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My guess is that it is a RTOS of some kind. There are numerous commercial RTOS's out there that run on embedded microcontrollers - no sense reinventing the wheel. I have used a few RTOS's in microcontroller apps and it makes writing your firmware darn near as simple as writing a threaded app for a regular OS. It's amazing how little memory some of these RTOS's take when your used to a regular OS. There are several that are less than 10kb in size :coool:Quote:
Originally Posted by GMPX
I have been both a Solaris and a Linux systems admin. I used to use Linux exclusively on my own PC, but now I run OpenSolaris exclusively.
Linux has been good for the computer industry without a doubt, but to this day administering a large number of Linux boxes is a PITA. Linux is a moving target, and while userland apps are fairly stable, anything kernel side tends to get broken every time a new release comes out. Even Windows isn't nearly that bad. This sucks for 3rd party drivers - anytime there is a kernel change a driver recompile is almost always required. Solaris has a stable driver interface, so any changes to the underlying kernel doesn't affect the drivers plugged into it. Even Windows follows a scheme similar to this. It's logical, and I fail to understand why it has never been implemented in Linux (actually, I know why - Linus thinks it is too much overhead in the kernel and would slow things down - his opinion, not fact).
It gets worse when a new distro release decides to break userland apps. Upgrades and patches on Linux systems have to be approached with much more care in a commercial environment. By comparison, I have found Solaris and OS to be far more stable and MUCH less work to maintain vs. a Linux shop. These days, with the exception of HW driver support (which Linux has much more of than about anything out there), OpenSolaris will do anything Linux will do, and be more stable to boot. Major HW is supported under OS, but it would be nice to be able to port all the Linux drivers. Not gonna happen due to incompatible licensing though :bad: Don't get me wrong though - I still like Linux! And the BSD's, and OSX too :)
Anyway, that diatribe leads me to this one: IF you ever do a *nix port, PLEASE DON'T MAKE IT LINUX-CENTRIC!!!!!!!!! There are many, MANY, apps out there that are written on Linux systems with no regard to portability, and getting them to compile on other *nix OS's is often a massive PITA. The bad part is, there is no excuse for this. Pretty much every *nix flavor out there is POSIX compliant, or near enough. Using cross-platform API kits like wxWidgets there is no excuse for this. i have written apps that compiled on Windows, Linux, and OSX with the same code. Even in the *nix world, with the exception of OSX pretty much everyone runs Gnome or KDE, so it's not like making a portable piece of software is a major hurdle. It's perfectly doable, it just needs to be done from the start.
So, I'm begging - pretty please - make any port truly portable :grin:
I suppose I should rant about Apple not extending Carbon to the 64 bit realm, effectively making it obsolete and forcing folks to port their apps to the ObjC based Cocoa, but I will let it slide for now :bad:
I agree, unless it is done as a pet project.Quote:
Originally Posted by ryans1000
Also, it seems like there are a lot of enthusiasts out there that could lend a hand. Im sure EFILive is like most pieces of software, in which there are mundane portions such as the GUI's that take a lot of coding due to nonexistent protability and aren't particularly sensitive from an IP point of view, and other modules of highly proprietary code that EFILive wouldn't want anyone to have access to. The EFILive folks could ask if there are some volunteers to start a community porting project to "port" or recreate the EFILive GUI modules. All they would need to do is tell the volunteering team to recreate the Windows GUI (or outline a new one from scratch if they wish) and specify the hooks to tie in to the rest of the code.
This way, they could get free programming help without having to divulge any of the proprietary portions of their code. Also, even though there is nothing really sensitive in the GUI coding, they could still require any volunteers to sign an NDA, just as extra insurance...
MaxPF , glad to see a Unix user , OpenSolaris is pretty nice used it for a test once , not a lot different than Linux , it still used KDE and I think at one time Solaris for OpenSolaris was actually was going to use SuSE as a base (backed out and used Unix) .
I can see the demise of Windows coming soon , Google's Chrome Android OS will . once released , start to chip away at Micro$oft a lighting speeds .
