On 16:16:18 Nov 24, PowerMan wrote: > Hello, > > My English is poor and I wish I could express myself clearly. >
No problem. English is not my native language either. ;) > I am an embedded software engineer developing arm-linux based > system. In fact, ebmedded system is an huage industrial domain > in P.R.China now, and linux is the most popular OS. > Right. > But the linux kernel 2.6 is more and more complex. Right again. > I think an > embedded system should be brief or laconic which is the feature > of OpenBSD and NetBSD. OpenBSD has the leanest kernel. NetBSD kernel is also bloated. FreeBSD used to be good till around 5.3. OpenBSD has the slimmest kernel around with support for nearly every ethernet card and other common peripherals that give trouble with linux. Most importantly audio support has been excellent with OpenBSD. There are problems with exotic hardware however. But there is no doubt about the fact that for an embedded system there is no better choice than OpenBSD if there is an MMU. > I intend to make some effort to let people substitute linux for > OpenBSD in P.R.China, such as port OpenBSD to Samsung S3Cxxx, > Cirrus EP9xxx and Freescale i.MX etc., publicize the good features of > OpenBSD and offer some technical supports. I have never heard of these. OpenBSD has been ported to several architectures. Sharp Zaurus is the closest I believe to an embedded port that we have. Others please correct me if I am wrong. Also landisk perhaps. There is a very good chance that your machine is already supported by the kernel. > > Would I be encouraged? I visit the web site of OpenBSD and find > the supported platforms should be self-compile itself and one of the > project goal is greater integration of cryptographic software. Yes. Hardware accelerated crypto for SSL and IPsec has never been a problem. > But usually ther is no IDE disks in an arm9 based system, at most > a 64MB flash chip. So it can not self-compile. And the resource is limitted, You need an MMU. Does it have a USB port? These days embedded systems come with USB support. You can put the OS on a memory stick. That way you can get much more capacity than flash. > in some circumstance integration of cryptographic software is unnecessary, > such as industrial control and some handhelds equipment. > I agree. OpenBSD excels in all areas. Seamless package management, support for industry strength crypto and built in security mechanisms, support for nearly every single routing protocol and other cutting edge network protocols on earth ( except MPLS,ISIS). And many many more. You can see the slides of my seminar for more details about what all OpenBSD can do. http://sirsasana.org/seminar ( I am focusing only on networking and crypto here ) > Would I be encouraged by the OpenBSD organization and get supported > to just port OpenBSD kernel to arm based board and only run some necessary > applications.(Actually busybox and some controlling programs in a > controlling > circumstance is enough.) Check the openbsd website[1] and [2] for hardware support and the supported architectures. ARM I am sure is supported but porting is not only about the CPU; the machine counts as well. busybox is a linux thingy. You can generate your own stuff with crunchgen(1). Best of luck! Thanks and welcome to the wonderful world of OpenBSD. Where the world is without fences and (add your thing here)... :) regards, Girish 1. http://www.openbsd.org 2. http://www.openbsd.org/plat.html
