LinuxLink Radio by TimeSys

Episode 42: Qt/Embedded for Linux

podcast@timesys.com (LinuxLink Radio by TimeSys) — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 04:00:00 GMT

For this topic, Maciej invited Timesys engineers, Justin and Scott, to participate. Both engineers, having enjoyed using Nokia's software on the Neo phone and having experience with Qt/Embedded for Linux at Timesys, share their insight into the recently released graphics toolkit. The trio spends time introducing historical perspective on Qt and unsuccessfully tries to figure out the long list of names the package has had over the years. Scott talks about other open source graphics frameworks, such as GTK+ and Glade, and Justin introduces concepts around QtCreator.

Episode 41: Desktop-based Build Systems

podcast@timesys.com (LinuxLink Radio by TimeSys) — Thu, 14 May 2009 04:00:00 GMT

For this episode, Maciej invited two Timesys engineers, Daniel and Jason (both of whom have been working with the Timesys desktop build system and a number of open source ones, including buildroot and LTIB), to participate. After introducing Timesys' approach to building complete Linux platform, the trio talks about the differences and similarities between buildroot, open embedded and LTIB, and also touch on mainstream distributions like Fedora and Ubuntu. Lastly, Daniel addresses a question received from a listener regarding tradeoffs in latency vs. throughput when migrating from a micro-kernel solution to Linux.

Episode 40: Overview of 2.6.28 Linux Kernel and Talk About the Newly Introduced Boot Tracer

podcast@timesys.com (LinuxLink Radio by TimeSys) — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 04:00:00 GMT

In this episode Maciej and Daniel, one of Timesys' Linux gurus, talk about what's new in the 2.6.28 Linux kernel. The conversation focuses on several aspects of the 2.6.28 kernel that are particularly relevant to an embedded Linux engineer. The pair seems to enjoy in particular talking about the concept of the staging driver area in the kernel and the newly introduced Boot Tracer.

Episode 39: Overview of 2.6.27 Linux Kernel and Talk About UBIFS

podcast@timesys.com (LinuxLink Radio by TimeSys) — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 04:00:00 GMT

In this episode, our hosts talk about what's new in the 2.6.27 Linux kernel. Various new features are covered in detail, including support for UBIFS. The hosts discuss the benefits of UBIFS for developers and how UBIFS compares to JFFS2. Other topics touched on in this episode include valuable tidbits about embedded Linux features.

Episode 38: Interview with Mike Erickson of Logic

podcast@timesys.com (LinuxLink Radio by TimeSys) — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 04:00:00 GMT

In this episode, Maciej and Gene interview Mike Erickson of Logic, a leading board design and manufacturing company, and discuss weighty topics such as today's hottest processors, Linux acceptance, Pittsburgh's Mt. Washington incline, minimizing boot time and if the consultant who claimed he was lead through a government building with a bag over his head (as not compromise security) was pulling Gene's leg. Write podcast@timesys.com if you have something interesting to share.

Episode 37: Free Software - Part 2

podcast@timesys.com (LinuxLink Radio by TimeSys) — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 04:00:00 GMT

In this episode, Maciej and Gene talk about what free software means in practice, both for companies that create free software and those who use it as part of their business. The pair gets upset when some vendors follow the letter but not the spirit of free software by being coy about providing source code or through licensing software that attempts to node lock basic tools like GCC.

Episode 36: About Free Software:

podcast@timesys.com (LinuxLink Radio by TimeSys) — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 11:00:00 GMT

Maciej and Gene talk about what "Free Software" means and the rights and obligations of Free Software users. The pair talk about what's different about GPL3, tivoization, and the Lesser GPL among other topics.

Episode 35: 2.6.26 Discussion and MPatrol:

podcast@timesys.com (LinuxLink Radio by TimeSys) — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 11:00:00 GMT

After a bit of a break, Gene and Maciej talk about 2.6.26 from an embedded developer's perspective. The pair also discuss the ins and outs of using MPatrol: how it works, what it's good for, and some of its more nifty features.

Episode 34: Overview of 2.6.25 and Talk About debugfs:

podcast@timesys.com (LinuxLink Radio by TimeSys) — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 15:30:00 GMT

Maciej and Gene talk about what new in the 2.6.25 version of the kernel that's relevant to embedded developers, like CANBUS (thanks Volkswagen) and real time features that all allocation of processor time by process group. Gene also talks about debugfs and how engineers can use this light-weight file system to fetch data from kernel modules, like its name implies, it debugfs is a great debugging tool.

