[oe] New IXP4XX-based Machine

[Rod Whitby]

Mark Gollahon wrote:
> I am trying to bring up OE on a new IXP4XX-based machine and having a
> little trouble with the "proper" way to do it.  For example, I
> created a whole new machine config, inserting what I think should be
> machine-specific settings, and importing the (now somewhat-defunct)
> ixp4xx.conf configuration (and later the ixp4xxbe.conf
> configuration).  My bootstrap-image gets everything compiled, but
> when it goes to build the rootfs, ipkg fails looking for task-base.
> 
> My question is not so much about getting ipkg to work (I have found
> several ways), but more about the "proper" way so that I don't go
> "spinning into the grass" in the future.  I noticed that during the
> rootfs build that the "ixp4xxbe" "arch" was not in the ipkg config
> file, so all of my "*_ixp4xxbe.ipk" files were completely ignored -
> stuff like "task-base"!  I ultimately had to append "armv5te" and
> "ixp4xxbe" to PACKAGE_EXTRA_ARCHS and that worked, but I worked on
> this on-and-off for over a week to figure it out.  I really don't
> want to do that again when/if I try to bring up another machine.

That was a bug in the newly rewritten ixp4xx conf which I believe is now
fixed.

> My question is - should I even be attempting to define a new machine
> and including ixp4xxbe.conf in it?  Should I define my own machine by
> copying the contents of ixp4xxbe.conf?  Should I have specified the
> "ixp4xxbe" machine file in my local.conf along with the extra (what I
> think should be) machine config?  Or should I define my own distro
> and put that machine config there?  What is the most appropriate way
> to do this?

Is there anything specific which means that you can't just use the
ixp4xxbe.conf as it is?

I'm willing to work with you to get this right.

-- Rod