LinuxLink Radio by TimeSys

Maciej and Gene continue talking about system minimization and what steps you can take to reduce the memory footprint of your embedded device and get faster boot times and execution. Strategies include using the CONFIG_EMBEDDED option when building the kernel, using a more efficient filesystem (like initramfs) and taking advantage of pre-linking and execute in place.

Gene and Maciej were finally able to do a podcast together this week. In this discussion they talked about the process of minimizing kernel boot times with various approaches and trade-offs associated with faster boot times. Maciej discussed the merits of a the elegant staged boot process while Gene pushes the slash-and-burn approach of eliminating the existing Linux boot scripts and replacing them with the minimum necessary to get your system booted.

Maciej Halasz recently returned from his trip to Japan visiting customers and attending the Embedded Systems Expo and Conference (ESEC) held May 16-18 in Tokyo. In this podcast, Maciej talks about his experience at ESEC and discusses some interesting embedded Linux applications and trends he found.

Gene Sally frequently visits customers to understand why they selected Linux and if it met their expectations. In this podcast, Gene discusses what he heard from a variety of customers at various stages of project (those just getting started with Linux opposed to customers who have shipped multiple releases) as to why they selected Linux and it if met the expectations held out at the start of the project.

Maciej interviews Jeremiah Lott who is a Senior Software Engineer at TimeSys. They discuss how TimeSys' Eclipse-based IDE product, TimeStorm, helps embedded Linux developers throughout the entire development cycle.

In this episode, Maciej and Gene share their experiences with customers and give some practical advice so you can make the best of your evaluation. For example, hear how companies can benefit greatly by using a desktop machine in place of a board and how making sure that Linux fits into your team's existing development structure is as important as the technological questions.

Special guest interview with Rob Landley, self professed embedded Linux geek, talks about a wide range of topics; how he got involved with embedded Linux and later the ubiquitous BusyBox project, the philosophy of "security through simplicity", and the new firmware Linux project he's been working on lately to name a few.

In this episode, Gene and Maciej discuss the engineering that goes into building a Linux distribution for LinuxLink -- from getting the cross-compilation environment ready, to homogenizing the source packages so they can be compiled for all of the different architectures LinuxLink supports, to automated testing -- there's quite a bit of technology that happens before a LinuxLink is ready for publication.

Discussion of the basics of getting started with Embedded Linux including: Host environment set up, what works and what doesnt work, using Cygwin and some common challenges and pitfalls of embedded Linux.

Gene Sally and Maciej Halasz discuss where embedded Linux was 5 years ago, where it is Today and where they think it is going.