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Mastering Embedded Linux Programming

Mastering Embedded Linux Programming - Second Edition

By : Chris Simmonds
4.3 (12)
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Mastering Embedded Linux Programming

Mastering Embedded Linux Programming

4.3 (12)
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. 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 (23 chapters)
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Title Page
Credits
About the Author
About the Reviewers
www.PacktPub.com
Customer Feedback
Preface

Chapter 3. All About Bootloaders

The bootloader is the second element of embedded Linux. It is the part that starts the system up and loads the operating system kernel. In this chapter, I will look at the role of the bootloader and, in particular, how it passes control from itself to the kernel using a data structure called a device tree, also known as a flattened device tree or FDT. I will cover the basics of device trees, so that you will be able to follow the connections described in a device tree and relate it to real hardware.

I will look at the popular open source bootloader, U-Boot, and show you how to use it to boot a target device, and also how to customize it to run on a new device, using the BeagleBone Black as an example. Finally, I will take a quick look at Barebox, a bootloader that shares its past with U-Boot, but which has, arguably, a cleaner design.

In this chapter, we will cover the following topics:

  • What does a bootloader do?
  • The boot sequence.
  • Booting with UEFI firmware.
  • Moving...

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