Emdebian Grip: The Smaller, Embedded Debian

Written by Michael Larabel in Debian on 14 July 2012 at 07:59 AM EDT. Add A Comment
DEBIAN
For those not aware. Emdebian is a smaller, lighter flavor of Debian Linux intended for use on embedded devices. At DebConf this week they talked a bit about this initiative.

Emdebian is essentially Debian but a binary distribution for embedded hardware where limited RAM and disk space are critical. Embdebian works with regular Debian tools but effectively re-works upstream Debian so that the packages are smaller by taking greater control over package dependencies, included files/content, and other tweaks.

Emdebian Grip is their smaller distribution in binary form that's ready to go while Emdebian Crush is a cross-built version and Emdebian Baked is another variety that allows for placing the distribution in a static configuration. The Emdebian flavors are covered in more detail on this web page.

Emdebian Grip is binary-compatible with Debian while a basic multi-strap of Sid is significantly smaller: 56MB for Emdebian Grip versus 90MB for Debian. Emdebian Grip is about 40% smaller than Debian through its re-packing techniques, etc. Emdebian Grip releases are also done along side the upstream Debian releases.

At DebConf this week in Managua, these were the basic details covered about Emdebian, with nothing too terribly exciting come out unless this is your first time hearing of this embedded spin of Debian. More information is available at Emdebian.org.
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Michael Larabel is the principal author of Phoronix.com and founded the site in 2004 with a focus on enriching the Linux hardware experience. Michael has written more than 20,000 articles covering the state of Linux hardware support, Linux performance, graphics drivers, and other topics. Michael is also the lead developer of the Phoronix Test Suite, Phoromatic, and OpenBenchmarking.org automated benchmarking software. He can be followed via Twitter, LinkedIn, or contacted via MichaelLarabel.com.

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