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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.
... the leave out the experimental sshd code
that openbsd loves to run by default, and
contributed to a remote root explote. Me, I'd
prefer old 2.x era sshd.
Gotta get this bad boy running on all those Javastations in my back room.
Soekris Engineering PC104 sbcs designed specificaly for Free/Net/Open BSD and the occasional Linux. Very nice they be.
Debian?
I'm not sure you can claim that any given subset of OpenBSD has the same level of security as the real thing. Presumably they're only including code that's been through a security audit, but how tested is any given configuration going to be?
--
E_NOSIG
Iv'e been looking for a sbc with almost the exact same specs as this, and have been totally frustrated with the fact that very few exist, and most of the ones that do are either super expensive in low volume orders, or don't have everything I need.
Just wanted to thank ya, looks like a helluva nice peice of hardware, not too bad on the wallet either!
Constitutional rights may be respected, repealed, or modified; but they must never be ignored.
I'm looking for a PC104 or similar system for a project i'm working on. I'd like it to be BSD based (Open or Free is fine), a VGA or SVGA out. I'd like to be able to have digital ins/outs as well as analog inputs as well. Networking would be a plus, but not necessary. Ideally, i'd like to write a GUI for this application using QT (or similar toolkit). A tinyBSD like this is a good start. Has anyone else done or know how to do something similar? Thanks in advance...
Anyone know if/how well this unit can do SSH tunneling?
PC104? really? You should call Soren and let him know....
Microsoft Platform Builder is a pretty good tool for configuring and building a Windows CE customized OS. It seems that CompactBSD's CLI environment is really a huge backstep in platform configuration tools.
Leaving aside any arguments about BSD and WinCE, of course.
I have been pwned because my
Isnt FatPort releasing CompactBSD sorta like Tony Little selling Krispy Kremes?
Though do remember that Jordan Hubbard now works for Apple on Darwin - a Mach based system with a BSD subsystem.
Knowing that BSD and other *nix systems usually don't like hard power-downs (this may have changed since the last time I used linux), would they really be the best things to be using in embedded devices? I mean, I know windows is the end-all be-all of EVIL(TM) operating systems, but hard-crashes and hard-rebooting them wouldn't damage them as badly as the horror stories I've heard about *nix systems. Just a question.
One has to wonder if something like this can be taken from the PC to the embedded space in general. I'm sure Wind River (the owners of BSDi) would be annoyed by something like that.
I guess we can expect a dead Jaguar real soon then?
And lots of banks and network security companies will just drop what has been working great for them for years now.
War crimes, torture, lies, illegal spying... Would someone give Bush a blowjob, already, so he can be impeached?
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
Check out this [freebsd.org] for a floppy based FreeBSD, known as PicoBSD. It includes a few nice little tools, as well; you can have a dialup version, router version or networking version. All in all it's a nice little system!
Yeah, same here. They've got very neat boards indeed, and reasonable too.
:-)
Thanks dude/ette(?)
that your little poem,
was nothing more,
than *BSD trolling.
http://www.apple.com/switch/
Your friend is obviously coming on to you in the hopes of improving *both* of your sex lives.
Writers imply. Readers infer.
There are about a half dozen similar projects out and about at the moment. For one, there's the myBSD project that's creating a fifth BSD distro for very specialized projects. I personally am working on a customized version of FreeBSD, called PortoBSD, built to boot off of a CD directly into a complete OS (portable email station). This is by no means particularly special.
The dream reveals the reality which conception lags behind. That is the horror of life- the terror of art. -Franz Kafka
who said BSD is dying? FreeBSD kicks ass, i've been using it for almost 4 years
SUV's support terrorism !
Research conducted at MIT found BSD's filesystem implementation to be "very poorly performing." Even BSD's acclaimed TCP/IP stack has lagged behind, according to this study.
Quick, better tell this guy!
From your MIT link... We have run benchmarks to measure filesystem performances. Benchmarks have been made on a middle-end PC, based on a i486DX2 processor, using 16 MB of memory and two 420 MB IDE disks. The tests were run on Ext2 fs and Xia fs (Linux 1.1.62) and on the BSD Fast filesystem in asynchronous and synchronous mode (FreeBSD 2.0 Alpha--based on the 4.4BSD Lite distribution).
Hey! Way to beat us BSD fans senseless with modern benchmarks! You must have looked around a fair bit to come up with this golden oldie!
I can't be bothered looking at the postscript if it's anything as compelling as you're first effort at this Troll disguised as information.
War crimes, torture, lies, illegal spying... Would someone give Bush a blowjob, already, so he can be impeached?
Interestingly, picobsd isn't nearly as cool as tomsrtbt.
:-(
When it comes to floppies, stuff thats nice about BSD doesnt really matter much. (I use FreeBSD)...
tomsrtbt is a 2.0 series linux floppy, and its really lives up to being the most linux (read: useful stuff) on a floppy. Except it doesnt support ufs by default
SUV's support terrorism !
emBSD has been around for a while, and is built on OpenBSD too. -Yes, it's targeted towards firewalls, but can be used for more.
What are you talking about? This particular project made on OpenBSD kernel. It could be called "distro" in Linux speak, but it's not a fork in any way.
Hey, not that long ago, I ran a web server on an i486DX/33 with 20MB RAM (16MB + 4MB) and a 320MB hard drive. It served static pages through a 56k dial-up link. It worked just fine, even when half the hardware in the machine failed. It just enough to get the job done, and that's all you really need, right?
Too bad that I had to throw all my 486s in the trash when I moved. They were great fun to play with.
It is also worth checking out IEI. Check out the embeded single board computers. Embeded SBC There is quite a variety of socket370, transmeta, and NS Geode boards. For ordering boards in Canada contact Tri-M. Not all boards are listed on the website but most are listed in the pdf price list(in USD). I have not ordered anything from these guys yet. I am considering a ISS-102R-300 board, with 3 ethernet, and NS Geode 300mhz, for $275 USD. Or possibly one of the compact socket 370 boards.
a port of *BSD or Linux to my digital camera?
Is there any way that would ever be possible? Can you boot from flash ram on those babies?
If you click the link, the site says License "GPL" How can a "BSD" be GPL?
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.
I know that there are lots of "tiny" Linux distros. But is there any that match or exceed that of "compactBSD" ?
Muchas Gracias, Señor Edward Snowden !
If you take a look on the fatport site, they have a picture of something that looks very similar to a Soekris box.
Anyone know what this is?
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.
Is this just an add trying to sell hardware?
Points us to the SourceForge page, where there are: 0 Bug listings, 0 Support Requests, 0 Patches, 0 Feature Requests. The Notes page is empty, there is no project home page, and it only has 5 downloads.
Yes - let me rush to install this on my critical embedded systems. This story should not have been posted - on freshmeat, fine - on slashdot, it's stupid.
Look at the SourceForge page: It's GPLed. This means it's not a BSD.
Hopefully you aren't considering it a mid-range machine still. ;-P
486 can still get the low end going. I still have a couple old 486s around but I tend to use Pentiums for my low end stuff since I have a few around not doing much else anyway.
It's a Nat. Semi. Geode GX-1 300MHz -- which is a Pentium MMX class SOC. Somebody was reading their compile flags and not their product info on this one.
2 ,2 39,00.html
Fatpoint Info:
http://www.fatport.com/pdf/fatpoint_specs
GX-1 info:
http://www.national.com/appinfo/solutions/0,206