Book Image

Mastering Embedded Linux Programming - Third Edition

By : Frank Vasquez, Chris Simmonds
5 (3)
Book Image

Mastering Embedded Linux Programming - Third Edition

5 (3)
By: Frank Vasquez, Chris Simmonds

Overview of this book

If you’re looking for a book that will demystify embedded Linux, then you’ve come to the right place. Mastering Embedded Linux Programming is a fully comprehensive guide that can serve both as means to learn new things or as a handy reference. The first few chapters of this book will break down the fundamental elements that underpin all embedded Linux projects: the toolchain, the bootloader, the kernel, and the root filesystem. After that, you will learn how to create each of these elements from scratch and automate the process using Buildroot and the Yocto Project. As you progress, the book will show you how to implement an effective storage strategy for flash memory chips and install updates to a device remotely once it’s deployed. You’ll also learn about the key aspects of writing code for embedded Linux, such as how to access hardware from apps, the implications of writing multi-threaded code, and techniques to manage memory in an efficient way. The final chapters demonstrate how to debug your code, whether it resides in apps or in the Linux kernel itself. You’ll also cover the different tracers and profilers that are available for Linux so that you can quickly pinpoint any performance bottlenecks in your system. By the end of this Linux book, you’ll be able to create efficient and secure embedded devices using Linux.
Table of Contents (27 chapters)
1
Section 1: Elements of Embedded Linux
10
Section 2: System Architecture and Design Decisions
18
Section 3: Writing Embedded Applications
22
Section 4: Debugging and Optimizing Performance

Summary

The toolchain is always your starting point; everything that follows from that is dependent on having a working, reliable toolchain.

You may start with nothing but a toolchain—perhaps built using crosstool-NG or downloaded from Linaro—and use it to compile all the packages that you need on your target. Or you may obtain the toolchain as part of a distribution generated from source code using a build system such as Buildroot or the Yocto Project. Beware of toolchains or distributions that are offered to you for free as part of a hardware package; they are often poorly configured and not maintained.

Once you have a toolchain, you can use it to build the other components of your embedded Linux system. In the next chapter, you will learn about the bootloader, which brings your device to life and begins the boot process. We will use the toolchain we built in this chapter to build a working bootloader for the BeagleBone Black.