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Fastest booting OS

Posted: Mon Feb 06, 2006 4:33 pm
by josh
Here's the deal, I'm going to be putting a computer in my car along with a small touch screen LCD. The computer will be wired to the car's circuit breaker and when the ignition goes off it will trigger the computer to shutdown, when the ignition is on the computer will boot up. I'm doing this so I can bring all my mp3s with me on the road, but there's a disadvantage.. it takes at least 15-20 seconds to boot most computers and this thing isn't exactly going to have the fastest CPU (I don't need a powerful machine). I know ipods boot up in less then 2-3 seconds and consume very little power, so my question is what different operating systems should I be considering.. are there any versions of linux that are designed to boot very quickly? (I don't want to wait more then 2-5 seconds for my music after starting the car if possible). Whatever I use will also have to be able to accommodate the touchscreen. Other alternatives include buying a cheap used ipod off ebay, and just wiring in a fullsized hard drive.
My car will have an audio input for the radio so all I need to do is wire from the sound card / headphone jack of the ipod into that. There is also a cigarette lighter jack right by where this beast will be mounted so I can use the wiring from that.

Open to creative suggestions

Posted: Mon Feb 06, 2006 4:43 pm
by feyd
Most of the carputer builds I've seen use Windows. I've seen a few that use various flavors of *nix though.

The problem you'll hit most often is that while the boot may be quick, POST can take some time depending on what hardware you have installed.

For the application I've decided to build, I will be using MRAM or other non-volatile storage media that will offer instant-on/instant-off service. Although I'm not sure which OS will actually work for it, not that I mind writing an OS from scratch mind you. ;) Likely, I'll have to make a custom build of some *nix variant.

Posted: Mon Feb 06, 2006 4:44 pm
by Gambler
2-5 seconds
Probaly impossible on PC. BIOS's post lasts several seconds by itself.

Posted: Mon Feb 06, 2006 5:26 pm
by Christopher
You don't really want to boot. First you want as much as you can get into ROM, then you want the system to "sleep" when you turn it off rather than acutally shutdown. The power usage in sleep mode should be miniscule for an car (but don't park it for a month in Alaska ;))

Posted: Mon Feb 06, 2006 5:29 pm
by timvw
I remember that my old tandy trs-80 1mhz and 16Kb ram booted in less than a second...

Anyway, as already suggested i'd look for a system that supports hibernate (dump memory fast and sleep).

Posted: Mon Feb 06, 2006 6:31 pm
by josh

Posted: Mon Feb 06, 2006 8:19 pm
by Buddha443556

Posted: Mon Feb 06, 2006 8:37 pm
by Gambler
Open to creative suggestions
How about buying car stereo that is capable of reading MP3s from CD?

Posted: Mon Feb 06, 2006 9:47 pm
by d3ad1ysp0rk
Gambler wrote:
Open to creative suggestions
How about buying car stereo that is capable of reading MP3s from CD?
And if he has gigs worth of music, he'll be required to burn many mp3 CDs just to get it all. Not only this, but they won't be organized or easily searchable.

Posted: Mon Feb 06, 2006 10:32 pm
by josh
It would take 75 CDs in mp3 format, plus that lowers the "cool factor",

I'm not even sure if I'm going to do it yet, I'm just planning it out. It seems it is down to two options:

1) just buy an ipod and have 20 gigs with me at a time
2) write my own OS that does nothing but plays mp3s


seeing as I know little C++ it would take me months to learn to do that. I'd be willing to learn though, just no idea where to start. So far I can convert Celsius to Fahrenheit on the command line with C++ :)

I suppose figuring out how to read the mp3 format and play it to the soundcard wouldn't be "too" difficult, it would be writing bootable code that would be the problem for me, that and the interface, figuring out how to interface the touchscreen.. etc..

Also I'd rather not go the ipod route just because it's so much easier to use the touchscreen while driving. I'd end making playlists of songs, and even then popping in an mp3 cd would be easier then dealing with the rediculous scroll wheel thing while driving.

Posted: Mon Feb 06, 2006 11:07 pm
by m3mn0n
I'd just get an iPod and a car-kit.

Posted: Mon Feb 06, 2006 11:21 pm
by Buddha443556
jshpro2 wrote:... it would be writing bootable code that would be the problem for me...
At least with a PC it's covered by the BIOS but you'll probably still need Assembly. No need counting the micro seconds these days though. :wink:

Posted: Tue Feb 07, 2006 2:48 am
by JayBird
When the car is off, just put the computer into standby...car on, OS appears in a couple of seconds.

Thats what i did anyway.

The best power supply you can get is an Opus...they are pretty pricey, around 150GBP. They are what they use in ambulances. These supplies are great as they survive the cranking of the car. i.e. some other power supplys, when you turn the iginition on boot up the computer, but then when you crank the ignition to start the car, power is cut....the Opus overcomes this problem. Also, you dont always want the computer to shut down when you immeadiately turn off the ignition...the Opus can be set to shut down a certain number of minutes after the ignition is switched off. i.e. sometimes i had it set to 20 mins so i could go in the house, and wirelessly transfer new music, movies etc.

I ran windows XP, with all the crap cut out and a cold boot was down to around 10 seconds...but as i said, the computer automatically went into standby when the ignition was off, so i hardly ever had to cold boot

Posted: Tue Feb 07, 2006 3:57 am
by jayshields
Gambler wrote:
Open to creative suggestions
How about buying car stereo that is capable of reading MP3s from CD?
That's what I thought.

If you're so fussy; why not get a head unit that supports DVD's with MP3 playback, and that has a fold-up touchscreen interface?

I'm sure that it would be worth it, if not just for the time and effort, the cost aswell.

By the way, you can get iPod's with HDD's bigger than 20gb now-a-days.

Posted: Tue Feb 07, 2006 4:19 am
by JayBird
jayshields wrote:If you're so fussy; why not get a head unit that supports DVD's with MP3 playback, and that has a fold-up touchscreen interface?
Sure that is an option...but once you have a carputer installed, the possibilities are endless.

GPS, voice control, wireless internet, webcams (reversing cams), computer controled (glass) windows, DVD burning...the list is pretty endless.

Its also a lot of fun with a lot of obsticles to overcome