I want to be able to distribute a Linux running inside my application. The reason is that I need to add software functionality which is most easily added inside a Linux container and distributed with the application.
Is there any way to run a VM inside a C/C++ application on Windows, OSX, Linux?
VirtualBox has an API for creating/running VMs. The program Vagrant uses this to give developers a simple cross-platform way to develop. You can run vagrant up from Windows, Linux or Windows, and it does the same thing.
You can also script adding ports to your VM, so your C++ program could say "VirtualBox, boot me this image", then just connect to a TCP port to talk to the "Linux program". But debugging problems will be hard.
But if your goal is to sell a Linux program to non-Linux desktop people, it's probably best for you and your sanity to bite the bullet and port it to Windows/Mac. (Or go Cloud and sell it as a service.)
Two frameworks come to mind:
User mode Linux runs the Linux kernel as an application. This give you ultimate control over launching and managing the virtual machine from within a Linux application.
libvirt provides a toolkit for programmatically managing all manner of virtual machines.
These may both requires a Linux host. For other host operating systems, it may be necessary to manage the virtual machine manually -- or using ad hoc scripting.
QEMU can run a VM and it can be compiled on Windows and Linux and OSX. http://wiki.qemu.org/Main_Page
QEMU can be compiled as it is written in C++.
So in theory, QEMU could be embedded in a C++ program and used to run a Linux VM.
An example QEMU running Puppy Linux http://www.erikveen.dds.nl/qemupuppy/
I am developing a program similar to xbmc but only for movies. I was wondering if there is any very simple operating system that will basically just boot and run the program I am developing? Similar to what openelec does for XBMC. I can run it on windows but I want to be able to put it on a machine like raspberry pi without having to have a whole windows or linux OS.
I hope that makes sense.
Take a look at the rather slim linux distributions specialized in embedded systems, like firewalling distros and so on.
Then, if it is a graphical application you have to make sure you boot into runlevel 5 (graphics) and configure your application as login shell for the default user.
You might also be interested in two services the openSUSE project offers: the Open Build Service (OBS) and SUSE Studio:
OBS allows you to automatically get packages of your application built and packaged, ready for use in a number of wide spread distributions.
Studio allows you to go a step further and create a custom distribution for your own purpose: you can call it 'your' operating system, completely preconfigured for your purpose, with all requried software and your own application installed. You just have to download a CD image afterwards!
I come from a windows background and i am proficient with the .net platform. For work, i need to bring up a custom embedded system platform. We have bought the pandaboard ES as the test platform. The application is to stream images over the wifi. If you think about it, we are building something similar to a netgear router - the only difference being when you log into the device it serves images.
Because my background is in windows i am not quite sure how to start off with embedded linux development. in reading through various sites i have come to the conclusion that going to linux as development host is the best option.
Can some one point to me in the right direction regarding the set up. I have a windows machine that will be used for development purposes. I can either do a virtual box or setup a partition for linux. But the finer details are what throwing me off..what i need to know is
1) once i install linux what other software do I need - Code blocks,
2) what about toolchain
3) How to debug - through serial port ?
4) Is there a way to send the image built directly to the CF card?
Thanks
i suggest you to install linux on your desktop or laptop, perhaps
In a virtual machine.
Then, learn to compile on the command line (the order of program arguments to gcc is important).
Start an editor like emacs. Take half an hour to follow its tutorial.
Edit the helloworld.c file.
Compile it with
gcc -Wall -g helloworld.c -o hello
Improve it till no warnings are given.
Use
./hello
To run it.
Learn to use make with your own Makefile.
Use a version control system like git.
Learn to use cross compilation tools.
addenda
See also my answer here and also this answer.
Cross-building is not very different from native Linux building, except for the names of the cross-compilation tools.
But my feeling is that installing Linux and learning to develop Linux applications on Linux will teach you a lot of skills necessary for cross-development targeted for embedded Linux systems. So read material about Advanved Linux Programming and Advanced Unix Programming.
Remote debugging thru the serial port should be possible.
I need to develop applications for Linux but I don't want to either program on Linux (I already have all my "precious" tools setted up) or test it on Windows using some kind of POSIX for Windows and hoping that if runs well on that runs well on real Linux.
What's the better choice? Preferentially I want to use Eclipse IDE for compile/run/debug and run my programs on a Linux distribution that is running on a local VM or remote.
Right now I'm using a similar approach, but for Java Web Service testing on a remote server. Perhaps that's the way to go?
Edit:
In order to beter explain what I want, here is the steps that I want to follow:
Program in C, for POSIX compliant systems, using Eclipse on Windows
Make small tests on Windows, perhaps using Cygwin (this is not mandatory it's just to be quicker)
From my Windows Eclipse, I want to run/debug my application on a real Linux environment (could be a VM or a remote machine) and, preferentially, redirect the application stdout to my computer. The Linux machine only exists in order to garantee that everything runs ok, no need of even open it.
One thing that I didn't mentioned: all of the applications are command line, no need for GUI, just input from a shell and read the output.
First, install Linux in a virtual PC like VirtualBox or VirtualPC or something from vmware.
