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RIoTboard Yocto Build on openSUSE 13.2 x86_64 Host

stmorgan

This post describes a procedure to generate a Linux SD card image for RIoTboard using Yocto on an openSUSE 13.2 x86_64 host.  This procedure is just a clone of the excellent procedure documented by Bryan Hinton (referred to below as B.H. for brevity) with a handful of alterations to accommodate a different host OS, more modest host hardware, minor changes in the resulting Yocto build and one or two issues peculiar to my combination of hardware and software.  Bryan's document enumerates the features of this particular Yocto build and should be consulted prior to reading the procedure below:

 

https://community.freescale.com/docs/DOC-103530

 

The procedure described below was motivated in part by a desire to see if a RIoTboard build environment for Linux could be created in openSUSE 13.2 as this is the distribution on all of my modern computers.  The procedure was also motivated by a desire to come up with an alternative to the Yocto-generated Linux 3.10.17 image provided at riotboard.org since that image causes my RIoTboard to hang when using an HDMI-to-DVI cable for video output (the available Android and Linux 3.0.35 images produce proper video output).

 

Conventions

 

In an effort to make it clear where my procedure differs from that of B.H, I will use the same numbering scheme for corresponding sections in B.H.'s document.  I will also make differing command lines or code bold in order to highlight changes.

 

1. Hardware and software prerequisites.

 

I used a Gateway NE56R12u laptop running openSUSE 13.2 x86_64 as the host machine.  This laptop has a 2.1 GHz Intel B950 dual-core Pentium processor and 8 GB of physical memory.  The OS partition has 40 GB, and the /home partition has 135 GB almost all of which was available prior to creating the build environment.  Internet connection was 1.5 Mbps down/256 kbps up.

 

uname output for the host openSUSE 13.2 x86_64 OS is as follows:

stmorgan@linux-wdyv:~> uname -ia

Linux linux-wdyv.site 3.16.7-32-desktop #1 SMP PREEMPT Wed Jan 20 14:05:33 UTC 2016 (d4df98a) x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

 

2. Required Packages for a 64-bit openSUSE 13.2 Host development system.

 

I used the following commands to install the package list for openSUSE from the Yocto Project Mega Manual without changes:

 

sudo zypper install python gcc gcc-c++ git chrpath make wget python-xml

sudo zypper install diffstat makeinfo python-curses patch socat libSDL-devel xterm

 

3. Pull the Freescale community BSP platform source code from github.

 

curl https://storage.googleapis.com/git-repo-downloads/repo > ~/bin/repo

chmod a+x $HOME/bin/repo

echo "PATH=$PATH:$HOME/bin" >> $HOME/.bashrc

source .bashrc

mkdir -p $HOME/src/fsl-community-bsp

cd $HOME/src/fsl-community-bsp

repo init -u https://github.com/Freescale/fsl-community-bsp-platform -b fido

repo sync

 

4. Setup the build environment using the predefined imx6dl-riotboard machine.

 

MACHINE=imx6dl-riotboard . ./setup-environment build

 

5. Create a new layer for the custom Linux distribution.

cd $HOME/src/fsl-community-bsp/sources

mkdir -p meta-bsec/conf/distro

mkdir -p meta-bsec/recipes-bsec/images

cd poky/meta/recipes-extended/images

cp core-image-full-cmdline.bb ../../../../meta-bsec/recipes-bsec/images/bsec-image.bb

 

6. Customize the image in the meta-bsec layer.

 

cd $HOME/src/fsl-community-bsp/sources/meta-bsec/recipes-bsec/images

 

Edit bsec-image.bb as follows.

 

DESCRIPTION = "A console-only image with more full-featured Linux system \

functionality installed."

 

IMAGE_FEATURES += "dev-pkgs tools-sdk tools-debug tools-profile tools-testapps \

debug-tweaks splash ssh-server-openssh package-management"

 

IMAGE_INSTALL = "\

  packagegroup-core-boot \

  packagegroup-core-full-cmdline \

  packagegroup-core-tools-profile \

  packagegroup-core-buildessential \

  kernel-modules \

  ${CORE_IMAGE_EXTRA_INSTALL} \

  kernel-devsrc \

  "

 

inherit core-image

 

# Add extra space to the rootfs image

IMAGE_ROOTFS_EXTRA_SPACE_append += "+ 3000000"

 

7. Create layer.conf file in the meta-bsec layer.

 

Create sources/meta-bsec/conf/layer.conf with the following contents:

 

