[sisela] Plans for the next Sisela version

[jmh2]

Hi All,

   A few thoughts...

   Add nfs, hda, dd, and wget to busybox. 

   Comment - I did a version of 0.2 which I used to download files via
prism 2 wireless on an old Acer laptop and then transfer via ethernet to a
bigger machine with a cdrom burner. It was on a 1.722 mb floppy. 

   Wireless. Two in particular. Linksys usb 802.11b and d-link dwl-520E1
both have no resident software (no flash chip) so software must be
downloaded by the driver. This is being done with linux but is somewhat a
challenge. Also, realtek rtl8180 cards (the cheap ones). I have these
cards, so I can help check things out.


   Probably the biggest !!!  

   Do a simple Voip telephony 'telephone'.

   Make a version which will do voip telephony, wireless or wired that
would be a 'telephone' to use with the asterisk software pbx. 

   Gnophone would be a good start. Gnophone does iax protocol and is known
to work well with asterisk.

   We could all have a lot of fun talking to each other :)


Other Ideas

   Act as 'inverse' wireless access point. I have done this with a small
script with sisela 0.2. Sisela attaches to the wireless internet of your
neighbor and then provided wired internet to your network. Most useful.
Works great with sisela, but needs a supported wireless card (see above). 
   
   Figure out how to make a wireless repeater. Same idea as above but all
wireless. Boost local wireless signal intensity. This would seem to
require an intimate knowledge of the ARM processor used is virtually all
wireless cards.


Make a CDROM available 

      with 'all' of the Sisela development environment that can be
'copied' onto a hard disk partition, that includes kernel sources and
compilers to make driver and application development easy and the same of 
all of us.

      Let me know when this is up somewhere. I want to download it!


   warm regards,
   john



On Sat, 26 Jun 2004, Martin Ling wrote:

> Now that I'm finished with exams for this year, I'm beginning to make
> serious plans for the next version of Sisela.
> 
> Lots have things have been asked for, including:
> 
> - New boot methods - PXE netbooting, USB memory sticks, hard drives
> - More support for recent wireless chipsets
> - PPPoE
> - AP mode support
> - Captive portal
> - Web administration
> - Wireless scanning
> - Various additional software
> 
> Plus of course I'll make all the usual upgrades to the included
> software. I'm not sure yet whether it will be worth going to a 2.6
> kernel - despite new space-saving options it still seems to work out
> bigger.
> 
> Now, I can do a certain amount of this and still fit on a floppy. The
> HTTP server for captive portal and web admin features is already present
> in 0.3, it just needs appropriate accompanying scripts/pages to be
> written. Since I want to provide console-based admin menus too, I'm
> looking at producing a simple configuration engine and perhaps some
> micro templating system to generate web pages and config screens from
> this. HTTPS is probably unfeasible, but you can do secure web admin by
> SSH tunneling :-)
> 
> I've still got some ideas for saving space which could free up enough to
> get a couple more drivers/programs in, and there's the option of going
> to a 1722k floppy format as well.
> 
> It's probably also time to take out support for some of the more rare
> ISA cards - the space is better used for new drivers, and anyone needing
> to support very obscure old hardware can always build it in.
> 
> Ultimately though I'm never going to be able to satisfy everyone, and
> modifying the source package to add what you want isn't currently that
> easy. So in future I'll be trying to build as many options as possible
> into the source package, menu-selectable in the same style as the Linux
> kernel configuration, so people can build in exactly what they need.
> This is going to take a little longer than just cramming more stuff in
> though, so I'm postponing it until the version after next.
> 
> The Sisela roadmap, then:
> 
> 0.4: Simply the most networking power ever fitted on one floppy disk.
>      Also PXE, USB and HD-installable versions. Less ancient drivers.
>      More new ones. Configuration menus, web management, captive portal.
> 
> 0.5: A flexible source distribution allowing people to build exactly
>      what they need onto any size or type boot media. Also 'standard'
>      version(s) with the mostdistributed as pre-compiled images.
>      Probably a web-based custom compilation service.
> 
> 0.6 and upwards: Refinements and additions to the framework of 0.5.
> 
> I'll still be trying to modularise the source package whilst working on
> 0.4, in preparation for a fully configurable 0.5. However, making sure
> all possible combinations build and work properly will be a lot of work;
> I don't want to stall a 0.4 release waiting for that to be ready, when
> there's plenty of fixes and improvements to 0.3 that can be done now.
> 
> You can help by:
> 
> - Telling me what you want. There have been plenty of suggestions on
>   this list already, but more are welcome. Be clear on exactly what you
>   need and why - don't just ask for a particular program, there may be a
>   smaller alternative way to be able to do the same thing.
> 
> - Volunteering to test beta versions. I'll announce all developments on
>   this list, but if you mail me now and let me know what hardware you
>   are already using with Sisela and what you have available to test on,
>   I can make sure things are better tested.
> 
> - Telling me what hardware does and doesn't work with the 0.3 version.
> 
> - Submitting patches which add new features or fix bugs.
> 
> - Looking at the source for more ways to save space! Lots of bits of
>   code aren't used often, or at all - which ones can be easily got rid
>   of?
> 
> Thanks for all your support,
> 
> 
> Martin
> 
> -- 
> http://the.earth.li/~martin/
> 
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