Once someone gets past the Free part , yes Free Software can be just as good as the Paid For , Google Chrome will spread .
Maybe with V8 we can get a Linux version .
Not to bash to much , but : http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/...ut-exploit-fix , http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/...-security-flaw
Seems Micro$oft has a bug it can't fix and it allows access to the OS , and is in all Windows Kernels , so Win7 is not safe either , OH MY !
Recommendations are to install Linux as a workaround !
I am looking forward to the Chrome OS coming! Been waiting for a few years now.... :)
Quote:
Originally Posted by Chevy366
Umm, chromium OS is really nothing but a stripped down, canned Linux for dummies. I don't see it bringing anything to the table over a regular Linux distro, and in fact I think it takes an otherwise good OS and makes it too limiting. I see computer novices outgrowing it VERY quickly, while regular users and power users will never touch it...
Agreed! I spent 10-15 years in the *nix world developing and porting a compiler/virtual machine (similar to the Java concept) that allowed proprietary code to be compiled once and run on multiple flavors of unix. Back then (the 80's) there was a lot more incompatabilities between *nix platforms. Pretty much my entire job was to port the virtual machine (written in C) software to all those *nix platforms. HPUX, OSF, AIX, DGUX, Xenix, SCO, Unisys, Solaris and some other obscure versions. So I know a thing or two about writing portable code. However, I have never had to deal with a GUI on *nix, it was all tty based.Quote:
Originally Posted by MaxPF
The version 8 redesign places all the sensitive/proprietary stuff into the FlashScan firmware and the firmware exposes a stable API (documentation coming) that can be accessed by any client platform, Windows, *nix, OSX or embedded systems so long as they can connect via the USB interface. We encourage developers to write their own front ends on their platform of choice to interface with FlashScan.
Regards
Paul
That's pretty much the plan.Quote:
Originally Posted by MaxPF
Regards
Paul
Exactly , you have to have a version as you describe to lure Window users out . Isn't that what Ubuntu is , dumb down version of Linux , and thousands like it !Quote:
Originally Posted by MaxPF
Hmmmm , novice outgrowing it quickly , how many millions still use Windows ?
I have a ported version of Chrome (Android) , test version that would boot on a regular com .
Solaris is okay , I still get e-mails from Sun wanting to know if I still am or want to use Solaris , like I said Solaris was to much like Linux to move away from Linux to it , BSD the same , slightly different , but basic the same .
Perhaps if to many Windows users taint the Linux world I will move to the Sunny side (pun) , or BSD (Berkeley OS) .
What I like about Ubuntu, easy to install, far easier than anything I have installed before, it works, gazillions of programs out there for it, all free/open source, stable as a rock.
What I don't like about Ubuntu (prob all Linux), is getting some programs to run in it is a convoluded nightmare, it isn't intuitive to anyone that I can figure out. I want to get Marathon to run in it and I just gave up, I don't see how anyone can know how to come up with all the things needed to make some of these programs to run. But yet some figure it out.
But I still like to keep it around, but rarely can I make it my main OS to run and use daily.... OSX is better, but not all there too, most of the programs I need on a daily basis are Windows based and don't run in OSX/*nix.
Almost had EFILive completely functioning in openSUSE/Wine , I keep getting a error from the HAPI about the FTDI.dll not being found , hunted around but did not see a installable FTDI chipset driver in EFILive anywhere .
Once it errors I keep getting a memory access error that continues to tally up access error tries .
SO close but yet so far , will keep messing with it when I get a chance .
The FTDI drivers are in the 'C:\Program Files\EFILive\Drivers\...' structure on a normal system install. Could you get the required driver contents from there?
Yeah , checked that , seems what should be there is.Quote:
Originally Posted by Tordne
Getting close, when I get more time will tinker again.
Same here! :grin:Quote:
Originally Posted by joecar
In regards to the original question, "Why Linux"? I can easily answer that one by asking "why not?".
Seriously though, Linux is a lot faster and is a far more stable platform without any of the overheads inherent in a typical Windows OS. However, you need to work smart to get everything to work with Linux and configuring the drivers is one of the things that let the user down on some occasions.
