[gentoo-user] Re: new linux router

[Nicolas Sebrecht <nicolas.s-dev@laposte.net>]

On Fri, Mar 06, 2015 at 02:03:48AM +0000, James wrote:

> > For the distribution, I'd recommend Alpine:
> >   http://www.alpinelinux.org/about
> 
> Why would that be better than putting lilblue (gentoo) on 
> the board. Maybe somebody who has success with booting off
> of usb (and that definitely is not me) could test lilblue
> on an alix2d3 board?

I don't know much Lilblue but it looks like a somewhat recent project.

Alpine started back in 2005. It's based on portage to build the
distribution but uses the apk-tools that fit better for embedded
systems, IMHO.

Also, Alpine comes with a very lightweight minimal installation,
reliable toolchain to build the distribution and uses openrc. The well
known debian-like configuration files allow new maintainers to quickly
be comfortable with the device.

The recent move to musl over uClibc is a good thing too, FMPOV.

I expect Alpine to have a wider community than Lilblue.

> How did you have your make.conf files (or similar under Alpine) set up?

You don't have make.conf on the target. Embedded devices are bad at
compiling. With Alpine, you cross-compile the target from your
desktop/server/VM.

> If I go this route, I'd really rather run gentoo or something
> quite similar, rather than a distro I not familiar with.

On the target device, apk-tools are very easy to use and requires MUCH
less time/ressources than emerge.

Quiet frankly, Alpine doesn't require specific skills. I've started with
the binary provided by the maintainers and never had to compile any
package myself.

> > That's the combo I used in a recent past and it worked quiet fine
> > (802.1q VLAN, traffic shaping with tc, advanced firewall with scripted
> > iptables rules, ethernet cards controlled with ethtool (I could fix
> > speed/duplex for incompatible network hardware), ssh, etc).
> 
> I'm not familiar with Alpine linux. How many of your scripts would be
> useful on gentoo? If what you did is sensitive, just drop to me privately.....

Sorry, I can't. I don't have them anymore while I'm sure they are still
used in production.

It's something easy to do, though. The scripts themselves are
distribution agnostic. E.g. my ipfilter service only used $IPTABLES. The
only thing to update are the service files for openrc, systemd, upstart,
whatever.

-- 
Nicolas Sebrecht