Embedded Linux system basis
From ArmadeusWiki
An embedded Linux system is very similar (when speaking about software) to a Desktop one, thanks to the power of the latest embedded microprocessor cores, like the ARM9™/Cortex™ ones. It is composed of:
- a bootloader, which is the first bits of code executed when the processor starts. It behaves like the BIOS+Grub combination on Desktop PCs.
- an operating system = the Linux kernel
- many programs and librairies organized in a filesystem = the rootfs
The bootloader
In our case our bootloader is U-Boot. It's main role is to initialize the hardware, load the Linux kernel and launch it with the correct parameters
The kernel
In our case Linux.
The rootfs
It is composed of:
- a C library (mostly uClibc or glibc in our boards),
- basic utilities (in our case regrouped as one executable through Busybox),
- additional libraries and tools,
Build system / toolchain
To build all these tools, you need a "build system". We use Buildroot.
- This system will build a gcc cross-toolchain that will allow to generate on your PC software that can be run on your APF.
- When this toolchain is ready it will compile the bootloader, the kernel and the tools of the rootfs
- Finally it will generate images of these 3 components that can be "flashed" on your APF/OPOS module
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