I've written some short instructions on using crosstool-NG to build Linaro GCC:
https://wiki.linaro.org/WorkingGroups/ToolChain/Using/CrosstoolNg
Could someone review these for me please?
Linaro GCC is already available in a bunch of places including
OpenBricks, crosstool-NG, OpenEmbedded, OpenWRT, and (of course)
Ubuntu. I hope to write a short page on each so people know where to
find our toolchain in the distribution of their choice.
-- Michael
Hi All,
In the developer platforms team we're working on getting the
linaro-nano image so that it is considerably smaller. To date I've
been using the approach I outlined last fall in a previous post to
this list.
Some highlights to nano:
* The linaro-image boots just as our linaro-headless image did
(upstart and friends)
* it can be updated, or additional pkgs installed via apt-get
* networking works
* busybox is in use tho not necessarily universally
* ureadahead, python, have been removed
* docs have been removed
* linux-firmware has been removed (binary kernel firmware blobs)
* locales is remove
Installed image is 125 Megs. (Down from 290 Meg) We're on the cusp of
being able to fit into 128 megs of flash.
This brings me to the subject of the kernel. hwpacks besides
installing linux-firmware (32 Megs) but also approx 50 Megs in
modules. Yet on my beagleboard lsmod notes
Module Size Used by
asix 12805 0
usbnet 17027 1 asix
omap2_mcspi 8441 0
omap_wdt 4093 0
hid_apple 4999 0
twl4030_usb 4950 0
twl4030_pwrbutton 1298 0
gpio_keys 6072 0
leds_gpio 2198 0
usbhid 39072 0
hid 74787 2 hid_apple,usbhid
Clearly we don't need all of these modules and I don't think it's an
unreasonable change our policy to "build what's needed + some
reasonable subset of function that our average user might neeed".
I don't know why we're installed the firmware deb, does any of the
hardware we're supporting even use that?
>From the directories where modules are located there is the following size info:
812 ./crypto
7568 ./net
2456 ./sound
60 ./arch
28372 ./drivers
172 ./lib
272 ./ubuntu
8316 ./fs
48032 .
Going deeper it's pretty easy to spot low hanging fruit:
>From fs - Do we need afs, jfs, code, minix, hpfs, xfs, hfs, hfsplus,
gfs2, reiserfs... I'm thinking no.
>From drivers - net and media make about about 1/3rd of the 28 meg in
use, I'm sure there's a number of drivers in here that can just be
turned off.
>From sound - ac97, are there arm boards that use that?
>From net - x25, decnet, appletalk ?
So that said, what is the best way to proceed?
1) Is there agreement that for all the kernels we supply that we
should change the policy for kernel configs to not default to
everything on?
(Maybe we should be using the upstream config with minimal modifications?)
Pro: everyone benefits from the diet
Con: Our kernel would be build slightly different than ubuntu's
others:
2) Linaro-media-create shouldn't install linux-firmware_1.47_all.deb ?
Do we have any any hardware that needs it? If so could there be a
--nano option to not install it?
3) linaro-media-create should have some kind of option (--nano) to
clear out apt caches (saves ~40 meg of space)
Specifically from the installed image after the hwpack deps are
installed get rid of the following:
rm -f ./var/lib/apt/lists/*Packages
rm -f ./var/lib/apt/lists/*Sources
rm -f ./var/lib/apt/lists/*Release
rm -f ./var/lib/apt/lists/*Release.gpg
rm -f ./var/cache/apt/pkgcache.bin
rm -f ./var/cache/apt/srcpkgcache.bin
Pro: if you never run apt* you won't mind the cold caches
Con: if you're running out of nand and you're going to apt-get upgrade
your system, you're probably going to run out of space (Probably a
problem to solve in a future cycle)
It's important through this exercise for people to speak up about what
can and can NOT be safely turned off.
Thanks for your time, attention, suggestions and feedback.
Regards,
Tom
Hi,
The minutes from the Engineering Resources team meeting can be found
here:
https://wiki.linaro.org/Mentoring/Status/WeeklyMeeting/2011-03-11
Summary below.
--Matt
=== Action Items from This Meeting ===
* AddNewHardware/HardwarePack pages need to explain kernel packages
as Steve noted below
* HardwarePacks page refers to Maverick instead of Natty
* Mentoring section needs to be renamed and back links should be fixed
* A better header for wiki that includes things like a "Resources"
link in banner/header
* Toolchain documentation improvement
=== Minutes ===
==== Feedback from Steve L ====
* No super hot button issues with team
* come up with clearer idea of what goes in hwpacks and policies
around them
* snag with v310 hwpack. needed u-boot not built by John R
* missing linux-meta package in their hwpack. package name changes
each time ABI is bumped. (Scott has had people confused by
Meta-Packages)
* Do we need new "types/names" of hwpacks for situations like this
* Maybe ER team needs to add some to HWPACK documentation to mention
these things.
