Mastering embedded Linux programming : harness the power of Linux to create versatile and robust embedded solutions / Chris Simmonds ; foreword by Richard Purdie.

Includes index.

Cover; Copyright; Credits; Foreword; About the Author; About the Reviewers; www.PacktPub.com; Table of Contents; Preface; Chapter 1: Starting Out; Chapter 2: Learning About Toolchains; Chapter 3: All About Bootloaders; Chapter 4: Porting and Configuring the Kernel; Chapter 5: Building a Root Filesystem; Chapter 6: Selecting a Build System; Chapter 7: Creating a Storage Strategy; Chapter 8: Introducing Device Drivers; Chapter 9: Starting up -- The init Program; Chapter 10: Learning About Processes and Threads; Chapter 11: Managing Memory; Chapter 12: Debugging with GDB.

Chapter 13: Profiling and TracingChapter 14: Real-time Programming; Index; Selecting the right operating system; The players; Project lifecycle; Open source; Hardware for embedded Linux; Hardware used in this book; Software used in this book; Summary; What is a toolchain?; Types of toolchain -- native versus cross toolchain; Choosing the C library; Finding a toolchain; Anatomy of a toolchain; Other tools in the toolchain; Looking at the components of the C library; Linking with libraries: static and dynamic linking; The art of cross compiling; Problems with cross compiling; Summary.

What does a bootloader do?The boot sequence; Booting with UEFI firmware; Moving from bootloader to kernel; Introducing device trees; Choosing a bootloader; U-Boot; Barebox; Summary; What does the kernel do?; Choosing a kernel; Building the kernel; Compiling; Cleaning kernel sources; Booting your kernel; Porting Linux to a new board; Additional reading; Summary; What should be in the root filesystem?; Programs for the root filesystem; Libraries for the root filesystem; Device nodes; The proc and sysfs filesystems; Kernel modules; Transfering the root filesystem to the target.

Creating a boot ramdiskThe init program; Configuring user accounts; Starting a daemon process; A better way of managing device nodes; Configuring the network; Creating filesystem images with device tables; Mounting the root filesystem using NFS; Using TFTP to load the kernel; Additional reading; Summary; No more rolling your own embedded Linux; Build systems; Package formats and package managers; Buildroot; The Yocto Project; Further reading; Summary; Storage options; Accessing flash memory from the bootloader; Accessing flash memory from Linux; Filesystems for flash memory.

Filesystems for NOR and NAND flash memoryFilesystems for managed flash; Read-only compressed filesystems; Temporary filesystems; Making the root filesystem read-only; Filesystem choices; Updating in the field; Further reading; Summary; The role of device drivers; Character devices; Block devices; Network devices; Finding out about drivers at runtime; Finding the right device driver; Device drivers in user-space; Writing a kernel device driver; Loading kernel modules; Discovering hardware configuration; Additional reading; Summary; After the kernel has booted; Introducing the init programs.

Annotation Harness the power of Linux to create versatile and robust embedded solutionsAbout This Book Create efficient and secure embedded devices using Linux Minimize project costs by using open source tools and programs Explore each component technology in depth, using sample implementations as a guideWho This Book Is ForThis book is ideal for Linux developers and system programmers who are already familiar with embedded systems and who want to know how to create best-in-class devices. A basic understanding of C programming and experience with systems programming is needed. What You Will Learn Understand the role of the Linux kernel and select an appropriate role for your application Use Buildroot and Yocto to create embedded Linux systems quickly and efficiently Create customized bootloaders using U-Boot Employ perf and ftrace to identify performance bottlenecks Understand device trees and make changes to accommodate new hardware on your device Write applications that interact with Linux device drivers Design and write multi-threaded applications using POSIX threads Measure real-time latencies and tune the Linux kernel to minimize themIn DetailMastering Embedded Linux Programming takes you through the product cycle and gives you an in-depth description of the components and options that are available at each stage. You will begin by learning about toolchains, bootloaders, the Linux kernel, and how to configure a root filesystem to create a basic working device. You will then learn how to use the two most commonly used build systems, Buildroot and Yocto, to speed up and simplify the development process. Building on this solid base, the next section considers how to make best use of raw NAND/NOR flash memory and managed flash eMMC chips, including mechanisms for increasing the lifetime of the devices and to perform reliable in-field updates. Next, you need to consider what techniques are best suited to writing applications for your device. We will then see how functions are split between processes and the usage of POSIX threads, which have a big impact on the responsiveness and performance of the final device The closing sections look at the techniques available to developers for profiling and tracing applications and kernel code using perf and ftrace. Style and approach This book is an easy-to-follow and pragmatic guide consisting of an in-depth analysis of the implementation of embedded devices. Each topic has a logical approach to it; this coupled with hints and best practices helps you understand embedded Linux better.

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