x, but that doesn't work with current xenosim. Is it worth it to put porting effort into this spot? Thanks! bye, Roland