Chapter 4: Configuring and Building the Kernel
The kernel is the third element of embedded Linux. It is the component that is responsible for managing resources and interfacing with hardware, and so affects almost every aspect of your final software build. It is usually tailored to your particular hardware configuration, although, as we saw in Chapter 3, All About Bootloaders, device trees allow you to create a generic kernel that is tailored to particular hardware by the contents of the device tree.
In this chapter, we will look at how to get a kernel for a board, and how to configure and compile it. We will look again at Bootstrap, this time focusing on the part the kernel plays. We will also look at device drivers and how they pick up information from the device tree.
We will cover the following main topics:
- What does the kernel do?
- Choosing a kernel
- Building the kernel
- Booting the kernel
- Porting Linux to a new board
