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vishnunair7 Joined: Jan 17, 2009 Posts: 12 Other Topics	Posted Jan 17, 2009 at 5:25:17 PM Subject: Internet Browser Enabled Linux Distro for Embedded Usage hello guys, I was wondering whether there is a Linux Distro available that contains only programs for internet usage and can be embedded onto a chip?? Like only a basic Internet Browser and the basic stuff required to set up a network. If not available, is it possible to customize one?? I would like to know the easiest possible way. I'm quite familiar with Ubuntu. I'm hoping that would help. Thank you
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Reed Joined Feb 07, 2008 Posts: 758 Other Topics	Posted: Jan 17, 2009 6:27:16 PM Subject: Internet Browser Enabled Linux Distro for Embedded Usage http://www.linuxdevices.com/articles/AT2760742655.html http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Embedded_Linux
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vishnunair7 Joined Jan 17, 2009 Posts: 12 Other Topics	Posted: Jan 18, 2009 7:12:34 AM Subject: Internet Browser Enabled Linux Distro for Embedded Usage Is there any software which I could install in Ubuntu or any other Linux distro for that matter and customize linux from scratch adding only software that I want .....in this case only the internet browser..maybe only firefox or dillo?? And also i would like to know whether there is a difference between the embedded and the pc version of the distros other than the size which is extremely small for the embedded distros for obvious reasons. Thank You
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thobbs Joined Oct 12, 2008 Posts: 238 Location:Texas! Other Topics	Posted: Jan 18, 2009 8:40:28 AM Subject: Internet Browser Enabled Linux Distro for Embedded Usage [quote=vishnunair7]And also i would like to know whether there is a difference between the embedded and the pc version of the distros other than the size which is extremely small for the embedded distros for obvious reasons.[/quote]From the linked Wikipedia page:[quote] Since embedded devices serve specific rather than general purposes, developers optimize their embedded Linux distributions to target specific hardware configurations and usage situations. These optimizations can include reducing the number of device drivers and software applications, and modifying the Linux kernel to be a real-time operating system. Instead of a full suite of desktop software applications, embedded Linux systems often use a small set of free software utilities such as busybox, and replace the glibc C standard library with a more compact alternative such as dietlibc, uClibc, or Newlib.[/quote] You will not want to use Embedded Linux distros for a PC.[quote=vishnunair7]Is there any software which I could install in Ubuntu or any other Linux distro for that matter and customize linux from scratch adding only software that I want .....in this case only the internet browser..maybe only firefox or dillo??[/quote] If you want a small, customizable distro, check out Slax ([url]http://www.slax.org/[/url]).
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vishnunair7 Joined Jan 17, 2009 Posts: 12 Other Topics	Posted: Jan 19, 2009 6:47:55 AM Subject: Internet Browser Enabled Linux Distro for Embedded Usage thobbs...thnaks a lot man...i checked out clax and it was really good! the problem is i cant get it to be really small even after trying out the "Build Slax" feature. Its coming upto 95 MB. Anyway if u can tell me a way in whch i can embed 95 MB...i'm Fine....but is that possible??
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thobbs Joined Oct 12, 2008 Posts: 238 Location:Texas! Other Topics	Posted: Jan 19, 2009 7:16:32 PM Subject: Internet Browser Enabled Linux Distro for Embedded Usage I'm not really an embedded guy, but I would check out Embedded Debian (Emdebian): [url]http://www.emdebian.org/[/url]. My last post was more to clarify what you should and should not use on a PC. Good luck!
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Rubberman Joined Jul 30, 2007 Posts: 944 Location:40 miles west of Chicago Other Topics	Posted: Jan 20, 2009 4:01:00 AM Subject: Internet Browser Enabled Linux Distro for Embedded Usage For a really lean embedded system, you will need to craft your own distribution. Start with one of the standards, such as Embedian, Gentoo, or whatever. For its configurability, I would tend to start with Gentoo. That would let you build ONLY the components into the distribution that you are interested in. Some parts, such as a startup script that bypasses user authentication and start up the UI and browser, will be your responsibility. You might also want to disallow the user to shut down the browser, so you might have to modify the code for Firefox or whatever as well. Good luck. This is not simple work. Sometimes real fast is almost as good as real time. Remember, Google is your friend!
