From: Yuri Klubakov <yuri.mlists@...>
Date: 2009-03-06T05:03:33+09:00
Subject: Re: Problems with ruby 1.8.6 on uClinux

On Thu, Mar 5, 2009 at 6:25 AM, Brian Candler <b.candler@pobox.com> wrote:
> Yuri Klubakov wrote:
>> I was even able to
>> serve a simple web application with WEBrick and Ramaze, but it would
>> occasionally crash the Kernel.
>
> No userland application should be able to crash the kernel - not even
> one running as root. So if this is happening, then you have an
> underlying O/S problem which you need to resolve. You are lucky that
> Ruby provides you with a way to replicate it :-)

I know that it's not supposed to happen. Blackfin processor does not
have MMU (memory management unit). I'm not a linux expert, but may be
without MMU kernel is not as protected as with it. In my tests I was
running an application as root. I'll try to run it under different
account.

> Once that's done, you can take a view on how well Ruby works on your
> platform.
>
> FWIW, I have used ruby-1.8.6p36 very successfully on MIPS (Asus) and x86
> (Soekris) embedded hardware, both under OpenWrt. The Asus box had 32MB
> RAM, the Soekris 64MB. No crashes.

Thanks for the encouraging information.

> I see OpenWrt has moved its ruby package forward to 1.8.6p287, but I've
> not tried that. I am still suspicious of later changes made in the 1.8.6
> branch, and would suggest p114 as a safer choice.

I had problems configuring ruby-1.8.6p287 for Blackfin processor. In
the end, I've replaced config.sub with the one that comes with
ruby-1.9.1, and everything went smoothly. It should not be the cause
of my problems. Right? I'll also try p114 as you've suggested.