Difference between revisions of "Frankenchroot"
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=== Benefits of Frankenchroot === | === Benefits of Frankenchroot === | ||
There are several benefits to setting up a frankenchroot. The primary benefit is that it is a compelling alternative to the two other options one has available for building stuff on embedded CPUs, | There are several benefits to setting up a frankenchroot. The primary benefit is that it is a compelling alternative to the two other options one has available for building stuff on lower-powered (in terms of CPU performance as well as power utilization) embedded CPUs. Until now, the only options available have been compiling the software on the embedded CPU itself, or setting up a cross-compile environment, which can be complex and problematic. | ||
Building on the embedded CPU can be slow, and it's common to run into limitations related to available CPU power and RAM, as well as IO speed on embedded storage. By using a frankenchroot, these limitations can be completely eliminated. | Building on the embedded CPU can be fine, but for many embedded systems and packages can be slow, and it's common to run into limitations related to available CPU power and RAM, as well as IO speed on embedded storage. By using a frankenchroot, these limitations can be completely eliminated. | ||
=== Live Frankenchroot === | |||
There is another cool thing you can do with a frankenchroot, and that is to set up a ''live'' frankenchoot. In this configuration, you would use something like a Raspberry Pi 3 and export its filesystems using NFS. These filesystems would then get mounted on a host x86 system via NFS. The host x86 system would then frankenchroot into this NFS-based filesystem -- even though the Raspberry Pi 3 is booted and running! In fact, it is quite possible -- and safe -- to run an emerge command on your x86 live frankenchroot while your Raspberry Pi does other things. | |||
The benefit here is that you can use your x86 system to {{c|emerge}} lots of packages, and it doesn't even require shutting down your Raspberry Pi and removing the MicroSD card, which can be inconvenient. It just places some disk and network IO on the Raspberry Pi -- but its CPU remains untaxed. | |||
[[Category:HOWTO]] | [[Category:HOWTO]] | ||
[[Category:Official Documentation]] | [[Category:Official Documentation]] | ||
Revision as of 22:05, February 24, 2019
A "frankenchroot" is the process of chrooting into a directory on a host system (typically x86-64bit) which contains a foreign architecture (such as arm-32bit or arm-64bit) and having it all magically work thanks to the power of QEMU. While this may seem like it should not work at all (thus the name "frankenchroot", like the Frankenstein monster,) it actually happens to work -- and work well. This page will guide you through the process of setting up a frakenchroot on your own system.
Benefits of Frankenchroot
There are several benefits to setting up a frankenchroot. The primary benefit is that it is a compelling alternative to the two other options one has available for building stuff on lower-powered (in terms of CPU performance as well as power utilization) embedded CPUs. Until now, the only options available have been compiling the software on the embedded CPU itself, or setting up a cross-compile environment, which can be complex and problematic.
Building on the embedded CPU can be fine, but for many embedded systems and packages can be slow, and it's common to run into limitations related to available CPU power and RAM, as well as IO speed on embedded storage. By using a frankenchroot, these limitations can be completely eliminated.
Live Frankenchroot
There is another cool thing you can do with a frankenchroot, and that is to set up a live frankenchoot. In this configuration, you would use something like a Raspberry Pi 3 and export its filesystems using NFS. These filesystems would then get mounted on a host x86 system via NFS. The host x86 system would then frankenchroot into this NFS-based filesystem -- even though the Raspberry Pi 3 is booted and running! In fact, it is quite possible -- and safe -- to run an emerge command on your x86 live frankenchroot while your Raspberry Pi does other things.
The benefit here is that you can use your x86 system to emerge lots of packages, and it doesn't even require shutting down your Raspberry Pi and removing the MicroSD card, which can be inconvenient. It just places some disk and network IO on the Raspberry Pi -- but its CPU remains untaxed.