Do I want to debootstrap Debian armhf on my iMX53 board?

[Phil Endecott <spam_from_debian_arm@chezphil.org>]

Dear All,

I now have an i.MX53 "quick start" board, which I have connected to a SATA disk
and it is running the Freescale-supplied Ubuntu from it.

Next I need to decide whether to try to install some form of Debian.  (I guess
the alternative is to use this Ubuntu image as a starting point and to strip it
down to something usable - but I don't know how well Ubuntu would cope with the
sort of surgery that I have in mind.)

I think this comes down to:

- Will the Freescale-supplied Ubuntu kernel work with the Debian userspace(s)?
- Is Debian armhf in a state where I can expect it to function?
- Will debootstrap work, or is there some other suggested process for installing
a base system?

Looking slightly ahead, my next question will be whether I want to build locally
on the device or to tackle the perennial pain of cross-compilation...


Cheers,  Phil.


p.s. I am going to try to record my progress here:  http://chezphil.org/tvcomputer/