Live data from Hacker News

Linux on an 8-bit micro

dmitry.gr

21–30 of 80 posts

Re: Linux on an 8-bit micro

#21
post #4

Curiously enough, once booted, the system is somewhat usable. You can type a command and get a reply within a minute.

It takes about 2 hours to boot to bash prompt ("init=/bin/bash" kernel command line). Then 4 more hours to boot up the entire Ubuntu ("exec init" and then login). Starting X takes a lot longer.

"You're usin' a 286? Don't make me laugh / Your Windows boots up what, in a day and a half?" - Weird Al

Re: Linux on an 8-bit micro

#24
post #19

Awesomely cool project, but I was somewhat dismayed by the choice of GNOME, as GNOME is quite bloated and a smaller window manager, instead of a DE, seems to make more sense while not detracting from usability.

I don't think there's any graphical usability whatsoever, as the only output is a serial line. He only mentioned X and GNOME to emphasize the fact that it can be started.

Re: Linux on an 8-bit micro

#25
post #6

All that's left is that pesky 32-bit CPU & MMU requirement. Well the AVR has no MMU and is 8-bit. To conquer this obstacle, I wrote an ARM emulator. So technically it's Linux running on a 32-bit "macro", just one which happens to be implemented in some seriously inefficient manner. There are some real ports of Linux for "limited" architectures, like uClinux (supporting few 32-bit micros, including some MMU-less ones)…

So you're saying you can't compile Linux to an 8-bit CPU, but you can run an emulator of a much larger chip on that CPU and run linux on that ? Are you sure?

That's what the person here did, so yes indeed.

Re: Linux on an 8-bit micro

#26
post #21
post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It takes about 2 hours to boot to bash prompt ("init=/bin/bash" kernel command line). Then 4 more hours to boot up the entire Ubuntu ("exec init" and then login). Starting X takes a lot longer.

"You're usin' a 286? Don't make me laugh / Your Windows boots up what, in a day and a half?" - Weird Al

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qpMvS1Q1sos - just to make it easy for others to appreciate this gem.

Re: Linux on an 8-bit micro

#27
This is seriously awesome. I take special care to upvote these kinds of projects, as they embody the hacker spirit: hack something that has never been done before in an awesome way, and to hell with practical value!
Post reply on HN