The Embedded Linux Quick Start Guide
Kernel and user space
Chris Simmonds
Embedded Linux Conference Europe 2010
Copyright 2010, 2net Limited
Embedded Linux Quick Start Guide 1
Kernel and user space
Third element: kernel
Version numbers
About BSPs
Configuring and cross compiling
Booting
Embedded Linux Quick Start Guide 2
Kernel and user space
Kernel vs user space
Application code
Your program User space
C library
System interface
Linux kernel Generic services Kernel space
Device drivers
Hardware
Embedded Linux Quick Start Guide 3
Kernel and user space
Kernel version numbers
Example: 2.6.35.1
2: very unlikely to change
6: unlikely to change
2.6.0 released in December 2003
35: changes with each release,
every 12 weeks or so
1: bug fix number: changes every time
a bug is fixed, sometimes several times
per week
Embedded Linux Quick Start Guide 4
Kernel and user space
Bug fix releases
Maintained by Greg Kroah-Hartman
Serious bugs are fixed in the current stable
version immediately
Sometimes older versions are fixed as well
Special note: the 2.6.27 and 2.6.32 stable
kernels maintained by Adrian Bunk
Current releases (October 2010)
2.6.27.54
2.6.32.24
Embedded Linux Quick Start Guide 5
Kernel and user space
Board Support Packages
Mainline kernel works out-of-the-box for a
number of development boards
e.g. Beagleboard
But in most cases you will need a BSP from the
board or chip vendor
Lags mainline by a few versions
Levels of support vary between vendors
For custom boards you will have to write your
own BSP
Embedded Linux Quick Start Guide 6
Kernel and user space
Levels of board support
Architecture
arm,mips, powerpc, x86,...
Chip (also known as System on Chip, SoC)
Atmel 91sam9, Freescale i.MX, TI OMAP, ...
Board
SoC manufacturer evaluation boards
Freescale Babbage, TI EVM, ...
COTS boards
Digi, Eurotech, ...
Embedded Linux Quick Start Guide 7
Kernel and user space
Levels of board support (cont.)
Chip level support mostly done by manufacturer
often in own kernel tree: e.g. Freescale
Board level support done by board
manufacturer
based on SoC kernel
Embedded Linux Quick Start Guide 8
Kernel and user space
Board support
Usually a kernel patch and a configuration file
Typical procedure is
tar xjf linux-2.6.34.tar.bz2
cd linux-2.6.34
patch -p 1 < ../linux-2.6.34-some_bsp.patch
cp ../some_bsp-kernel.config .config
make oldconfig
Embedded Linux Quick Start Guide 9
Kernel and user space
Kernel modules
Kernel code that is loaded after the kernel has
booted
Advantages
Load drivers on demand (e.g. for USB devices)
Load drivers later speed up initial boot
Disadvantages
Adds kernel version dependency to root file system
More files to manage
Embedded Linux Quick Start Guide 10
Kernel and user space
Kernel configuration
Typical kernel has >> 1000 configuration options
Default configuration part of the BSP
Tweak configuration using
make menuconfig (ncurses text menu)
make xconfig (graphical menus using Qt)
make gconfig (graphical menus using Gtk+)
Files generated
.config
include/linux/autoconf.h
Embedded Linux Quick Start Guide 11
Kernel and user space
Building the kernel
Set CROSS_COMPILE and ARCH
export ARCH=arm
export CROSS_COMPILE=arm-angstrom-linux-gnueabi-
Make targets
zImage - compressed kernel image
uImage - zImage plus U-Boot header
Files generated
vmlinux
arch/arm/boot/zImage
arch/arm/boot/uImage
Embedded Linux Quick Start Guide 12
Kernel and user space
Kernel command line
Kernel behaviour set by command line
see Documentation/kernel-parameters.txt
Some examples
console: device to send kernel messages to, e.g.
console=ttyS0,115200
root: set device to load root file system from, e.g.
root=/dev/sda1
quiet: output fewer console messages
debug: output all console messages
Embedded Linux Quick Start Guide 13
Kernel and user space
Fourth element: user space
What is user space?
Obtaining a root file system
Busybox
Two types of init: Busybox and System V
Managing device nodes: udev
Mounting a root file system over the network
and from flash memory
Embedded Linux Quick Start Guide 14
Kernel and user space
What is user space?
A sane (POSIX) environment for applications
(unlike the kernel)
The main components are
Programs e.g. init and a shell
Libraries - e.g. libc
Configuration files in /etc
Device nodes in /dev
User data in /home
Embedded Linux Quick Start Guide 15
Kernel and user space
The root file system
Mounted by the kernel during boot
requires a root=... kernel command line
Loaded from:
ram disk (initramfs)
storage device: flash, SD, hard disk
network: nfs
Embedded Linux Quick Start Guide 16
Kernel and user space
I got a rootfs with my board
As with the toolchain, this is usually a trap!
