Linux Fast Boot

The Linux Fast Boot course provides engineers with a fast, cost-effective way to acquire the skills necessary to improve startup times in their customized Linux devices.

After this course, participants will be able to perform the following:

• Describe how a Linux device boots
• Measure latencies at various stages of the boot cycle
• Make design decisions that improve boot time
• Modify kernel and bootloader source
• Modify user-space initialization scripts
• Optimize a device to improve boot times

• Wind River® Linux 3.0.2 and common Linux technologies

• Platform developers who intend to develop a Linux-based device
• Developers interested in maximizing the initial end user perception of their device
• Developers using Wind River Linux or other Linux variants

Day 1

Overview of Linux Boot Sequence

• Introduction
• Boot time terminology
• Boot time contributors
• Hardware initialization
• Boot loader
• Linux kernel initialization
• User-space initialization
• Application initialization
• LAB: Development environment

User-Space and Application Initialization

• Overview
• Init
• Role of init in booting
• Device nodes
• Modules
• File systems
• Services
• Implementing init
• Sysvinit
• Event-based init systems
• Dependency-based init systems
• Systemd
• Busybox init
• Roll-your-own init
• Profiling techniques
• Bootchart
• Process profiling
• Optimization techniques
• Readahead
• Static linking
• Prelinking
• Compiler and toolchain tricks
• LAB: Profiling and optimizing user-space initialization

Day 2

Linux Kernel Initialization

• Overview
• Kernel command line
• System services and drivers
• Root file system
• initRAMfs
• In-place file systems
• Read-only file systems
• Profiling techniques
• Optimization techniques
• LAB: Profiling and optimizing Linux kernel initialization

Boot Loader

• Overview
• Stages of boot loading
• Loading the kernel
• Compression
• XIP
• Initial RAM disks
• Profiling techniques
• Optimization techniques
• LAB: Profiling and optimizing boot loader

Prerequisite Courses

• Introduction to Linux

Prerequisite Skills

• Familiarity with the Linux kernel
• Familiarity with embedded systems
• C programming experience on Linux/UNIX
• Experience working with shell scripts and makefiles

• This two-day expert-led course consists of lectures and lab sessions.
• Attendees use Wind River Linux 3.0.2 to gain experience with the topics presented.
• Participants examine and exercise simulated network topologies in hands-on labs.
• Participants use the included Linux distribution to compare boot times before and after applying course concepts.
• Participants receive individual guidance from an expert engineer who has extensive experience with Wind River technologies.

• Linux Device Drivers
• Wind River Linux Board Support Package
• Wind River Linux 3.0 for Intermediate Platform Developers