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

Technical requirements

To follow along with the examples, make sure you have the following packages installed on your Linux-based host system:

  • Python: Python 3 interpreter and standard library
  • pip: Package installer for Python 3
  • venv: Python module for creating and managing lightweight virtual environments
  • Miniconda: Minimal installer for the conda package and virtual environment manager
  • Docker: Tool for building, deploying, and running software inside containers

I recommend using Ubuntu 20.04 LTS or later for this chapter. Even though Ubuntu 20.04 LTS runs on the Raspberry Pi 4, I still prefer to develop on an x86-64 desktop PC or laptop. I choose Ubuntu for my development environment because the distribution maintainers keep Docker up to date. Ubuntu 20.04 LTS also comes with Python 3 and pip already installed since Python is used extensively throughout the system. Do not uninstall python3 or you will render Ubuntu unusable. To install venv on Ubuntu...