Simple Angstrom or Linux distribution for Beagleboard xm

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1

I am trying to build a piece of software around linux on the beagleboard xm and I am looking for a very simple distribution of linux. The Angstrom distribution that comes with the BBxm and the one I downloaded and built from website http://downloads.angstrom-distribution.org/demo/beagleboard/ seems to be for demo purposes and not for building upon.
I need something I can get my head around - like Linux From Scratch - which from their book has 62 packages including gcc C compiler. I really prefer not to compile everything from scratch if a simple version of Angstrom or some other distribution is available.

I see my options as:

  1. build what I need using LFS and BLFS. This is very very time-consuming.
  2. Use Angstrom and remove packages (eg perl, gnome) I don’t need using opkg. This is risky as I am unsure what to remove and what order to remove them in without destroying the basic system
  3. IDEAL: find a distribution similar in simplicity to LFS with an opkg like capability to add what I need. My feeling is that it will be easier to add than to subtract.

Are there suggestions or places to point me to for a very simple distribution with a package manager?

2

Angstrom still has console images ~20MB

Ubuntu Core - but it will be not less than 300M

Buildroot - http://blog.galemin.com/2012/03/buildroot-2012-02-for-beagleboard-xm-with-li-5m03-mt9p031-camera-support/

3

Thanks for the input and ideas. The Buildroot link looked very interesting but it does not include a C compiler toolchain. I would have to add that. Ubuntu Core is a possibility. I would prefer to stay with Angstrom I think…

Peter

4

You can use Code Sourcery as a compiler or the one provided with Angstrom

5

Buildroot builds a compiler itself. However there are options: to build it or to use an external compiler

6

Linaro should work fine, which version I am not sure. Debian would be the armhf version, not sure which would work best with Angstrom.