BBPATH .= ":${LAYERDIR}"

BBFILES += "${LAYERDIR}/recipes-*/*/*.bb \

  ${LAYERDIR}/recipes-*/*/*.bbappend"

BBFILE_COLLECTIONS += "bsec"

BBFILE_PATTERN_bsec = "^${LAYERDIR}/"

BBFILE_PRIORITY_bsec = "6"

 

8. Create the distribution configuration file in the meta-bsec layer.

 

Create sources/meta-bsec/conf/distro/bsecdist.conf with the following contents:

 

require conf/distro/poky.conf

# distro name

DISTRO = "bsecdist"

DISTRO_NAME = "bsecdist distribution"

DISTRO_VERSION = "1.0"

DISTRO_CODENAME = "bsc"

DISTRO_FEATURES_append = " alsa usbhost usbgadget keyboard bluetooth"

SDK_VENDOR = "-bsecdistsdk"

SDK_VERSION := "${@'${DISTRO_VERSION}'.replace('snapshot-${DATE}','snapshot')}"

MAINTAINER = "bsecdist "

INHERIT += "buildhistory"

BUILDHISTORY_COMMIT = "1"

 

9. Add the new layer to bblayers.conf.

 

cd $HOME/src/fsl-community-bsp/build/conf

 

Edit bblayers.conf as follows.

 

LCONF_VERSION = "6"


BBPATH = "${TOPDIR}"

BSPDIR := "${@os.path.abspath(os.path.dirname(d.getVar('FILE', True)) + '/../..')}"


BBFILES ?= ""

BBLAYERS = " \

  ${BSPDIR}/sources/poky/meta \

  ${BSPDIR}/sources/poky/meta-yocto \

  \

${BSPDIR}/sources/meta-openembedded/meta-oe \

${BSPDIR}/sources/meta-openembedded/meta-multimedia \

  \

  ${BSPDIR}/sources/meta-fsl-arm \

  ${BSPDIR}/sources/meta-fsl-arm-extra \

  ${BSPDIR}/sources/meta-fsl-demos \

  ${BSPDIR}/sources/meta-bsec \

"

 

10. Customize the local configuration.

 

Edit local.conf as follows:

 

MACHINE ??= 'imx6dl-riotboard'

DISTRO ?= 'bsecdist'

PACKAGE_CLASSES ?= "package_rpm package_deb"

EXTRA_IMAGE_FEATURES = " "

USER_CLASSES ?= "buildstats image-mklibs image-prelink"

PATCHRESOLVE = "noop"

BB_DISKMON_DIRS = "\

  STOPTASKS,${TMPDIR},1G,100K \

  STOPTASKS,${DL_DIR},1G,100K \

  STOPTASKS,${SSTATE_DIR},1G,100K \

  ABORT,${TMPDIR},100M,1K \

  ABORT,${DL_DIR},100M,1K \

  ABORT,${SSTATE_DIR},100M,1K"

PACKAGECONFIG_append_pn-qemu-native = " sdl"

PACKAGECONFIG_append_pn-nativesdk-qemu = " sdl"

ASSUME_PROVIDED += "libsdl-native"

CONF_VERSION = "1"

BB_NUMBER_THREADS = '2'

PARALLEL_MAKE = '-j 2'

DL_DIR ?= "${BSPDIR}/downloads/"

ACCEPT_FSL_EULA = "1"

# archive source code for all of the packages that will be built into the image

INHERIT += "archiver"

ARCHIVER_MODE[src] = "original"

# ensure that license files accompany each binary in final image

COPY_LIC_MANIFEST = "1"

COPY_LIC_DIRS = "1"

# setup source mirror

# make sure that bitbake checks for all of the source tarballs in a local directory

# before going to the Internet to fetch them.

SOURCE_MIRROR_URL ?= "file://${BSPDIR}/source-mirror/"

INHERIT += "own-mirrors"

# create a shareable cache of source code management backends

BB_GENERATE_MIRROR_TARBALLS = "1"

 

As B.H. had a quad-core processor and a fast Internet connection, it made sense for him to increase the number of processes, but I just kept the defaults given my modest setup.

 

11. Execute the build.

 

cd $HOME/src/fsl-community-bsp/build

time bitbake bsec-image

 

Here is the build console output for the curious:

 

stmorgan@linux-wdyv:~/src/fsl-community-bsp/build> time bitbake bsec-image

WARNING: Host distribution "openSUSE-project-13.2" has not been validated with this version of the build system; you may possibly experience unexpected failures. It is recommended that you use a tested distribution. 