* Scott B - ask Andy Green for feedback on documentation changes
* HardwarePacks page refers to Maverick. Should be Natty and probably
say "CURRENT RELEASE"
* documentation under mentoring. needs to be promoted
* rename to how-to
* put something on main page and list latest updates
* suggestions for front page:
* change the way the header looks so that people will actually start
to notice it again. Put some main links in this new header
* joey links:
https://wiki.canonical.com/OEMServiceshttps://wiki.linaro.org/LinaroHeader
==== Feedback from Scott B ====
* cross-compiler documentation is still confusing
* break up page by 4.4/4.5 versions into 2 pages. and then versions.
* we shouldn't even suggest 4.4. 4.5 is what should be used
* explain why you do a add-apt-repository
* Cross-development Environment for userspace. There's nothing. We
don't have a good story on this. Steve says we're improving so not
spend much time trying to explain
==== Feedback from Kiko ====
* echo steve's comments on hwpacks
* (scott) naming convention for community/landing team to indicate
what is supported
==== Discussion after leads ====
* RequirementsProcessHowto - should be per release for as things change
* ProductRequirement is a little off. Its not needed
* Joey to ask if 1111 release will just use TechnicalTopics or still
do a TechnicalRequirements page
On Tue, Mar 1, 2011 at 4:32 AM, Jesse Barker <jesse.barker(a)linaro.org> wrote:
> FWIW, skia certainly isn't android only and, at least for the purposes of
> getting the validation side of things up and running, could be run on a
> non-android build (Jammy is likely doing something like this for his work,
> though not oriented at abrek at the moment). Of course, I could be
> over-simplifying here ;-).
I'd like to use Skia as a toolchain benchmark but the upstream seems a
bit messy. I'm using this export:
http://people.linaro.org/~michaelh/skia-0~svn788.tar.xz
from http://code.google.com/p/skia/ which I then build and run using
these rules:
http://bazaar.launchpad.net/~linaro-toolchain-dev/cbuild/trunk/view/head:/l…
The code.google version seems a bit broken. autoconf scripts are
included but they don't work. The non-autoconf Makefile assumes Intel
with SSE2. The Android Skia seems to be a fork from some time ago and
uses build scripts that are tightly tied into the Android build
system.
What's the best version to use? I'd like to standardise across Linaro
for benchmarking so that results can be compared across groups, or at
least so we don't get confused.
-- Michael
Hi,
I am looking for a test framework to verify liability of I/O storage.
Most of the test tool I find focus on performance.
I would like to run test that compares in-buffer and out-buffer, use
different address and size alignment for in-buffer and out-buffer,
runs tests simultaneously on multiple block devices, etc...
The test can run on FS level or block level either way is fine.
Any suggestions?
/Per
Hi,
The Validation team weekly report for 2011-03-10 is now available
and can be found at:
https://wiki.linaro.org/Platform/Validation/Status/2011-03-10
The report is also reproduced in full below.
Regards,
Jamie.
--
Linaro Release Manager | Platform Project Manager
--
* Period: (20110302-20110309)
* PM: JamieBennett <jamie.bennett(a)linaro.org>
* Past reports : https://wiki.linaro.org/Platform/Validation/Status
* Burndown information : http://status.linaro.org/linaro-validation.html
== Key Points for wider discussion ==
* A request for comments on the Debian Django packaging guide has been
made. Please read and give comments on:
http://wiki.debian.org/DjangoPackagingDraft.
* Power Management tests are planned to be integrated into the test
suite and visualisation tools. The best way to do this is under
discussion and the team invites more comments.
== Team Highlights ==
* The Django packaging guideline for Debian was produced and is
available at http://wiki.debian.org/DjangoPackagingDraft. There are
discussions ongoing on the debian-python mailing list for feedback.
* A first (and second) release of the django-debian package was made
for connecting django database settings to dbconfig-common. This is
being used on the LAVA project for database integration.
* Initial discussions have been made to integrate some of the work the
Power Management Working Group is doing in to abrek (the test-suite
framework) and launch-control (the test visualisation tool). The ability
to automatically test and visualise the power consumption on boards will
take the Validation team around 2-4 weeks to complete.
* Work continues on LAVA with two new branches containing improvements
done this week.
* abrek gained the ability to save bundles at the end of a test run.
== Upcoming Deliverables ==
* launch-control 0.3c2 deployed on validation.linaro.org
== Risks / Issues ==
* '''HIGH IMPACT''': Zygmunt's Beagle Board C4 appears to have hardware
issues (1 week).
* '''HIGH IMPACT''': The validation scheduler Blueprint continues to
lag behind with 37 work items to complete (none completed so far) -
https://launchpad.net/lava/+spec/linaro-n-validation-scheduler (several
weeks). Discussions are on going to find a way to unblock this project.
== Miscellaneous ==
* Wiki pages of note this week:
* http://wiki.debian.org/DjangoPackagingDraft
Hi,
The Developer Platform team weekly report for 2011-03-10 is now
available and can be found at:
https://wiki.linaro.org/Platform/DevPlatform/Status/2011-03-10
The report is also reproduced in full below.
