Re: GAR for embedded systems

I cannot believe Grant Likely said this on the ENTARNET:
> Is anybody actively using GAR to build the rootfs for embedded linux
> systems?

No one that I know of, but it's an application for GAR that's been in
the back of my mind for a long time.  In some ways, though, the
LNX-BBC is a lot like an embedded system.

> I'm currently building my rootfs by hand for an Arm/Xscale system. 
> I'm building it by hand at the moment, but GAR looks to be a good fit
> for automating the build.  I noticed that GAR was designed to support
> cross compiling but I haven't found any examples it being used that
> way

The LNX-BBC build uses it that way.  The cross-compiler it builds
targets the same architecture as the build system, but not the same
platform.  The idea is to isolate the binaries on the LNX-BBC as much
as possible from the binaries on the build system, and a
cross-compiler provides that separation.  One of the problems that we
consistently run into is that although we're building a complete
cross-dev environment, some of the packages we build for the LNX-BBC
don't support cross-compiling, and end up configured against the build
system's arch and libraries in spite of our efforts.  That's really
the only thing holding the LNX-BBC back from true build platform
independence at this point.

-Nate

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--< ((\))< >----< [email protected] >----< http://www.movealong.org/ >--
pub  1024D/05A058E0 2002-03-07 Nate Riffe (06-Mar-2002) <[email protected]>
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