User-mode Linux questions

Hi Marcus!

Hope you had a nice time and that the pub didn't run out of beer ;-)

Could you share with us the links that you found on handhelds.org about
using User-mode Linux (UML) for kernel development? Feel free to answer
tomorrow morning, if it's too tough a RAM test before going to sleep :-)

I'm not sure I understand what we would use UML for...

For sure, UML is great for testing and debugging a kernel and its
modules, without crashing the kernel on the physical host. However, your
virtual machine still has the same architecture as the physical one.
That means you can't run arm kernel binaries on a x86 host. In addition,
you can't debug the h22xx companion asic driver without running on the
actual hardware.

When we have a minimal kernel running on the h22xx with remote console
access (after ourh22xx Independence Day!), then I guess it could be
useful to develop more device drivers by running UML on top on this
kernel. However, that can't be done for early kernel development...

So, would we just use UML sessions to let several users share the same
source files and tools? For sharing tools, using a common CD looks
great. But for sharing source files, do we really need to log on a
common server? What about just running a CVS? If so, we could use
handhelds.org's CVS server...

Here are the problems I see with remote login:

    * When there's an issue with the server or with the ISP network,
      everyone's stuck! That doesn't matter when people have local
      copies of everything.
    * Some of us may not have permanent, high speed Internet access.
      For example, for Xmas, I'll have a punctual, low speed, high euro
      connection for one week at my parent's home. Connecting just a few
      times a day to send and receive e-mail and run "cvs update" would
      be perfect for me...

Everyone's comments and thoughts are welcome!

Cheers,

    Michael.
Received on Wed Dec 17 2003 - 09:58:08 EST