[lk] Linux system development on an embedded device

[Peter Teoh]

http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/library/l-embdev.html Resources For an excellent explanation of the differences between vmlinux and zimage, scroll down to the "Booting your kernel" section ofKernel Configuration: dealing with the unexpected by Alessandro Rubini (Linux Magazine). The Embedded Linux Distributions Quick Reference Guide covers many commercial and open source distributions (Linux Devices, August 2001). The Wiki toolchain page includes links to -- and comments on -- all three of the toolchains mentioned in this article.  The Memory Technology Device (MTD) Subsystem for Linux aims to simplify the creation of drivers for memory devices (especially flash devices). The Linux MTD, JFFS HOWTO by Vipin Malik will help you get MTD and JFFS2 working together. Linux for PowerPC Embedded Systems HOWTO has a good list of device drivers. Understanding Linux device drivers is easy with this introductory tutorial (Linux Planet). To gain an intimate familiarity with Linux Device Drivers, consult O'Reilly's Linux Device Drivers, 2nd Edition. Binutils, GCC, and Glibc are all available for download from the Free Software Foundation. Many useful downloads are available at Netwinder.org, a volunteer site devoted to development on the NetWinder platform. Read all about Ramdisk in Mark Nielsen's excellent How to use a Ramdisk for Linux. FLNX is based on FLTK (The Fast Light Toolkit). The Second Extended Filesystem Ext2fs makes its home at SourceForge. Extensive background information on JFFS2: The Journalling Flash File System, version 2 is outlined by David Woodhouse of Red Hat UK. You can read more about tmpfs at Linux HeadQuarters. Flash Filesystems for Embedded Linux Systems by Cliff Brake and Jeff Sutherland goes over even more filesystems for flash devices (Embedded Linux Journal). Xfree86 is the home for X development. Information about Microwindows and Nano-X are at the Microwindows site. Check out an older discussion of some of the disadvantages of Microwindows (GNOME gtk developers' mailing list). The Embedded Linux GUI/Windowing Quick Reference Guide has a wealth of links (Linux Devices, February 2002). The General Public License, or GPL guarantees a user's right to copy, distribute and modify software. Penguinppc.org is the home for Linux on the PowerPC family of processors. This site has a very informative tutorial on setting up toolchain for PPC-based architectures. Linux Devices is a comprehensive site with press releases, quick references, news, and feature reporting on all things Linux and embedded. The Silicon Penguin listings site has an exhaustive collection of embedded Linux resources. The Embedded Linux Consortium is a non-profit mutual benefit association that welcomes membership by individual developers working in the embedded Linux space. Visit IBM's home for embedded Linux for news, products, and developer resources. The IBM Linux wristwatch is an example of a tiny embedded device running Linux; one of the authors of this article, Vishal Kulkarni, was involved. Read about it in IBM's Linux Watch: The Challenge of Miniaturization (in PDF format), or in this article (FreeOS.com, March 2001). Browse more Linux resources on developerWorks. Browse more Wireless resources on developerWorks.