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You're reading from Mastering Embedded Linux Programming Harness the power of Linux to create versatile and robust embedded solutions

Product type Paperback

Published in Dec 2015

Publisher Packt

ISBN-13 9781784392536

Length 418 pages

Edition 1st Edition

Tools

Linux

Concepts

System Programming

Author (1):

Chris Simmonds

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Table of Contents (16) Chapters

Preface

1. Starting Out

2. Learning About Toolchains FREE CHAPTER

3. All About Bootloaders

4. Porting and Configuring the Kernel

5. Building a Root Filesystem

6. Selecting a Build System

7. Creating a Storage Strategy

8. Introducing Device Drivers

9. Starting up - the init Program

10. Learning About Processes and Threads

11. Managing Memory

12. Debugging with GDB

13. Profiling and Tracing

14. Real-time Programming

Index

Filesystems for NOR and NAND flash memory

To use raw flash chips for mass storage, you have to use a filesystem that understands the peculiarities of the underlying technology. There are three such filesystems:

Journaling Flash File System 2, JFFS2: This was the first flash filesystem for Linux, and is still in use today. It works for NOR and NAND memory, but is notoriously slow during mount.
Yet Another Flash File System 2, YAFFS2: This is similar to JFFS2, but specifically for NAND flash memory. It was adopted by Google as the preferred raw flash filesystem on Android devices.
Unsorted Block Image File System, UBIFS: This is the latest flash-aware filesystem for both NOR and NAND memory, which is used in conjunction with the UBI block driver. It generally offers better performance than JFFS2 or YAFFS2, and so should be the preferred solution for new designs.

All of these use MTD as the common interface to flash memory.