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CompactBSD for Embedded Projects
miggidy_mac writes "FatPort (a wireless Internet service provider in Vancouver, BC) just released CompactBSD. It's a set of tools that allow you to build your own customized, lightweight distribution of OpenBSD and then burns it onto compact flash (or similar) so that it can be run on an embedded PC platform (like FatPort's own FatPoint). CompactBSD takes the security and networking features of OpenBSD that we know and love, and combines them with ease-of-build and small footprint, which is great for embedded devices. Check out the project on SourceForge."
I don't know. This seems awfully familiar to PicoBSD. I guess that any "new" implementation of old technology gets press. As the adage goes, everything old is new again.
PC104? really? You should call Soren and let him know....
All the embedded devices that were supposed to take off have died a dotcom death. There's the Netpliance I-Opener, the... Oh nevermind, I forgot this is Slashdot and everybody already knows about every hackable I-Appliance loss-leader hackable goodie released prior to IPO $$$ drying up.
I guess a nice small flashable *NIX distro would be great for making your own homebrew NAT box or router, but isn't there already a Linux distro (Linux router project? Must oogle google for that one later...) for this purpose? Oh well, diversity breeds creativity (according to a Disney employment ad, and the mouse never lies) so this has to be a GOOD THING.
Seriously though, one of my friends runs FreeBSD on his NAT box/file server and keeps touting it as better/easier/faster/sex life improving/more robust than Linux. Since I've set up MY Linux NAT box/file server, I haven't had to mess with it much and I really just think of it as a steady workhorse that does its job day after day without much fanfare. The only thing I can imagine BSD could improve is my sex life, but it's not working for my friend either so I think he's a liar.
In summary...
Small specialized BSD, Beer and Linux = Good
RIAA, DMCA, AOL and FIRE = BAD
It just fsck's it's drives, and goes on it's merry way.
WISP-Dist has similar targets, and runs on 8 Mb flash/16 Mb RAM.
The FatPoint is also known as OpenBrick in Europe. I made a Debian image wich can fit on a compact flash and wich can also do a wireless access point. That's really impressive all we can do with this little box.
This does bring up a good point... has anybody built a "meta-CVS", a mechanism where I can do a CVS checkout from a public repository, diff the checkout against the one I did yesterday, and then check-in to my own private CVS showing the date, the purported actual change/committer, and the real diff between the two code revs?
If "the entire OpenBSD tree was modified", a simple DIFF would tell the story. I have every OpenBSD release set since 2.4, each of which includes a full source tree.
It would be trivial to do a straight file-for-file diff between the Kernel sources for 2.9/3.0/3.1/current and see exactly what changed and approximately when, and compare this to what CVS claims was officially changed.
Migrated "away" to what platform?Assuming you can find checkouts for the appropriate time range, doing Diff's for the core kernel code between November 2001 and January 2002 should not be a huge task. But I'm not going to put the effort in on the word of an "anonymous coward".
I do not deploy Linux. Ever.