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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 5. Building a Root Filesystem

The root filesystem is the fourth and the final element of embedded Linux. Once you have read this chapter, you will be able build, boot, and run a simple embedded Linux system.

The techniques I will describe here are broadly known as roll your own or RYO. Back in the earlier days of embedded Linux, this was the only way to create a root filesystem. There are still some use cases where an RYO root filesystem is applicable, for example, when the amount of RAM or storage is very limited, for quick demonstrations, or for any case in which your requirements are not (easily) covered by the standard build system tools. Nevertheless, these cases are quite rare. Let me emphasize that the purpose of this chapter is educational; it is not meant to be a recipe for building everyday embedded systems: use the tools described in the next chapter for this.

The first objective is to create a minimal root filesystem that will give us a shell prompt. Then, using this as...

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