LWN: Comments on "Embedded Linux: Small Kernels"

Version for more recent kernel is available

tbird20d — 2006-07-25T06:03:27+00:00

I recently ported the Linux-tiny patches to 2.6.16.19. These were posted to the Linux-tiny mailing list, and are also available on the CE Linux Forum wiki page for Linux-tiny at: http://tree.celinuxforum.org/pubwiki/moin.cgi/LinuxTiny

Still important: Obsolete machines, handhelds, one laptop per child

dwheeler — 2006-07-20T22:09:02+00:00

This size reduction is still very important to do:

As Microsoft abandons Windows98, many people may move to a new computer. Even if they get Windows for the new one, what happens to the old one? If Linux continues to be usable on them, they can become Linux machines (in the same place or elsewhere).
Handhelds have limited memory, esp. if they have to be rugged.
"One laptop per child" machines have limited memory; by putting the kernel on a diet, there's more room for the rest.

I'm delighted that he's working to get this stuff into the mainline kernel; that way, it should live on and be useful to all.

Printing problem

cventers — 2006-07-20T20:46:39+00:00

Yeah, Konqueror is showing the page really wide. Great article though.

Printing problem

NAR — 2006-07-20T18:22:06+00:00

I have similar problem with Opera 9 - the text of the article is just as wide as that long line, so I need to scroll horizontally to see everything.

But interesting article anyway, it's too bad that my 486 have just died a couple of days ago...

Bye,NAR

Embedded Linux: Small Kernels

moxfyre — 2006-07-20T16:54:55+00:00

A great article! I'm eagerly looking forward to the follow up articles.

I have recently started doing development on home routers running Linux. That's a fairly space-constrained environment with typically only ~4-8 MiB of RAM and a few MiB of flash ROM (though hackers often add SD cards to increase their storage). I'd never heard about TinyLinux before and am now really interested in it.

Printing problem

man_ls — 2006-07-20T16:34:58+00:00

Great article. However, the format screws up printing on Firefox (1.5.0.4 on Ubuntu Dapper). It seems to have trouble with the <pre> tag with a long line, so it ends up with a page so wide that it doesn't fit on the paper, and all lines end up cut up on the right.

I don't know how to solve it; it looks like a bug in Firefox, but it has happened for so long with other web pages that it seems natural now.

Embedded Linux: Small Kernels

Shewmaker — 2006-07-20T06:29:19+00:00

The lwip stack looked more promising to me than the uIP stack. Specifically, the RTLinux port of the LWIP stack has some drivers (native and some ported from Etherboot). It would be great to see a writeup of someone's experience with it.

Also, have you looked at LZMA or UCL compressed kernels? Carl-Daniel Hailfinger mentioned on the OLPC-devel mailing list that he had a cleaned up LZMA patch that was converted to use the Linux kernel coding style. He is working on adding LZMA support to LinuxBIOS for use with OLPC. I tried the LZMA patch (not Carl-Daniel's) once, but I had other issues with the kernel I built that prevented it from booting. I always meant to try it again.

Embedded Linux: Small Kernels

ksoonson — 2006-07-20T05:11:44+00:00

Thanks very much for your interesting article! I am very anxious to read the next series.

Embedded Linux: Small Kernels

jdub — 2006-07-20T04:33:35+00:00

Rocking article!