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Re: Embedded NetBSD Install



On Thu, Oct 21, 2004 at 11:49:42PM -0700, Loren M. Lang wrote:
  | On Fri, Oct 22, 2004 at 10:30:08AM +1000, Luke Mewburn wrote:
  | > For a functional NetBSD system you only need the `base' & `etc' sets.
  | > It's possibly to cut down the install to just the shared libraries and
  | > user programs you need, but that's an issue of "trial and error".
  | > For example, I have a very functional embedded appliance that uses a
  | > 10-20MB file system embedded in a kernel that ends up being 4-7MB in
  | > size.
  | 
  | You mean something like a compressed ramdisk embedded in the netbsd
  | kernel which expands to 10-20 megs in ram after it's booted?

Close; the in-kernel embedded ramdisk is not compressed per se --
the overall kernel is.  When the system boots, the compressed kernel
is loaded, uncompressed, and started, and once the autoconfiguration
completes the root device becomes md0a (the embedded ramdisk).

NetBSD uses this technique for the NetBSD install media; see the
framework in src/distrib.  Those generally use crunchgen instead
of shared libraries, but otherwise the principle is the same.


  | Also, how much does this system do?  The linux system uses the cf disk
  | for it's fs, no ramdisk involved, and takes about 16 megs which includes
  | apache and php.  Does netbsd do all that in around 16-20 megs?

I've made numerous configurations with more functionality in <= 20MB,
including php + a web server (bozohttpd, which is much smaller than apache).

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