Regards,
Jamie.
--
Linaro Release Manager | Platform Project Manager
--
* Period: (20110303-20110309)
* PM: JamieBennett <jamie.bennett(a)linaro.org>
* Past reports : https://wiki.linaro.org/Platform/DevPlatform/Status
* Burndown information : http://status.linaro.org/linaro-foundations.html
== Key Points for wider discussion ==
* The process to produce and upstream ALIP cross-compile fixes is slow,
what can we do to speed this up?
* Multi-arch changes are still landing to the Ubuntu archive, lots of
testing is needed here.
* Panda display issues are now resolved so more testing of images on
the Panda board is possible.
* The Nano image needs to be slimmed down further. Tom has proposed
some changes but others need to review and comment on them.
== Team Highlights ==
* LTTng 0.245 has been ported to the linux-linaro-2.6.38 kernel. The
changes are available at:
http://git.linaro.org/gitweb?p=people/aviksil/linux-2.6-lttng-linaro.git;a=…
* Work continues on parts of kdelibs with the GL dependency removed
from libplasma and kdebase-window-manager updated.
* After many investigations the Panda non-display issue (bug:728603)
has a fix. A config option change will enable the display to work with a
knock-on effect of other bugs such as bug:720055 also being resolved.
* A thumb2 enabled kernel build has been turned on after work by both
the Kernel Working Group and the Developer Platform team.
* Linaro's smallest full image, Nano, got reduced in size to 125mb
installed. Proposed changes to eventually get closer to the 64mb
installed target are currently in discussion.
* libjpeg-turbo got further work this week as lintian errors were
fixed.
* Several more packages have been fixed for cross-compilation in the
Ubuntu archive.
* dpkg support for multiarch library installation is in the Ubuntu
archive but needs another upload due to changes in the planned dpkg
database format. There has also been some patches submitted to apt for
the major multiarch blocker bugs as the team continue towards a true
multi-arch solution.
* Cross toolchain packages got reuploaded to the archive fixing recent
issues.
== Upcoming Deliverables ==
* Beta Freeze 2011-03-24
* New build of Linaro Linux kernel
* systemtap v1.3 + cherry-picked fixes
* apt fixes to Ubuntu
* New dpkg to Ubuntu that implements support for the final multi-arch
library paths
== Risks / Issues ==
* '''MEDIUM IMPACT''': Peter Pearce reports that bootstrapping & making
cross-compile patches upstreamable are slowing the rate of package
fixing. The (current) alip package list will not be complete for beta
freeze.
* '''LOW IMPACT''': All multiarch work is landing past feature-freeze.
Requires exception approval from the Ubuntu and Linaro release teams.
== Miscellaneous ==
* Wiki pages of note this week:
* http://wiki.debian.org/DebianBootstrap
* https://wiki.linaro.org/Chromiumos/ChromeosWm
On Thu, Mar 10, 2011 at 8:59 AM, Guillaume Leteller
<guillaume.letellier(a)arm.com> wrote:
> Hi
>
>> In the developer platforms team we're working on getting the
>> linaro-nano image so that it is considerably smaller.
>
> Brilliant!
>
>> Some highlights to nano:
>> * The linaro-image boots just as our linaro-headless image did
>> (upstart and friends)
>> * it can be updated, or additional pkgs installed via apt-get
>> * networking works
>> * busybox is in use tho not necessarily universally
>> * ureadahead, python, have been removed
>> * docs have been removed
>> * linux-firmware has been removed (binary kernel firmware blobs)
>> * locales is remove
>>
>> Installed image is 125 Megs. (Down from 290 Meg) We're on the cusp of
>> being able to fit into 128 megs of flash.
>
> Isn't it quite big for a "Nano" image? It looks like a size for a
> 'developer' version.
> Do we know why it's so big?
It's a process. I'd like to get down to 64 Meg but one step at a time,
128 Meg being a first step. I feel this is reasonable as both my
Beagle C4 and Beagle Xm both have 256 Meg of NAND.
> In comparison, ARM developed AEL/ALIP
> (http://www.linux-arm.org/LinuxFilesystem/AELFileSystemPage) and we were
> hoping to use Linaro's Nano image from now on.
> The size of the AEL/ALIP minimal version (busybox, ssh) was only 25MB
> (compressed - Cramfs). And the version with X11 and a desktop was 55MB.
Indeed.
> Those images are useful for development boards with 64MB of flash or when
> using CPU models.
Do you have some boards in mind that only have 64Meg of Flash?
>> > 3) linaro-media-create should have some kind of option (--nano) to
>> > clear out apt caches (saves ~40 meg of space)
>>
>> If you want this it should be an easy change to make.
>
> This looks good if it's an easy change.
>
> Does it address the problem with Modules and firmware?
> Is it possible to get an image without Hwpacks?
>
> Regards,
>
> Guillaume
Thanks for the info and feedback Guillaume.
Regards,
Tom