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  • Book Overview & Buying Mastering Embedded Linux Programming
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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

The boot sequence


In simpler times, some years ago, it was only necessary to place the bootloader in non-volatile memory at the reset vector of the processor. NOR flash memory was common at that time and, since it can be mapped directly into the address space, it was the ideal method of storage. The following diagram shows such a configuration, with the Reset vector at 0xfffffffc at the top end of an area of flash memory. The bootloader is linked so that there is a jump instruction at that location that points to the start of the bootloader code:

From that point, the bootloader code running in NOR flash memory can initialize the DRAM controller, so that the main memory, the DRAM, becomes available and then it copies itself into the DRAM. Once fully operational, the bootloader can load the kernel from flash memory into DRAM and transfer control to it.

However, once you move away from a simple linearly addressable storage medium like NOR flash, the boot sequence becomes a complex, multi-stage...

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