Open Embedded / Open Zaurus relationship???

[b5o5m5b]

I\'m trying to understand the relationship between the Open Embedded \'Build System\' and the Open Zaurus ROM. Is there a document somewhere that whould explain what a \'build system\' is? Maybe somone could just explain why the OE project is important to Zaurus development and what we can expect to gain from it?

Derek.

[treke]

Openembedded is what is being used to make the next OpenZaurus release. It\'s just tools to automate compilation.

[b5o5m5b]

Do you mean Kernel Compiles... or is this supposed to aid in the compiling of everything? I havn\'t comiled a kernel for the Zaurus/StrongARM yet, but I assume it\'s similar to the i386 compile process: make menuconfig, make, make install, yadda yadda yadda. That\'s all after you\'ve setup gcc corectly so that it will compile to StrongARM.

So, what more does open embedded do for us? Will I be able to roll my own initrd and zImage files using it and a single command like:

Code: [Select]

> make myZaurusRock

I can see a tool like that being VERY handy indeed.

Derek.

[treke]

It builds everything. The kernel, the applications, the libraries, the ipks, and the jffs2 images.

[Mickeyl]

... and honors the inter-package dependencies and supports different versions of packages and supports a fancy gui and makes building cross-toolchains a breeze and supports unlimited device specifics and much more.

If all goes well, OpenEmbedded will be used to build all future OpenZaurus, OpenSIMpad, OpenIpaq and familiar linux releases as well as being used for lesser known projects and devices. Imainge that upgrading one package will support a multitude of forthcoming releases. No more endless work being duplicated.

I see this as the only chance for our small community to survive.

[treke]

I havn\'t comiled a kernel for the Zaurus/StrongARM yet, but I assume it\'s similar to the i386 compile process: make menuconfig, make, make install, yadda yadda yadda. That\'s all after you\'ve setup gcc corectly so that it will compile to StrongARM.  

So, what more does open embedded do for us? Will I be able to roll my own initrd and zImage files using it and a single command like:

Code: [Select]

> make myZaurusRock

Building any single package isn\'t that hard to do by hand, but there are 366 packages in the repository. A full build is somewhere north of 5 gig of space and 4 hours of time. Being able to set it to run and then ignore it  is useful.  OpenEmbedded does nothing for you unless you plan on being a developer.

[b5o5m5b]

So, if I wanted to start doing some work on the OZ distro (or any others that are supported in OE) I\'d grab a copy of Open Embedded and a copy of the repository and then I could start fixing any open issues and publishing patches to the OZ development team?

This is off topic for this thread, but where do OZ developers tend to hang out? Sourceforge? handhelds.org? in a forum on this site?

[treke]

So, if I wanted to start doing some work on the OZ distro (or any others that are supported in OE) I\'d grab a copy of Open Embedded and a copy of the repository and then I could start fixing any open issues and publishing patches to the OZ development team?  

This is off topic for this thread, but where do OZ developers tend to hang out? Sourceforge? handhelds.org? in a forum on this site?

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