Category: GNU/Linux

Greg KH have released “nano” devfs patch for the current linux kernel to mitigate the concerns of embedded system developers.

However according to Greg the inventor of udev (userspace /dev filesystem), he is not going to submit ndevfs patch to the main kernel tree. He explains it in his words :

“I’m not going to be submitting this. But what it is, is a nice proof-of-concept for people who ‘just can’t live without a in-kernel devfs’ to show that it can be done in less than 300 lines of code, and only 6 hooks (2 functions in 3 different places) in the main kernel tree. That is managable outside of the main kernel for years, with almost little to no effort.”

read more about this topic at :
1. ndevfs – a “nano” devfs
2. ndevfs announcement

Well, the flexible devfs (device filesystem in kernel mode) which saw light since 2.4.x have been removed from the the main kernel tree. The removal of devfs have been discussed for more than a year, mainly because it was deprecrated by udev (which does the devfs job but in user-level), and partly because devfs is no longer maintained by it’s developers.

However this led into a lengthy discussion debating the merits of using devfs with embedded systems. 2.6 maintainer Andrew Morton suggested that the fate of devfs is still undecided,

“I don’t have enough info to know whether the world would be a better place if we keep devfs, remove devfs or remove devfs even later on. I don’t think anyone knows, which is why we’re taking this little disable-it-and-see-who-shouts approach.”

devfs is reportedly still being use by embedded system (especially with ones that deals with readonly file system) to ease of system setup.

Another feature planned to be removed from the kernel is the PCI name database, which bloat the kernel (about 82KB in size) and hard to maintain (to sync the the latest pci devices with kernel’s database).

The much anticipated Fedora Core 4 (Stentz) have been made available to public as promised. Users can now download the Fedora Core 4 iso from Red Hat Servers or by using torrent.


Previously, Fedora Core 4 release date have been postponed for a week because of the difficulty in securing the legal permission for the software’s code-name. In this latest release, Linux users can expect friendlier and easier installations procedure offered by Fedora Core 4.

This may be the final release of Fedora Core 4 with Red Hat, which after this, the development of Fedora Core Linux will be handed over to the Fedora Core Foundation.

Great news for Linux Gamers geeks out there, there have been confirmation that the latest Sony Playstation 3 will be able to run Linux! The rumours itself have been confirmed by Sony Entertainment Presiden, Ken Kutaragi.


However, Playstation 3 owners will still have to add hard drive to their console as the PS3 won’t ships with HDD by default. To quote Kutaragi on that matter,

“We’re not going to equip [the PS3 with] a HDD by default, because no matter how much [capacity] we put in it, it won’t be enough.”

He acknowledged that, by running Linux, the Playstation can be used for other applications than gaming console, such as video editing and photo retouching.


To summarize that, Sony apparently wants to position their Playstation 3 as more than a game console, citing it as “supercomputer”.

Seems that Sony acknowledgement about the usefulness of Linux as an OS for it’s Playstation may be a good sign for the free OS platform. Let’s hope this trend continues in the future….

References :
1. The Inquirer
2. Tech Spot

Hello everybody…

Today i’m annoucing that i’ve started another blog! The Nexusbox Project blog concentrates on the latest news about the the on-going Linux Embedded Firewall project which denan and I are working on. The distro is currently based on Crux Linux 2.0, hence the name Cruxwall. This project however is still in embryonic stage.

All releases will be made available to public under GNU General Public License or other Open Source compatible license. You can get Cruxwall and krazhbox releases at Nexusbox Sourceforge.net project page.

Any sort of contributions for this project are welcomed, please check the blog regularly for latest updates…