Then configure Eclipse for remote development. That allows you to run tools (like the debugger, the compiler suite, etc) on Linux from your Windows desktop inside of Eclipse. You edit the files just like you're used to, you debug as if the app was running local on Windows, etc. Eclipse will do the plumbing.
Remote server is the way to go. But most people have a powerful enough machine to run a 32-bit Linux distro in Virtualbox which is better than a real remote server because you have full control of setup and config.
But install cygwin including GCC and use that to run initial compile (and maybe unit tests) locally. Also, do use Valgrind on your Linux VM to help you produce cleaner code.
Can you run Xcode in Linux? Mac OS X was based on BSD Unix, so is it possible?
From what I have heard, there is a MonoDevelop plugin that has an iPhone simulator.
The low-level toolchain for Xcode (the gcc compiler family, the gdb debugger, etc.) is all open source and common to Unix and Linux platforms. But the IDE--the editor, project management, indexing, navigation, build system, graphical debugger, visual data modeling, SCM system, refactoring, project snapshots, etc.--is a Mac OS X Cocoa application, and is not portable.
Nobody suggested Vagrant yet, so here it is, Vagrant box for OSX
vagrant init AndrewDryga/vagrant-box-osx --box-version 0.2.1
vagrant up
# editor's notes:
# - this requires virtualbox
# - version 0.3.1 (2016) is down now, so version 0.2.1 (2015)
# - there are notes for building an image one's self at the site
and you have a MACOS virtual machine. But according to Apple's EULA, you still need to run it on MacOS hardware :D But anywhere, here's one to all of you geeks who wiped MacOS and installed Ubuntu :D
Unfortunately, you can't run the editors from inside using SSH X-forwarding option.
I really wanted to comment, not answer. But just to be precise, OSX is not based on BSD, it is an evolution of NeXTStep. The NeXTStep OS utilizes the Mach kernel developed by CMU. It was originally designed as a MicroKernel, but due to performance constraints, they eventually decided they needed to include the Unix portion of the API into the kernel itself and so a BSD-compatible "server" (originally intended to process requests for BSD-compatible kernel messages) was moved into the kernel, making it a Monolithic kernel. It may be BSD compatible in the programming API, but it is NOT BSD.
The rest of the OS involved ObjectiveC (under arrangements between Stepstone and Richard Stallman of GNU/GCC) with a GUI based on a technology called "Display Postscript" ... sort of like an X Server, but with postscript commands. OS X changed Display Postscript to Display PDF, and increased the general hardware requirements 1000 fold (NeXT could run in 8-16MB, now you need GB).
Due to the close marriage of GCC and Objective C and NeXT, your best bet at running XCode natively under Linux would be to do a port (if you can get ahold of the source - good luck) utilizing the GNUStep libraries. Originally designed for NextStep and then OpenStep compatibility, I've heard they are now more-or-less Cocoa compatible, but I've not played with any of it in almost 2 decades. Of course that only gets you as far as ObjC, not Swift, and I don't know if Apple is going to OpenSource it.
You can run Xcode on Linux NATIVELY using Darling:
Darling is a translation layer that lets you run macOS software on Linux
Once installed you can install Xcode via command-line developer tool following this link.
If you run VMware Player or Workstation (or maybe VirtualBox, I'm not sure if it supports Mac OS X, but may), and then Mac OS X Server (Client can't legally be virtualized). Of course, in this case you are running XCode on OS X, but your host machine could be linux.
If you cannot shell out thousands of dollars for a decent Mac then there is an option to run OSX and XCode in the cloud:
http://www.macincloud.com/
I think you need MonoTouch (not free!) for that plugin.
And no, there is no way to run Xcode on Linux.
Sorry for all the bad news. :)
Nope, you've heard of MonoTouch which is a .NET/mono environment for iPhone development. But you still need a Mac and the official iPhone SDK. And the emulator is the official apple one, this acts as a separate IDE and allows you to not have to code in Objective C, rather you code in c#
It's an interesting project to say the least....
EDIT: apparently, you can distribute on the app store now, early on that was a no go....
The easiest option to do that is running a VM with a OSX copy.
It was weird that no one suggested KVM.
It is gonna provide you almost native performance and it is built-in Linux.
Go and check it out.
you will feel like u are using mac only and then install Xcode there
u may even choose to directly boot into the OSX GUI instead of Linux one on startup
If you really want to use Xcode on linux you could get Virtual Box and install Hackintosh on a VM.
Edit: Virtual Box Guest Additions is not supported with MacOS Movaje. You will want to use VMware
https://www.vmware.com/
https://hackintosh.com/
If you want XCode on another OS, I suggest cloud computing. That way your app is being developed on a Mac and can be submitted to the App Store.
Use quiling framework
For more info check at https://github.com/qilingframework/qiling
I think it is the best
Maybe you can use Virtual Machine and Qiling framework.
If you are planning to use a Mac VM on Linux, check out Docker-OSX. It provides a simple approach to use pre-built Mac VMs with Docker.
To know more about the legality of running Apple software on non-Apple hardware, read this article: Is Hackintosh, OSX-KVM, or Docker-OSX legal?
OSX is based on BSD, not Linux. You cannot run Xcode on a Linux machine.