B.1. Books There are a number of very good Linux kernel programming books available, but only a few that deal with building and installing the kernel. Here is a list of books that I have found useful when dealing with the Linux kernel. B.1.1. General Linux Books
Ellen Siever, Aaron Weber, Stephen Figgins, Robert Love, and Arnold Robbins. Linux in a Nutshell (O'Reilly), 2005. This book has the most complete and authoritative command reference for Linux. It covers almost every single command that you will ever need to use.
Yaghmour, Karim. Building Embedded Linux Systems (O'Reilly), 2003. This book, although mainly oriented toward the embedded Linux developer, has a great section on how to build up a cross-compiler toolchain and kernel. It is highly recommended for that section, as well as for other portions of the book that are valuable to people wishing to learn more about how to customize a Linux kernel and the rest of the system. B.1.2. Linux Kernel Books Most of these books are oriented toward the programmer who is interested in learning how to program within the kernel. They are much more technically oriented than this book, but are a great place to start if you wish to learn more about the code that controls the kernel.
Jonathan Corbet, Alessandro Rubini, and Greg Kroah-Hartman. Linux Device Drivers (O'Reilly), 2005. This book covers how the different kernel device driver subsystems work, and provides lots of examples of working drivers. It is recommended for anyone wanting to work with Linux kernel drivers. It is also available online for free at http://lwn.net/Kernel/LDD3/.
Love, Robert. Linux Kernel Development (Novell Press Publishing), 2005. Robert Love's book covers almost all areas of the Linux kernel, showing how everything works together. It is a great place to start learning about the different portions of the kernel internals.
Bovet, Daniel P. and Cesate, Marco. Understanding the Linux Kernel (O'Reilly), 2005. This book goes into the design and implementation of the core Linux kernel. It is a great reference for understanding the algorithms used within the different portions of the kernel. It is highly recommended for anyone wanting to understand the details of how the kernel works. |
