Emdebian GNU/Linux Crush 1.0 (based on Debian 5.0 “lenny”).
==========================================================

The smallest Emdebian installation

Limitations of selecting Emdebian Crush 1.0:
============================================

1. Crush 1.0 (lenny) is a developer-release, full support is
expected in Crush 2.0 (squeeze).
2. Support is only available for ARM in Crush 1.0 (lenny).
3. No pre-built installation images – Crush supports customisation
for each machine type and variant.
4. Installing and maintaining Crush requires significant user
involvement but provides complete flexibility to achieve the smallest
installation sizes.
5. Emdebian Crush requires Debian to build – using Debian
derivatives or other GNU/Linux distributions is unsupported.
6. Emdebian methods are Debian methods, so a knowledge of Debian
packaging methods is also required.
7. Uses glibc until uClibc can be reintroduced into Debian 6.0
“squeeze”.
8. Some library packages in Crush 1.0 have had functionality (and
therefore symbols) removed, so care is needed when building
applications.

Release names
=============

Full release title:
Emdebian GNU/Linux Crush 1.0 (based on Debian GNU/Linux 5.0
“lenny”). Short release name:
Emdebian Crush 1.0 (lenny)
Common release names:
Emdebian Crush or Crush (lenny)

Please use these names if promoting the releases elsewhere.

Grip and Crush are a play on words for the next Debian release -
“squeeze”. Emdebian will continue to use the Grip and Crush titles for
future releases and will continue to use the unstable, testing and
stable suite names. Future releases are intended to continue following
Debian in the codenames (lenny, squeeze etc.) and be tied firmly to
Debian release schedules.

More information: http://www.emdebian.org/crush/

Features of Emdebian Crush 1.0
==============================

Busybox based root filesystem and cross-built packages to support the G
Palmtop Environment based on GTK+2 or any workable package selection
in-between. Kernels and kernel modules are not provided directly but
support exists to add custom kernels to the installation tarballs.
Packages are heavily modified and then cross-built from Debian source
packages – functional changes do exist between Emdebian Crush and
standard Debian. Emdebian Crush 1.0 (based on Debian 5.0 “lenny”) is
only available for ARM – adding more architectures is non-trivial.

Debian GNU/Linux 5.0 (Lenny) includes the new ARM EABI port, “Armel”.
This new port provides a more efficient use of both modern and future
ARM processors. As a result, the old ARM port (arm) has now been
deprecated in Debian. Subsequent Crush releases will migrate to armel
instead of ARM and include i386, mips and mipsel. Powerpc support can
be considered, if there is sufficient interest.

Emdebian Crush does not support building packages on Crush itself, all
work to develop packages for Crush must be done on a normal Debian
machine using cross-building support provided by Emdebian. There is no
migration path from Debian to Emdebian Crush due to functional changes
in the core package set of standard Debian. In particular, the
emdebian-tools package used to build packages for Crush cannot work on
a machine already running Crush (or packages from Crush) because Crush
does not include perl or perl scripts.

Installations of Emdebian Crush will require significant user
involvement, images will not generally be available for direct
download. Instead, each installation is customised from the available
package set using the scripts in the emdebian-rootfs package and
possibly a few custom packages cross-built using scripts in the
emdebian-tools package.

Debian GNU/Linux 5.0 “Lenny” contains the emdebian-tools package to
allow Debian source packages to be cross-built and shrunk for Crush and
updates to emdebian-tools on lenny are available via Emdebian.

Users will need to customise Crush for their respective machines,
including configuring the base system (including inittab and boot
sequences, configuring and cross-building appropriate kernels and
fitting the Crush root filesystem into existing installation methods.

This release includes numerous updated software packages, such as the
X.Org 7.3, GNU Compiler Collection 4.3.2, Linux kernel version 2.6.26
and more than 700 other ready to use software packages. With the
integration of X.org 7.3 the X server autoconfigures itself with most
hardware.

For non native English speaking users the package management systems
now support translated package descriptions which will automatically
show the description of a package in the native language of the user if
available. About Debian

Debian GNU/Linux is a free operating system, developed by more than a
thousand volunteers from all over the world who collaborate via the
Internet. Debian’s dedication to Free Software, its non-profit nature,
and its open development model make it unique among GNU/Linux
distributions.

The Debian project’s key strengths are its volunteer base, its
dedication to the Debian Social Contract, and its commitment to provide
the best operating system possible. Debian 5.0 is another important
step in that direction.

Contact Information
===================

For further information, please visit the Debian web pages at
http://www.debian.org/, the Emdebian web pages at
http://www.emdebian.org/ or send mail to .

– Neil Williams ============= http://www.data-freedom.org/ http://www.nosoftwarepatents.com/ http://www.linux.codehelp.co.uk/

Emdebian GNU/Linux Grip 1.0 (based on Debian 5.0 “lenny”).
==========================================================

A small Debian-compatible Emdebian installation

Emdebian Grip 1.0 (lenny) is a smaller Debian that is binary compatible
with Debian and based around a small set of Debian packages intended
for embedded machines. Emdebian Grip 1.0 provides complete repositories
of packages for seven architectures (i386, amd64, powerpc, arm, armel,
mips and mipsel), based on coreutils, glibc and perl. Grip includes
support for standard Debian tools like debootstrap and debian-installer
and no functional changes compared to Debian GNU/Linux 5.0 “lenny”.

