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Learning Embedded Linux using the Yocto Project
Learning Embedded Linux using the Yocto Project

Learning Embedded Linux using the Yocto Project: Develop powerful embedded Linux systems with the Yocto Project components

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Profile Icon Vaduva Jan Alexandru Profile Icon Alexandru Vaduva
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Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Half star icon Empty star icon 3.3 (7 Ratings)
Paperback Jun 2015 334 pages 1st Edition
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Profile Icon Vaduva Jan Alexandru Profile Icon Alexandru Vaduva
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Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Half star icon Empty star icon 3.3 (7 Ratings)
Paperback Jun 2015 334 pages 1st Edition
eBook
NZ$39.99 NZ$57.99
Paperback
NZ$71.99
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eBook
NZ$39.99 NZ$57.99
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NZ$71.99
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Table of content icon View table of contents Preview book icon Preview Book

Learning Embedded Linux using the Yocto Project

Chapter 2. Cross-compiling

In this chapter, you will learn about toolchains, how to use and customize them, and how code standards apply to them. A toolchain contains a myriad of tools, such as compilers, linkers, assemblers, debuggers, and a variety of miscellaneous utilities that help to manipulate the resulting application binaries. In this chapter, you will learn how to use the GNU toolchain and become familiar with its features. You will be presented with examples that will involve manual configurations, and at the same time, these examples will be moved to the Yocto Project environment. At the end of the chapter, an analysis will be made to identify the similarities and differences between manual and automatic deployment of a toolchain, and the various usage scenarios available for it.

Introducing toolchains

A toolchain represents a compiler and its associated utilities that are used with the purpose of producing kernels, drivers, and applications necessary for a specific target. A toolchain usually contains a set of tools that are usually linked to each other. It consists of gcc, glibc, binutils, or other optional tools, such as a debugger optional compiler, which is used for specific programming languages, such as C++, Ada, Java, Fortran, or Objective-C.

Usually a toolchain, which is available on a traditional desktop or server, executes on these machines and produces executables and libraries that are available and can run on the same system. A toolchain that is normally used for an embedded development environment is called is a cross toolchain. In this case, programs, such as gcc, run on the host system for a specific target architecture, for which it produces a binary code. This whole process is referred to as cross-compilation, and it is the most common way to...

Components of toolchains

The GNU toolchain is a term used for a collection of programming tools under the GNU Project umbrella. This suite of tools is what is normally called a toolchain, and is used for the development of applications and operating systems. It plays an important role in the development of embedded systems and Linux systems, in particular.

The following projects are included in the GNU toolchain:

  • GNU make: This represents an automation tool used for compilation and build
  • GNU Compiler Collection (GCC): This represents a compiler's suite that is used for a number of available programming languages
  • GNU Binutils: This contains tools, such as linkers, assemblers, and so on - these tools are able to manipulate binaries
  • GNU Bison: This is a parser generator
  • GNU Debugger (GDB): This is a code debugging tool
  • GNU m4: This is an m4 macro processor
  • GNU build system (autotools): This consists of the following:
    • Autoconf
    • Autoheaders
    • Automake
    • Libtool

The projects included in the toolchain is described...

Delving into C libraries

The first library that we'll discuss here is the glibc library, which is designed for performance, compliance of standards, and portability. It was developed by the Free Software Foundation for the GNU/Linux operating system and is still present today on all GNU/Linux host systems that are actively maintained. It was released under the GNU Lesser General Public License.

The glibc library was initially written by Roland McGrath in the 1980s and it continued to grow until the 1990s when the Linux kernel forked glibc, calling it Linux libc. It was maintained separately until January 1997 when the Free Software Foundation released glibc 2.0. The glibc 2.0 contained so many features that it did not make any sense to continue the development of Linux libc, so they discontinued their fork and returned to using glibc. There are changes that are made in Linux libc that were not merged into glibc because of problems with the authorship of the code.

The glibc library is...

Working with toolchains

When generating a toolchain, the first thing that needs to be done is the establishment of an ABI used to generate binaries. This means that the kernel needs to understand this ABI and, at the same time, all the binaries in the system need to be compiled with the same ABI.

When working with the GNU toolchain, a good source of gathering information and understanding the ways in which work is done with these tools is to consult the GNU coding standards. The coding standard's purposes are very simple: to make sure that the work with the GNU ecosystem is performed in a clean, easy, and consistent manner. This is a guideline that needs to be used by people interested in working with GNU tools to write reliable, solid, and portable software. The main focus of the GNU toolchain is represented by the C language, but the rules applied here are also very useful for any programming languages. The purpose of each rule is explained by making sure that the logic behind the...

The Yocto Project reference

As I have mentioned, the major advantage and available feature of the Yocto Project environment is represented by the fact that a Yocto Project build does not use the host available packages, but builds and uses its own packages. This is done to make sure that a change in the host environment does not influence its available packages and that builds are made to generate a custom Linux system. A toolchain is one of the components because almost all packages that are constituents of a Linux distribution need the usage of toolchain components.

