Book Image

Mastering Embedded Linux Programming - Second Edition

By : Chris Simmonds
Book Image

Mastering Embedded Linux Programming - Second Edition

By: Chris Simmonds

Overview of this book

Embedded Linux runs many of the devices we use every day, from smart TVs to WiFi routers, test equipment to industrial controllers - all of them have Linux at their heart. Linux is a core technology in the implementation of the inter-connected world of the Internet of Things. The comprehensive guide shows you the technologies and techniques required to build Linux into embedded systems. You will begin by learning about the fundamental elements that underpin all embedded Linux projects: the toolchain, the bootloader, the kernel, and the root filesystem. You’ll see how to create each of these elements from scratch, and how to automate the process using Buildroot and the Yocto Project. Moving on, you’ll find out how to implement an effective storage strategy for flash memory chips, and how to install updates to the device remotely once it is deployed. You’ll also get to know the key aspects of writing code for embedded Linux, such as how to access hardware from applications, the implications of writing multi-threaded code, and techniques to manage memory in an efficient way. The final chapters show you how to debug your code, both in applications and in the Linux kernel, and how to profile the system so that you can look out for performance bottlenecks. By the end of the book, you will have a complete overview of the steps required to create a successful embedded Linux system.
Table of Contents (17 chapters)

Putting the system to sleep

There is one more power management technique to consider: putting the whole system into sleep mode with the expectation that it will not be used again for a while. In the Linux kernel, this is known as system sleep. It is usually user-initiated: the user decides that the device should be shut down for a while. For example, I shut the lid of my laptop and put it in my bag when it is time to go home. Much of the support for system sleep in Linux comes from the support for laptops. In the laptop world, there are usually two options: suspend or hibernate. The first, also known as suspend to RAM, shuts everything down except the system memory, so the machine is still consuming a little power. When the system wakes up, the memory retains all the previous state, and my laptop is operational within a few seconds. If I select the hibernate option, the contents...