Building Embedded Linux Systems [Paperback]

Karim Yaghmour (Author), Jon Masters (Author), Gilad Ben-Yossef (Author), Philippe Gerum (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 22, 2008 | ISBN-10: 0596529686 | ISBN-13: 978-0596529680 | Edition: Second Edition

There's a great deal of excitement surrounding the use of Linux in embedded systems -- for everything from cell phones to car ABS systems and water-filtration plants -- but not a lot of practical information. Building Embedded Linux Systems offers an in-depth, hard-core guide to putting together embedded systems based on Linux.

Updated for the latest version of the Linux kernel, this new edition gives you the basics of building embedded Linux systems, along with the configuration, setup, and use of more than 40 different open source and free software packages in common use. The book also looks at the strengths and weaknesses of using Linux in an embedded system, plus a discussion of licensing issues, and an introduction to real-time, with a discussion of real-time options for Linux.

This indispensable book features arcane and previously undocumented procedures for:

• Building your own GNU development toolchain
• Using an efficient embedded development framework
• Selecting, configuring, building, and installing a target-specific kernel
• Creating a complete target root filesystem
• Setting up, manipulating, and using solid-state storage devices
• Installing and configuring a bootloader for the target
• Cross-compiling a slew of utilities and packages
• Debugging your embedded system using a plethora of tools and techniques
• Using the uClibc, BusyBox, U-Boot, OpenSSH, thttpd, tftp, strace, and gdb packages

By presenting how to build the operating system components from pristine sources and how to find more documentation or help, Building Embedded Linux Systems greatly simplifies the task of keeping complete control over your embedded operating system.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"The lessons learnt using this book alongside systems such as the IPAQ will certainly pay off." - Martin Howse, LinuxUser & Developer, issue 31 "This book should be essential reading for embedded system designers at all levels of experience who intend to use Linux in current or future projects. The only other thing you need is an internet connection to download the source code of components that are used." Industrial Networking & Open Control, June 2003 --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

About the Author

Karim Yaghmour is the founder and president of Opersys, a company providing expertise and courses on the use of open source and free software in embedded systems, and Kryptiva, a a provider of email security services. Being himself an active member of the open source and free software community, Karim has firmly established Opersys's services around the core values of knowledge sharing and technical quality promoted by this community. As part of his community involvement, Karim is the maintainer of the Linux Trace Toolkit and the author of a series of white-papers that led to the implementation of the Adeos nanokernel, which allows multiple operating systems to exist side-by-side.

Karim's quest for understanding how things work started at a very young age when he took it upon himself to break open all the radios and cassette players he could lay his hands on in order to "fix" them. Very early, he developed a keen interest in operating system internals and embedded systems. He now holds a B.Eng. and an M.A.Sc. from the Ecole Polytechnique de Montreal. While everyone was hacking away at Linux, Karim even took a detour to write his own distributed micro-kernel in order to get to the bottom of operating system design and implementation. When not working on software, Karim indulges in his passion for history, philosophy, sociology, and humanities in general. He's especially addicted to essays and novels by Umberto Eco and Gerald Messadie.

Jonathan Masters works on the Linux kernel for Red Hat.

Gilad Ben-Yossef is the cofounder and CTO of Codefidence TD. and has been assisting OEMs make use of free and open source software in commercial products and services since 1998. He is also cofounder of Hamakor, an NPO devoted to the promotion of FOSS in Israel, and a founding organizer of "August Penguin," an Israeli community FOSS conference.

Gilad is a member of the Israeli chapter of Mensa, the Israeli Information Technology Association and the Israeli chapter of the Internet Society. He holds a B.A. in Computer Science from Tel-Aviv Jaffa Academic College.

When not trying to make FOSS software do something the authors never intended, Gilad likes to SCUBA dive, read science fiction and spend time with his wife Limor and his and two adorable girls, Almog and Yael.

Philippe Gerum is the founder and maintainer of the Adeos and Xenomai projects.

Product Details

• Paperback: 464 pages
• Publisher: O'Reilly Media; Second Edition edition (August 22, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0596529686
• ISBN-13: 978-0596529680
• Product Dimensions: 7 x 0.9 x 9.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (27 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #142,774 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #11 in Books > Computers & Technology > Hardware > Microprocessors & System Design > Embedded Systems
  • #40 in Books > Computers & Technology > Operating Systems > Linux > Programming

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

40 of 44 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A very valuable resource June 13, 2003

By A Customer

Format:Paperback

Entering the world of embedded Linux development was a daunting task not too long ago, since information was spread thinnly across the web, and books were not readily available. Several books have appeared recently, and a couple are ok, but this book is the most thorough available to date. It covers all important aspects of the development process, from concepts to debugging, with toolchain building, the kernel, bootloaders, networking and root file systems in between. I would highly recommend this book. It has been extremely helpful to me.

