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it talked about cramfs, jffs2 etc. glibc etc. 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. A similar argument extends to uClibC vs.
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. This book doesn't cover it at all. Also, in the recent years, OpenEmbedded (OE) seems to have a strong developer push behind it. 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. 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). 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 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. I bought this book when I had very little idea about embedded Linux systems. but didn't quite address the issue of why i would choose one over the other and under which circumstances: e.g. this information is better gained the hard way: looking at what platforms are already available and how active the support groups are for these.
Embedded systems skills are gaining popularity and you can get some hands on working with a minimal system and trying out the stuff in this book. If that's you then the authors suggest having Running Linux and Linux Kernel in a Nutshell (In a Nutshell (O'Reilly)) available while you work with this book. Lots of information for embedded dev's coming from other Operating Systems. Minor issues are the slight wordiness in places and the lack of proof-reading here and there. Solid introduction to the topic and fairly easy to read. I was concerned about being overwhelmed but the authors have taken time to make a difficult subject available to the average Linux SysAdmin. Definately a good read.
This book was a highly recommended reference book at my previous job at an embedded systems company. As the title of the book suggests, this text gives the reader a good foundation on the concepts required to build an embedded Linux system.
I find the book very good. I'm a beginner in embedded development on Linux. It's compact, very well written and has detailed descriptions of the procedures to building embedded Linux systems.
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. 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. 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 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.
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