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Dorileo
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Posts by Dorileo
GSoC2011: coreboot spice payload, OE and rootfs
2As stated in my midterm report I’m working this first 2 weeks after midterm to work on building the payload image. I wanted to hardcode everything but we(my mentor and I) understood it would be better to use something like OpenEmbedded for that.
This first week I studied OpenEmbedded. I tested many distributions starting with angstrom, they showed too heavy for our purpose. After those tests I found micro and realized it would be a better start.
With that I’m working around micro to build our own distro, I’m adding X11 dependencies and right now I’m packing the spice client and its dependencies. In the end of the week I must have sorted every details.
GSoC2011 spice payload midterm report
0My project mostly involves to build an image with a small linux systemrunning a spice client, the system is attached with/as a LAB tocoreboot.
What was done
My buildrom tree received some updates and small changes to the building system. The bigest problem to solve was make it build coreboot with the new [k]build system. For that I changed build rom to incorporate the coreboot options so the user can configure every aspects of coreboot – all from buildrom menus. 
For prototyping I used a chroot with a debian bootstrap(debootstrap), this surely doesn`t fit well to the project but I didn`t much attention for that, I thought I could leave it for second half – in the last days talking to my mentor I realized I should have paid more attention to the image things.
With a debootstrap I hacked I small script to package copy that root to my final image, what, once again, doesn`t fit our needs and requirements and here comes the tasks to be taken in the second half.
Second half
The project has been designed to be fully installed in/loaded from flash, It`s loaded with filo(but like discussed with my mentor any other bootload would fit prefectly).
Busybox will be our base system and a x-server. To acomplish that I have to take and finish the following tasks:
- design the building strategies which involves;
- building the busybox(well, this one is already done once we have a busybox package in buildrom system – I just need to base on that);
- select the needed x-server componentes(modules – Xlibs, Xprogs, Xvesa);
- select the alsa packages;
- include the spice client and its dependencies;
- define the kernel features;
- define how filo is about to load the final image;
- define the best compression algorithm;
- integrate the whole thing to buildrom;
- alix board support;
The base building scripts will be packaged separetely and then integrated to buildrom like the other packages(i.e busybox, filo, grub and so on).
There`re just 6 weeks to the final evaluation and I`m leaving the alix board support to the last 2 weeks.
The build scripts and kernel prototyping will take the 2 first weeks, while the third one I`ll be working to put everything to be built by buildrom, the system can be tested as a proper system from an iso image till I get to integrate it to buildrom and package it as a coreboot payload.
GSoC 2011: new toys comming, part II
0Few weeks ago I got my alix board and today the guys from artecgroup told me my flexyICE is ready for shipping. Below are some pics I took of my alix board:
spice payload: Before MidTerm GSoC report
0My very first task on gsoc was to make buildrom work with latest codes from coreboot, with that I changed how it used to build coreboot. First I introduced the coreboot kconfig options to buildrom so the user can configure and choose the options for coreboot in the same mainmenu as buildrom.
Some small changes was introduced as a consistent pattern to name the kernel mk files and the possibility to checkout source code with https:// or svn://.
Updated some packages mk files to comply some patterns I introduced.
I still have some changes to introduce but I think it`s already usable. I might push the final bits in the next few days whenever I get a chance to work out my patches.
GSoC 2011: (week 2) Coreboot Spice Payload
0I still haven’t had a good progress on my project, my first step is to work around the buildrom system.
I got to bring fully the coreboot Kconfig options to buildrom, since I don’t want to manually update it after coreboot updates I decided to write a small program to parse the coreboot Kconfig files. I found some api’s to help but I god stuck with that first task since none of them actually help me so much. A simple task became so complex and took me more time than I wanted(I started to update the api’s and change it acordingly to my needs, but well my project is not a kconfig api).
For a better and simpler solution I sat down and wrote a small shell script to run all the Kconfig’s and merge it into a single Kconfig.coreboot.
Now the next task is to change the building flow, how coreboot is fetched, patched and built.
For the final image and package I still want to get it all on the flash, I’m working on finding a solution to fit it as small as possible.
I found it would be interesting to use Kdrive to make the image smaller since it’s a minimal X server, but it’s unmaintained and we can build a thin X server from upstream.
For code sharing and analisys I setup a git repository so my mentor can comment on what I’m writing.
Now I have to move I bit faster.
GSoC 2011: new toys comming, part I
3The new toys already started to come, yesterday I got my new development station – it has a core i7, intel DH55 mobo, 1TB Sata Hard Disk, 8GB RAM, and some extras.
Now I’m waiting for my alix and flexyICE.
previous setup
current setup
GSoC 2011: Coreboot Spice Payload
0This year I was accepted on gsoc – and I`m excited – to work in a project to make corebook a spice client. The idea is to use buildrom to pack everything.
Once buildrom has been unmaintained for quite some time now I`ll need to work around it before working on the spice bits.
Spice
Yeah! when I say spice I mean the remote and virtualized desktop protocol, originally developed by Qumranet now acquired by Red Hat.
The basic idea is to make a client run from a minimal environment. We`ll be working on a LAB(Linux as bootloader) solution.
Initial steps
As I said above, we need some work around buildrom system, the coreboot buildsystem has migrated to kbuild on the stable code and lots of things have changed with it.
Both buildrom and coreboot work with kbuild with that I`m writing a small python piece of code to parse coreboot`s Kconfig files and then arrange it into buildrom source code. I also need to 1) monitor the coreboot Kconfig files changes so I run the parser again and 2) change the coreboot build calls.
With all the kconfig arranged the buildrom user needs just to set the rom properties including the coreboot options(since those options are passed to coreboot build).
The kernel configs also need some attention it`s statically set for each board, I haven`t come with a better solution for this till now.
Hardware and new toys
I have ordered an ALIX.3D3, a flexyICE and a new desktop computer. The first 2 are comming from EU and will be dispatched later on May. The new desktop computer I get till the end of the week(before the gsoc bonding period end).
Now, let`s rock.