22 of 23 people found the following review helpful

2.0 out of 5 stars didn't find any "tricks" and "traps" February 19, 2010

By KaGe

Format:Paperback

I bought this book when I had very little idea about embedded Linux systems. I tried reading it but found that its explanation of all available options / flavors, while informative, was unhelpful in trying to answer the question "what would i use to make a system of my own?". E.g. it talked about cramfs, jffs2 etc. but didn't quite address the issue of why i would choose one over the other and under which circumstances: e.g. a typical development system should use rootfs over NFS to allow for rapid iterative development and then switch to a flash based / sd-card based system for deployment (cramfs / jffs2 depending on the space constraint). A similar argument extends to uClibC vs. glibc etc.

Over the years, as I've gained experience with several embedded systems, the book's collection of all terms makes more sense, but more like an encyclopedia and a reference. I feel it still doesn't provide enough guidance on what would make a good embedded system: if i selected from the options presented, say cramfs on MIPS booting off sd-card, would i be tying locking myself into a hole? this information is better gained the hard way: looking at what platforms are already available and how active the support groups are for these.

Also, in the recent years, OpenEmbedded (OE) seems to have a strong developer push behind it. This book doesn't cover it at all.

I think the information in the book would be best complimented if the author paired the book material with a system that the readers could buy and build on their own as they read through the chapters. Yes, it would only be one specific selection from all options the book talks about, but I believe the process would be much more enlightening.

23 of 25 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Building Embedded LINUX Systems (review) May 2, 2004

By Warrick Lacey

Format:Paperback

I am (and have been since October) in the midst of new hardware bring up. I am not a LINUX novice but performing a kernel bring up -- well let's just say I assembled a number of books in preparation of the project.

Forturnately for me, this book was one I selected.

I found the text to be be thorough (w/plenty of references to other texts, also by O'Reilly) starting with the general and moving on to specifics.

I like the order of the presentations. Often times I find the next chapter the next task confronting me.

Good Job Mr. Yaghmour!!!

You saved me a lot of pain.

Well worth the money.
Warrick Lacey

19 of 23 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A Practical book September 9, 2003

By Arun Kalluri

Format:Paperback

This book is a good starting point for people to understand the work of embedded linux engineers in the real world. It is also a great book for experienced people in the industry as they can collect various pieces of missing information. I just wish I had this book two years back when I learnt all this stuff the hardway through pieces of information on web. Technology changes fast, but the stuff mentioned in the book is still up to date in the industry.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Great primer on Embedded linux November 4, 2004

By Mark D. Lucia

Format:Paperback

I found this book a "must read" if you are even thinking about embedded linux. Karim's discussions about flash devices and files systems is information you could spend weeks aquiring else where.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A must-have for this kind of project! July 8, 2007

By paulsm

Format:Paperback

On the one hand, a typical Linux user is going to install a pre-built package (Red Hat, Suse, Ubuntu, etc) on pre-built PC. This book isn't for them - there are plenty of books for learning and using Linux.

On the other hand, embedded systems developers often have a good, working toolchain from a vendor like WindRiver or DataLight. This book isn't necessarily for them, either.

But if you're building your own system: your own DIO controllers, perhaps with a mix of flash drives and conventional storage, perhaps remote booting ... and if you've decided to use Open Source as your platform ...
then you NEED this book.

There simply isn't any other text out there that covers the breadth of subjects (toolchain, kernel build, kernel tailoring, media types, etc etc etc) with the wealth of details as this book.

It's an excellent book, and an indispensible resource.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Building Embedded Linux Systems January 26, 2006

By njbulitka

Format:Paperback

I found this book to give a well-rounded discussion of (as the title says) building embedded LINUX systems. The author does a good job presenting the material and nicely presents concepts that non-experts can quickly grasp. The book covers: basic concepts, hardware support, development tools, kernel considerations, and file management topics. It also covers bootloader, networking, and debugging tools. I would have preferred more coverage on the debugging tools. Yaghmour did a good job in explaining his ideas. I did not need to refer to other LINUX books to have terminology explained. Chapter 7 was particularly insightful in its discussion of memory storage (flash) devices.

The book is very practical (hand's on) in its approach. I recommend it highly for the person developing embedded LINUX systems. I don't think that you'll be disappointed.