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  • Linux: Absolutely foolproof way to get a USB flash drive to boot Linux
    Posted by Ian on 03/06/10

    There are so many USB flash drives (also known as thumbdrives, pendrives and so on), all with different sizes, structures and limitations.  So many conflicting online instructions to say how to get them working, which to follow?  After a few weeks of trying different options out, I can present the definitive guide to getting them up and running to boot Linux....
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  • Linux: Accessing specific memory address from user code
    Posted by Ian on 26/08/09

    Linux has a very strong level of protection between user space and the 'real' world.  Even within the kernel, addresses are virtual and may not correspond to 'real' addresses.  The recommended way to write to 'real' memory is using the vitrual_to_physica() macro in the kernel.  But this can be clunky and slow for prototyping.

    Here we present a short piece of code allows a user with sudo access to read from or write to a specified memory address....
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  • Linux: Become a Vi-Vim guru
    Posted by Tom on 15/01/08

    Ever used vi or vim? Its complex but oh so powerful, check out this cheat sheet...
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  • Linux: Scheduling in Linux
    Posted by Ian on Tuesday 27/11/07

    The Linux scheduler is one of the most amazing things about that OS. It is the main reason why Linux feels so much more responsive than windows on the same machine, why it doesn't crash like windows does, and why Linux is the preeminent choice for powering larger embedded systems (while windows CE is virtually dead outside of PDAs)......
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  • Linux: Communication between programs/processes: how can we create and access FIFOs (named pipes) in Linux?
    Posted by Ian on 26/08/09

    Named pipes (FIFOs) in Linux provide one of the best means of allowing asynchronous communications between processes and separate programs.
    To the code and the outside world they look like files, but they have zero length and exist only to pipe data (blocks or characters). Let us see how we can use them......
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  • Linux: Look into the heart of the Linux Kernel.
    Posted by Tom on Wednesday 10/10/07

    Ever wondered how the complete Linux Kernel is put together?
    Well, wonder no more with this interactive Linux kernel map you can drill down to the source code and see just what makes Linux tick...
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  • Linux: Cross compiling thttpd-2.21b + php-5.2.1: Howto
    Posted by Dennis on Thursday 23/08/07

    Here is a step by step Howto which will show you how to compile php into thttpd and cross compile for an ARM...
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  • Linux: What is the GPL, and is it a problem for a company?
    Posted by Ian on Wednesday 22/08/07

    The major open source licence is the GPL. Some people have kicked up scare stories about this, others love it. Let's look into this with some common sense. What does it mean for a company starting to work with GPL open source software?...
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  • Linux: Error while loading shared libraries: Linux cross compilation
    Posted by Tom on Thursday 16/08/07

    While attempting a cross compile I got this error from the target.

    Error while loading shared libraries ..... ...
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  • Linux: Linux I/O overview in the 2.6 kernel
    Posted by Tom on Tuesday 14/08/07

    The Linux kernel is a collection of code that runs on one or more processors. The processor's interface to the rest of the system is through the supporting hardware. At it lowest machine dependent layer, the kernel communicates with these devices with simple assembly-language instructions...
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  • Linux: Linux Kernel: Memory management - Overview.
    Posted by Tom on Thursday 09/08/07

    Memory management is the method by which an application running on a computer accesses memory through a combination of hardware and software manipulation. The job of the memory management subsystem is to allocate available memory to requesting processes and to deallocate the memory from the process as it releases it, keeping track of memory as it is handled...
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  • Linux: The heart of the Linux Kernel: The Process.
    Posted by Tom on Thursday 09/08/07

    A process is a single instantiation of a particular program.

    A process like any dynamic enity goes through various states. The process life cycle is thus; It is created, lives...
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  • Linux: Putting Damn Small Linux on a USB stick from Windows PC.
    Posted by Tom on Thursday 07/06/07

    Having a stand a lone OS on a USB memory stick is a novelty and very easy to achieve via Damn Small Linux and a few simple steps ...
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  • Linux: Putting Linux on a embedded device, Blob, Jflash, MTAB, Kernel, Ramdisk.
    Posted by Tom on Thursday 07/06/07

    So you have your new embedded PCB in your hot little hands, and of course you want to put Linux onto it. Here is a generic blow by blow account on how to do this. As it is hardware independent we will look at the macro level only. Other assumptions are;
    1 That this dev board is FLASH based only, no hard drive.
    2 That you have a JTAG interface to the dev board Micro.
    3 That there is a serial port (stty0) coming from the Micro...
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  • Linux: RTOS terminology overview.
    Posted by Tom on Tuesday 05/06/07

    RTOS's contain their own slew of terminology. Here is a minimal list to get you started ...
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  • Linux: Linux RTOS overview.
    Posted by Tom on Tuesday 05/06/07

    A brief look at the advantages/disadvantages of Linux RTOS and some of the components that make it work...
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  • Linux: Real-time performance in linux
    Posted by Ian on Friday 27/04/07

    How to get realtime performance in Linux (especially embedded Linux)? Well one trick is to adjust the scheduler. This article shows you how...
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  • Linux: Nonblocking Input
    Posted by Ian on Friday 27/04/07

    Did you think non-blocking input on the linux terminal was impossible without ncurses? Well someone has found a way. You can have a kbit() or ifget() function in linux now......
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  • Linux: The Difference between File Descriptors and Streams in Linux
    Posted by Ian on Friday 27/04/07

    In UNIX there are two basic mechanisms for reading and writing files - these are streams and file descriptors. Learn what you can do with each of these....
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  • Linux: A short set of neat shellscript examples
    Posted by Ian on 26/08/09

    Ever wanted to test out the power of UNIX shellscripts in your bash terminal? Well here we provide some simple examples to get you started......
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