Linuxlink Radio By Timesys

Gene and Maciej interview Thomas Fitzsimmons from Red Hat on location at the Ontario Linux Fest on October 13, 2007. Thomas give us an update on Red Hat's implementation of Java virtual machine and the impact of Sun opening the source code for JVM to the public.

Gene and Maciej interview John "maddog" Hall on location at the Ontario Linux Fest on October 13, 2007. They get Maddog Hall's perspective on a variety of embedded Linux topics.

Continuing the tools discussion, in this podcast Maciej and Gene discuss debugging from an application and kernel developer’s standpoint. While the primary tool used for debugging under Linux is the trusty GDB debugger, how this tool is used can make a big difference in your productivity. The pair also discuss the primary tool for kernel debugging and when and how to make the best use of hardware debuggers.

Maciej returns from attending the Embedded Systems Conference (ESC) held September 19-20 in Boston. In this podcast, Gene interviews Maciej on his experience at ESC.

Continuing with the tools topic, Maciej and Gene talk about code analysis tools that can be used to locate memory-related defects that can be very hard to find during development and are nearly impossible to debug in the field. The two discuss the differences between static and dynamic code analysis tools the relative advantages of each.

Gene talks about tools for embedded Linux engineers. While he covers specific tools that make development easier, he also recommends that engineers pick tools that matches their experience level and goals. Sophisticated tools maximize productivity for engineers that know how to use them, but engineers that are new to embedded Linux might benefit from sticking with their text editors while they’re still learning.

Gene and Maciej continue their multi part series discussing real-time embedded Linux. In part 3, they discuss real-time concepts that are currently in the 2.6 kernel and how they were implemented. They also reviewed configuration option that track real-time behavior and predictability vs. throughput tradeoffs.

Gene and Maciej continue their multi part series discussing real-time embedded Linux. In Part 2, they discuss more sources of latency in detail and new real time features of the 2.6 kernel. Also discussed are common coding practices that result in latency and some simple tactics for coding drivers and applications that play nice with each other and the kernel.

Gene and Maciej kick off a multi part series discussing real-time embedded Linux. In part 1, they discuss common real-time terminology, what real time is, what it is not and the difference between hard and soft real-time. They also begin discussing latency and what factors tend to be the major contributors to latency issues.

Gene Sally recently returned from the Ottawa Linux Symposium held June 27-30th. In this podcast, Maciej Halasz interviews Gene about his experience at OLS and discusses some interesting trends he found happening in the world of Embedded Linux.

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 build 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.