[LEDE-DEV] How do you develop (compile) LEDE efficiently?

[Alberto Bursi]

On 11/06/2016 09:24 PM, Rafał Miłecki wrote:
> Hey,
>
> So far I was always using my notebook for the development. My
> requirements were Intel i7 quad core + AMD GPU. I was using some
> Samsung but it's GPU has died and I can't replace it (stupid
> 216-0811000 chipset).
>
> I'm looking for a new notebook, but I can't find anything with i7 quad
> core + AMD GPU. I may need to buy something with i7-6500U or i7-7500U
> which may be too slow for compiling LEDE.
>
> How do you develop LEDE? Do you work on some powerful machine, or do
> you compile it remotely somehow? If you do it remotely, do you mount
> remote filesystem? I need a very good access to the build_dir for my
> needs.
>

Might I ask why you need a dedicated GPU for in a development machine?
You want to game on it too?

Current Intel iGPUs are fine on linux as long as you don't want to play 
games (on windows they are better and allow light gaming).

Also, in all modern laptops the NVIDIA gpu is not physically connected 
to outputs and is only used for 3D rendering, so you can keep it 
disabled without ill effects as the Intel iGPU is the one actually 
running everything in the hardware.

In any case, i'd recommend to look at laptop assembler companies like 
pcspecialist.co.uk (for europe) as they usually offer some laptops with 
a quadcore i7 without a dedicated GPU, and have better features overall 
like fullHD screens and IPS screens, better batteries, you can choose to 
not install/pay for Windows and so on.

If I had to compile LEDE remotely (I use a Xeon processor that is 
slightly better than a ivy bridge i7 so I don't really need that), I 
would keep the sources on remote filesystem on the server, probably nfs 
as it is the one with best performance, and  keep a SSH open to the 
server so I can ask a recompilation.
It should not be noticeably different than doing things locally as long 
as you are connected through gigabit ethernet cable and don't do unusual 
things for development like moving multiple gigabytes of files around in 
the network folder.

-Alberto