If you already know "standard" linux, know how to compile a program,
www.linuxdevices.com has very interesting news and articles, follow a couple of links and for a hands-on aproach check this little ideia:
http://www.linuxdevices.com/articles/AT6093506327.html
otherwise get a linux distro and learn the basics, something like slackware will help a lot and is a good development environment.
good luck for your project