Embedded Linux. Multi-platform Debugging And Driver Development,

Embedded systems designed for specific processors are heavily dependent on the underlying hardware. Since most hardware deices on the embedded system development board are predetermined, it presents a great challenge for the embedded system programming process. Furthermore, the lack of software support for embedded systems makes debugging the program code more difficult.This paper describes how to establish an embedded system development platform based on multi-processor architecture. The platform consists of three components: the Linux operating system, device driver program and low-level software. The platform developed will be of great reference value for developing embedded Linux systems for different platforms.Though most operating system codes are independent of architecture, there are some codes that are strongly dependent on architecture. The main task of this paper is Linux kernel porting and bug fixing as well as device driver development and file system porting. This task includes program development and porting that involves the video card, USB ohci controller, Ethernet, and serial port driver programs as well as tests of JFFS, JFFS2, and Cramfs file systems.This paper is divided into four major sections: First, it introduces several debugging methods for embedded software development and dicusses the advantages and drawbacks of the AM33 and Intel Strong-ARM SA1100 processors. Second, it discusses several boot loader programs for embedded systems and compares them to our revised boot loader program. Third, this paper explains the porting and debugging methods for device driver programming in embedded Linux systems. Finally, it discusscs the existing problems of the development platform and suggests directions for future investigations.