[Tfug] Just starting - need help

[Bexley Hall]

Hi,

--- Joe Blais <joe.blais at pti-instruments.com> wrote:

> I need help!
> 
> I'm new to Linux (about 2 weeks) and I NEED to learn
> how to compile a
> kernel, (start by compiling the compiler even!),
> Draw a button on the
> screen, get a mouse event and finally, make an
> install image.  We are
> building a chemistry instrument, and just starting
> out in Linux, and I need to do the controls for the
> thing.

Can you spell "kitchen sink"?  :>

Building a kernel should be relatively easy.
In NetBSD it's:

$ su
# cd /usr/src/sys/arch/YOURMACHINEARCH/conf
# vi <name_of_config_file>

<make changes to config, as required>

# config <nae_of_config_file>
# cd ../../compile/<name_of_config_file>
# make depend
# make
# make install

I don't run Linux but it shouldn't be much more
involved than this.


As for drawing a button, do you want to draw it using
raw X (Xlib)?  Or, with a particular toolkit?
Are you interested in performance or ease of
interface design/modification?  E.g., you might
want to play with Tcl/tk instead of dealing with
X itself.

Or, any of a number of other skins that you can
layer atop it (you might even look at Inferno if
you want a clean, *portable* environment to code
your application).

> I think I can figure the stuff out eventually, but
> we are working on a new
> project that we want running by December - of this
> year - and as I'm
> getting older, learning this is getting slower!

<grin>  Of course, how [un]realistic that may/may not
be is a direct function of the complexity of the 
project you're undertaking!  :>

> We got a pc/104 card - Intel x86 type of thing -

You chose PC/104 for it's small form factor?  Or,
were you looking for a particular set of peripherals?
(or, are you planning on developing the peripherals
to support your I/O's?)

> from Octagon.  We were
> supplied the source to the kernel, a bootable CD,
> and that's about it.
> They don't help with software other than, just go -
> "find it on the web"....

Ain't Open Source great!!  :>

> Do you know of anyone who knows about this type of
> stuff, who would be a
> consultant ($) that could get me through the first
> (and probably some more) hurdles?

--don

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