I would suggest cross-compiling on a decent pc. It's not that difficult, look here for example: Kernel building - Raspberry Pi Documentation
That's what I do now. But I spent over 6 hours yesterday trying to corss-compile minimal gstreamer with python support and I don't want to deal with this again if I can get a dedicated ARM machine.
Kernels will compile slower, but the time savings on not having to deal with cross-compiling other software could be worthwhile.
Looks like AWS has ARM based instances, that could be the other option.
Kernels will compile slower, but the time savings on not having to deal with cross-compiling other software could be worthwhile.
Looks like AWS has ARM based instances, that could be the other option.
There’s quite a few out there. The question is do you want it silent (passive without a fan)?
Raspberry pi definitely have the user and support base.
I have an odroid C3 which is a multicore (all heavy cores and no lightweight). I bought it passive as a fan an telescopes mean vibration blur on long exposures. Has enough power to compile and run the scope, perform sky Astro recognition, perform auto focusing, star tracking and twiddle it’s thumbs - a serious amount of cpu power! I used a sdtype card and an SSD drive for storage (no vibration).
Raspberry pi definitely have the user and support base.
I have an odroid C3 which is a multicore (all heavy cores and no lightweight). I bought it passive as a fan an telescopes mean vibration blur on long exposures. Has enough power to compile and run the scope, perform sky Astro recognition, perform auto focusing, star tracking and twiddle it’s thumbs - a serious amount of cpu power! I used a sdtype card and an SSD drive for storage (no vibration).
Apple M1 silicon is apparently very fast - would a Mac Mini M1 do the job? I see Linux has already been ported to it : Developers boot Linux on the Apple M1 - MSPoweruser
Doesn't matter if it's passive or with a fan.
I only see Odroid C4, doesn't look like they made a C3. Quad Core at 2 ghz looks pretty good and pretty cheap to give it a try. Thanks!
I would also recommend cross-compiling on a PC running Linux natively. That would be the fastest way.
Also, if you have a lot of RAM, say 6GB+, then make a ramdisk (tmpfs) and compile the kernel there.
Also, if you have a lot of RAM, say 6GB+, then make a ramdisk (tmpfs) and compile the kernel there.
For kernel I would definitely cross-compile, compilation of the build chain does not take so long.
For regular packages (like that gstreamer) I would probably use RPi4, why not. But that would compile for the RPi distribution. Compiling for other distributions may not be so easy, it really depends on specific needs.
For regular packages (like that gstreamer) I would probably use RPi4, why not. But that would compile for the RPi distribution. Compiling for other distributions may not be so easy, it really depends on specific needs.
You asked about compiling the kernel, but then you talk about gstreamer. What are you actually trying to do?
I can do all of it by cross-compiling. Unfortunately, cross-compiling seems to be a pain for a lot of software out there. Anything with a decent amount of dependencies basically requires you to figure out what the dependencies are, how to cross-compile them and then do the main compilation. Compared to just running make or ninja, etc when not cross-compiling. And then, if there are some tests included in the source, you have to setup qemu to even get a chance to run them.
I was asking if someone could recommend an ARM based SBC that can do kernel compiles (the most intensive compilation) in a decent time so I won't have to cross-compile anything (be it kernel, modules, software or my code) and save myself some time next time I have to deal with some other piece of software.
I'm not looking for "fastest" or "faster" compilation, just want to reduce the upfront work on adding new software to my ARM based projects.
Anyway, I've ordered an Odroid N2+, I'll overclock it to 2.4 GHz and use an msata drive over USB for storage and see what happens.
I use docker containers for the builds anyway, so I can handle pretty much any distro even tough I don't need to.
Thanks for all the suggestions!
I was asking if someone could recommend an ARM based SBC that can do kernel compiles (the most intensive compilation) in a decent time so I won't have to cross-compile anything (be it kernel, modules, software or my code) and save myself some time next time I have to deal with some other piece of software.
I'm not looking for "fastest" or "faster" compilation, just want to reduce the upfront work on adding new software to my ARM based projects.
Anyway, I've ordered an Odroid N2+, I'll overclock it to 2.4 GHz and use an msata drive over USB for storage and see what happens.
I use docker containers for the builds anyway, so I can handle pretty much any distro even tough I don't need to.
Thanks for all the suggestions!
Alright, then it makes sense. From the first post I understood you specifically wanted to compile kernels.