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vishnunair7 Joined Jan 17, 2009 Posts: 12 Other Topics	Posted: Jan 28, 2009 6:42:14 AM Subject: Internet Browser Enabled Linux Distro for Embedded Usage Is ucLinux a good option??
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Rubberman Joined Jul 30, 2007 Posts: 944 Location:40 miles west of Chicago Other Topics	Posted: Jan 28, 2009 3:13:40 PM Subject: Internet Browser Enabled Linux Distro for Embedded Usage Don't know. Try it and see. Run it in a virtual machine to see if it is what you want. You can run Sun's VirtualBox virtual machine manager on Linux, Solaris, Windows, and OSX, so you can try different distributions until you find what works best for you, for only the cost of some disc space. Sometimes real fast is almost as good as real time. Remember, Google is your friend!
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vishnunair7 Joined Jan 17, 2009 Posts: 12 Other Topics	Posted: Jan 28, 2009 6:59:53 PM Subject: Internet Browser Enabled Linux Distro for Embedded Usage will ucLinux run on VirtualBox?...i googled it...got no results!!
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blinky Joined Jan 08, 2009 Posts: 51 Other Topics	Posted: Jan 29, 2009 12:34:45 AM Subject: Internet Browser Enabled Linux Distro for Embedded Usage [quote=vishnunair7]thobbs...thnaks a lot man...i checked out clax and it was really good! the problem is i cant get it to be really small even after trying out the "Build Slax" feature. Its coming upto 95 MB. Anyway if u can tell me a way in whch i can embed 95 MB...i'm Fine....but is that possible??[/quote] You can embedd as much/little as you want, depends on what you want to achive. The "chip" might only have limited resources, but if it supports usb then most of the system/applications can live as a RO image on a memory stick. To get a resonable answer you need to provide more details eg platform, limitations of the platform (memory/storage) and definition of what level of compatability/features the browser must support (a usefull browser is gong to consume a resonable amount of "disk" space). When I did something similar I started with slackware as a starting point (minimal install), then add the bits I needed to get the functionality I need, then prune the system (eg. remove all the localisation stuff etc). In a world without walls and fences, who needs Windows and Gates
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vishnunair7 Joined Jan 17, 2009 Posts: 12 Other Topics	Posted: Jan 29, 2009 8:30:55 PM Subject: Internet Browser Enabled Linux Distro for Embedded Usage Thanks a lot Blinky...Since you made that refernce to the Slax version I had built....I had included only Mozilla Firefox and it came upto around 90MB(This is oncluding the Slax Core and something else which i felt was required for everyhting else to run smoothly!.).Anyway if i use hardware(a chip!) that supports USB,is it possible for me to run the same slax distro?? If so can u give me some details regarding the hardware because this does sound easier than embedding..
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blinky Joined Jan 08, 2009 Posts: 51 Other Topics	Posted: Jan 29, 2009 9:02:39 PM Subject: Internet Browser Enabled Linux Distro for Embedded Usage The stuff I did was on a workstation, stripped of all storage (security concerns). But it would have worked with mini-itx, pico? itx - tht was going to be eventual target. bascially any thing the pretends to be x86 standard pc. Anything else you would have to do some porting cross/compiling - and not sure how you would handle X. In a world without walls and fences, who needs Windows and Gates
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vishnunair7 Joined Jan 17, 2009 Posts: 12 Other Topics	Posted: Jan 30, 2009 7:32:24 AM Subject: Internet Browser Enabled Linux Distro for Embedded Usage So "Blinky"....I can use these pico and nano-itx's as a normal computer motherboard....right??there's no embedding factor coming into play r??.....if so this is cool!! well see...my basic idea is to just create a small box which should have basically all software and hardware with only internet capabilities...so all a person would have to do is connect a monitor or any other display device and this "box" starts up....((It might sound pretty basic to u guys but its just a high school project so))......so any other suggestions for this?? I would still like to embed if that would b possible but you guys don know much bout it as well....Anybody well versed with ucLinux ...please let me know.......
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