devil-linux-develop

[Devil-linux-develop] Memory usage.

[Bruce S. <bw...@ar...>]

I made a ISO with almost all binaries on CD, including all the binaries
listed in copy_base.lst.

It boots in VMware with 44MB of memory, 40MB fails.

After booting with 44MB, I can use "dd if=/dev/zero of=/tmp/file ..."
to create about 15 MB worth of files in memory before it dies.

"free" seems to be fairly worthless in determining memory usage.

If I have 15MB free after booting with 44MB, why won't it boot in 40MB?

The biggest files still left in ram disk on my ISO are now the
libraries.  It'd be interesting to move them to CD also and see what
happens then.

Weird stuff ...    :-)

 - BS

[Devil-linux-develop] Memory usage.

[Bruce S. <bw...@ar...>]

I finally got an ISO to build. (whew :)

However, I was bummed to find out that I cannot set the memory 
to anything smaller than 32MB in VMware 4.  :-(

What's the minimum memory usage down to these days?

Also, copying the config files to a blank floppy is still broke.
I can take a look at it, if you're done with the boot script???

 - BS

Re: [Devil-linux-develop] Memory usage.

[Heiko Z. <he...@zu...>]

Bruce Smith wrote:
> I finally got an ISO to build. (whew :)

cool

> However, I was bummed to find out that I cannot set the memory 
> to anything smaller than 32MB in VMware 4.  :-(

VMWare 3 complained too, but after the error message I could press OK 
again and it saved it.

> What's the minimum memory usage down to these days?

Good question.

> Also, copying the config files to a blank floppy is still broke.
> I can take a look at it, if you're done with the boot script???

Yes I'm done with the boot script.
The shell we currently use has a very limited "read" command.

cya
   Heiko

Re: [Devil-linux-develop] Memory usage.

[Bruce S. <bw...@ar...>]

> > However, I was bummed to find out that I cannot set the memory 
> > to anything smaller than 32MB in VMware 4.  :-(
> 
> VMWare 3 complained too, but after the error message I could press OK 
> again and it saved it.

I haven't got VMware 4 to save it.  It automatically changes it back to
32MB if I input anything smaller.

> > What's the minimum memory usage down to these days?
> 
> Good question.

The next time you test it, please let me know.  I'm curious.

> > Also, copying the config files to a blank floppy is still broke.
> > I can take a look at it, if you're done with the boot script???
> 
> Yes I'm done with the boot script.
> The shell we currently use has a very limited "read" command.

Does ash support functions?  
The error message said it couldn't find the proc "ask_yes_no".

I have a delay before I can do much with this.  My main development PC
blew a CPU yesterday.  I don't think I've EVER seen a CPU go bad before,
in ANY PC I've ever seen!  I'm amazed.  This one even died while the
system was up and running (not powering up)!  Good UPS conditioned power
too.  It's not that old of a PC either.  (1.7G P4)   Strange ...

 - BS

Re: [Devil-linux-develop] Memory usage.

[Heiko Z. <he...@zu...>]

Bruce Smith wrote:

>>>However, I was bummed to find out that I cannot set the memory 
>>>to anything smaller than 32MB in VMware 4.  :-(
>>>      
>>>
>>VMWare 3 complained too, but after the error message I could press OK 
>>again and it saved it.
>>    
>>
>
>I haven't got VMware 4 to save it.  It automatically changes it back to
>32MB if I input anything smaller.
>
You can try to set the OS within VMware to MSDOS or something.
I think VMware behaves differently then.

>>>What's the minimum memory usage down to these days?
>>>      
>>>
>>Good question.
>>    
>>
>
>The next time you test it, please let me know.  I'm curious.
>
I think the lowest I got it working was 16 MB.
Unfortunately you can set  the memory in VMWare only in 4 MB increments 
and when I recall it correctly, it refused to boot with 12 MB

>>>Also, copying the config files to a blank floppy is still broke.
>>>I can take a look at it, if you're done with the boot script???
>>>      
>>>
>>Yes I'm done with the boot script.
>>The shell we currently use has a very limited "read" command.
>>    
>>
>
>Does ash support functions?  
>The error message said it couldn't find the proc "ask_yes_no".
>
I don't know.

>I have a delay before I can do much with this.  My main development PC
>blew a CPU yesterday.  I don't think I've EVER seen a CPU go bad before,
>in ANY PC I've ever seen!  I'm amazed.  This one even died while the
>system was up and running (not powering up)!  Good UPS conditioned power
>too.  It's not that old of a PC either.  (1.7G P4)   Strange ...
>  
>
That sucks !

cya
  Heiko

Re: [Devil-linux-develop] Memory usage.

