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

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Table of Contents (27) Chapters

Preface

Section 1: Elements of Embedded Linux

Chapter 1: Starting Out

Chapter 2: Learning about Toolchains

Chapter 3: All about Bootloaders

Chapter 4: Configuring and Building the Kernel

Chapter 5: Building a Root Filesystem

Chapter 6: Selecting a Build System

Chapter 7: Developing with Yocto

Chapter 8: Yocto Under the Hood

Section 2: System Architecture and Design Decisions

Chapter 9: Creating a Storage Strategy

Chapter 10: Updating Software in the Field

Chapter 11: Interfacing with Device Drivers

Chapter 12: Prototyping with Breakout Boards

Chapter 13: Starting Up – The init Program

Chapter 14: Starting with BusyBox runit

Chapter 15: Managing Power

Section 3: Writing Embedded Applications

Chapter 16: Packaging Python

Chapter 17: Learning about Processes and Threads

Chapter 18: Managing Memory

Section 4: Debugging and Optimizing Performance

Chapter 19: Debugging with GDB

Chapter 20: Profiling and Tracing

Chapter 21: Real-Time Programming

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Using Mender for local updates

So much for the theory. In the next two sections of this chapter, I want to demonstrate how the principles I have talked about so far work in practice. For these examples, I will use Mender. Mender uses a symmetric A/B image update mechanism, with a fallback in the event of a failed update. It can operate in standalone mode for local updates, or in managed mode for OTA updates. I will begin with standalone mode.

Mender is written and supported by mender.io (https://mender.io). There is much more information about the software in the documentation section of the website. I will not delve deeply into the configuration of the software here since my aim is to illustrate the principles of software updates. Let's begin with the Mender client.

Building the Mender client

The Mender client is available as a Yocto meta layer. These examples use the Dunfell release of the Yocto Project, which is the same one that we used in Chapter 6, Selecting a Build...