'Generic' x86 build

'Generic' x86 build

[Chris Tapp]

I've spent the past couple of weeks trying to get a build that will  
work on generic pc hardware (board is alix, but 'regular' linux  
distros run ok), but I've not found a combination that builds and then  
runs correctly.

Can anyone point me in the direction of a distro/machine pair that  
should give me this?

I've tried:

minimal    / alix  console-image : builds ok  but /sbin/init isn't  
found at boot even though it's in the image.
angstrom / x86  console-image : builds ok but the inittab in the image  
doesn't work with busybox and needs to be replaced in the initrd.  
Suffers from 'swapper' not going idle.

Various other distro/machine pairs that I've tried simply fail to  
build - I guess because they're not designed to work together?

Any clues will be gratefully received :-)

Chris

Re: 'Generic' x86 build

[Khem Raj]

On Thu, Jul 1, 2010 at 3:17 PM, Chris Tapp <dokuwiki@keylevel.com> wrote:
> I've spent the past couple of weeks trying to get a build that will work on
> generic pc hardware (board is alix, but 'regular' linux distros run ok), but
> I've not found a combination that builds and then runs correctly.
>
> Can anyone point me in the direction of a distro/machine pair that should
> give me this?

how about MACHINE=i686-generic or MACHINE=i586-generic
distro could be angstrom or minimal.

-khem

Re: 'Generic' x86 build

[Chris Tapp]

> how about MACHINE=i686-generic or MACHINE=i586-generic
> distro could be angstrom or minimal.

Thanks - Not sure how I managed to miss that one!

Anyway, I've tried i586-generic / minimal for console-image.

- The inittab file included in the rootfs isn't valid for busybox;
- The 'swapper' process is using 100% cpu after the system has booted  
and it's doing nothing.

Does anyone else have this, or is it just me?

Chris

Re: 'Generic' x86 build

[Khem Raj]

On Fri, Jul 2, 2010 at 4:18 PM, Chris Tapp <dokuwiki@keylevel.com> wrote:
>> how about MACHINE=i686-generic or MACHINE=i586-generic
>> distro could be angstrom or minimal.
>
> Thanks - Not sure how I managed to miss that one!
>
> Anyway, I've tried i586-generic / minimal for console-image.
>
> - The inittab file included in the rootfs isn't valid for busybox;
> - The 'swapper' process is using 100% cpu after the system has booted and
> it's doing nothing.
>
> Does anyone else have this, or is it just me?

if someone had, he would have spoken by now. I guess
you need to debug it. swapper is a kernel process.
probably your systems has all memory eaten up
or there are lot of background processes.

>
> Chris
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Openembedded-devel mailing list
> Openembedded-devel@lists.openembedded.org
> http://lists.linuxtogo.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/openembedded-devel
>

Re: 'Generic' x86 build

[Chris Tapp]

> if someone had, he would have spoken by now. I guess
> you need to debug it. swapper is a kernel process.
> probably your systems has all memory eaten up
> or there are lot of background processes.

I don't think that's the case.

- This is a 'minimal-image' with nothing added.
- There's about 145MB RAM free

I've just worked out that if I change linuxrx from being a symlink to  
busybox a file that contains:

#!/bin/sh
echo
echo "Simple initrd is active"
echo
mount -t proc /proc /proc
mount -t sysfs none /sys
/bin/sh --login
Then 'swapper' behaves itself and top shows 99.7% idle time.

And that's the only change from previously.

Chris

Re: 'Generic' x86 build

[Khem Raj]

On Fri, Jul 2, 2010 at 5:04 PM, Chris Tapp <dokuwiki@keylevel.com> wrote:
> mount -t proc /proc /proc
> mount -t sysfs none /sys
>

I wonder if linuxrc applet in busybox has bug.
you could try a different version of busybox
to verify that.
-Khem

Re: 'Generic' x86 build

[Arjan]

On 3-7-2010 1:18, Chris Tapp wrote:
>> how about MACHINE=i686-generic or MACHINE=i586-generic
>> distro could be angstrom or minimal.
>
> Thanks - Not sure how I managed to miss that one!
>
> Anyway, I've tried i586-generic / minimal for console-image.
>
> - The inittab file included in the rootfs isn't valid for busybox;
> - The 'swapper' process is using 100% cpu after the system has booted 
> and it's doing nothing.
>
> Does anyone else have this, or is it just me?
>

Just checked my build of _x11-image_ MACHINE=i686-generic DISTRO=angstrom
I don't see this happening.

Angstrom 2010.7-test-20100624
Built from branch: org.openembedded.dev
Revision: .
Busybox: v1.13.2