Table of Contents
Running Debian on embedded devices covers a wide range of possible scenarios. The "embedded" hardware can be anything from a full-blown PC to a device with no memory management unit and a few MB of RAM and flash. There is not one solution that suits all of these scenarios at once, so Embedded Debian provides infrastructure and tools to produce systems according to particular project needs rather than a fixed package list.
The aim of the project is to provide:
minimised Debian packages, with the same sort of consistency that Debian itself offers but a much smaller footprint,
a complete Debian-based environment in which to build and customise them,
and finally complete distributions for various devices or types of devices.
The composite method
has been developed to combine previous threads and create a cross-build
environment based on stag for minimised Debian
packages using a new package:
emdebian-tools currently in Debian unstable and testing.
This results in cross-building a base distribution called
Emdebian, suitable for small systems
including
built-in package management and the Slind
toolchain-building methods and installer.
Features of Emdebian.
Official sub-project of Debian. Many - but not all - Emdebian developers are also Debian developers.
Brings Debian to embedded systems, opening up a wider range of applications and environments to support a wider range of embedded devices.
Takes full advantage of the existing multi-architecture support by using build logs from native builds to provide cache data when configuring cross-builds for the same architecture.
Provide free, community supported, embedded development tools.
Fills the gap between iPAQ and desktop by enabling support for the majority of Debian packages. More powerful devices can use a larger and larger selection of packages whilst still running Emdebian. High-end embedded devices have the option of running Emdebian or normal Debian without reinstallation.
Subsequent chapters aim to demonstrate how these Debian features are put to use within Emdebian.