A new embedded Linux book is out. Embedded Linux Primer: A Practical Real-World Approach, by Christopher Hallinan, aims to help solve specific technical issues product designers are likely to face when using Linux, says publisher Prentice Hall.

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The book begins with a general overview of the anatomy of an embedded Linux device, before delving into specifics such as Busybox and CONFIG_RT. The book's chapter on BusyBox was recently selected by Prentice Hall parent company Pearson to help inaugurate an “early access” book excerpts program for hot topics and technologies.

Additional topics are reflected in the book's table of contents:

• 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

Additionally, the book offers a comparison of leading Linux processors and architectures, and specific details on the Das U-Boot bootloader, the JFFS2 filesystem, GDB, KGDB, hardware JTAG debugging, and development environment tools such as TFTP, DHCP, and NFS, the publisher says.

Hallinan has 20 years of experience in engineering, management, marketing, and business development. He currently works as a field applications engineer for MontaVista, and previously spent four years as an independent development consultant serving the embedded Linux market. His writing has appeared in Telecommunications Magazine, Fiber Optics Magazine, and Aviation Digest.

Availability

Embedded Linux Primer: A Practical Real-World Approach is available now, direct from Prentice Hall Professional. The 576-page first edition is part of PTP's “Open Source Software Development” series. It is priced at $40.49.

 
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