libpthreads OK!

[Ralph Stickley]

Richard,

--- Richard Jennings <rjennings@home.com> wrote:
> >
> >BTW, There is nothing keeping pwlconfig from working with any other
> >distribution (if its rpmd nicely ).  If you find someone to rpm RTLinux,
> LEM,
> >LRP or whatever, then you could select a base configuration from one of
> >those...In fact the main file configuration menu could just be a list of
> >distributions (yet another feature - oops).
> 
> 
> I'll have to see if I can find a RPM of RTLinux or RTAI.  Adding a 
> real time version of Linux to PeeWeeLinux would be a plus.

I don't know if all the programs have to be re-compiled, I suspect that you can
get "real time" just by changing the kernel...Of course, I think every kernel
should be a real time kernel - if you need it, great, if not then you still
have it! (I used QNX before I started working with Linux :)


> 
> Should I start with the posted docs or do you have something in the 
> works already?

Haven't gone back to do the docs... still trying to figure out what we should
be doing/showing to the user...

> >
> >>  We're going to try to show people how easy it is to build an embedded
> >>  system using LabVIEW, Linux and VMware.  We plan on shipping one or
> >>  more embedded systems with the book as VMware virtual machines that
> >>  people can boot up and play with on their own computer. No extra
> >>  hardware required! Then we'll point them to www.peeweelinux.com.
> >>
> >>  What do you think?
> >>
> >I've never tried vmware - I saw it demo'ed at Linux World Expo and it looked
> >great -  but I don't have anything faster than 400MHz/128Mb Ram.
> >Actually using it with Linux should be a big help.
> 
> I'm using a 400 MHz. AMD K2. It's pretty cool for trying out 
> different distributions and configurations.
> 
Wow...didn't know it would run on a lowly 400 MHz...I'll have to try that (or
maybe I'll wait for the book !)

> >
> >However, after the demo, people are going to want to port it to some box
> >somewhere - it would be neat to have some recommended motherboards (and
> >associated drivers) for "instant embedding".  These would be simple, 
> >small (20K
> >or so) pwlconfig project files. Of course, thats a lot more work too...but I
> >wouldn't claim to be "embedded" without gett'n in the hardware at some
> point.
> 
> I agree, it's not really embedded until you put it on some hardware 
> but I don't have any particular hardware vendor to work with so I 
> thought I would try to write the book without depending on a vendor. 
> VMware gives us a virtual machine that (hopefully) is going to act 
> the same no matter what the underlying hardware (plus it works on 
> NT/2000 so people without Linux can still see what is happening). 
> Then we can concentrate on showing people how to use Linux to build 
> an embedded system and not on trying to make it work on their 
> particular model of PC or embedded board.
> 
Great idea...Now I see where the vmware fits..cool.
Are you tracking the free version ?
http://www.freemware.org

> When you build a new "machine" with VMware you still have to format 
> the disk and make a file system. You still have to xfer your OS to 
> the hard drive, install lilo and all those other things. That's what 
> I plan on showing people.  We'll include one or two working systems 
> to show how they work, hopefully one standard linux and one 
> real-time. People can use vmmount to mount the embedded system at a 
> mount point on their drive and then we'll show them how it works and 
> what config files control what things. Then we'll walk them through 
> placing their own  program on a virtual machine that they build 
> themselves. Hopefully by the time they are done the light will have 
> come on and they will be ready to build their own embedded system 
> with Linux.
> 

One of my goals with the Main Menu of PeeWee Linux was to show, in general, the
process required to embed linux.  We are generally hiding all of the command
line stuff, but not what is actually being done. (Thats why the Erase and Load
are two seperate operations :)  Any suggestions on how to improve this to make
it clearer would be appreciated!

> That's the plan in a nutshell. I wasn't too sure how I was going to 
> come up with a current embedded system that I could ship with the 
> book. The system that I did last year is getting stale and I wanted 
> something that people could use without too much trouble. 

Thought of that this weekend..Any hardware you recommend will 1) date the book
and 2) probably be out of production by the time the book is printed!  Other
than just using one off-the-shelf board as an "example" - you will probably
have to link to a site that lists various motherboards - just click and
download a PeeWee Project file for each motherboard !

(Really cool: use the openBIOS/freebios board list and show how to kick off a
board and boot linux - all with GPL code :)
http://www.freiburg.linux.de/openbios/
Thats the plan anyhow...they aren't moving too fast -thats the killer with all
these open source/hobby projects :(

> None of the 
> distributions that I had seen on the net worked with LabVIEW when I 
> tried them. That's why I asked Ralph to give my LabVIEW application a 
> try on his machine. I was really happy, Ralph, when you let me know 
> that it had worked with just the addition of one library. God does 
> answer prayers!
> 
> Some of the things I'm having trouble with right now are:
> 
> setting the path at boot up so all users have X. I can't seem to get 
> this to work. Does every user have to a .profile script with a PATH 
> statement?
> 
Wondering that too...

> Logging in automatically: I've tried "login USER" and "su USER -c 
> 'path to file'" but neither one of those works. The login command 
> works in my SuSE derived system but not under PWL.
> 
Yep..I'm still logging in and running the box as root :(

> Well, back to work. Any tips you have for me are appreciated.
>
> 
> Richard
> 
Later,
Ralph

> 
> -- 
> Richard Jennings
> 1426 Aster Lane
> Livermore, CA 94550
> USA
> ---------------------------------------------------
> See the list archives at http://adis.on.ca/archives/
> See the PWL homepage at  http://peeweelinux.com
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