How to compile these materials
==============================
First, you may install the packages needed to compile the materials
(example on Ubuntu 22.04):
sudo apt install --no-install-recommends git-core inkscape \
texlive-latex-base texlive-latex-extra texlive-font-utils dia \
python3-pygments texlive-fonts-recommended \
texlive-fonts-extra make texlive-xetex texlive-extra-utils \
fonts-inconsolata fonts-liberation \
xfonts-scalable lmodern texlive-science texlive-plain-generic \
texlive-lang-french
Then, run 'make help' to see what available targets are.
For example:
make full-linux-kernel-slides.pdf
make full-linux-kernel-labs.pdf
Compiling issues
================
* If the materials stop compiling after upgrading your distro,
you may have to run "make clean" to get the materials to
compile again.
Example case: https://tex.stackexchange.com/questions/352017/miktex-and-beamer-error-beamerendinputifotherversion
Labs formatting guidelines
==========================
* To create a new lab, the chapter must start with a 'subchapter'
command, as in:
\subchapter{Bootloader – U-Boot}{Objectives: Set up serial
communication, compile and install the X-Loader and U-Boot
bootloaders, use basic U-Boot commands, set up TFTP communication
with the development workstation.}
* You can use \section{} and \subsection{} to create sections in your
lab document.
* To add some fixed-sized font text (function names, file or
directory paths, commands) inside a paragraph of normal text, use
the \code macro as follows:
Blabla. Look in the \code{/usr/bin} directory. Blabla.
Note that the \code{} macro doesn't require escaping of $ or _
signs:
You can look for the \code{platform_device_register()} function in the
\code{$HOME/linux/blabla.c} file.
This macro *MUST* be used instead of {\tt }, because \code{}
provides proper line wrapping on dashes, slashes and so on, which
helps in keeping the line of text within the width of the page.
Note that this macro cannot be used in section titles or chapter
titles. In this case {\tt } needs to be used (and inside {\tt },
the _ or $ signs have to be escaped).
* To add some fixed-size font text as a complete paragraph, use the
'verbatim' environment:
In order to build the kernel run:
\begin{verbatim}
make blabla_defconfig
make
\end{verbatim}
Here as well, it does not require escaping of $ or _ signs.
* To add URLs, use the \url{https://foobar.com} macro. This will
create a clickable link in the resulting PDF file.
* If needed, you can locally reduce the size of a
\begin{verbatim}...\end{verbatim} environment by doing:
\small
\begin{verbatim}
...
\end{verbatim}
\normalsize
This must be used parsimoniously because changing the font size all
the time is not very pretty. But since the verbatim environment
does not do line wrapping, it may sometimes be necessary.
Note that in addition to \small, you can also use other sizes, see
https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/LaTeX/Fonts#Built-in_sizes .
Slides formatting guidelines
============================
* A new training should start with a file containing the setup of the
various variables needed such as authors and a slide created using the
titleframe macro. This new file should be created in the common/ directory
with the name <training-name>-title.tex
* Every new chapter should be split in order to allow its possible use in
other trainings as well. Each new file should contain only one subsection
and should be named <training-name>-<section-name>-<subsection-name>.tex.
New sections should be in a separate file named
<training-name>-<section-name>-title.tex. All the aggregation would be done
by the Makefile
Syntax Highlighting
===================
The LaTeX package minted is included to have a nice syntax
highlighting and advanced code formatting features. It uses pygments
as backend, so in order to use it, one needs to install the
debian/Ubuntu package python-pygments.
A basic example for C code is:
\begin{minted}{c}
....
\end{minted}
Of course, it can take a lot of options that you can find in the
minted's documentation present at:
http://mirrors.ctan.org/macros/latex/contrib/minted/minted.pdf
Emacs usage in LaTeX
====================
Install the AUCTex package which contains an improved Emacs
environment for editing LaTeX documents:
sudo apt install auctex
In your ~/.emacs.el file, add the following lines:
(load "auctex.el" nil t t)
(require 'latex)
(add-to-list 'LaTeX-verbatim-macros-with-braces "code")
(add-to-list 'LaTeX-verbatim-macros-with-braces "url")
The important point here is that this tells Emacs to consider the
\code{} and \url{} macros as a verbatim macro, so that even if special
characters such as $, _ or % are not escaped inside these macros,
Emacs text colorization will not go crazy.
Nice keyboard shortcuts with AUCTex:
* C-c RET to insert a macro, or embed the selected text into a
macro. Very useful to quickly place a few words inside a \code{}
macro
* C-c C-e to insert an environment, such as verbatim, or embed the
selected text into such an environment.
Diagrams
========
The recommended program to do diagrams is Dia:
apt install dia
When saving a file, please make sure to unselect the "Compressed saved
files" option, so that the .dia files are raw XML files, and not
gzipped compressed files. Having raw XML files is much better for
version control, and will allow, to some extent, merging .dia diagrams
after conflicts.
The fonts to be used are "Latin Modern Sans" for normal text and
"Inconsolata" for the code/paths.
Here are some suggested color couples you can use for the border and
background of boxes and other elements. Using similar colors for all
diagrams will make our training documents much more coherent and nice
to look at.
* Blue boxes
borders: #5CACFF
background: #ADD8E6
* Yellowish boxes
borders: #D9CB2F
background: #FFF8A8
* Grey boxes
borders: #868686
background: #E5E5E5
* Brownish boxes
borders: #A34804
background: #FFD192
* Purple boxes
borders: #2F004A
background: #EFB9FF
* Green boxes
borders: #6A8954
background: #C5E387
* Red/pink boxes
borders: #CC1F1A
background: #FFACAC
If you want to easily add all these colors to Dia, add the following
fragment to ~/.dia/persistence (or replace the existing
role="color-menu" XML tag):
------------------8<-----------------8<-----------------------------
<dia:list role="color-menu">
<dia:attribute name="listvalue">
<dia:string>##5CACFF
#ADD8E6
#D9CB2F
#FFF8A8
#868686
#E5E5E5
#A34804
#FFD192
#2F004A
#EFB9FF
#6A8954
#C5E387
#CC1F1A
#FFACAC#</dia:string>
</dia:attribute>
</dia:list>
------------------8<-----------------8<-----------------------------
