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

Chapter 11: Interfacing with Device Drivers

Kernel device drivers are the mechanism through which the underlying hardware is exposed to the rest of the system. As a developer of embedded systems, you need to know how these device drivers fit into the overall architecture and how to access them from
user space programs. Your system will probably have some novel pieces of hardware, and you will have to work out a way of accessing them. In many cases, you will find that there are device drivers provided for you, and you can achieve everything you want without writing any kernel code. For example, you can manipulate GPIO pins and LEDs using
files in sysfs, and there are libraries you can use to access serial buses, including SPI (Serial Peripheral Interface) and I2C (Inter-Integrated Circuit).

There are many places to find out how to write a device driver, but few tell you why you would want to and the choices you have in doing so. This is what I want to cover here. However, remember...