Frequently asked questions/Software
From GumstixDocsWiki
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Customers using Gumstix OpenEmbedded should go to gumstix.net and the related user wiki
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For customers using buildroot:
If your question is not in this FAQ, please feel free to ask it on the Mailing list
Is there a Software Development Kit for the gumstix?
Yes, check out the software development kit page which gives several links for setting up the gumstix software environment.
How much does the gumstix development kit cost?
No charge. gumstix provides open source software from the gumstix linux kernel that is all licensed as open source. As such, there are no software licensing fees.
From where can the last "stable" version of gumstix software be downloaded?
For Gumstix OpenEmbedded, click here.
For the most recent "stable" version of gumstix software using buildroot, as pre-built binaries, go to the gumstix project at sourceforge (sf.net).
Subversion, also called SVN, has "the latest" gumstix buildroot software which may be untested and unstable.
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How can an application be developed for or ported to the gumstix?
gumstix Linux includes a complete Linux kernel, including all source code, plus a cross-compiler so applications can be developed on an X86 PC and then loaded on the gumstix motherboard to run.
Start at the software development kit.
Does Gumstix provide software consulting?
The Gumstix business model is to provide outstanding hardware and operating software and to post 3rd party Consultants referrals through which our customers may obtain software hardware and product development services.
Can software be loaded onto the gumstix via ethernet or is a serial connection required?
Software can be loaded over ethernet using scp or by ssh'ing into the stix then pulling the software with wget. More instructions are available here.
Which software has been pre-loaded onto the flash of the gumstix motherboard (basix and connex)?
For more on Gumstix OpenEmbedded out of the box, click here.
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List all the busybox utilities and their command options ?
The busybox utilities and their command line options are here.
Is there a database than can be used, like SQLite?
Yes,the gumstix buildroot (since r489) includes SQLite.
How is NFS enabled?
To enable NFS, it must be in busybox, RPC in uClibc and NFS support in the kernel then it all works well.
According to one customer: "The latest buildroot may ignore the busybox config that is specified in the make menuconfig and ALWAYS copies the busbox.config from target/device/Gumstix/basix-connex. So you can either mess around with the buildroot Makefile or just modify the busybox.config in that directory. (I did the latter). This also applies to uClibc.config".
If you are planning to include support for nfs in busybox, you will also have to enable RPC in uClibc.config and NFS support in the kernel config as well and recompile the entire toolchain and buildroot.
Is Java available on the gumstix?
Yes, there are several options for Java now.
SQLite seems to require readline to compile (I think only for the sqlite3 command line interface), so we added that to the buildroot too. That in turn requires ncurses (since it looks like using termcap leads to undefined symbols at link time), so we fixed up ncurses too. Right now, both ncurses and readline will compile into the root_fs as shared libs, and sqlite links against those. sqlite also will be installed in the root_fs as a shared lib.
What about Windows Embedded?
You can fetch and read Windows Embedded code to initialize a gumstix motherboard here.
This should be all that is needed to initialize with Windows Embedded and communicate with all the various bits of hardware.
Depending on plans for use and redistribution/sale of any code, consideration should be given to the licenses involved.
At gumstix, we focus on Linux and are not working or supporting Windows Embedded.
- Gumstix OpenEmbedded software is available here.
- Prior to 2008, Gumstix motherboards were preflashed with the gumstix buildroot code. It is all open and available from our Subversion repository at SVN (browsable at websvn).
Is there a more optimized floating point software library available?
Yes. Since 2004, gumstix has switched from using the kernel floating point emulation in linux to using the softfloat GCC library — the major difference is that every floating point operation no longer results in a switch to kernel code form userspace code with the overhead inherent in that.
The result is about a 3x speedup in FP performance relative to the older in-kernel code (We haven't actually done any significant benchmarking — Craig has qualitatively noticed a speedup, and stuff on the web says 3x is typical — it could be that has been improved upon over time).
The benchmarks are done using softfloat.
How can libraries be added so that they link when compiling personal code?
bluez-libs and the rest of the bluez-stuff is in the buildroot already. Just turn on the targets in the top-level makefile.
Why does gumstix engineering do kernel development work instead of outsourcing this to an embedded Linux specialist such as Montevista?
Initial development effort was done in-house to retain greater control over the porting process. gumstix is investigating how to meet the increasing needs of our customers.
