On Thu, 2004-10-07 at 14:43, Daniel Frickemeier wrote:
> Hello,
> 
> Am Donnerstag, 7. Oktober 2004 16:47 schrieb stephane ancelot:
> First, sorry for my bad english, hope you understand me.
> 
> > There will be a compact flash to store the system :
> > A minimal linux system will be installed
> 
> No prob. Take a hard disk for development, and then swich over the system to 
> the cf-card.
> 
> > The major poroblem is in the creation of this system , because of linux
> > fast evolution we should be able to update this system every six months.
> 
> This could be a problem. 

One solution here for him could be to use squashfs + jffs2.
I wont explain how to do that. But it's probably worth his time to
research it. The openwrt project is making use of this type of setup now
to make failsafe systems that live on flash. http://openwrt.org

> 
> > Furthermore , the system may stay in a readonly partition , but we have to
> > plug our application in this system that should be setted up on a separate
> > partition because we should be able to send updates for it . and the user
> > may load save files on it .
> >
> > What are the gentoo tools to allow  that ?

sys-fs/squashfs-tools-2.0_p2
sys-fs/mtd-20040825

> 
> They do. I build a gentoo-embedded system with an old stage of Ned Ludd and 
> Peter (lost his christian name, sorry)(BIG THANKS to both of them for their 
> work!!!) uclibc-stages on a Via-Epia bord with 256MB Ram and 256 MB CF-Card. 
> I buiilded the hole system without X, but mini_httpd and ssh. We would use it 
> for streaming diferential GPS-Data form an serial sender to an 
> TCP/IP-Network. 

This link was just passed onto me. Thought I'd share it as I see your
using 256 sticks.
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B00005AC8J/002-5495224-0712017?v=glance&me=ATVPDKIKX0DER

For my needs I only need a <=16M sticks but the price here is cheaper
than what I've been paying for viking 32M flash.


> 
> I used to build a second Computer (an oridinaery PC) which contains all the 
> gentoo stuff, like /usr/portage and /var/edb. This PC builds all new Packages 
> (in an chroot) Then, I make an rsync over the whole /root-Partiaion (with 
> some exculsions, like /etc) to get the update on the embeded system. I used 
> to have nearly all stuff, like gcc, python, perl.... on the embedded too, so 
> the size of the embedded system is around 150 MB at all.
> 
> I used to mount the entire file-system ro and store alle the variable date 
> (such as /var /tmp and /home) in tmpfs ram-disks.
> 


> If you have some more questions, mail me.

Or mail the list. These questions come up fairly often and it's nice to
see other users answer other users questions in a public setting (thanks
Dan). It's most helpful when we don't have to. And having an archive
online helps others.

> 
> cu Daniel
> 
> 
> --
> gentoo-embedded@gentoo.org mailing list
-- 
Ned Ludd <solar@gentoo.org>
Gentoo (hardened,security,infrastructure,embedded,toolchain) Developer