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