The Kernel and DTS files

The main target of this book is to give several suggestions for rapid programming methods to be used on an embedded GNU/Linux system. However, the main target of every embedded developer is to realize programs to manage peripherals, to monitor or to control devices, and other similar tasks to interact with the real world. So, we mainly need to know the techniques useful to get access to the peripheral's data and settings.

That's why, we need to know how to recompile the kernel and how to configure it.

Recompiling the kernel

Our developer kits are well supported, and in this situation, it is quite rare that we need a complete kernel recompilation. However, knowing how to do this step is quite essential for every embedded developer (it may happen that we need to add some external peripherals or modify the default configuration).

Since we decided to use the Robert C. Nelson repositories, we can still continue using them. However, some words must be spent to clarify...