[oe] [RFC] Rootfs without busybox in it

[Martyn Welch]

Marcin Juszkiewicz wrote:
> Hi
>
> As part of my work for BugLabs company I am working on creating root 
> filesystem which does not rely on BusyBox for 90% of commands but rather use 
> normal versions of them.
>   

I have a patch series that completely removes the need for busybox we
have been working on that I have been trying to get in shape to post on
this list . It's definitely not quite right yet, however it works. I'll
post it to the mailing list.

Martyn

> I have something what boots and more or less works but found few issues for 
> which I want to get some discussion.
>
> 1. 'ifupdown' package needed changes:
>
> - removal of 'networking' initscript
> - removal of 'interfaces' definition
> - shipping /etc/network/run/ directory
>
> first two are present in 'netbase' and are usually more optimised for OE 
> targets, last one is required for keeping information about state of 
> interfaces
>
> 2. lack of '/bin/sh' makes device not bootable
>
> One solution is to use 'update-alternatives' script for handling that. But 
> this is 'egg & chicken' problem because 'u-a' is shell script. So far my 
> temporary solution is creation of 'bash-sh' package which symlinks '/bin/bash' 
> in post install script and in pre remove symlinks it to busybox. It is not 
> ideal but I needed something to get it working.
>
> 3. lack of '/etc/init.d/hwclock.sh'
>
> We provide it with BusyBox package, Debian has own one in util-linux(-ng) 
> package. I am planning to strip Debian one from log functions and test it.
>
> 4. lack of 'start-stop-daemon'
>
> So far I am using one from 'dpkg' but not extracted it to separate package.
>
> 5. 'adduser' is from 'tinylogin'
>
> We can not use Debian one because it is written in Perl. 'useradd' comes from 
> 'shadow' package. There are few versions of 'adduser' command in contrib/ 
> directory of shadow sources - 'adduser.sh' one looks simplest.
>
> Tinylogin should be dropped in OE anyway in favour of BusyBox (but that's 
> other story).
>
> Will write more when will remind them.
>
> Regards, 
>   
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>
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