Embedded FreeBSD Cookbook (Embedded Technology)

By Paul Cevoli

The FreeBSD operating system has become a popular OS choice for embedded systems due to its small size and the fact that it is free to users. However, detailed information on using FreeBSD is difficult to find. Author Paul Cevoli, an experienced embedded systems engineer, answers that need in this cookbook aimed at making life easier for engineers working with FreeBSD. Topics covered in the book include core operating system components, processes, process scheduling, virtual memory, device drivers and debugging, as these are the core features necessary for embedded system developers. Each chapter discusses basic components of FreeBSD, device drivers, Unix kernel, and C and GNU development tools, and provides the reader with the information needed to accomplish the stated task, along with sample source code.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1589950046
• ISBN13: 9781589950047
• Release Date: December 2002
• Publisher: Newnes
• Length: 233 Pages
• Weight: 1.10 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.3" x 0.6" x 7.0"

Customer Reviews

A unique look inside the embedded development process

When I skimmed 'Embedded FreeBSD Cookbook' (EFC) in the bookstore, I was impressed by the amount of general FreeBSD information it contained. Now that I've bought and read it, I'm glad this book caught my eye. Although EFC is somewhat dated by its use of FreeBSD 4.4 (released Sep 01), I learned more about about FreeBSD internals. I also gained insights into what is needed to create an embedded appliance from the ground up. EFC describes how the Measurement Computing company used FreeBSD 4.4 to create their Digital Input-Output (DIO) server appliance, built on a Network Engines 'Roadster' platform. The author explains the advantages of embedded systems and why it makes sense to construct them using open source software. He also defends the use of BSD-licensed software to build the DIO. The best aspect of the book was its direct nature and breadth of coverage. EFC addresses many topics in a clear and concise manner, including processes, daemons, system calls, and library usage. I found this direct and efficient approach a good way to become familiar with subjects covered in much greater depth by books like McKusick and Neville-Neil's 'The Design and Implementation of the FreeBSD Operating System.' On the downside, for a reader on the eve of 2005, the book is dated in several respects. EFC's use of FreeBSD 4.x means some of its material no longer applies to FreeBSD 5.x. For example, 5.x uses DEVFS in place of manual device node creation. System source code (like the cdevsw structure in bus_private.h) is often much different. Some code, like ch 2's explanation of forking, works on 4.x but not 5.x. The use of the Java JDK version 1.1.8 really dates the book, as well. Finally, several typos change the meaning of parts of the text. For example, p. 30 appears to show 'gcc -00' (two zeroes) when I believe it should be 'gcc -O0' (capital O, zero) to disable compiler optimizations. Below on the same page, objdump should be passed the '--disassemble' or the '-d' switch, not '-disassemble'. Overall, I still liked reading EFC. The book gave me plenty to consider, should I ever want to deploy an embedded appliance. Companies like St Bernard do use FreeBSD in their appliances, so perhaps an update by one of their developers would be in order?

Great Book! a real cookbook

Very clear. No waste of time with useless listings.