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Mastering Embedded Linux Development

Mastering Embedded Linux Development

By : Frank Vasquez, Mr. Chris Simmonds
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Mastering Embedded Linux Development

Mastering Embedded Linux Development

By: Frank Vasquez, Mr. Chris Simmonds

Overview of this book

Mastering Embedded Linux Development' is designed to be both a learning resource and a reference for your embedded Linux projects. The book starts by breaking down the fundamental elements that underpin all embedded Linux projects: the toolchain, the bootloader, the kernel, and the root filesystem. First, you will download and install a pre-built toolchain. After that, you will cross-compile each of the remaining three elements from scratch and learn to automate the process using Buildroot and the Yocto Project. The book progresses with coverage of over-the-air software updates and rapid prototyping with add-on boards. Two new chapters tackle modern development practices including Python packaging and deploying containerized applications. These are followed by a chapter on writing multithreaded code and another on techniques to manage memory in an efficient way. The final chapters demonstrate how to debug your code, whether it resides in user space or in the Linux kernel itself. In addition to GDB, the book also covers the different tracers and profilers that are available for Linux so that you can quickly pinpoint any performance bottlenecks in your system. By the end of this book, you will be able to create efficient and secure embedded devices with Linux that will delight your users.
Table of Contents (28 chapters)
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1
Part 1: Elements of Embedded Linux
7
Part 2: Building Embedded Linux Images
11
Part 3: System Architecture and Design Decisions
18
Part 4: Developing Applications
23
Part 5: Debugging and Optimizing Performance

Creating filesystem images with device tables

We saw in the earlier Creating a boot initramfs section that the kernel has the option to create initramfs, using a device table. Device tables are really useful because they allow a non-root user to create device nodes and allocate arbitrary UID and GID values to any file or directory. The same concept has been applied to tools that create other filesystem image formats, as shown in this mapping from the filesystem format to tool:

  • jffs2: mkfs.jffs2
  • ubifs: mkfs:ubifs
  • ext2: genext2fs

We will cover jffs2 and ubifs in Chapter 9, when we look at filesystems for flash memory. ext2 is a format commonly used for managed flash memory, including SD cards. The example that follows uses ext2 to create a disk image that can be copied to an SD card.

To begin with, you need to install the genext2fs tool on your host. On Ubuntu, the package to install is named genext2fs:

$ sudo apt install genext2fs

genext2fs...

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