Date: Thu, 28 Mar 2013 15:30:25 -0700 (PDT) From: "Chris H" <bsd-lists@1command.com> To: "Adrian Chadd" <adrian@freebsd.org> Cc: freebsd-embedded@freebsd.org Subject: Re: FreeBSD on the AP121 (AR9330) Message-ID: <c13ff231f57df807fdb2b6450e9e86e1.authenticated@ultimatedns.net> In-Reply-To: <CAJ-Vmom8sbMJvFn1ucGBSiptWtKPC0kE1Ss22Kj-WGVSkP_8ag@mail.gmail.com> References: <CAJ-Vmom8sbMJvFn1ucGBSiptWtKPC0kE1Ss22Kj-WGVSkP_8ag@mail.gmail.com>
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> Hi, > > So I have FreeBSD mostly booting on the AR9330 based SoCs. > > The trouble? These ship with 16MB RAM and 4MB flash. > > CPU platform: Atheros AR9330 rev 1 > CPU Frequency=400 MHz > CPU DDR Frequency=400 MHz > CPU AHB Frequency=200 MHz > > ... > > Copyright (c) 1992-2013 The FreeBSD Project. > Copyright (c) 1979, 1980, 1983, 1986, 1988, 1989, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994 > The Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved. > FreeBSD is a registered trademark of The FreeBSD Foundation. > FreeBSD 10.0-CURRENT #15 r248780:248782M: Tue Mar 26 22:31:51 PDT 2013 > adrian@marilyn:/home/adrian/work/freebsd/svn/obj/mipseb/mips.mips/usr/home/adrian/work/freebsd/svn/src/sys/AR9331 > mips > gcc version 4.2.1 20070831 patched [FreeBSD] > WARNING: WITNESS option enabled, expect reduced performance. > Preloaded elf kernel "kernel" at 0x80538074. > real memory = 16777216 (16384K bytes) > Physical memory chunk(s): > 0x005d2000 - 0x00f90fff, 10219520 bytes (2495 pages) > avail memory = 9768960 (9MB) > > The kernel is 4.5MB in size uncompressed and takes up ~ 2.5MB of RAM > just at startup. It's not going to be able to really do anything with > our current userland without killing processes. I know it won't even > be able to load the wlan/ath/bridge/switch modules. > > So at this point I'm really, really looking for some help with cutting > down both the kernel binary size and the kernel memory footprint. It's > a bit ridiculous at this point. > > The AR9330 is in a lot of the really cheap, really small APs that > companies like TP-Link make in ridiculous quantities. I'd love to > showcase FreeBSD + mesh on these, but there's just not enough space to > run things. > > So, who's up for it? I can send you hardware if you start making > progress. Lots and lots of embedded hardware. > > Thanks, Congratulations Adrian! :) Greetings, This message caught my eye, as I've been staging for just such an endeavor. My /primary/ targets OTOH are 32/64. So I have a bit more to work with. The CPU's I'm working on are Infenion PSB7200xxx's (rebranded TI -- Texas Instruments), tho I also have some BCM's (BroadCom) and a Marvel I intend to work on. I've accumulated quite a bit of data on these (especially the Infenion based boards). I have also acquired just about every Linux image/firmware ever built for these. In fact, I'm awaiting a couple from ZyXEL (also Linux based). I had hoped to use these as references, in building BSD based equivalent images. I had hoped to build a busyBSDbox -- BSD version of Linux' busybox, as that seems like it would greatly diminish the overall size of the primary partition on the Flash. Anyway, as I mentioned; I'm /staging/ for all this. Meaning; I'm not /yet/ fully prepared. But I /am/ fully committed! I've not worked on a MIPS CPU for awhile. I had a couple of NEC servers, that were early MIPS, but they were stolen. So I've been away from that for awhile. Speaking of size; would earlier versions be a more reasonable starting point regarding kernel size, then simply adapting the necessary drivers from ~CURRENT? I've got an old MIPS based kernel that weighs in @ 128k -- but /way/ too old to be of any use on modern hardware. :) Bottom line; I'm also working in this area, so I'd be happy to help. Feel free to contact me off-list, if you would like. Best wishes, and congrats again for your initial success! --Chris P.S. I'm currently running on an AMD64/8.3-STABLE. > > > > Adrian > _______________________________________________ > freebsd-embedded@freebsd.org mailing list > http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-embedded > To unsubscribe, send any mail to "freebsd-embedded-unsubscribe@freebsd.org" >
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