Installations of Emdebian Grip 1.0 will work with standard Debian tools
like debootstrap, debian-installer and maybe debian-live – as long as
the device has enough space to generate such systems.

Emdebian Grip can support building packages (although this currently
requires using packages from Debian and is untested) and can be
installed as a simple migration from Debian in the normal ways. Indeed,
the recommended way to install Emdebian Grip 1.0 is to use the Debian
5.0 “lenny” installer in Automatic Installation mode to install a
Debian base system and use pre-seeding to migrate to Grip during the
installation process.

Debian GNU/Linux 5.0 (Lenny) includes the new ARM EABI port, “Armel”.
This new port provides a more efficient use of both modern and future
ARM processors. As a result, the old ARM port (arm) has now been
deprecated for both Debian and Emdebian Grip.

This release includes numerous updated software packages, such as the
Xfce 4.4.2 desktop environment, X.Org 7.3, Iceweasel (an unbranded
version of Mozilla Firefox 3.0.6), Linux kernel version 2.6.26, Python
2.5.2 and 2.4.6, Perl 5.10.0 and more than 1,000 other ready to use
software packages.

With the integration of X.org 7.3 the X server autoconfigures itself
with most hardware. Newly introduced packages allow the full support of
NTFS filesystems or the usage of most multimedia keys out of the box.
Overall improvements for notebooks have been introduced, like out of
the box support of CPU frequency scaling.

Further improvement regarding the security of the system include the
installation of available security updates before the first reboot by
the installation system, the reduction of setuid root binaries and open
ports in the standard installation as well as building several
security-critical packages with GCC Hardening features. Various
applications have specific improvements, too.

For non native English speaking users the package management systems
now support translated package descriptions which will automatically
show the description of a package in the native language of the user if
available.

Debian GNU/Linux can be installed from various installation media such
as DVDs, CDs, USB sticks and floppies, or from the network. XFCE is the
default desktop environment for Emdebian Grip 1.0.

The installation process for Debian GNU/Linux 5.0 has been improved in
many ways: among many other improvements, firmware required by some
devices can be loaded by using removable media and installations via
braille display are supported. The installer boot process has also
received much attention: a graphical menu can be used to choose
front-ends and desktop environments, and to select expert or rescue
mode. The installation system for Debian GNU/Linux has now been
translated to 63 languages.

Debian GNU/Linux can be downloaded right now via bittorrent (the
recommended way), jigdo or HTTP; see Debian GNU/Linux on CDs for
further information. The recommended media for Emdebian Grip is USB
stick. It will soon be available on DVD, CD-ROM and Blu-ray Disc from
numerous vendors, too.

Upgrades to Emdebian Grip GNU/Linux 1.0 from the previous Debian
releases, are automatically handled by the apt package management tool
for most configurations. As always, Debian GNU/Linux systems can be
upgraded painlessly, in place, without any forced downtime, but it is
strongly recommended to read the release notes for possible issues and
for detailed instructions on installing and upgrading.

Release names
=============

Full release title:
Emdebian GNU/Linux Grip 1.0 (based on Debian GNU/Linux 5.0
“lenny”). Short release name:
Emdebian Grip 1.0 (lenny)
Common release names:
Emdebian Grip or Grip (lenny)

Please use these names if promoting the releases elsewhere.

Grip and Crush are a play on words for the next Debian release -
“squeeze”. Emdebian will continue to use the Grip and Crush titles for
future releases and will continue to use the unstable, testing and
stable suite names. Future releases are intended to continue following
Debian in the codenames (lenny, squeeze etc.) and be tied firmly to
Debian release schedules.

More information: http://www.emdebian.org/grip/

Dedication
==========

Debian GNU/Linux 5.0 “Lenny” is dedicated to Thiemo Seufer, a Debian
Developer who died on December 26th, 2008 in a tragic car accident.
Thiemo was involved in Debian and Emdebian in many ways. He has
maintained several packages and was the main supporter of the Debian
port to the MIPS architectures. He was also a member of our kernel
team, as well as a member of the Debian Installer team. His
contributions reached far beyond the Debian project. He also worked on
the MIPS port of the Linux kernel, the MIPS emulation of qemu, and far
too many smaller projects to be named here.

Thiemo’s work, dedication, broad technical knowledge and ability to
share this with others will be missed. The contributions of Thiemo will
not be forgotten. The high standards of Thiemos work make it hard to
pick up.

Thiemo also contributed to Emdebian and so the first ever release of
Emdebian to be available on MIPS (Grip 1.0) is also dedicated to his
memory.

About Debian
============

Debian GNU/Linux is a free operating system, developed by more than a
thousand volunteers from all over the world who collaborate via the
Internet. Debian’s dedication to Free Software, its non-profit nature,
and its open development model make it unique among GNU/Linux
distributions.

The Debian project’s key strengths are its volunteer base, its
dedication to the Debian Social Contract, and its commitment to provide
the best operating system possible. Debian 5.0 is another important
step in that direction.

Contact Information
===================

For further information, please visit the Debian web pages at
http://www.debian.org/, the Emdebian web pages at
http://www.emdebian.org/ or send mail to .

– Neil Williams ============= http://www.data-freedom.org/ http://www.nosoftwarepatents.com/ http://www.linux.codehelp.co.uk/