Before you start

Objectives

This tutorial shows you how to install Linux on a target system. Not a prebuilt Linux distribution, but your own, built from scratch. While the details of the procedure necessarily vary from one target to another, the same general principles apply.

The result of this tutorial (if you have a suitable target) is a functional Linux system you can get a shell prompt on.

About this tutorial

The tutorial begins with a discussion of cross-compilation issues, then discusses what the components of a Linux system are and how they are put together. Both the building and the installation and configuration of the target system are covered.

The specific target discussed, a Technologic Systems TS-7800, imposes its own default boot and bring-up behaviors; other systems will have other mechanics, and this tutorial does not go into great detail about every possible boot loader.

Prerequisites and system requirements

Developers who are interested in targeting embedded systems, or who just want to learn more about what Linux systems are like under the hood, will get the most out of this tutorial.

The host environment used is Ubuntu, but other systems work as well. Users are assumed to have basic familiarity with UNIX® or Linux system administration issues. The tutorial assumes root access to a host system.

This tutorial assumes that your shell is a Bourne shell derivative; if you use a C shell derivative, the prompt will probably look different, and you will need to use different commands to set environment variables.

For cross-compiling (which is useful when targeting embedded systems), I used crosstool-ng version 1.1.0, released in May of 2008. You may download it from the distribution site (see Resources). Details follow on installing and configuring it.

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Table of contents

• Before you start
• About the target and architecture
• Cross-compilation
• Building the kernel
• Boot loaders
• Filesystems
• Populating the root file system
• Creating a disk image
• Getting the images back on the card
• The boot process reviewed
• Resources
• About the author

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