[Buildroot] Use of buildroot in an embedded linux project

[Buildroot] Use of buildroot in an embedded linux project

[Hichem Boussetta]

Hi everyone,

I am working on a project about building embedded linux systems, and I 
have to choose between many tools that generate cross gnu toolchains and 
root filesystem (buildroot, scratchbox, ELDK...). So, it would be 
grateful if someone could tell me about the advantages of using 
buildroot and about its limitations, because I heard that we found some 
difficulties to cross compile certain packages, like Kerberos5.

Any comment is welcome.
Thanks.

-- 
Hichem.


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[Buildroot] Use of buildroot in an embedded linux project

[Thomas Petazzoni]

Le Mon, 16 Mar 2009 14:06:44 +0100,
Hichem Boussetta <boussettahichem@yahoo.fr> a ?crit :

> I am working on a project about building embedded linux systems, and
> I have to choose between many tools that generate cross gnu
> toolchains and root filesystem (buildroot, scratchbox, ELDK...). So,
> it would be grateful if someone could tell me about the advantages of
> using buildroot and about its limitations, because I heard that we
> found some difficulties to cross compile certain packages, like
> Kerberos5.

I don't have all the advantages/drawbacks in my mind, but here are a
few.

Drawbacks :

 * Only uClibc toolchains can be generated by Buildroot ;

 * External toolchain support is still experimental (this is only a
   problem if you plan to use a toolchain that has been generated by
   Buildroot) ;

 * No package management (ipkg, opkg) like you could have with
   OpenEmbedded, for example.

Advantages :

 * Simple enough so that a single human being can manage to understand
   how it works and tune it according to the needs of the project, and
   that you don't spend 5 days trying to figure out how the damn thing
   works.

 * Pretty good support from the Buildroot community.

Thomas
-- 
Thomas Petazzoni, Free Electrons
Kernel, drivers and embedded Linux development,
consulting, training and support.
http://free-electrons.com