STLinux Distribution 2.2 Manual

The manual for the STLinux Distribution 2.2 is divided into the following guides:

Installation Guide

The STLinux distribution run on a host Linux PC. Normally this would already be available, although we briefly describe a typical installation process. This is then followed by the installation of the STLinux Distribution itself. Once these steps have been completed, you're ready to go.

• Introduction
  • What is Linux
• Linux Installation on the Host PC
  • Example host installation
• Installing the STLinux distribution
  • Download the Distribution
  • Make the ISO image available to Linux
  • Installation directory
  • Installing using the Installer
    • stmyum
• Installing using rpm
• Building the target Linux kernel
• Updating the STLinux distribution

Getting Started Guide

These pages are designed to help you get a Linux system up and running on ST40 hardware as quickly as possible. It is only one way to do it (there are many others!), and it assumes that you are using target hardware which is already supported. However even if this does not describe where you want to be eventually, it is probably a good exercise to gain familiarity, and get you started.

• Introduction
• Monitoring the target
  • Connecting through the serial port
  • Connecting through the network
• Booting the kernel
• Network File System (NFS)
  • Setting up the NFS server
• Building user programs
  • The GNU tools
  • Installing the GNU tools
  • A simple example program - Hello World
• User mode debugging
  • Cross debugging with GDB
  • Native debugging with GDB
• Configuring specific ST boards

Using STWorkbench with STLinux

These pages provide simple tutorials on using the STWorkbench IDE with STLinux.

• STWorkbench for STLinux 3.1.0 release note
• STWorkbench for STLinux demo (requires flash)
• Advanced STWorkbench editor features
• Driving an existing make system
• Building an STLinux kernel
• Using an embedded serial console
• Booting the STLinux kernel
• Debugging an STLinux kernel
• Building and debugging a kernel module
• Building and debugging a userspace application
• Attaching a debugger to a userspace application
• Debugging a corefile
• Direct debugging of executables
• Browsing remote filesystems
• Managing kernel modules
• Using STWorkbench to develop existing applications
• Building and debugging STFAE using STWorkbench

Kernel Porting Guide

A worked example of how to port the Linux kernel provided as part of the distribution to a new board.

• Introduction
• Changing the configuration files
• Board setup
• Heartbeat LED

Distribution Guide

A guided tour around the STLinux distribution

• Introduction
• Structural information
• Networking and Ethernet devices
• Device drivers
  • Keyboard drivers
  • Inter-IC (I2C)
  • SSC Serial Protocol Interface (SPI) driver
  • Linux Infrared Remote Control (LIRC) driver
  • Graphics/video drivers
  • Virtual terminal drivers
  • V4L2 output driver
  • Advanced Linux Sound Architecture (ALSA) drivers
  • IDE drivers
  • STMicroelectronics DMA API
  • PIO drivers
  • Platform bus
  • Watchdog
  • Wireless network device
  • Bluetooth: BlueZ and Obex HowTo
    • BlueZ Setup and Kernel Configuration
    • BlueZ:How to run it
    • Obex: HowTo and ussp-push

How To Guide

A collection of howtos: useful information for users of the STLinux Distribution.

• Introduction
• How to configure the distribution
  • Setting up DNS
  • Setting up NIS
  • Setting the date and time
  • Setting the hostname
  • Logging in via SSH without a password
  • Control-C on default console
  • Setting the timezone to the local region
• Testing the customizations
  • Testing DNS
  • Testing NIS
  • Testing the date and time
  • Testing logging in via SSH without a password
  • Testing Control-C on default console
  • Testing timezone information
• How to set up an NFS file server
  • Prepare the root file system
  • Set up the NFS server
• How to boot with a ramdisk root file system
• How to boot from ROM
  • Using the Memory Technology Device (MTD)
  • File system background
  • Selecting a file system
  • Using the Flash Translation Layer (FTL)
  • Partitioning Flash
  • Booting from ROM worked example (Flash)
• How to run Quake
• How to use DHCP
• How to install and use Linux support packages (LSP)
• How to configure Point to Point Protocol (PPP)
• How to setup and configure a Universal Serial Bus (USB)
• How to configure a hard disk
• How to use the remote shell (rsh)
• How to use the U-Boot boot loader
• How to boot with a splash screen and a progress bar
• How to profile a STLinux system
• How to import an existing software tree into STWorkbench

Advanced Development Guide

Information for programmers writing software which will run on the STLinux distribution.

• Introduction
• Cross-compilation with autoconf, libtool and pkgconfig
  • autoconf configuration scripts
  • Environment variables
  • Invoking configure
  • libtool
  • X11
  • Compilation
  • autoconf/libtool hints and tips
  • A simple example
• Building SRPMs
• Testing the GNU cross-tools with dejagnu and gdb
• Debugging the kernel over JTAG
  • Building the kernel with debug info
  • Using the debugger
  • Debugging kernel modules
  • Attaching to a running kernel
  • Kernel data display commands
  • Tips on debugging optimized code
• Using KGDB for kernel debugging
  • Configuring the kernel
  • Command line arguments
  • Using GDB on the development machine
  • Controlling the kernel execution
  • Debugging the kernel
  • Debugging kernel modules
  • Troubleshooting, Known limits and utilities
• Linux trace toolkit (LTT)
• Linux trace toolkit Next Generation (LTTng)
• Dynamic kernel tracing with KPTrace
• Memory leak checking with mtrace
• Multi CPU
  • ST RPC support
  • STm8000 and STb7100 dual-boot support
  • Memory partitioning
  • Dual-boot general overview
  • STm8000: booting the ST220 cpus
  • STb7100: booting the ST231 CPUs

Support Guide

Details of all boards supported by the STLinux distribution, and information specific to running Linux on them.

• Introduction
• Hints and tips
  • BusyBox
  • Checking the root file system at boot time
  • Serial ports on the STm8000
  • Linux kernel command line parameters
• Further documentation
  • man pages
  • info pages
  • Package documentation files
  • RPM packages
• Links

Other documentation on this site which you might find useful include:

• The boards pages which give a description of each board we support Linux on.
• The STLinux distribution 2.0 release notes.