On Fri, 15 Jun 2012 18:16:26 -0700 shawn <shawnlandden@gmail.com> wrote: > > Looking to custom build a debian distribution for an embedded system. > > Well the embedded system is actually quite powerful with the following > > specs: > > > > But none of them provide a straight forward way to build a rootfs that I > > can drop off in a hard drive and boot. grml-debootstrap seems to have > > that ability but is too grml specific. This is a typical way to create an embedded system, so embedded tools will be much more suitable than most general installers. > The number of things you need to change after a bootstrap is set, the > ones I can think > off the top of my head: > 1. set hostname in /etc/hosts > 2. set up disks in /etc/fstab > 3. set up networking /etc/networking/interfaces > 4. set up /etc/apt/sources.list > 5. install packages, like a desktop environment, etc > 6. install a bootloader (grub2) > 6. anything else app specific Then use multistrap which solves all those problems, even the addition of a bootloader can be handled. Depending on how your bootloader needs to be installed, you could script the configscript with multistrap to simply copy the grub Debian package into the rootfs (without installing it) and only install it at first boot. (Hint: create a script in /etc/init.d/ with LSB headers, use update-rc.d to put the symlinks in place for /etc/rcS.d/ and let the script delete itself when it is done.) So, overall, multistrap can do all of this for you but the more you do with it, the more you'll need to read up on the manpage/wiki and test the process locally. balloonboard are doing a very similar process - the rootfs there goes onto an embedded board but the "build-rootfs-and-move-to-device-later" model is what you are seeking, so use the same tools. > > Is emdebian a good choice? Not in terms of size, but more in terms of > > the tools necessary to build and deploy? > No, emdebian is basically just a reduced form of Debian, for low space > environments. Emdebian is the perfect choice - not in terms of size but exactly in terms of the tools necessary to build and deploy. Precisely what Uttam described as his requirements. Many of the tools used to create Emdebian are still suitable for other not-quite-standard ways of installing Debian-based systems. -- Neil Williams ============= http://www.linux.codehelp.co.uk/
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