Mailing List os2-wireless_users@2rosenthals.com Archived Message #3609 previous message next message back to list

From: Lewis G Rosenthal <os2-wireless_users@2rosenthals.com> Full Headers
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Sender: os2-wireless_users-owner <os2-wireless_users-owner@2rosenthals.com>
Subject: [OS2Wireless] OS/2 based Router/AP
Date: Tue, 26 Oct 2004 19:23:02 -0600
To: os2-wireless_users@2rosenthals.com

From http://www.brightstareng.com/elinux.htm:

   One of the challenges when embedding Linux is trimming the typical
   75-200 MByte Linux distribution down to several megabytes in order
   to allow the ipEngine to boot and run Linux standalone from flash
   memory.  For standalone embedded operation the Linux kernel and
   startup filesystem are each compressed and bound into a single
   binary image that can be loaded into flash memory. At boot time the
   kernel is decompressed into RAM and started, the kernel then
   decompresses the flash memory filesystem into a read/write RAM disk.
   The following table illustrates the major components as well as
   compressed and uncompressed sizes for each component in a typical
   embedded Linux image/distribution:

       Component                                      Uncompressed          Compressed
                                                                                          Size                            Size
       Linux Kernel (vmlinux)                                     932
   K                          456 K
       Shared C Library (libc.so)                             888 K                            244 K
       bash/sh shell (bash/sh)                                 366 K                            148 K
       Dynamic Linker (ld.so)                                     59 K                               23 K
       Apache Web Server (httpd)                         332 K                             142 K

       TOTAL                                                                2577 K                         1013 K

   The ipEngine-1 provides 2 MBytes of flash memory and hence for the
   sample configuration above just under 1 MByte of memory would be
   available for compressed user application code (approximately 2
   MBytes uncompressed).

I love OS/2 also, John, but it's just too fat for one of these boxes (from what I can see). I know that IBM did have an embedded version at one time, which was supposed to be a portable Java platform (http://www.javaworld.com/javaworld/jw-05-1997/jw-05-idgns.ibmbrowser.html), but it was never this small.

Now let's step back a moment... The LinkSys WRT54G 4-port wireless 802.11g router has 16MB RAM in it. Assuming you could get OS/2, an IP stack, DHCP daemon, and Apache (or some other http daemon) down to a reasonable size, you'd probably have just enough RAM left over for it to creep along. Warp 3, perhaps? You also need to implement a NAT firewall of some description, which brings us back to Warp 4 with the ported AIX stack. I don't know, but from where I sit, it's too tight a fit.

Now, if we go back to what I mentioned earlier, about putting these services into a workstation (see NoCatSplash or HostAP - the latter runs in about 32MB under Linux), then we're looking at something do-able, assuming we can come up with a driver which puts the Wi-Fi card into AP mode...

On 10/26/2004 06:37 pm, John Poltorak thus wrote :

I never saw the original reply - don't know why...

On Tue, Oct 26, 2004 at 07:35:54PM -0400, madodel@ptdprolog.net wrote:
 

  Lewis G Rosenthal <lgrosenthal@2rosenthals.com> said:

   

You'd need to squeeze the OS/2 install down quite a bit. From where I
sit,  that's the biggest problem, John. Check out the size of one of the
embedded  Linux distros...
     
I know that OS/2 has been used in embedded apps before, but I doubt that the installs have been that small.
     

You are joking!

I can boot OS/2 from a floppy disk. I can have a networking system in 4MB.

OS/2 is *extremely* flexible and configurable. What it lacks is driver support for odd bits of hardware like ADSL NICs, although it probably doesn't have support for protocols that run over ADSL like PPoA or whatever is used, but as far as embedding OS/2, I don't see any reason why it wouldn't work. One day I hope to have it installed on a Disk On Chip.

 


--
Lewis
------------------------------------------------------------
Lewis G Rosenthal, CNA Rosenthal & Rosenthal Accountants / Network Consultants  New York / Northern Virginia           www.2rosenthals.com
Team OS/2  / NetWare Users International      www.novell.com
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