Using qemu for ARM

hello friends !!!

Those of you who want to  work on arm might first wish to taste its flavour, then go for the board.

This scenario demands for virtual arm processors to work on & and there comes the QEMU… 🙂

lets first be familiar with QEMU ( Quick Emualator) is an open source machine emulator and virtualizer. It has two operating modes-

1.  User mode emulation – for running single programs cross-compiled for various architectures like ARM, Power PC, etc..
2. Computer emulation – for emulating full computer system, virtualizing the whole processor. 🙂

However, There is lot of stuff on wiki, you can refer there for detailed info.. 🙂

In this article, we will focus on various HOW-TOs for installing qemu and executing the programs for ARM architecture.. 🙂

for installation there are two options 🙂

1. get it directly from repository- using apt-get-install or yum etc.. as per your distros..

• for fedora – yum install qemu (it will automatically download and install qemu for all architectures).

2. download the source code and compile it..

You can check various arcitectures in the terminal using command

$ qemu

n den press tab..

list of supported architectures by qemu

After we have qemu installed on our system, now is the turn to start our journey to virtualization:

lets start with the arm processor … we will write a small HELLO WORLD program and cross-compile it for the arm architecture and finally execute it in user-mode-emulation…

Fun with RFID!

RFID stands for Radio-Frequency IDentification. It actually refers to small electronic devices that consist of a small strange chip and an antenna. The chip is capable of carrying 2,000 bytes of data or less(as what I have read from somewhere…lolzz).

The RFID device serves the same purpose as a bar code or a magnetic strip on the back of a credit card or ATM card; it provides a unique identifier for that object. And, just as a bar code or magnetic strip must be scanned to get the information, the RFID device must be scanned to retrieve the identifying information.

So, that was the introduction with the RFID.  My RFID device is from MAC-NET technologies and it works on 125KHz.

Actually whenever I am demotivated, I use to shout saying anything that makes me feel better, or play any Rock song!

Recently I developed a habit of shouting MANNN, YOU ARE JUST AWESOME, so everytime I do anything good or demotivated ; I scream it. It is actually a LOL sort of activity…:)

Android ICS 4.0.3 on Bealeboard

Its pretty expensive otherwise I may definitely had already put it in my NEW car 🙂 🙂  and used it for various purposes.
Yes, I am talking for the Beagle-board/bone.  Its indeed a great thing, and this particular post is just showing the Android ICS 4.0.3 running over my beagleboard-XM.

I will say Android is defintely a end-user product.  I didn`t find any of the system utilities in the distro provided by the Texas Instruments.  Guess, I have to statically recompile the filesystem and kernel again to add support for some of the utilities. 😦

Yet another Hello World: This time for ARM

Holidays are getting more and more frustrating.  I am about to OR already LOST and confused a lot!!!
Mann, I need a break…

Though recently I had a one and a half week break, still!!! So What,  I need another one, Afterall I am a fun loving guy..

Ummmm…, This post is for those people who want to see the simplest of the application for the ARM architecture.  Basically it is incredibly simple!
For ex- when we compile a program, a normal C program or (my fav.) assembly program, what we do?

We basically do nothing(out of the total work to be done)! We write a simple C code, the simplest part!, and compile it for our PC architecture using any of the preferred compiler (most of the time its GCC, I guess)

A Few of the Coders and App. developers rarely bother about this stuff(I dare not to say for the whole community…lolz).. How actually a C language code results in giving out the output? The most interesting part and the most difficult too is usually left over.

Lets take a simple example of hello world :

Getting more into Embedded Linux: 2nd part

Here we are,  after getting introduced  to a very few terms in a very light manner…

In this particular post, I will not be giving out any technical description or learning instead we will see that WHAT WE ACTUALLY WILL DO??

just a glimpse of what we are trying to do with a very simple task of porting linux to my embedded board MINI2440 in the simplest possible manner (….atleast I think so…lolz)..

So, here are the videos in which I just ported linux kernel 2.6.32.2 and a qtopia based file system…(both of these are pre-compiled as provided by the Manufacturer).