Parsing recipes: 100% |#########################################| Time: 00:03:16

Parsing of 1603 .bb files complete (0 cached, 1603 parsed). 2088 targets, 140 skipped, 0 masked, 0 errors.

NOTE: Resolving any missing task queue dependencies

NOTE: multiple providers are available for jpeg (jpeg, libjpeg-turbo)

NOTE: consider defining a PREFERRED_PROVIDER entry to match jpeg

NOTE: multiple providers are available for jpeg-native (jpeg-native, libjpeg-turbo-native)

NOTE: consider defining a PREFERRED_PROVIDER entry to match jpeg-native


Build Configuration:

BB_VERSION = "1.26.0"

BUILD_SYS = "x86_64-linux"

NATIVELSBSTRING = "openSUSE-project-13.2"

TARGET_SYS = "arm-poky-linux-gnueabi"

MACHINE = "imx6dl-riotboard"

DISTRO = "bsecdist"

DISTRO_VERSION = "1.0"

TUNE_FEATURES = "arm armv7a vfp thumb neon callconvention-hard cortexa9"

TARGET_FPU = "vfp-neon"

meta

meta-yocto = "(nobranch):528bdf528d8bfca7746543f61609b9aceb54d53b"

meta-oe

meta-multimedia = "(nobranch):a7c1a2b0e6947740758136216e45ca6ca66321fc"

meta-fsl-arm = "(nobranch):c9f259a4bf8472dfa3ff75f1c3fcbe5e0ded7aaf"

meta-fsl-arm-extra = "(nobranch):ad90ca98459f5de9483bb3ba5a81be0a67b078c3"

meta-fsl-demos = "(nobranch):17f9da65efb5c65c1d44b5cc18584034b29a742b"

meta-bsec = "<unknown>:<unknown>"


NOTE: Preparing RunQueue

NOTE: Executing SetScene Tasks

NOTE: Executing RunQueue Tasks

WARNING: Failed to fetch URL http://downloads.sourceforge.net/project/libpng/libpng16/1.6.16/libpng-1.6.16.tar.xz, attempting MIRRORS if available

WARNING: Failed to fetch URL ftp://ftp.freedesktop.org/pub/mesa/10.4.4/MesaLib-10.4.4.tar.bz2, attempting MIRRORS if available

WARNING: Failed to fetch URL http://www.apache.org/dist/apr/apr-1.5.1.tar.bz2, attempting MIRRORS if available

WARNING: Failed to fetch URL http://www.apache.org/dist/subversion/subversion-1.8.11.tar.bz2, attempting MIRRORS if available

WARNING: Failed to fetch URL http://www.cpan.org/authors/id/D/DM/DMEGG/SGMLSpm-1.03ii.tar.gz, attempting MIRRORS if available

WARNING: Failed to fetch URL http://downloads.sourceforge.net/levent/libevent-2.0.21-stable.tar.gz, attempting MIRRORS if available

WARNING: lttng-modules: no modules were created; this may be due to CONFIG_TRACEPOINTS not being enabled in your kernel.

WARNING: QA Issue: perf rdepends on liblzma, but it isn't a build dependency? [build-deps]

WARNING: log_check: There is a warn message in the logfile

WARNING: log_check: Matched keyword: [warn]

WARNING: log_check: warning: libstdc++-dev-4.9.2-r0@cortexa9hf_vfp_neon is already installed


WARNING: log_check: There is a warn message in the logfile

WARNING: log_check: Matched keyword: [warn]

WARNING: log_check: warning: gettext-dev-0.19.4-r0@cortexa9hf_vfp_neon is already installed


WARNING: log_check: There is a warn message in the logfile

WARNING: log_check: Matched keyword: [warn]

WARNING: log_check: warning: libgomp-dev-4.9.2-r0@cortexa9hf_vfp_neon is already installed


WARNING: log_check: There is a warn message in the logfile

WARNING: log_check: Matched keyword: [warn]

WARNING: log_check: warning: libc6-dev-2.21-r0@cortexa9hf_vfp_neon is already installed


WARNING: log_check: There is a warn message in the logfile

WARNING: log_check: Matched keyword: [warn]

WARNING: log_check: warning: libgcc-s-dev-4.9.2-r0@cortexa9hf_vfp_neon is already installed


WARNING: log_check: There is a warn message in the logfile

WARNING: log_check: Matched keyword: [warn]

WARNING: log_check: warning: libubsan-dev-4.9.2-r0@cortexa9hf_vfp_neon is already installed


WARNING: log_check: There is a warn message in the logfile

WARNING: log_check: Matched keyword: [warn]

WARNING: log_check: warning: libasan-dev-4.9.2-r0@cortexa9hf_vfp_neon is already installed


NOTE: Tasks Summary: Attempted 6410 tasks of which 18 didn't need to be rerun and all succeeded.

