Cross Development.

watty

I'm hoping to compile various drivers for the GP2X. It uses Debian related Linux 2.4 Kernel OS on MMSP2 System On Chip (SOC). This has dual Core ARM.

The Windows SDK & C/C++ Compilier with SDL & OpenGL libs works OK to write your own SW, but I think not a great envirnment for porting drivers.

So this is my idea.

Install Debian with 2.4 Kernel on a Dell Laptop instead of Ubuntu on it (Ubuntu more for end users than developers IMO).

Do the MAKE for whatever device it is for local environment (x86 etc). Test it on Laptop. (e.g. Bluetooth dongle, WiFi dongle, whatever)

Then cross compile using Linux dev kit for GPX (I know where to get that bit).

But looking at the Debian Distro Mirrors I'm a bit unsure what to download.

Also I might not have networking working on the laptop till after I get Linux installed so a minimum download Network Installer seems like a bad idea.


Any suggestions?

watty

P.S. I have used C on Redhat 6.0 years ago and recently gcc for C++ on Ubuntu, for Wrapboard target.

I have successfully written 2 and compiled 3 programs on Windows XP for GP2X using the Windows SDK, so I slightly know what I'm doing

Unfortunately while I first developed on UNIX in 1986, most of last 10 years programming has been on NT X.X platform in VB6, Modula-2, SQL, ASP, idc/htx and some C++, rather than on Linux.

Cake Fiend

If you've already got Ubuntu installed, I wouldn't bother changing it for Debian. Stuff like gcc is going to be identical. Anything you can run on Debian you can run on Ubuntu.

If you're installing from scratch anyway, I'd recommend the 'testing' ('Etch') net install. Don't worry about the 'testing' tag - Debian naming conventions are very much on the cautious side of things. I have Etch running on various servers and my desktop for a good while now with no issues.

watty

I find having to use SUDO all the time on Ubuntu irratting. I've left the laptop Ubuntu alone and installed a Debian with 2.4 Kernel (same thus as my target).

But X11 server isn't starting on the brain dead motherboard SIS chipset shared 32M memory.

I guess it is 7 years since I configured X11, More googling. I've forgotten how.

bman

watty wrote:

I find having to use SUDO all the time on Ubuntu irratting.

Can't you type "su -" and then enter your root password in a terminal to change to the root account? This means your in root user mode until you close the terminal or type exit to get back to your normal account.

watty

Well managed to reconfigure the 1300CPU AMD PC with evil shared SIS memory with VESA graphics. Got Internet & SAMBA & SQL & Gnome etc running on it and 2.4 Kernel so I can test run x86 compile source of WiFi & Bluetooth dongles and SIP phones etc...

Then crosscompile same source for ARM handheld target.

What else would I usefully do with such a box?

I have 2X AMD X64 with ATI X1600 graphics, but the SATA disk makes installing anything a bit more complex. One with 64bit Unbutu and the other With XP. The 64bit Ubuntu seems to be low compatibility with gadgets...

So I now have what I wanted, though the various Debian downloads confusing and of course any current release has 2.6 Kernel which makes testing harder as my target handheld is only 2.4

watty

Can you even use su on Ubuntu? Isn't it sudo only?

oscarBravo

"sudo bash" is almost equivalent to "su" for most purposes.

watty

Hadn't thought of that. Duh. Makes my Unbuntu Laptop a bit more usefull. Thanks.

Snowbat

Ubuntu disables the root account by default. (or at least su). To enable, type sudo passwd root (basically add a root password).

watty

Good thinking that man.

Sometimes though I wonder if Ubuntu is to Debian what Vista is to XP. It seems wonderously slow compared with older Linuxes I'm more used to.

oscarBravo

I use Ubuntu all the time, desktop and server, on several machines. I've no complaints about performance. I've always been a Debian fan, but have no desire to go back there - even for servers.

watty

Perhaps these are modern Machines with sensible graphics and 512M RAM or more?

I have a couple of high end PCs. One is running Ubuntu fine. But on 600MHz and even a 1300 AMD machines it is slower to use the desktop than XP on a 330MHz AMD K6. Clarckconnect and Trixbox (AKA Asterix@home) though with no desktop seem fine on 400MHz machines.

I used to have (in 1999 or so) a RH6.0 running on a P166. My main server is SW RAID5 Ultra Wide and fast x 5disks with UWF scis disk mirror to boot on a separate channel. It's a 300MHz NT4.0 Server with SQL 7.0 and IIS 4.0

So currently I have 3 Linux servers, 1 NT4.0 server, 2 Linux Workstations, 1 Win2K laptop (with DOS6.22, WFW3111, Win98SE also as multiboot), 2 x XP laptops, 1 x Linux Laptop, 5 x Win XP workstations in the "home" network. Sometimes my eldest brings his laptop and/or workstation home..


Having used Cromix in 1985, Xenix in 1987, Minix in 1991, DR MultiDOS in 1991, and NT3.5 on 386 with 12M RAM as a server, OS2 in 1995, UCSD P-System & CP/M 80 in 1979 .. 1981, CP/M 86 before any IMC PC hit these shores and CP/M 80 in 1987 to 1992 (also WFW3.11, Win98 sadly) and even some work on VAX and AS/400 I'd observe:

For the last 10 years there is little real improvement in "proper" OSes.
* Performance is considerably worse
* Reliability is worse out of the box
* Longer is needed to change all the stupid default settings
* Too much effort into prettyification that does not really improve usability (XP eyecandy, Vista, OS X, Ubuntu, Aqua, Aero)
* SW development with wide spread use of programmers doing C style software in C++ / C# or Java with NO defensive programming, such as always checking array bounds. Almost 95% of security exploits are due to limitations of C/C++ language coupled with poorer programming than 20 years ago in Industrial & Telecom environments.

I'm afraid we are getting prettier and prettier OSes of lower quality. Vista appears to hit a low point in that reguard.

Ubuntu basically is Debian with Nanny Skin. However, even for a non-computer person, if a linux literate person sets it up, an excellent solution for Web, email and Wordprocessing. As long as the ordinary user never needs to change anything. But it does need a higher spec than XP with all the un-needed services and eye-candy turned off (which takes a few hours to do!).