In short, what EmDebian does is wrap around the regular debian package building tools to provide a more fine grained control over package selection, size, dependencies and content to enable creation of very small and efficient debian packages for use on naturally resource limited embedded targets.
We adapt Debian tools so you can build/cross-compile Debian packages or adapted packages with info on how to cross-build and build smaller packages.
Emdebian is experimenting with different approaches to cross-building and small-system-friendly packages in order to produce sustainable and robust long-term solutions. For cross-building there are two main approaches: [http://www.scratchbox.org/ Scratchbox] ([wiki:scratchbox2 pkg]), which allows cross-builds to appear to be native to the apps being built, and dpkg-cross ([wiki:dpkg-cross pkg]) which allows conventional cross-builds to occur in a Debian-compatible way. EmdebianSlind is a distribution built using dpkg-cross, and now we have emdebian-tools to build modified debian packages.
For package meta-data making packages more suitable for shrinking, two approaches are currently being investigated. The STAG approach uses a $(DEBIAN_DIR) directory to overlay changed info from the /debian directory, and is used by STAGE. The udeb approach of Debian-installer gives a tighter integration with Debian, with embedded packages having changed names so they can exist in the debian package namespace. Both mechanisms have pros and cons which are discussed in EmdebianMetaData.
Project Website
August 17th 2006: The server has moved to a new machine in Europe instead of the US.
Wiki SiteMap
[:EmdebianWebLayout:Emdebian Web Layout]
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
["EmbeddedDebianFAQ"]
Quick Start Guide
Tracker
EmdebianTracker - quick notes about issues that need a fix within the Emdebian packages (issues unrelated to cross building). e.g. a postinst script that calls a binary that is not available or with an unknown option, conflicts between packages that only show up when Essential is ignored, extra dependencies needed when Essential is ignored, etc.)
Wiki pages in continuous devel
Hardware
["/Smartphone"] - [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smartphone Debian in smart phones].
PDA - [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Personal_digital_assistant Debian in Personal digital assistant].
Domotics - [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X10_(industry_standard) Debian in X10 and other domotic standards].
Cross Toolchains
Emdebian builds [:EmdebianToolchain:cross-toolchains] for use on standard Debian development machines. [http://www.emdebian.org/crosstools.html Repository details]. [:EtchCrossToolchains:Toolchains for Etch].
Documentation
EmdebianPackagingGuidelines is a document explaining to package maintainers the sorts of things they should be aware of in their packaging to make their packages 'Embedded-friendly'. This includes cross-building and small-system-building.
[:Embedded Debian packaging infrastructure:Embedded Debian Packaging Infrastructure] explains how the Emdebian repositories are organised, where the repositories are located and how to setup your system for emdebian uploads.
[:Embedded Debian packaging rules:Emdebian packaging rules] details how emdebian packages should be built and organised.
TODO
Things that need doing are:
- Emdebianising more packages so that they
- do not install unnecessary things (docs, examples, multiple translations)
- cross-build correctly
- split packages where the default has too many dependencies
- Work on Emdebian policy and actual packages to:
- Speed up boot time
- Reduce dependencies
- Differentiate between install time and run-time dependencies
- Differentiate between build and target build-dependencies
- Shrink minimum rootfs sizes
Busybox-based rootfs as well as GNU-based EmdebianRootfs
- Dash instead of bash
- Remove perl from essential
- Work on Debian and emdebian tools to:
- Support changes due to above policy
- Push changes back into Debian as much as possible (e.g faster boot)
- Infrastructure Work:
- Completing auto-build mechansism that will keep emdebian cross-toolchains uptodate with debian toolchain versions
- Incorporate full 3-stage bootstrap changes from slind
- Auto-build emdebian packages, tracking debian versions and including support for developers to track packages which have build failures
- Document:
- Making Emdebian systems
- Emdebianising new packages
- The infrastructure
- Developed Policy
- create configurations for various devices and document howto do it
- promote DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS=nodocs flag for not building docs
- promote DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS=notest for skipping tests
- co-operate with i386-uclibc team and embedded arch porters
- Kill scratchbox in its current form and make a better scratchbox2
Set-up a buildd inside scratchbox
Document setting up the buildd so developers and non-developers can try it out for themselves.
Integrate ["uclibc"] in the story. This will definitely give some size boost toward smaller footprint to the packages.
Once we have proven that this works start pushing things into Debian proper.
Optional :
- Make sure everything works with the successors of scratchbox
- Check the ARM build of Ubuntu
See also: EmDebian/DeBootstrap and EmDebian/CrossDebootstrap .
Wacky Ideas
There are also a few ideas that may need to be investigated further to decide whether it is a good idea to make them a new TODO item. These are collected on the EmdebianWackyIdeas page.
Donations / Donors
[:EmdebianDonations:Emdebian Donations and Donors]
Meetings, Conferences, Work Sessions
2006
May 14th - May 21st, in Mexico. DebConf6EmdebianStuff
April 12-16th, in Extremadura, Spain. DebianEmbeddedWorkSessionExtremadura2006
February 25&26th, in Brussels, Belgium. [http://wiki.debian.org/EmDebian/Fosdem2006 Fosdem2006]
October 25&26th, in London, UK. [http://www.linuxworldexpo.co.uk/ London Linux World Expo]
2007
February 24&25th, in Brussels, Belgium. [http://www.fosdem.org Fosdem2007]
June 17-23rd, in Edinburgh, Scotland. [https://debconf7.debconf.org/wiki/Main_Page DebConf7]
External links
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/embedded_system - Embedded systems
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/cross-compilation - cross compiling
http://www.netrino.com/Publications/Glossary/ - Embedded systems glossary