Board vendors usually over-configure to show
off the board
bloated root file system
slow boot
yet, they only offer a limited set of packages
and limited or no update service
Embedded Linux Quick Start Guide 17
Kernel and user space
Other options for a root file system
Roll-Your-Own (RYO)
Use an integrated build tool
Buildroot
OpenEmbedded
Use a binary distro
ngstrm
Ubuntu or Debian
Embedded Linux Quick Start Guide 18
Kernel and user space
Busybox
Web - http://www.busybox.net
Very common in embedded systems
Single binary that masquerades as many Linux
utilities, including
init
ash (a Bourne shell)
file system utilities: mount, umount,...
network utilities: ifconfig, route,...
and of course, the vi editor
Embedded Linux Quick Start Guide 19
Kernel and user space
Busybox example
# ls -l /bin
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 7 2008-08-06 11:44 addgroup -> busybox
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 7 2008-08-06 11:44 adduser -> busybox
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 7 2008-08-06 11:44 ash -> busybox
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 744480 2008-05-16 15:46 busybox
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 7 2008-08-06 11:44 cat -> busybox
...
So when you type (for example)
cat /etc/inittab
launches /bin/busybox with argv [0] = /bin/cat
Busybox main() parses argv[0] and jumps to cat applet
Embedded Linux Quick Start Guide 20
Kernel and user space
init
/sbin/init is the first program to be run
change by setting kernel parameter init=...
Two common versions of init
Busybox init
e.g. by buildroot
System V init
e.g. by Angstrom
Embedded Linux Quick Start Guide 21
Kernel and user space
Busybox init
Begins by reading /etc/inittab, for example:
/etc/inittab
::sysinit:/etc/init.d/rcS
::respawn:-/sbin/getty -L ttyS0 115200 vt100
::ctrlaltdel:/sbin/reboot
::shutdown:/bin/umount -a -r
::restart:/sbin/init
/etc/init.d/rcS
#! /bin/sh
echo "Starting rcS"
mount -t proc proc /proc
mount -t sysfs sysfs /sys
ifconfig lo 127.0.0.1
ifconfig eth0 192.168.1.101
Embedded Linux Quick Start Guide 22
Kernel and user space
System V init
Also begins by reading /etc/inittab
More complex format than Busybox
System V runlevels
A runlevel defines a system state
0 is halt
1 is single user
2-5 are multi-user
6 is reboot
Embedded Linux Quick Start Guide 23
Kernel and user space
System V inittab
Format:
id:runlevels:action:process
id:5:initdefault:
Default runlevel = 5
si::sysinit:/etc/init.d/rcS Boot script = /etc/init.d/rcS
~~:S:wait:/sbin/sulogin Single-user mode: add 'S' to
kernel command line
l0:0:wait:/etc/init.d/rc 0
l1:1:wait:/etc/init.d/rc 1
l2:2:wait:/etc/init.d/rc 2
l3:3:wait:/etc/init.d/rc 3 Scripts for each runlevel
l4:4:wait:/etc/init.d/rc 4
l5:5:wait:/etc/init.d/rc 5
l6:6:wait:/etc/init.d/rc 6
z6:6:respawn:/sbin/sulogin
S:2345:respawn:/sbin/getty 38400 ttyS1 Launch a login on the
console
Embedded Linux Quick Start Guide 24
Kernel and user space
Initialisation scripts
Each service is controlled by a script in /etc/init.d:
# ls /etc/init.d
alignment.sh modutils.sh sendsigs
banner mountall.sh single
bootmisc.sh mountnfs.sh sysfs.sh
checkroot networking syslog
devpts.sh populate-volatile.sh syslog.busybox
dropbear ramdisk udev
finish.sh rc udev-cache
functions rcS umountfs
halt reboot umountnfs.sh
hostname.sh rmnologin urandom
hwclock.sh save-rtc.sh
Most take parameters start and stop, e.g.
/etc/init.d/syslog stop
Embedded Linux Quick Start Guide 25
Kernel and user space
/dev: device nodes
Most hardware appears as nodes in /dev
Create by hand:
mknod /dev/ttyS0 c 4 64
Or, use a dynamic device manager (udev)
udev pros
less hassle; handles removable devices (e.g. USB)
udev cons
slow
Embedded Linux Quick Start Guide 26
Kernel and user space
The rootfs during development
Advantages of mounting rootfs over NFS
easy to access and modify the rootfs
No limit on size
Step 1. Export a directory on the development host with a line like this
in /etc/exports
/home/chris/rootdir *(rw,sync,no_subtree_check,no_root_squash)
Step 2. Set kernel parameters
root=/dev/nfs rw nfsroot=192.168.1.1:/home/chris/rootdir ip=192.168.1.101
Embedded Linux Quick Start Guide 27
Kernel and user space
The rootfs in production
Usually stored in a partition of flash memory
Flash file system:
jffs2, yaffs2, ubifs
MTD
(Memory Technology Devices)
Flash driver
Flash chip(s)
Typical kernel parameters:
root=/dev/mtdblock1 rootfstype=jffs2
Embedded Linux Quick Start Guide 28
Kernel and user space
Flash file systems
jffs2 (Journalling Flash File System 2)
This is the most common Linux flash fs
Robust, but slow (especially mount time)
yaffs2 (Yet Another Flash File System 2)
Optimised for NAND flash memory
Not part of main-line kernel
ubifs (Unsorted Block Image File System)
Fast and robust
Embedded Linux Quick Start Guide 29
Kernel and user space
Summary
Kernel
Your choice of kernel is limited by BSP
Many build-time kernel configuration options
Boot-time configuration via command line
User space
Starts when kernel mounts rootfs
First program to run is (default) /sbin/init
Both Busybox init and System V init are common
Embedded Linux Quick Start Guide 30
Kernel and user space
