What Constitutes an “Embedded Linux Toolkit”?

There are a lot of products and projects available on the Internet that can help you with various aspects of building the software for your embedded Linux device. I’m defining an “embedded Linux toolkit” to include only those products and projects that, together with a host Linux system and the target hardware, provide a complete end-to-end solution for building the image that you load onto the hardware that will boot Linux and run at least a simple application.

Each toolkit has a different user interface and style. However, all must do essentially the same thing: Build a Linux kernel that either contains the application as a kernel thread or also builds a root filesystem with the application software in it. The toolkit must then be able to install the pieces into a binary image from which the target system boots.

For example, by my definition, BusyBox is not an “embedded Linux toolkit.” BusyBox is a great piece of technology that shoehorns a lot of software into a very small space; it’s especially useful for statically linked environments. But by itself, BusyBox doesn’t contain enough software to create a complete Linux system.

This chapter takes a close look at two embedded Linux toolkits:

In addition to these, some of the items in the following list may fill your needs. This is by no means a comprehensive list of toolkits. There are many other products and projects available that you can consider.

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