Last Updated on September 30, 2010 by Dave Farquhar
Well, I’ve been playing a little bit with Erik Anderson’s uClibc-based development environment mentioned in the previous two posts.
When I compile, I issue the command export CFLAGS='-Os -s -mcpu=i386 -march=i386' to create small-as-possible binaries. Using the default flags, the Links web browser balloons to nearly 2.6 megs on my dual Celeron, mostly due to the debug symbols. It drops to around 760K with those options. Specifying i386 binaries shrinks them down at the expense of some speed on some CPUs (especially 486s and first-generation Pentiums), so you have to set your priorities. It doesn’t matter nearly as much on newer CPUs. But I’m pretty sure if you’re interested in uClibc you’re not just running it on Pentium 4s.
For the record, Links compiles without warnings without doing anything special to its configuration and seems to run without incident (I immediately used it to locate and download more source code to compile). Samba’s more difficult, giving some warnings in various places. It may or may not require some special configuration in order to actually run (I didn’t have time tonight to test it), and of course that could result in some reduced functionality. The binaries total 9.3 meg, which isn’t bad considering it implements a complete Windows NT-compatible file server as well as some simple client utilities for connecting to NT shares on a network. The files themselves are about 20% smaller than on a stock Debian system.
Erik Anderson says the majority of Unix software will compile under uClibc, which is probably true. I generally see compiler warnings occasionally even when using a completely mainstream system.
David Farquhar is a computer security professional, entrepreneur, and author. He started his career as a part-time computer technician in 1994, worked his way up to system administrator by 1997, and has specialized in vulnerability management since 2013. He invests in real estate on the side and his hobbies include O gauge trains, baseball cards, and retro computers and video games. A University of Missouri graduate, he holds CISSP and Security+ certifications. He lives in St. Louis with his family.
Sure would be nice to have a bootable samba cd. Pop it in a drive and reboot, voila, instant file server.
David, I really wish i could get an email to you but I understand that you can’t possibly reply to them all. Well, I’ll try this.
I’m 41 and recently (May) had cervical spine surgery, I’m probably going to lose my job because I can’t get back to work as the surgery has been essentially unsucessful.I am an assitant service manager/warranty administrator at a marina and I have adegree in Health Management. You figure it out I haven’t beeen able to.
Anyway, while being stuck recouperating I’ve been playing around with my 3 computers, ran into a problem, did a search and came up with your site. Some old stuff. I was interested and got to present day.
I’ve also been reinvesting in my relationship with God, out of necessity on the one hand and desire on the other. Some of the things you wrote really hit home with me, particularly God hearing me.
Well, since I’m probably not going back to the marina business and managing a Doc in the Box isn’t in the forecast, seeing as I’ll be spending more time in as a patient rather than an administrator, I thought about going into computers, sonmething I could do from home. I have a sincere interest but no real training or education comparatively speaking.
I just wanted some insite as to how I might approach this and wanted to hear more from you about God. I probably need him more right now than you but I could use a word from you too.
I’ll pray and look out for a word from the both of you.
Thanks,
jimmie
David, I really wish i could get an email to you but I understand that you can’t possibly reply to them all. Well, I’ll try this.
I’m 41 and recently (May) had cervical spine surgery, I’m probably going to lose my job because I can’t get back to work as the surgery has been essentially unsucessful.I am an assitant service manager/warranty administrator at a marina and I have adegree in Health Management. You figure it out I haven’t beeen able to.
Anyway, while being stuck recouperating I’ve been playing around with my 3 computers, ran into a problem, did a search and came up with your site. Some old stuff. I was interested and got to present day.
I’ve also been reinvesting in my relationship with God, out of necessity on the one hand and desire on the other. Some of the things you wrote really hit home with me, particularly God hearing me.
Well, since I’m probably not going back to the marina business and managing a Doc in the Box isn’t in the forecast, seeing as I’ll be spending more time in as a patient rather than an administrator, I thought about going into computers, sonmething I could do from home. I have a sincere interest but no real training or education comparatively speaking.
I just wanted some insite as to how I might approach this and wanted to hear more from you about God. I probably need him more right now than you but I could use a word from you too.
I’ll pray and look out for a word from the both of you.
Thanks,
jimmie
Dave:
If you’re still interested in a tiny Linux distribution based on uClibc, check out the Cleveland LUG’s discussion of the $50 ActionTec modem that uses romFS-based uCLinux:
http://www.clevelandlug.net/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=26&mode=thread&order=0&thold=0