>
> Greetings list,
> I've just joined this list so pardon the newbie nature of this
> e-mail.
> I'm building a network appliance, hopefully with Linux, and am
> looking for pointers. I've checked out most of the embedded sites,
> like the "router project", the various handheld implementations,
> 8086/286 implmentations, etc, but nothing really seems to match my
> needs. My hardware is a 75 mhz '486 with 8 MB or 32 MB of memory,
> and a hard drive. Hardly even a real embedded sort of box. But it
> has no head (keyboard or monitor), and when powered on, must just do
> its job without fail. All interaction is via the LAN (100baseT)
> connector.
>
> The device must communicate in a diverse networking environment.
> What I really need to find out is how to build the smallest kernel
> that will support networking, and no logins. Our software that is in
> command of the device requires about 3 MB. This I'm left with either
> 5 MB (small version) or 29 MB (more expensive to build). Can Linux
> really support networking in about 5 MB without thrashing? Actually,
> I'd like to disable swapping, too.
>
Why agonize. Put in 32MB of ram and be done with it. With that and
the hard drive, run a complete Linux setup, and give people
value-added stuff like, say, squid caching or samba file services.
Apache and cgi-bin scripts for configuration.
-- cary
