4.5. Chapter Summary
The Linux kernel is more than 10 years old and has become a mainstream, well-supported operating system for many architectures. The Linux open source home is found at www.kernel.org. Virtually every release version of the kernel is available there, going all the way back to Linux 1.0. We leave it to other great books to describe the theory and operation of the Linux kernel. Here we discussed how it is built and identified the components that make up the image. Breaking up the kernel into understandable pieces is the key to learning how to navigate this large software project. This chapter covered the kernel build system and the process of modifying the build system to facilitate modifications. Several kernel configuration editors exist. We chose one and examined how it is driven and how to modify the menus and menu items within. These concepts apply to all the graphical front ends. The kernel itself comes with an entire directory structure full of useful kernel documentation. This is a helpful resource for understanding and navigating the kernel and its operation. This chapter concluded with a brief introduction to the options available for obtaining an embedded Linux distribution.
4.5.1. Suggestions for Additional Reading
Linux Kernel HOWTO:
www.tldp.org/HOWTO/Kernel-HOWTO
Kernel Kbuild documentation:
http://sourceforge.net/projects/kbuild/
The Linux Documentation Project:
www.tldp.org/
Tool Interface Standard (TIS) Executable and Linking Format (ELF) Specification,
Version 1.2
TIS Committee, May 1995
Linux kernel source tree:
…/Documentation/kbuild/makefiles.txt
Linux kernel source tree:
…/Documentation/kbuild/kconfig-language.txt
Linux Kernel Development, 2nd Edition
Rovert Love
Novell Press, 2005
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