water cooler :: Would it be time for DSL to shed its skin?

Quote (curaga @ July 16 2007,17:34)

But you didn't say anything about the question of a static uclibc build environment for extensions needing a lot of libs not in core DSL, how about it?

I would opt for a shared uClibc extension. The size of this extension would (in compressed form) be at most in the ~500K region. This is better than tacking the static uClibc onto every extension, which would swell every extension by a few hundred KB. The only objection I could have would be aesthetic. I mean, two(..?!) parallel libc libraries? The aggravation that people experience at this inelegant solution had better be outweighed by size reductions - which might not be as dramatic as imagined. Conversely, if this works out, it again begs the question - If uClibc is so great, why not use it in core DSL as well? Identity crisis, confusion, etc.

But above all, thank you very much for discussing these things.

UPDATE:
Geez, I look at what I posted this morning, and I don't even know what I'm talking about anymore. I was contradicting myself all over the place. It's more interesting to hear what you want to do, instead. Would like to help out in little ways if possible.

Well, what do I want to do?
I'm not too sure about Firefox..
Maybe make a base ala modified LFS. Maybe start a distro. Maybe conquer the world.

I've got barely two weeks of summer holiday left, and I wanted to learn Quenya this summer (haven't even started yet..). So much I want to do and so little time. Gotta prioritize. First, I'm gonna go see Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix...

interpret all that as: I'm gonna do something, but not too hasty master Meriadoc..

Why don't you do that Firefox experiment? You seem like a better person for it..

I'll see what I can do about compiling uClibc Firefox in the next few days.
Oh, and enjoy your school holidays - They seem more precious as you get older.
Speaking as someone in his last year at college.

It's near 6PM here. I just started the buildroot process. I estimate 4 or 5 hours to completion.
Update: 12:30AM here. Build just completed.
This is the configuration I used for buildroot (I am only listing options used that differ from the defaults):

Code Sample

Target Arch: i386
Target Arch Varient: i386
Build Options -> [*] Show packages that are deprecated or obsolete
Toolchain Options -> Kernel Headers (Linux 2.4.31 kernel headers)
Package Selection for the target ->
The default minimal system ->
BusyBox Version (BusyBox 1.6.1)
<-
The minimum needed to build a uClibc development system ->
[*] bash
[*] bzip2
[*] diffutils
[*] flex
[*] Install libfl.a under staging_dir/lib
[*] native toolchain in the target filesystem
[*] make
<-
Other development stuff ->
[*] autoconf
[*] automake
[*] bison
[*] expat
[*] libtool
[*] m4
[*] pkg-config
[*] readline
[*] readline for the target
<-
Other stuff ->
[*] file
[ ] Networking
[ ] Hardware handling / blockdevices and filesystem maintenance
[*] Graphic libraries and applications (graphic/text)
-> [*] ncurses headers in target
[*] jpeg
[*] libpng
[*] tiff
[*] Compressors / decompressors
-> [*] zlib headers in target
[ ] Audio libraries and applications
[ ] Interpreter languages / Scripting

The above packages can be built automatically. There are more packages which (ideally) should be selected - but have trouble building using buildroot. (At first, they don't compile because libtool has not been built - a build order problem. After I deselect these packages, build everything including libtool, then reselect them, I get strange automake errors.) Therefore, please note that the following packages have to be built manually once we chroot into the new uClibc environment:

For audio:
libid3tag
libmad
For graphics (listed in build order - Xorg depends on font libs; glib and gtk depend on X libs):
1. freetype
2. fontconfig
3. Xorg (Because we need the libraries and headers. Also, even though DSL uses libraries from XFree86, the libraries and headers in Xorg should be fully compatible.)
4. glib 1.2
5. gtk 1.2

I might run into trouble building Xorg. I have never built Xorg before. There's not much else to worry about.

Hi!

Would it be possible to cut the size of the DSL base by giving it the 'uclibc treatement' and at same time create a glibc MyDSL extension that could be used for compatibility with existing legacy glibc-based MyDSL extensions? If so that would seem like the ideal solution.

Just my 2-cents idea of the day!
- Florian

Next Page...
original here.