The first step for the Yocto Project is to identify the exact sources and packages that will be combined to generate the toolchain that will be used by later built packages, such as U-Boot bootloader, kernel, BusyBox and others. In this book, the sources that will be discussed are the ones available inside the dizzy branch, the latest poky 12.0 version, and the Yocto Project version 1.7. The sources can be gathered using the...

Introducing toolchains


A toolchain represents a compiler and its associated utilities that are used with the purpose of producing kernels, drivers, and applications necessary for a specific target. A toolchain usually contains a set of tools that are usually linked to each other. It consists of gcc, glibc, binutils, or other optional tools, such as a debugger optional compiler, which is used for specific programming languages, such as C++, Ada, Java, Fortran, or Objective-C.

Usually a toolchain, which is available on a traditional desktop or server, executes on these machines and produces executables and libraries that are available and can run on the same system. A toolchain that is normally used for an embedded development environment is called is a cross toolchain. In this case, programs, such as gcc, run on the host system for a specific target architecture, for which it produces a binary code. This whole process is referred to as cross-compilation, and it is the most common way to build...

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Description

If you are a Yocto and Linux enthusiast who wants to build embedded Linux systems but do not have the knowledge to do it, this is the book for you. It will also help those of you who have a bit of knowledge about Linux and the embedded world and are keen on learning more about the technology. This book will provide you with the skills needed to successfully interact with the Yocto Project components regardless of the fact that you are new to embedded development or an expert.

Who is this book for?

If you are a Yocto and Linux enthusiast who wants to build embedded Linux systems but do not have the knowledge to do it, this is the book for you. It will also help those of you who have a bit of knowledge about Linux and the embedded world and are keen on learning more about the technology. This book will provide you with the skills needed to successfully interact with the Yocto Project components regardless of the fact that you are new to embedded development or an expert.

What you will learn

  • Interact with and customize the bootloader for a board
  • Use the Yocto Project in the embedded Linux development process
  • Familiarize yourself with and customize the bootloader for a board
  • Explore and work with toolchain components such as binutils, gcc, glibc (C libraries), and kernel headers
  • Interact with a root filesystem for your project and also with meta layers
  • Discover more about realtime layer, security, virtualization, CGL, and LSB
  • Identify the Yocto Project components such as Eclipse ADT plugins, and Toaster

Product Details

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Publication date, Length, Edition, Language, ISBN-13
Publication date : Jun 30, 2015
Length: 334 pages
Edition : 1st
Language : English
ISBN-13 : 9781784397395
Vendor :
Linux Foundation
Category :
Languages :
Tools :

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Product Details

Publication date : Jun 30, 2015
Length: 334 pages
Edition : 1st
Language : English
ISBN-13 : 9781784397395
Vendor :
Linux Foundation
Category :
Languages :
Tools :

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Table of Contents

14 Chapters
1. Introduction Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
2. Cross-compiling Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
3. Bootloaders Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
4. Linux Kernel Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
5. The Linux Root Filesystem Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
6. Components of the Yocto Project Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
7. ADT Eclipse Plug-ins Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
8. Hob, Toaster, and Autobuilder Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
9. Wic and Other Tools Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
10. Real-time Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
11. Security Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
12. Virtualization Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
13. CGL and LSB Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Index Chevron down icon Chevron up icon

Customer reviews

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Rating distribution
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Half star icon Empty star icon 3.3
(7 Ratings)
5 star 28.6%
4 star 14.3%
3 star 14.3%
2 star 42.9%
1 star 0%
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Daiane Aug 13, 2015
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon 5
This is *not* an Yocto Project's book. It is a Embedded Linux book yocto project flavored. And it is a very well explained embedded linux book.The content is for beginners, as it explain some basic concepts, and introduce very well why it's different to work with embedded linux. And having all this embedded world flavored with Yocto Project's tools is really the best.
Amazon Verified review Amazon
Maruko May 30, 2016
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon 5
I found this book useful to extend my knowledge.Unfortunately I noticed a lot of pictures taken from Creative Common presentations without any reference to the original source.
Amazon Verified review Amazon
Alexandre B Aug 13, 2015
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Empty star icon 4
This is book gives an overview of the full embedded Linux system integration, from the bootloader to the application. It is quite generic and only uses Yocto Project to illustrate the concepts which is great for beginners. A good follow up for in depth coverage is "Embedded Linux Development with Yocto Project" and will fit more advanced developers.
Amazon Verified review Amazon
Neto Sep 08, 2017
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Empty star icon Empty star icon 3
Its ok. Somehow I feel most of it is already out there in the Yocto manuals and linux docs but package for you convenience
Amazon Verified review Amazon
obie1somebody Mar 30, 2016
Full star icon Full star icon Empty star icon Empty star icon Empty star icon 2
This book is so badly edited that it is distracting. The author consistently uses language incorrectly and inaccurately where simpler more concise statements would suffice. Reading this book feels like translating rough English to English. It shouldn't be published yet.
Amazon Verified review Amazon
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