[Freedombox-discuss] e: Virtual machine for compiling code for fb?

[monkeyiq]

On Tue, 2012-02-28 at 16:11 +0000, Nicholas Hardiman wrote:
> Example of qemu-debootstrap here. Any use?
> 
> http://anil.recoil.org/2012/02/25/dreamplug-debian-and-ocaml.html
> 

Thanks for the link!
        
There is a slight syntax error on the page, but one can fairly easily
work over it. The /arm parameter stipulating where to bootstrap into was
missing:

root at freedombuild:~# qemu-debootstrap \
  --arch=armel wheezy /arm \
  http://ftp.uk.debian.org/debian/
        
FWIW, for those who are looking to create a similar build environment
the steps I used are:
        
* Install x86_64 wheezy into a qemu x86_64 virtual machine (xx)
* Login to (xx) and run the qemu-bootstrap to /arm
* chroot /arm
* code that is compiled from this shell will work on the freedombox.
        
One needs to insert generous apt-get installs along the way where
needed.
        
For the final point, I have built libferris deb files, installed them on
the dreeamplug/fb hardware and executed code from the debs fine.
        
This gives you access to 8-16gb of RAM during a "gcc -03" sweep of the
code when building. All your RAM are belong to the optimizer.