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

U-Boot

We are going to focus on U-Boot exclusively because it supports a good number of processor architectures and a large number of individual boards and devices. It has been around for a long time and has a good community for support.

U-Boot, or to give its full name, Das U-Boot, began life as an open source bootloader for embedded PowerPC boards. Then, it was ported to Arm-based boards and later to other architectures, including MIPS and SH. It is hosted and maintained by Denx Software Engineering. There is plenty of information available on it, and a good place to start is https://www.denx.de/wiki/U-Boot. There is also a mailing list at [email protected] that you can subscribe to by filling out and submitting the form provided at https://lists.denx.de/listinfo/u-boot.

Building U-Boot

Begin by getting the source code. As with most projects, the recommended way is to clone the .git archive and check out the tag you intend to use – which, in this case, is the version...