[Bruce S. <bw...@ar...>]

> >I haven't got VMware 4 to save it.  It automatically changes it back to
> >32MB if I input anything smaller.
> >
> You can try to set the OS within VMware to MSDOS or something.
> I think VMware behaves differently then.

MSDOS allow me to put in 16MB, but no lower.
"Other" still has a 32MB minimum.

It seems to boot fine in 16MB.  I can't try any lower on VMware 4,
but that's fine with me.  I've very happy with 16MB!

> >>Yes I'm done with the boot script.
> >>The shell we currently use has a very limited "read" command.
> >
> >Does ash support functions?  
> >The error message said it couldn't find the proc "ask_yes_no".
> >
> I don't know.

It does.  I have the script fixed so it copies to blank floppy now.

I am confused about something else.  Along with etc.tar.bz2, there is a
new config file named var.tar.bz2.  Seems logical ...  except I cannot
find anyplace where it untars var.tar.bz2 in the linuxrc script.  Is it
untared somewhere else, or did you forget to untar it?

 - BS

Re: [Devil-linux-develop] Memory usage.

[Heiko Z. <he...@zu...>]

Bruce Smith wrote:
>>>>Yes I'm done with the boot script.
>>>>The shell we currently use has a very limited "read" command.
>>>
>>>Does ash support functions?  
>>>The error message said it couldn't find the proc "ask_yes_no".
>>>
>>
>>I don't know.
> 
> 
> It does.  I have the script fixed so it copies to blank floppy now.
> 
> I am confused about something else.  Along with etc.tar.bz2, there is a
> new config file named var.tar.bz2.  Seems logical ...  except I cannot
> find anyplace where it untars var.tar.bz2 in the linuxrc script.  Is it
> untared somewhere else, or did you forget to untar it?

It's in /sbin/pre_init

You find this script in build/scripts/pre_init .
I had to re-arrange the boot process quite a bit, to get the memory 
usage down.

Heiko

Re: [Devil-linux-develop] Memory usage.

[Heiko Z. <he...@zu...>]

Hey there,

I just did a few more changes (already in CVS) and checked the memory usage.
You can boot now with only 22 MB of RAM.

I'm almost certain we can bring that down to 16 MB, when we use uclibc 
and static binaries within the Initrd.
The only question is if we want to do this.

cya
  Heiko

Re: [Devil-linux-develop] Memory usage.

[Bruce S. <bw...@ar...>]

> I just did a few more changes (already in CVS) and checked the memory usage.
> You can boot now with only 22 MB of RAM.

Wow!!!

> I'm almost certain we can bring that down to 16 MB, when we use uclibc 
> and static binaries within the Initrd.
> The only question is if we want to do this.

I don't know anything about uclibc.

What's the pro's & con's of using uclibc in initrd?
Is anything stuck using it after boot?

 - BS

Re: [Devil-linux-develop] Memory usage.

[Heiko Z. <he...@zu...>]

Bruce Smith wrote:
>>I just did a few more changes (already in CVS) and checked the memory usage.
>>You can boot now with only 22 MB of RAM.
> 
> Wow!!!

Just saw that I lied, I used 24 MB.
VMWare doesn't let you select 22MB.

>>I'm almost certain we can bring that down to 16 MB, when we use uclibc 
>>and static binaries within the Initrd.
>>The only question is if we want to do this.
> 
> 
> I don't know anything about uclibc.
> 
> What's the pro's & con's of using uclibc in initrd?
It is much smaller then glibc but doesn't have all functionality.
It should certainly be enough to get through the initrd.

> Is anything stuck using it after boot?

Should not.

cya
Heiko

Re: [Devil-linux-develop] Memory usage.

[Bruce S. <bw...@ar...>]

> >>I just did a few more changes (already in CVS) and checked the memory usage.
> >>You can boot now with only 22 MB of RAM.
> > 
> > Wow!!!
> 
> Just saw that I lied, I used 24 MB.
> VMWare doesn't let you select 22MB.

Still, that's very good.

Most old PC's I've seen (that are still usable as a firewall) 
have either 32MB or 16MB, so 16MB would be a good goal.
If we don't get there, 32MB is still great!
 
> > What's the pro's & con's of using uclibc in initrd?
> It is much smaller then glibc but doesn't have all functionality.
> It should certainly be enough to get through the initrd.
> 
> > Is anything stuck using it after boot?
> 
> Should not.

Sounds like it'd be worth a try.

Doesn't initrd use all the utilities from busybox now?
If so, does busybox support uclibc?

 - BS