Hi Patrick,

I have added some notes to the wiki, maybe helpful for you, maybe
others can review them too.
< http://www.balloonboard.org/balloonwiki/QuickInstall >

2011/4/12 Patrick Doyle <wpdster@gmail.com>:

> What's the best (or even any) way to compile software to run on the
> board.  It seems that I should be able to build an initrd and a rootfs
> from the 1.0-stable SVN tree.  Is there a favorite, or recommended
> cross compiler I should use?  Back in the old days, the rage was to
> compile the cross compiler from scratch.  Is that still the route
> everybody follows, or are there Debian/Ubuntu packages that work out
> of the box?  And what's the deal with arm vs. armel anyway?

I use a 'trunk' checkout from SVN because it has latest features, but
it might have some hiccups temporarily as development happens there.
1.0-stable release we use it to install on machines we got in
production, so it is kind of stuck, you can access to already built
binaries at <http://www.balloonboard.org/files/balloon3/distro/rel-v1.0/>

Regarding cross compilers, I use emdebian.org cross compiler packages
which I contribute (build them) for the emdebian community, so if you
use them and have a problem, please let me know. Looking forward in
the future we are looking into integrating this cross compilers into
main Debian, Ubuntu has already adopt them at 10.10 release. Packages
should work out of the box on Squeeze or might need some fiddling on
Wheezy/SID.

So basically, you can install [Em]Debian on balloon3 board, using
cross compilers, cross compile your application on top, that's it.
Instead of cross compiling an application, we cross compile a .deb
package, so it can be installed from a local repository into machines.

If you want to build your cross compiler packages from scratch, you
are welcome to do it, it is documented at:
  <http://wiki.debian.org/EmdebianToolchain#Build_your_own_from_sources>
  <http://wiki.debian.org/BuildingCrossCompilers>

> Sorry for all of the questions... they'll slow down once my current
> place & route finishes and I need to pay attention to what I'm doing
> again :-)

Don't be sorry, documentation is out there, it is just hard to find
the right one among so much websites.

Kind regards,
-- 
 Héctor Orón  -.. . -... .. .- -.   -.. . ...- . .-.. --- .--. . .-.

"Our Sun unleashes tremendous flares expelling hot gas into the Solar
System, which one day will disconnect us."

-- Day DVB-T stop working nicely
Video flare: http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap100510.html