Episode 33: The Propeller Chip:

podcast@timesys.com (LinuxLink Radio by TimeSys) — Tue, 13 May 2008 15:30:00 GMT

Last month, TimeSys was at the ESC West show and brought along the LinuxLink radio gear. In this episode, Maciej and Gene interview Jeff Martin about the technology behind his company's product, the Propeller chip. What interested Maciej and Gene was the interruptless nature of the Propeller chip's design and how the chip handles some real-time requirements at the hardware level.

Episode 32: Profiling on the Cheap:

podcast@timesys.com (LinuxLink Radio by TimeSys) — Fri, 4 Apr 2008 15:30:00 GMT

Gene and reluctant guest host Jeremiah Lott talk about how to do basic system profiling when you're low on resources. By using some basic library functions, coding in an interrupt handler and using the proc filesystem, you can get a good look at how your application is using resources. Gene wastes time talking about how the Windows-running car wash POS system crashed last week.

Episode 31: Review of Embedded World Conference in Nurnberg:

podcast@timesys.com (LinuxLink Radio by TimeSys) — Wedn, 19 Mar 2008 15:30:00 GMT

Maciej and guest host Scott Gilbertson discuss their experience at the Embedded World Conference in Nurnberg, Germany.

Episode 30: Profiling Tools - Hardware Efficiency:

podcast@timesys.com (LinuxLink Radio by TimeSys) — Wedn, 05 Mar 2008 15:30:00 GMT

Gene and guest host Jeremiah Lott discuss various profiling tools to get the most efficiency out of your hardware. In this episode they focus on using profiling tools to optimize the kernel.

Episode 29: Fahd Abidi Interview -- Hardware Debuggers:

podcast@timesys.com (LinuxLink Radio by TimeSys) — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 15:30:00 GMT

Gene interviews Fahd Abidi, Sr. FAE with Ultimate Solutions. Gene and Fahd discuss hardware debuggers. What are they? When do you need one and When you might not need one.

Episode 28: Open Source Updates and Intro to Inter-Process Communication:

podcast@timesys.com (LinuxLink Radio by TimeSys) — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 15:30:00 GMT

Gene and maciej discuss various updates to the release of the 2.6.24 Linux Kernel as well as the latest release of GCC. They also start a series on inter-process communication.

Episode 27: Porting Your Kernel to a New Device - Part 3:

podcast@timesys.com (LinuxLink Radio by TimeSys) — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 15:30:00 GMT

This week Gene and Maciej get back to their series on porting a Linux kernel to a new platform. In this episode Gene and Maciej focus on what it takes to write a device driver. They cover device driver initialization and use an example of parallel port.

Episode 26: Network Setup for an Embedded System:

podcast@timesys.com (LinuxLink Radio by TimeSys) — Wed, 9 Jan 2008 15:30:00 GMT

In this episode Gene and Maciej explain network infrastructure and network services that are used in the Linux development for an embedded system. The two hosts cover different network connection scenarios as well as use cases for amongst other things dhcp, tftp and nfs services.

Episode 25: Porting Your Kernel to a New Device - Part 2:

podcast@timesys.com (LinuxLink Radio by TimeSys) — Fri, 14 Dec 2007 15:30:00 GMT

This week’s episode is a continuation of the last week’s introduction to porting a Linux kernel to a new platform. In this episode Gene and Maciej focus on various areas of the Linux kernel that are looked at or changed in the porting process.

Episode 24: Porting Your Kernel to a New Device - Part 1:

podcast@timesys.com (LinuxLink Radio by TimeSys) — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 15:30:00 GMT

This week Gene and Maciej begin a new series where they discuss the process a developer goes through to get a kernel running on a new device.

Episode 23: Review of the CELF Embedded Linux Conference in Austria:

podcast@timesys.com (LinuxLink Radio by TimeSys) — Fri, 9 Nov 2007 15:30:00 GMT

This week we are releasing a bonus episode where Maciej interviews Gene on his experience at the CELF Embedded Linux Conference where Gene was a guest speaker. His topics included GCC, embedded Linux for beginners, using RPM as a build system and a panel debating "what is the ideal Linux distribution."

Episode 22: Thomas Fitzsimmons Interview - Ontario Linux Fest:

podcast@timesys.com (LinuxLink Radio by TimeSys) — Tue, 6 Nov 2007 15:30:00 GMT

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.

Episode 21: John "maddog" Hall Interview - Ontario Linux Fest:

podcast@timesys.com (LinuxLink Radio by TimeSys) — Wed, 23 Oct 2007 15:30:00 GMT

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.

