Chumby + USB key = expandability?

Story: The Chumby: Fun, Hackable and full of PotentialTotal Replies: 3
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gus3

Dec 28, 2007
9:03 PM EDT
Can the Chumby execute files from the USB key? If so, what's to stop you from getting the GCC suite for Linux on ARM and building stuff right there?

Or just use the wireless network interface? Maybe you could mount a network drive via NFS or Samba and build programs that way...
Sander_Marechal

Dec 29, 2007
7:47 AM EDT
Yes, both are possible with the Chumby. There are startup hooks that allow you to execute whatever you want on boot from the USB drive. I'm not 100% sure it can mount network drives out-of-the-box but it's certainly possible after a bit of hacking.

The main reason you'll want to cross-compile is because your AMD64 or Core Duo (or P2 :-) is probably a lot faster at compiling a whole set of applications than the puny 133 Mhz ARM that's inside the Chumby. Oh, and somehow you'll need to compile the compiler too of course :-)
gus3

Dec 29, 2007
8:45 AM EDT
Maybe an ARM simulator, a la Bochs, that would let you install Linux for ARM. The simulator would probably be faster than the Chumby, and you wouldn't have any cross-compiling trepidations.
Sander_Marechal

Dec 29, 2007
6:56 PM EDT
Maybe. But by far the easiest (for users) would be if the Chumby community gets together, gets a build server and cross compiles binary packages that you can simply download to an USB stick. All it takes is some coordination. That's something us FOSS folk is supposed to be good at :-)

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