Absolutely foolproof way to get a USB flash drive to boot Linux

Written 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.

Accessing specific memory address from user code

Written 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.

Become a Vi-Vim guru

Written by Tom on 15/01/08

Ever used vi or vim? Its complex but oh so powerful, check out this cheat sheet

Scheduling in Linux

Written 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)...

Communication between programs/processes: how can we create and access FIFOs (named pipes) in Linux?

Written 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...

Look into the heart of the Linux Kernel.

Written 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

Cross compiling thttpd-2.21b + php-5.2.1: Howto

Written 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

What is the GPL, and is it a problem for a company?

Written 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?

Error while loading shared libraries: Linux cross compilation

Written by Tom on Thursday 16/08/07

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

Error while loading shared libraries .....

Linux I/O overview in the 2.6 kernel

Written 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

Linux Kernel: Memory management - Overview.

Written 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

The heart of the Linux Kernel: The Process.

Written 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

Putting Damn Small Linux on a USB stick from Windows PC.

Written 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

RTOS terminology overview.

Written by Tom on Tuesday 05/06/07

RTOS's contain their own slew of terminology. Here is a minimal list to get you started

Linux RTOS overview.

Written 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

Real-time performance in linux

Written 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

Nonblocking Input

Written 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...

The Difference between File Descriptors and Streams in Linux

Written 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.

A short set of neat shellscript examples

Written 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...

Here at Mission Technologies we use Linux extensively.

Written by Ian on Tuesday 12/12/06

This site (like most of the internet - including google and the biggest of the big names) is coming from
a Linux server. The high reliability of the operating system means uptimes over 1 year are possible (and