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Linux-factory: A framework used to create custom Linux Debian operating systems

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Re: Linux-factory: A framework used to create custom Linux Debian operating systems

#11
post #8

It's like Yocto but made saner (although with less options)

I'd be interested in knowing what you consider not sane in Yocto?

Anything with a learning curve steeper than "throw your files in a Dockerfile and call it a day" unfortunately tends to be considered "not sane". There is a whole market when it comes to making new tools for people who "don't have the time to RTFM". And then for tools helping to use those tools.

(To be clear: I really like Yocto)

Re: Linux-factory: A framework used to create custom Linux Debian operating systems

#14
post #11
post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd be interested in knowing what you consider not sane in Yocto?

Anything with a learning curve steeper than "throw your files in a Dockerfile and call it a day" unfortunately tends to be considered "not sane". There is a whole market when it comes to making new tools for people who "don't have the time to RTFM". And then for tools helping to use those tools. (To be clear: I really like Yocto)

Any recommendations on getting started with Yocto? I want to build a custom image for a Jetson, and Yocto seems like the only good option.

Re: Linux-factory: A framework used to create custom Linux Debian operating systems

#15

It's like Yocto but made saner (although with less options)

The real value with Yocto is the community and vendor supported/supplied BSPs (board support packages). The gains from these (typically extensive and robust) BSPs usually more than offsets other rough edges with Yocto.

Re: Linux-factory: A framework used to create custom Linux Debian operating systems

#16
post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Anything with a learning curve steeper than "throw your files in a Dockerfile and call it a day" unfortunately tends to be considered "not sane". There is a whole market when it comes to making new tools for people who "don't have the time to RTFM". And then for tools helping to use those tools. (To be clear: I really like Yocto)

Any recommendations on getting started with Yocto? I want to build a custom image for a Jetson, and Yocto seems like the only good option.

Word of warning - I don't know how much you've looked into it yet but depending on your needs from Jetson the Nvidia stack gets really complicated really quickly.

I know people have frustrations with Nivida supplied Jetpack but when you end up trying to figure out how to roll your own support for TensorRT, DLA, cuDNN, etc (on ARM64, of course) many people bail and run screaming back to Jetpack.

Re: Linux-factory: A framework used to create custom Linux Debian operating systems

#17

I prefer the approach of AntiX and MX Linux. Start from a clean live distro, mod it to your taste, master it to a new Live ISO. You can also start from a normal MX/antiX system and make a live ISO backup. You can also install those ISOs. Systemd is optional on MX and disabled by default. LOTS of live and remaster options on those systems. I find myself more on live than on installed systems now. It's basically like w…

There's almost no circumstance I can imagine where giving up a solid usable well known OS sounds tempting to me. Getting Debian running on PogoPlugs and OpenWRT devices has been a repeated ordeal I'vd gladly traversed. Having a well behaved normal OS that meets many user's expectations (but has your special stuff regularly installed!) is divine.

I used to run Debian Live, and appreciated the tiny amount of shell hacking they have to layer persistent storage filesystem atop a ro filesystem- identical to how theres a ro container image then the mutable rw layer atop it... but a decade older!

I find that the pretense of running "live" is largely gone. It's basically become a meaningless difference of what medium you run on but I've been using the same scripts to create the necessary root OS & UEFI EFI filesystem (FAT32 with a magic partition-type, populated with the bootloader & config). often I spin up systems by just copying a btrfs snapshot & rsync'ing efi directory (and updating some partition uuid's, regenerate machine-id), then I have two systems. Live feels meaningless, non-distinct from regular to me.

All these attempts to treat things different & distinctly, to make special cases for ourself- oh we need a network/router oriented OS, we need a bare OS, we need a consumer OS, we need a NAS os- so rarely have I ever felt like these attempts to flee from the fold & venture out to special really have rewards. This behavior of making exceptions for your problem, talking yourself out of doing the easy normal base thing, seems so rarely to me to have rewards. Run Debian, run systemd, run normal well-known tools! Unless you're really certain getting off the base path really is essential, has huge specific merit.

That's why I like this effort. It allows customization & baking your own thing, but it's much more routine & regular & normal than so many "make your own OS" projects, where folks tend to be quite "back to the land" in motive. Let's make our own OS from sticks! Yeah! But no. You almost certainly should have an ok userland base in my view. Debian is a pretty great one.

Re: Linux-factory: A framework used to create custom Linux Debian operating systems

#18
post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Anything with a learning curve steeper than "throw your files in a Dockerfile and call it a day" unfortunately tends to be considered "not sane". There is a whole market when it comes to making new tools for people who "don't have the time to RTFM". And then for tools helping to use those tools. (To be clear: I really like Yocto)

Any recommendations on getting started with Yocto? I want to build a custom image for a Jetson, and Yocto seems like the only good option.

IMO, start small, maybe with a RPi. Possibly Nvidia provides layers for the Jetson (I haven't seen that), but in my experience the risk is that those layers are super complicated (and fairly messy). I think it's better to learn how Yocto works first, rather than learning how to hack the layers provided by the manufacturer.

Also it helped me to learn a bit how other distros are built: I tried Linux from scratch, then got interested in Alpine, and then in how PostmarketOS got started based on Alpine tooling.

After all, a distro is "just" a bunch of packages, which are archives containing files that get decompressed in the right place. Yocto provides tools to create those packages (just like mainstream Linux distro). What Yocto adds on top is tools to manage cross-compiling (toolchains, a way to create an SDK, etc) and a system of layering that helps organizing them ("those packages go specifically with the RPi, so I will put them in a layer called "RPi" and I will call that a "BSP"", etc).

Don't get me wrong, there is quite a lot. But there is no magic, the goal is always to create packages that will put the right files in the right place :-).

Good luck!

Re: Linux-factory: A framework used to create custom Linux Debian operating systems

#20

It's like Yocto but made saner (although with less options)

Yocto is fine if you are using a SOM and the vendor provides a yocto BSP.

If are building your own board and developing a BSP, Yocto is a nightmare peeling away the onion layers.

I find Buildroot much saner and easier to work with.

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