Ruby on an embedded linux system?

[Mark Thomas]

I'd like to experiment with Ruby on an embedded linux system. I'd like
to know how small the system can be, reasonably speaking.
Hardware-wise, I'm not looking to get too extreme--I'd be happy with a
Mini-ITX form factor. But I would like to boot off of flash and run
mostly in RAM, and this is where I'd like to conserve as much as
possible.

So my questions are:
1. Is anybody doing this? I haven't seen much recent discussion here.
2. What distro would be good for this? Puppy? DSL? Ideally, I'd like
one that is designed to be small + headless, but still has the
libraries needed for ruby.
3. What is needed to get ruby to work: kernel + busybox + uClibc? + ???
+ ruby
4. What is the memory and disk profile of ruby?

Thanks!
- Mark.

 

[Erik Hollensbe]

I'd like to experiment with Ruby on an embedded linux system. I'd like
to know how small the system can be, reasonably speaking.
Hardware-wise, I'm not looking to get too extreme--I'd be happy with a
Mini-ITX form factor. But I would like to boot off of flash and run
mostly in RAM, and this is where I'd like to conserve as much as
possible.

If you want to try and have a spare WRT54G, the OpenWRT project has a
nice base for an embedded linux system. Even if you don't have one,
this might be a good start for such a thing, as most embedded linux
systems are specialty and therefore built from scratch.

 

[Hagge]

Hello Mark,

then Nokia 770 Internet Tablet probably would classify as an embedded
device with it's 250 MHz ARM cpu.

There are already some work on getting Ruby working on it but it's no
one-click solution yet.

http://maemo.org/maemowiki/ApplicationCatalogWip#head-85f71ddb210b72a1fc2c6c45a110113d859edd06
lists the options.

While i haven't tried the developer tools you should be able to
simulate a Nokia 770 with the tools provided at maemo.org so there is
no need to order a 770 if you are on a budget.

The WRT54 is cheaper than a 770 but you can't bring it along
everywhere.

Regards,

Henry Hagnäs
(e-mail address removed)

 

[gregarican]

I'd like to experiment with Ruby on an embedded linux system. I'd like
to know how small the system can be, reasonably speaking.
Hardware-wise, I'm not looking to get too extreme--I'd be happy with a
Mini-ITX form factor. But I would like to boot off of flash and run
mostly in RAM, and this is where I'd like to conserve as much as
possible.

So my questions are:
1. Is anybody doing this? I haven't seen much recent discussion here.
2. What distro would be good for this? Puppy? DSL? Ideally, I'd like
one that is designed to be small + headless, but still has the
libraries needed for ruby.
3. What is needed to get ruby to work: kernel + busybox + uClibc? + ???
+ ruby
4. What is the memory and disk profile of ruby?


Thanks!
- Mark.

If you are interested I rolled a Ruby install into a DamnSmallLinux
image that I boot from on a USB key or else can run within a Windows
shell using QEMU. Post back here and I can e-mail you the .dsl file.

From what I recall (I rolled it up a year or so ago) it had the

standard Ruby libraries.

 

[Mark Thomas]

If you are interested I rolled a Ruby install into a DamnSmallLinux
image that I boot from on a USB key or else can run within a Windows
shell using QEMU. Post back here and I can e-mail you the .dsl file.
standard Ruby libraries.

Yes, I'm interested. In fact, I'm more interested in how you created
the image than the image itself. The email address I post with is valid
if Ruby is in the subject.

- Mark.

 

[Mark Thomas]

Hello Mark,

then Nokia 770 Internet Tablet probably would classify as an embedded
device with it's 250 MHz ARM cpu.

Interesting... I'll keep tabs on that one. Thanks.

 

[gregarican]

Yes, I'm interested. In fact, I'm more interested in how you created
the image than the image itself. The email address I post with is valid
if Ruby is in the subject.

I will e-mail you the .dsl file. It's been awhile so I can't recall the
exact specifics, but if you skim through the docs for DamnSmallLinux
you will see how you can add your own extensions into the image so that
they load up the next time DSL is booted. I will try to dig up some
references to this concept. If you dump the .dsl file at the root of
your DSL image the next time your DSL image boots up it should
recognize the extension and voila, you will have Ruby!