Modern appliances are complex machines with processors, operating systems, and application software. While there are books that will tell you how to run Linux on embedded hardware, and books on how to build a Linux application, Linux Appliance Design is the first book to demonstrate how to merge the two and create a Linux appliance. You'll see for yourself why Linux is the embedded operating system of choice for low-cost development and a fast time to market. Linux Appliance Design shows how to build better appliances-appliances with more types of interfaces, more dynamic interfaces, and better debugged interfaces. You'll learn how to build backend daemons, handle asynchronous events, and connect various user interfaces (including web, framebuffers, infrared control, SNMP, and front panels) to these processes for remote configuration and control. Linux Appliance Design also introduces the Run-Time Access library, which provides a uniform mechanism for user interfaces to communicate with daemons.

Learn to:

• Separate your user interfaces from your daemons

• Give user interfaces run time access to configuration, status, and statistics

• Add professional network management capabilities to your application

• Use SNMP and build a MIB

• Build a web-based appliance interface

• Build a command line interface (CLI)

• Build a framebuffer interface with an infrared control as input

• Manage logs and alarms on an appliance

Companion CD includes a prototype appliance-a home alarm system-that supports the book's lessons.

Amazon.com® Reader Reviews (Ranked by Helpfulness)

Average Amazon.com® Rating:  Based on 6 Ratings

Outside the scope of etc. - 2008-08-19
Reviewer Rating:
Bob Smith et al., Linux Appliance Design: A Hands-On Guide to Building Linux Appliances (No Starch, 2007)

Linux Appliance Design is not, for the most part, a bad little book, but it is structurally unsound in one major way. I realize this is a quirk of mine more than anything, and most people who want to read about this sort of thing probably won't mind it, but it bugs me in a major way whenever I encounter it: instead of getting into the nuts and bolts of some parts of the software, the authors chose to go with a ready-made API, and so much of the book's software instruction involves programming that API rather than building something from scratch. If that doesn't bother you, then go right ahead and grab a copy of this. If you'd rather not use someone else's software, on the other hand, the hardware parts of this will be useful, but for the software parts, you'll have to look somewhere else. Not nearly as good-- or comprehensive-- as it could have been. ***

Architecting user interface command and control protocols with Linux - 2009-02-02
Reviewer Rating:
That probably would have been the title of this book if the Marketing Department hadn't gotten involved.

I was a little disappointed when I first got this book and skimmed through it, because it seemed to be focused on using one particular tool (the RTA SQL library) to implement a particular example product (the 'Laddie' alarm system). After reading it though, the book has grown on me considerably. This book does two jobs well: it explains the need for a common core software/system architecture that adapts to a variety of user interfaces (think MVC), and then it covers the implementation of those user interfaces in Linux in detail. As an embedded Linux developer myself, some of the content was well-known, but other chapters on LIRC (infrared control), SNMP and MIBs, and the Linux Framebuffer I find myself referring to regularly. The chapter on linux logging (for errors and debugging) also explained a few things about syslog I hadn't known before. The best part of the book, though, is the way it constantly focuses on integrating all these disparate interfaces into a cohesive application while avoiding 'spaghetti' code and architecture. That--not implementation details--is often the hardest part of appliance design, and this book covers it well.

An invaluable, indispensable, thoroughly 'user friendly' instruction - 2007-06-09
Reviewer Rating:
Linux continues to increase in popularity and utility among computer enthusiasts. The combined effort of Linux experts Bob Smith, John Hardin, Graham Phillips, and Bill Pierce, "Linux Appliance Design: A Hands-On Guide To Building Linux Appliances" teaches Linux users how to build better appliances for the Linux systems thereby providing them with more types of interfaces, more dynamic interfaces, and better debugged interfaces. Linux users will learn how to build backend daemons, handle asynchronous events, connect various user interfaces, and so much more. Now even the most novice Linux user can add professional network management capabilities to their applications, build a web-based appliance and a command line interface, build a framebuffer interface using infrared controls as input, as well as manage logs and alarms on appliance. If you have a Linux system, then "Linux Appliance Design" will prove an invaluable, indispensable, thoroughly 'user friendly' instruction and reference manual for getting the most out of your do-it-yourself designer software.

A Very good read for all Embedded Engineers. - 2009-09-21
Reviewer Rating:
A Very good read for all Embedded Engineers. It covers most of the basics of an Embedded System.

Entertaining and Informative - 2008-03-11
Reviewer Rating:
It's not just easy to read... it's addictive. Great, thorough examples with wonderful twists will get you started on Linux appliances in no time.

There's really not much to say besides that if you are even remotely interested or curious about the topic, it's a must-have.

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