NOTE: Writing buildhistory


Summary: There were 30 WARNING messages shown.


real 600m58.864s

user 596m9.764s

sys 93m20.155s

 

B.H.'s build took 4 hours, while mine took 10 hours.  A subsequent re-build without changes took less than 90 minutes and only about 200 tasks needed execution as opposed to the 6410 required initially.

 

B.H. also enumerates a list of five files that define input specifications in this step.  I made no changes to any of these files.

 

12.  Write the GNU/Linux BSP image to an SD card.

 

This step was the only real hurdle in the entire process.  The bottom line is that I was unable to get a dd command to create a usable SD card unless I deleted all partitions on the card prior to executing dd.  The Partitioner tool in the YaST Control Center can be used to delete partitions on the SD card as needed in openSUSE.

 

lsblk --fs

cd $HOME/src/fsl-community-bsp/build/tmp/deploy/images/imx6dl-riotboard

sudo dd if=bsec-image-imx6dl-riotboard.sdcard of=/dev/sdb bs=1M

sudo sync

 

The lsblk command is used to insure that the SD card has no partitions (partitions would show up as sdb1, sdb2, etc.).

 

13. Set the physical switches on the RioTboard to boot from the uSD or SD card.

 

I was using an SD card, so I set the switches accordingly (1 0 1 0 0 1 0 1).

 

14. Connect the target to the necessary peripherals for boot.

 

Since the Yocto-generated Linux 3.10.17 image did not produce usable video or boot on my board, I made a point of creating a serial connection to the RIoTboard J18 port in addition to connecting the HDMI-to-DVI cable, and that setup is documented here:

 

https://www.element14.com/community/community/designcenter/single-board-computers/riotboard/blog/2016/02/14/jbtek-serial-tty-to-usb-cable-setup-on-riotboard

 

I was pleasantly surprised to find that the openSUSE BSP image not only booted, it generated the proper video output on the HDMI-to-DVI cable as well.  In addition to a USB keyboard and mouse, I connected a microphone/headphone set with 3.5mm connectors to test the RIoTboard audio input/output.

 

15. Test audio recording, audio playback, and Internet connectivity.

 

Type root to log in to the target. The root password is not set.

 

Execute the following command on the RIoTboard:

 

alsamixer

 

Press F6.

Press arrow down so that 0 imx6-riotboard-sgtl5000 is highlighted.

Press Enter.

Increase Headphone level to 79<>79.

Increase PCM level to 75<>75.

Press Tab.

Increase Mic level to 59.

Increase Capture to 80<>80.

Press Esc.

 

At this point B.H. used sample sounds available in the build to test the audio output, but these samples are not present in the latest build. I therefore skipped this step and proceeded to the microphone test since it actually tests both recording and playback of .WAV files.

 

cd /usr/share/alsa

mkdir tmp

cd tmp

arecord -d 10 micintest.wav

 

Talk into the microphone for ten seconds.

 

aplay micintest.wav

 

You should hear your recording played through the headphones.

 

ping riotboard.org

 

You should get an ICMP reply.

 

root@imx6dl-riotboard:~# uname -ia

Linux imx6dl-riotboard 4.1.2-fslc+g95d9e15 #1 SMP Sat Feb 13 02:40:39 EST 2016 armv7l GNU/Linux

 

Conclusion

 

openSUSE 13.2 can be used to create a Linux BSP for the RIoTboard using Yocto and Bryan Hinton's procedure as a basis.  If you have been disappointed by the lack of a pre-built Yocto Linux image, I would encourage you to set up a build environment in your Linux distribution (whatever it may be) and create your own BSP, assuming you have the necessary memory and disk space.

  • in reply to stmorgan

    Due to the impending end-of-support for openSUSE 13.2, I have updated all my installations to openSUSE Leap 42.2.  The above procedure also works with openSUSE Leap 42.2 x86_64 on identical hardware in a from-scratch build.

