Complete newbie, need some help with a project

[FBS]

Hey guys, I'm hoping you could help me out a bit here. I was approached by someone I know with an interesting project. This guy has a device (basically an HTPC) that runs a program in Windows XP Embedded. Well, people are having problems with XP Embedded and just have XP in general, so he wants to move away from it. His description to me was basically he wants to power on this device and have his program run. No windows, no OS, he just wants this program to run and nothing else.

I thought great, we can run the program through WINE and use FreeBSD. I'll just write a script and have FreeBSD auto load this program through WINE and call it a day, shouldn't take long at all, right?

Well, I'm a Windows guy so I had no idea what I was getting myself into. I thought something as simple as DOS, write a bat file to autostart this program through WINE and call it a day. Well, so far I don't even know if I've gotten FreeBSD installed correctly on his device. I downloaded an ISO, burned it to CD and ran the whole setup program and now the device boots to the following:

FreeBSD/i386 boot
Default: 0:ad(0,a)/boot/kernel/kernel
boot: _

I'm not sure if that's where I'm supposed to be after a successful install of FreeBSD. I now can't figure out how to get WINE on there, since the only "idiots guide" to install WINE uses an FTP, and this device does not have network capability

I've downloaded manuals, PDFs, how-to's and all these other things I've printed out which are hundreds and hundreds of pages each. Instead of reading thousands of pages, I'm hoping someone here has done this before and could tell me "Oh that's simple, here's how you do it" because I only have a few days to get this thing finished.

 

[sossego]

If it's embedded, then what processor?
And no, it won't be a simple cut and paste operation.

 

[Beastie]

no OS, he just wants this program to run and nothing else.

Impossible unless his program is also an operating system.

FreeBSD/i386 boot
Default: 0:ad(0,a)/boot/kernel/kernel
boot: _

Is that the last thing you get or does it continue booting?

I now can't figure out how to get WINE on there, since the only "idiots guide" to install WINE uses an FTP, and this device does not have network capability

WINE is a very buggy compatibility layer of a very buggy operating system, and many programs crash during the setup or startup. So first of all, check if his program works on WINE (e.g. using a working FreeBSD or GNU/Linux system).

If it does, check this page, and write down every package from bison to xproto, as well as wine. Manually download the files from the FTP server (<-- the 8.0-RELEASE repository). Copy them to the device and execute the following command: # pkg_add wine-xyz*.tbz

* Replace xyz with the appropriate filename.

 

[SirDice]

Yeah, I'd first test if the program would even run properly using wine.

Even so, without a working program, it might be possible to build it using some bits and pieces from ports
multimedia/mythtv springs to mind but I'm not sure how good it works on fbsd. If every function of it works and with what hardware.
It'll take more then just a few days of tinkering though, even for a seasoned freebsd user

 

[FBS]

If it's embedded, then what processor?
And no, it won't be a simple cut and paste operation.

Intel Atom

Impossible unless his program is also an operating system.

Which is why I suggested FreeBSD and WINE (Was I correct in my thinking?). They want to get rid of with WindowsXP embedded all together, and that was how he described to to me.

Is that the last thing you get or does it continue booting?

That's the last thing I get.

WINE is a very buggy compatibility layer of a very buggy operating system, and many programs crash during the setup or startup. So first of all, check if his program works on WINE (e.g. using a working FreeBSD or GNU/Linux system).

I'll have to try that. I'm going to get a copy of the software from him and fire up a copy of Linux OS 2007 that I have on a laptop somewhere.

 

[ckester]

Impossible unless his program is also an operating system.

That was one of the few nice things about good old DOS. The "operating system" wasn't much more than a program launcher. Once your program was launched it had almost complete control of the machine.

If I recall correctly, the only "other" thing you had to contend with was a timer interrupt -- but that was deterministic like everything else on that system.

 

[FBS]

Alright guys, I have the PC running Ubuntu 9.10 with the latest version of WINE. So far everything is working great, program isn't having any issues with WINE. Now when I get the PC back from him I need to figure out how to install FreeBDS & WINE and get everything working...

For reference, we're using a Jetway NF94 Mini-ITX to run all this. http://www.jetwaycomputer.com/NF94.html