Having said that, I regret that I bought my HP Netbook with a Windows XP OS (keeps freezing up) as I could have originally bought it with Ubuntu... but I had PCM tuning in mind later down the track... so I decided to go with Windows.
Then I read this thread and the other with Codeweaver...then had the same regrets coming back to me. :doh2:
Great thread, btw!
Tony,
I run EFILive on WinXP booted via Boot Camp on my MacBook... runs good (3GB usable DRAM) and I like the wide screen;
only problems are the MacBook is cumbersome in the car, and the MacBook's aluminium case is easily dented.
And I found out MacOSX is based on unix rather than linux.
Mac Os X is based off of BSD actually :)
Hi JoeQuote:
Originally Posted by joecar
I wish I had a MacBook... I only have an iMac which is a desktop computer.
You got me thinking, though... I have literally sworn myself off MS products forever (at least at home) so perhaps the MacBook Air is the better overall option instead of continually mucking about with less powerful Netbooks? At least it's not as cumbersome as the other MacBooks.
Anyway, it's good to know there aren't any issues running EFILive on non-Windows systems. :rockon:
We have customers that use visualization product like VMware Fusion, Parallels etc as well. I've not tested reading/flashing in pass-thru with emulated USB but can't really see any reason why it wouldn't work really.
Well, actually, the Mac OSX kernel is a monolithic (with pluggable module support) version of the Mach microkernel. The rest of the os is basically BSD as you said.Quote:
Originally Posted by Tordne
I use VirtualBox, running Win2K (due to lower memory overhead vs newer Windows versions), and I have read and flashed 411 PCM's and Gen IV Allison TCM's via the emulated USB with zero issues.Quote:
Originally Posted by Tordne
Still, a native Linux/*nix version would be nice ;)
I am a Unix/Linux guy from way back. It's pretty much all I used to work with years ago actually. The only Windows systems we have (both EFILive and personally) are desktops/laptops. All our servers and backend stuff is Linux :)
I have personally tried on a few different occasions to abandon Windows for Linux (usually Ubuntu) but there are just too many thing in my day to day activities that require me to use Windows. So ultimately I would almost always have a Windows VM running, which sort of defeats the purpose somewhat in my option :)
I managed to wean myself off of Windows sometime in the late 90's, and I haven't looked back. So far, the only two apps that I need Windows for are EFILive and SolidWorks. Since i don't use either on a day-to-day basis I seldom have a VM running. Even when i do have the VM running I run the app in a window of it's own on the Linux desktop.
FWIW, the "only" reason you "need" the USB drivers ATM is to flash the firmware into the V2 / Autocal and set up the PID selections for BBL. The rest can be achieved via BBL/BBR/BBF. Sure, running a live dash is extremely handy at times, but you can work around it, it's just more cumbersome. I've run ScanTool and TuneTool fine under Wine, saved the files to the SD card and all is well. Still.... Native Linux is the goal here!
I've been pretty impressed with the wine development as well, L4D2 runs great!
I'm keen to try Wine, myself. :)
What I might do as a trial is install Ubuntu Netbook edition onto a pen drive to see how my HP Mini responds with the new OS...
http://www.ubuntu.com/netbook/get-ubuntu/download.
This way, I am not actually removing my current XP OS, at least not intially. If all goes well, I'll just intall Ubuntu over my XP install and kiss the random frozen screen issue good-bye, for good.
Now I just have to get my netbook back from the sis-in-law!
That would be nice wouldn't it , Native Linux EFILive .
As others have said , long time Linux user , SuSE (openSuse) has been my OS of choice , but have used every other one at least once , some several times (BSD , FreeBSD, Sun Microsystem, and a few other Unix distros) , I still like the QNX microkernel , Linux is a monolithic kernel as well , even the Google Android (phone OS) , go figure .
My wife finally gave up on Winders as well and now my Tech Support for her PC is so much easier (almost nonexistent) , thank God Winders was driving me nuts .
As you can see , by my post I am partial to Linux .