     

    Just to clarify, all of the following bold commands must be altered due to the slight directory structure alteration mentioned above ("image" instead of "images"):

    5. Create a new layer for the custom Linux distribution.

    cd $HOME/src/fsl-community-bsp/sources

    mkdir -p meta-bsec/conf/distro

    mkdir -p meta-bsec/recipes-bsec/image

    cd poky/meta/recipes-extended/images

    cp core-image-full-cmdline.bb ../../../../meta-bsec/recipes-bsec/image/bsec-image.bb

     

    6. Customize the image in the meta-bsec layer.

     

    cd $HOME/src/fsl-community-bsp/sources/meta-bsec/recipes-bsec/image

  • in reply to stmorgan

    On reviewing the document of commands I used a few days ago, I realize that I made a crucial change (and error) in the procedure above.  In Step 3 (Pull the Freescale community BSP platform source code from github) above I used

     

    repo init -u https://github.com/Freescale/fsl-community-bsp-platform -b morty

     

    instead of the original

     

    repo init -u https://github.com/Freescale/fsl-community-bsp-platform -b fido

     

    When I created the initial post in this thread, a number of months had elapsed since Bryan Hinton had last updated his procedure, and Fido was no longer the latest Yocto release.  I waffled on whether to use the latest branch (which the Yocto documentation encourages), but decided to stick with B.H.'s procedure, at least until I came across something that didn't work.  I had the same internal debate a few days ago, but again decided to stick with Fido.  However, in researching the latest release, I had changed the branch option to Morty (the latest release) in my document of commands to use and neglected to change it back.

     

    I re-executed the procedure in the initial post from scratch last night taking care to use the Fido branch, and the results are much better.  The first two issues I reported in the last post don't exist, but the third issue still applies:

     

    3.  In Section 5 above (Create a new layer for the custom Linux distribution), the directory structure has apparently changed, so

    mkdir -p meta-bsec/recipes-bsec/images

     

    needs to be

     

    mkdir -p meta-bsec/recipes-bsec/image

    Fido was updated to Version 1.8.2 after I created the first post in this thread, so that is presumably the source of this change.  It's also worth noting that Fido is now the oldest active Yocto release and probably won't be active for much longer.

     

    So if you want to use the procedure above, make sure to stick with the Fido branch of Yocto, otherwise all bets are off.  Sorry for the mistake.

  • After a scant ten months, I attempted to use this procedure only to discover that it no longer works as it did previously:

     

    1.  The procedure does create a build, but the resulting SD card image does not work.  Note also that the SD card image is now apparently gzipped by default.  I was able to manually construct a functional SD card image from the files in the build but there are additional issues....

     

    2.  The process above does not generate a build with the same TUNE_FEATURES and TARGET_FPU as it did in February 2016.  The thumb, callconvention-hard and cortexa9 TUNE_FEATURES are missing.  The TARGET_FPU has changed from vfp-neon to softfp.

     

    3.  In Section 5 above (Create a new layer for the custom Linux distribution), the directory structure has apparently changed, so

    mkdir -p meta-bsec/recipes-bsec/images

     

    needs to be

     

    mkdir -p meta-bsec/recipes-bsec/image

     

    I came across a thread where someone else has noticed Issue 1 as well:

     

    https://lists.yoctoproject.org/pipermail/meta-freescale/2016-August/thread.html#18848

     

    The OP's solution to add SOC_FAMILY = "mx6:mx6dl" to meta-fsl-arm-extra/conf/machine/imx6dl-riotboard.conf does cause the correct TUNE_FEATURES to be incorporated, although the TARGET_FPU changes from vfp-neon to hard.  Unfortunately, I am getting an error during the build which prevents it from completing (this may be a transitory issue concerning file availability at a mirror).

     

    I also noticed an interesting commit to meta-freescale-3rdparty from October 19 2016:

     

    https://github.com/Freescale/meta-freescale-3rdparty/commits/master

     

    imx6dl-riotboard: Migrate to use wic image creator tool

    Use wic image creator tool instead of image_types_fsl class to create
    sdcard images. wic uses imx-uboot.wks file and this new layout
    has only one partition, so all files will be installed on the same
    partition. We need to set MACHINE_ESSENTIAL_EXTRA_RDEPENDS to install
    kernel image and devitree and u-boot to root part, set wic.gz as
    IMAGE_FSTYPES and set correct WKS_FILES.

    It isn't obvious whether this is intended to be an additional option or if it is supposed to replace the two-partition scheme used in .sdcard output.

     

    The bottom line is that you will probably have to wade through a fair amount of documentation if you are new to Yocto or even if you haven't used it in a while.