Exploring BeagleBone: Tools and Techniques for Building with Embedded Linux

CHAPTER 3 Exploring Embedded Linux Systems

This chapter exposes you to the core concepts, commands, and tools required to effectively manage embedded Linux systems. The first part of the chapter is descriptive—it explains the basics of embedded Linux and of the Linux boot process. After that, content on how to manage Linux systems is structured so that you can perform the steps yourself. You are strongly encouraged to open a terminal connection to your BeagleBone and follow along. Later in the chapter, the Git source code management system is described. It is an important topic, as the source code examples in this book are distributed via GitHub. Desktop virtualization is also described, as it is very useful for cross‐platform development in later chapters. The chapter finishes by describing how you can download the source code examples for this book.

Equipment Required for This Chapter:

• BeagleBone Black with a terminal connection (see Chapter 2)

Further details on this chapter are available at: www.exploringbeaglebone.com/chapter3/

Embedded Linux Basics

First things first: There is no such thing as embedded Linux! There is no special version of the Linux kernel for embedded systems; it is just the mainline Linux kernel running on an embedded system. That said, the term embedded Linux has broad and common use; therefore, it will be used here rather than a more correct term, such as “Linux on an embedded system.”

The word embedded in the term embedded Linux is used to convey ...