busybox
Version: 1.10
Status: Done
Description
Busybox is the swiss army coat hanger of embedded Linux and a very powerful tool. It can be compiled to contain any of a long list of standard GNU programs. When invoked, it examines the command used and responds as if it was that command. Eg:
/bin/busybox tar xzf somefile.tar.gz
This will cause busybox to act just like GNU tar and uncompress the specified file. This is why it is called a Multi call binary, it can be called by many names and takes on the role of whatever you call it. Normally, there are loads of symlinks to the main BusyBox binary so you just use the command as normal and BusyBox is invoked to do the job.
The busybox present in the MG-35 is quite simplified and it only knows the commands needed to perform the bootstrapping required to get the main file system mounted. However, it's pretty easy to build a new BusyBox with loads of nice features and use this instead.
We have another build named bigbox which includes a lot more applets than the original one. There is also a version provided in the MG350HD, which we named betterbox.
The documentation for all the possible applets is on the busybox site or on the linuxman site.
Build procedure
Download Applets
If you do not have ipkg already installed, put the .bin format applet (above) into your /usr/bin directory .
Download Combo Boxes
History
Version 1.10 - [John, 2008-04-13]
- Ported busybox-1.10 multi-tool binary.
- Lots of new commands.
- Greatly improved hush shell (with interactive prompt)
Version 1.2 - [Gadgetmind, 2006?]
BusyBox 1.20 seems to compile and run with no problems. The source can be found here.
Note: These instructions are (likely) insufficient to build busybox 1.2.0. YMMV.
To build it, you need to do "make menuconfig" first and make sure all the cross compilation options are set. You need to tell BusyBox to build with a cross compiler and to use the prefix "arm-elf". Later version of BusyBox have moved this configuration out of the menu and you need to add it to the command line - if anyone knows how to do this please update this entry!
Note that with 1.20, the final thing you see is an error while stripping the executable, because it's already stripped. Ignore this - you'll have the executable you need anyway.
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