Episode 20: Selecting the Right Toolset for Your Job - Part 3:

podcast@timesys.com (LinuxLink Radio by TimeSys) — Wed, 10 Oct 2007 15:30:00 GMT

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.

Episode 19: Review of ESC Conference in Boston:

podcast@timesys.com (LinuxLink Radio by TimeSys) — Wed, 26 Sep 2007 15:30:00 GMT

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.

Episode 18: Selecting the Right Toolset for Your Job - Part 2:

podcast@timesys.com (LinuxLink Radio by TimeSys) — Wed, 12 Sep 2007 12:16:06 GMT

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.

Episode 17: Selecting the Right Toolset for Your Job - Part 1:

podcast@timesys.com (LinuxLink Radio by TimeSys) — Wed, 29 Aug 2007 13:11:49 GMT

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.

Episode 16: Real-Time Embedded Linux Series - Part 3:

podcast@timesys.com (LinuxLink Radio by TimeSys) — Wed, 15 Aug 2007 10:37:24 GMT

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.

Episode 15: Real-Time Embedded Linux Series - Part 2:

podcast@timesys.com (LinuxLink Radio by TimeSys) — Wed, 1 Aug 2007 11:49:52 GMT

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.

Episode 14: Real-Time Embedded Linux Series - Part 1:

podcast@timesys.com (LinuxLink Radio by TimeSys) — Wed, 17 Jul 2007 13:21:47 GMT

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.

Episode 13: Review of the Ottawa Linux Symposium

podcast@timesys.com (LinuxLink Radio by TimeSys) — Thu, 5 Jul 2007 16:08:20 GMT

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.

Episode 12: Optimizing Kernel Boot Time Part 2

podcast@timesys.com (LinuxLink Radio by TimeSys) — Wed, 20 Jun 2007 15:22:57 GMT

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.

Episode 11: Optimizing Kernel Boot Time

podcast@timesys.com (LinuxLink Radio by TimeSys) — Wed, 6 Jun 2007 17:28:06 GMT

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.

Episode 10: Review of ESEC Conference in Japan

podcast@timesys.com (LinuxLink Radio by TimeSys) — Wed, 23 May 2007 20:01:29 GMT

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.

Episode 9: The Promise of Linux

podcast@timesys.com (LinuxLink Radio by TimeSys) — Wed, 9 May 2007 16:22:38 GMT

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.

Episode 8: Jeremiah Lott Interview - Senior Software Engineer at TimeSys

podcast@timesys.com (LinuxLink Radio by TimeSys) — Wed, 25 Apr 2007 13:01:52 GMT

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.

Episode 7: Evaluating Linux for your project?

podcast@timesys.com (LinuxLink Radio by TimeSys) — Wed, 11 Apr 2007 15:28:04 GMT

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.

Episode 6: Rob Landley Interview - Self Professed Embedded Linux Geek

podcast@timesys.com (LinuxLink Radio by TimeSys) — Wed, 28 Mar 2007 10:12:59 GMT

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.

Episode 5: What goes into a LinuxLink?

podcast@timesys.com (LinuxLink Radio by TimeSys) — Wed, 21 Mar 2007 13:06:02 GMT

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.

Episode 4: Getting Started with Embedded Linux

podcast@timesys.com (LinuxLink Radio by TimeSys) — Wed, 7 Mar 2007 14:31:17 GMT

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.

Episode 3: The State of Embedded Linux

podcast@timesys.com (LinuxLink Radio by TimeSys) — Fri, 16 Feb 2007 16:02:35 GMT

Gene Sally and Maciej Halasz discuss where embedded Linux was 5 years ago, where it is Today and where they think it is going.

Episode 2: Thomas Gleixner Interview - Realtime Embedded Linux

podcast@timesys.com (LinuxLink Radio by TimeSys) — Fri, 09 Feb 2007 12:19:51 GMT

Special guest interview with Thomas Gleixner, Founder of Linutronix and works mainly on kernel related topics. He is one of the main contributors to the realtime preemption patch and has extensive expertise in embedded and realtime Linux.

Episode 1: What is Embedded Linux and why should you care?

podcast@timesys.com (LinuxLink Radio by TimeSys) — Wed, 31 Jan 2007 15:32:22 GMT

What and why is embedded Linux? Why should you care? What is the business reason for embedded Linux? What is the technical reason for embedded Linux? How do you get started with embedded Linux?