You're reading from Mastering Embedded Linux Programming - Third Edition

Product type Book

Published in May 2021

Publisher Packt

ISBN-13 9781789530384

Pages 758 pages

Edition 3rd Edition

Languages

Concepts

Embedded Systems

Authors (2):

Frank Vasquez

Chris Simmonds

View More author details

Table of Contents (27) Chapters

Preface

1. Section 1: Elements of Embedded Linux

2. Chapter 1: Starting Out

3. Chapter 2: Learning about Toolchains

4. Chapter 3: All about Bootloaders

5. Chapter 4: Configuring and Building the Kernel

6. Chapter 5: Building a Root Filesystem

7. Chapter 6: Selecting a Build System

8. Chapter 7: Developing with Yocto

9. Chapter 8: Yocto Under the Hood

10. Section 2: System Architecture and Design Decisions

11. Chapter 9: Creating a Storage Strategy

12. Chapter 10: Updating Software in the Field

13. Chapter 11: Interfacing with Device Drivers

14. Chapter 12: Prototyping with Breakout Boards

15. Chapter 13: Starting Up – The init Program

16. Chapter 14: Starting with BusyBox runit

17. Chapter 15: Managing Power

18. Section 3: Writing Embedded Applications

19. Chapter 16: Packaging Python

20. Chapter 17: Learning about Processes and Threads

21. Chapter 18: Managing Memory

22. Section 4: Debugging and Optimizing Performance

23. Chapter 19: Debugging with GDB

24. Chapter 20: Profiling and Tracing

25. Chapter 21: Real-Time Programming

26. Other Books You May Enjoy

Mounting the root filesystem using NFS

If your device has a network interface, it is often useful to mount the root filesystem over the network during development. It gives you access to the almost unlimited storage on your host machine, so you can add in debug tools and executables with large symbol tables. As an added bonus, updates made to the root filesystem on the development machine are made available on the target immediately. You can also access all the target's log files from the host.

To begin with, you need to install and configure an NFS server on your host. On Ubuntu, the package to install is named nfs-kernel-server:

$ sudo apt install nfs-kernel-server

The NFS server needs to be told which directories are being exported to the network; this is controlled by /etc/exports. There is one line for each export. The format is described in the manual page exports(5). As an example, to export the root filesystem on my host, I have this: