Book publisher Prentice Hall has agreed to share a chapter from Christopher Hallinan's just-published Embedded Linux Primer with LinuxDevices readers. Entitled “Bootloaders,” chapter 7 looks at bootloaders in embedded systems, with a focus on the open source U-Boot bootloader for PowerPC, MIPS, ARM, and other architectures.

Author Christopher Hallinan is a 20-year veteran of the embedded systems market, who currently works as a field engineer for MontaVista software. His 527-page Embedded Linux Primer was released on Sept. 29.

The Bootloaders chapter includes sections devoted to:

• Role of a Bootloader
• Bootloader Challenges
• A Universal Bootloader: Das U-Boot
• Porting U-Boot
• Other Bootloaders

Click here to download this chapter as a PDF file:

Chapter 7: Bootloaders
Other chapters in Hallinan's book include:

• Introduction
• Your first embedded experience
• Processor basics
• The Linux kernel: a different perspective
• Kernel initialization
• System initialization
• Bootloaders
• Device driver basics
• File systems
• MTD subsystem
• BusyBox
• Embedded development environment
• Development tools
• Kernel debugging techniques
• Debugging embedded Linux applications
• Porting Linux
• Linux and real time

The publisher previously offered $10 downloads of Chapter 11, about Busybox, through an early access program.

(The Bootloaders chapter is Copyright 2007 Pearson Education, Inc., and is being provided as a download by LinuxDevices.com with permission of the owner.)

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