 

 

 

Getting more into Embedded Linux : 1st part

So, in the previous posts we got introduced with the Embedded Linux..

From now onwards, we will be learning the real stuff.  I am assuming that you people are THRU  with the Pre-requisites  I mentioned in the previous post (at least fair knowledge of linux and C).  We will be taking a real example so as to take a Practical approach towards the Embedded Linux Systems…may be it becomes easier to understand..

Be real Passionate about any of the work you do otherwise It will appear bore to you specially for the case of Embedded Systems. It is real big domain!!!  Otherwise you may leave it after a while…a lot of people do..or I should say ..they quit pertaining to the difficulties faced in the Embedded linux stuff.

Introduction with a few Terms:

• Bootloaders

an example

         For this, let me say in short, (we will have a seperate post for it); the code that makes the embedded system to LIVE UP..

(please comment if you people dont agree with my term LIVE UP..I always like discussions)

what I mean by live up is that any of the Embedded System specifically SBC and pc etc. are having so much of peripherals and  buses etc. So how to make them work in order.\i.e. their initiallisation part ..Its all done by Bootloader

Installing softwares on Linux platforms!

thanks God, installing on linux is not this hard!!

So, In this post I am gonna share with you the stepts to be taken to install any software on Linux.  Most of the time we use these steps only for general distributions like Ubuntu, Fedora, etc.

Though most of the distributions have a Package Manager like that of YUM, apt-get, aptitude, Synaptic etc…But I would like and also recommend that You make the habit of installing any software by using the source code.
All it takes is just the three steps::

Learning, mini2440 & Beaglebone !

The (this *) section is dedicated to the introduction to  Single Board Computers and these are my Mini2440 and Beaglebone.
–>So, lets first talk about Mini2440..

As the manufacturer says, 

FriendlyARM Mini 2440 SBC is a Single-Board Computer with 400 MHz Samsung S3C2440 ARM9 processor. The board measures 100 x 100 mm, ideal for learning about ARM9 systems..

So, actually I would recommend this particular Single Board Computer because of its several qualities that are not present in competitive boards for its PRICE(price being the main feature)!

Getting Started With Embedded Linux

Here onwards, we will be focusing to the Embedded Linux..,.So we need to workout first with the pre-requisites of it..

What are the pre-requisites for it??

As we see it is containing two hell big Domains i.e. EMBEDDED & LINUX, and here we are trying to deal with Embedded Linux..So it is pretty much obvious that one should know both of the things atleast upto some extent(actually not to some extent …ther`s too much of it…lolzz)…

I would point out some of the things as I consider going ON for the real knowledge otherwise works are even also done without much of understanding:

• Good in the C programming language and start reading out ASSEMBLY now onwards…

• Be comfortable with command shells and scripts not with the GUI((try to avoid GUI as much as you can…there are many a reasons for this..)).

• Be comfortable using any of the available text editors (e.g., Vi/Vim, Emacs.)

• Compiling and Linking programs, constructing Makefiles etc.; i.e., be comfortable doing APPLICATION DEVELOPMENT in a Linux or Unix environment.

say hello to Embedded Linux!!

So, you are here thinking what is EMBEDDED LINUX…hmmm…..

 Guess, You might have heard its name but never actually got it….What is its use?? Where to use?? Why to use?? bla bla bla…(the whole WH-family of questions)  and then at last HOW TO USE IT??

Starting with the introduction part, Embedded Linux as the WIKI says, “Embedded Linux is the use of Linux in embedded computer systems such as mobile phones, personal digital assistants, media players, set-top boxes, and other consumer electronics devices, networking equipment, machine control, industrial automation, navigation equipment and medical instruments.“

So,  Embedded Linux is the usage of the Linux kernel and various open-source components in embedded systems

For the beginners, telling all the Techy stuff  won`t actually matter, and is useless.. It will simply add up to the complexities…

As what I think, the advantages and Disadvantages should be explored out by oneself after trying it out..!!!!(so, I am not specifying them)…Alongwith the series in my blog, we will discover the Pros and Cons…