Description
In this talk, I'd like to present how I took EndBASIC and built a NetBSD-based embedded device that boots into this interpreter in just a few seconds.
EndBASIC is a side project of mine that implements a retro-looking BASIC environment. Up until now, this featured a web interface and a desktop interface -- but I wanted to offer a prebuilt image for the Raspberry Pi that booted almost-immediately and was resilient to reboots. You know, like the computers of the 1980s, because I believe such a simplified environment can help with learning the basics of programming.
For this project, I picked NetBSD as the core due to its great cross-building features and then implemented new backends for EndBASIC to leverage NetBSD's native features. In particular, I wrote a driver for NetBSD's wscons framebuffer to have graphics output without having to even start X11.
The result is that I can build a full disk image from my Linux development box for NetBSD, write it to an SD card, and have a Pi boot straight into EndBASIC in about 5 seconds.
What's more: the whole of EndBASIC is written in Rust, and cross-compiling it from Linux x86_64 to NetBSD aarch6 is challenging. I bridged this gap with qemu and automated the whole thing so that I can build images end-to-end without even looking. Having proper cross-build support would be desirable, and I'll cover that.
I can also cover the contributions that this project led to upstream NetBSD, which actually made me recover my account and come back to contributing.
I'm actively working on this project and, from now through June, things may change significantly and I might have new things to talk about and demonstrate. For example, I want to integrate with NetBSD's WiFi stack, or SPI to leverage a tiny LCD. But for now, that's what I can offer for this talk!
| One-line summary | Leaning how to build a NetBSD appliance from Linux, with graphics and all |
|---|
