Linux on RIoT

If really needed I could write a blog entry on how to do this.

hi Otto Römmich  sir ,

where can i find that blog??

i got this board and looking for a debian support like in BBB .

@gerrie

same here,  the ubuntu is pretty old, debian & arch linux are good.

You can´t find it because I didn´t write it.
I think I can write it tomorrow though.

By the way if you only need debian, I had something to create a somwhat minimal debian system.

I described there how to create an image file with that you can replace the original oneiric.tgz when flashing with MFGTool.

Re: Hard Float on RIoTboard

Then you have the embest kernel, but a Debian rootfs system.

This is abolutely minimal. Nothing installed but the essential stuff.
But apt is working.

Ok, I manage to build the 3.17 kernel doing the following ( I also attach the extra file required to process this procedure).

I cross complied with the linaro toolchain ( google to install it). I installed it in my home directory home/gerrie/riot/fsl-linaro-toolchain/bin.

The attach script will create a linux folder in the directory where you run the script, it could be anywhere on the linux PC., remember to make it executable (chmod +x crossit.sh)

Note: first just run the get_image, then copy the file, and then run the rest of the script.

#!/bin/sh

#--------------------------------------

get_image () {

  git clone git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git

  cd linux

  git remote add sgo git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/shawnguo/linux.git

  git fetch sgo

  git checkout -b imx v3.16

  git merge sgo/for-next

}

#----------------------

export PATH=/home/gerrie/riot/fsl-linaro-toolchain/bin/:$PATH

export ARCH=arm

export CROSS_COMPILE=arm-none-linux-gnueabi-

CC=arm-none-linux-gnueabi-

# uncomment to get the latest image for the kernel

get_image

The above will clone the latest kernel and merge with Shawn latest commits.

Please note the CROSS_COMPILE '-'  in arm-none-linux-gnueabi-, this is correct, the make file will attach the rest of the command, like gcc etc, this took me a while, as everybody thinks everybody knows this, but it just confused me.

One should now have the latest source code, copy the attache riot_defconfig  into /linux/arch/arm/configs before proceeding. You might want to change this config during menu-config, but this might be a good starting point.

Run the rest of the script file now, ( I usually just copy comment the get_image to prevent it to run again.. Note the cloning, make kernel and module shall take a while, so be prepared

I first did this on the RiOT itself, but this takes a loooooong time, if you want to use the RiOT, just remove the ARCH..= and CROSS...= from the script

echo ">===== Clean it up ============================="

make ARCH=arm CROSS_COMPILE=${CC} distclean

make ARCH=arm CROSS_COMPILE=${CC} riot_defconfig

make ARCH=arm CROSS_COMPILE=${CC} menuconfig

echo ">===== Compile it .. time for pizza & coffee ==="

make ARCH=arm CROSS_COMPILE=${CC} -j4 bzImage

echo ">===== Create Outputs & Modules ==============="

mkdir -p output/boot

cp arch/arm/boot/zImage output/boot/

cp System.map output/boot

make ARCH=arm CROSS_COMPILE=${CC} modules

make ARCH=arm CROSS_COMPILE=${CC} modules_install INSTALL_MOD_PATH=output

echo ">===== Create Kernel Headers ==================="

make ARCH=arm CROSS_COMPILE=${CC} headers_install INSTALL_HDR_PATH=output/usr

echo ">===== Create Device Tree======================="

make ARCH=arm CROSS_COMPILE=${CC} dtbs

cp arch/arm/boot/dts/imx6dl-riotboard.dtb output/boot

cd output

tar jcf ../linux-kernel-3.17-riot.txz *

You now should have a image ready in the output directory. It boot up with

Debian Linux 7 riotboard ttymxc1

riotboard login: root

Password:

Last login: Sat Sep  6 21:26:11 UTC 2014 on ttymxc1

Linux riotboard 3.17.0-rc3+ #1 SMP Sat Sep 6 15:57:42 SAST 2014 armv7l

root@riotboard:~#

Please note, I am not a Linux guru, any comments is welcome, I could not yet get my LVDS working yet, but maybe someone can help.

how did you add the debian fiel system  to it ??

Regards

Kyle

I was fortunate enough to download and create the Selsinork one, but all was deleted from the element14 web site. I am not sure If I can re-distribute it.

i can build the kernel but unable to put it into sdcard, bootloader doesn't find it .

i tried some arm file systems available in armhf.com.

the link http://s3.armhf.com/dist/basefs/ubuntu-trusty-14.04-armhf.com-20140603.tar.xz.

copied into card but not response .

i am stuck up with this board .

i can build the kernel but unable to put it into sdcard, bootloader doesn't find it .

i tried some arm file systems available in armhf.com.

the link http://s3.armhf.com/dist/basefs/ubuntu-trusty-14.04-armhf.com-20140603.tar.xz.

copied into card but not response .

i am stuck up with this board .

i can build the kernel but unable to put it into sdcard, bootloader doesn't find it

This depends on your u-boot configuration.

The u-boot you get from e14 doesn´t search for a file, but for a specific starting sector on the sdcard.

But this does not use the device tree blob file.

The u-boot you can compile from the mainline source, uses a bootscript.

This bootscript is located in the u-boot environment variables. (Most likely /boot on the root partition)

You have to put the bootscript and the kernel with the dtb file into this folder.

Have you read my blog here?

Mainline Kernel and U-Boot with MFGTool

I describe there pretty precisely what the steps are to get your own compiled kernel with your own compiled u-boot and your own rootfs to run on the board.

I describe it using MFGTool.

But if you understand the xml commands you will also know how to do this in Linux directly on an sdcard. (If you want that of course)

I used the following using OpenSuse on Linux:

You need :

1. u-boot.imx

2. linux-kernel-xxx.txz

3. rootfs_xxx.txz

4. a blank uSD/SD card

A. Run

    fdisk -l

     >> should list all available device, usually the last one

to get the SD card device x = b,c...g etc  Identify the device /dev/sdx

     dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sdx bs=1M count=100

100+0 records in

100+0 records out

104857600 bytes (105 MB) copied, 17,2134 s, 6,1 MB/s

B. Write the u-boot.imx

    dd if=u-boot.imx of=/dev/mmcblk0 bs=1k seek=1

323+0 records in

323+0 records out

330752 bytes (331 kB) copied, 0,116274 s, 2,8 MB/s

C. Create a filesystem on our newly created partition.

run

    mkfs.ext4 /dev/sdx

Mount the partition:

    mount /dev/sdx /mnt

D. Untar the filesystem into our newly mounted partition

   tar xf xxx-rootfs.txz -C /mnt

    ls /mnt

    >> should produce  

bin/   dev/  home/  lost+found/  mnt/  proc/  run/   selinux/  sys/  usr/

boot/  etc/  lib/   media/       opt/  root/  sbin/  srv/      tmp/  var/ etc

E.   tar xf linux-kernel-imx-xxx.txz -C /mnt

  ls /mnt/boot

   >> should produce

System.map  imx6dl-riotboard.dtb  zImage*

F. Unmount the uSD card (SD card)

  umount /dev/sdx

Done!

Make sure boot switches to boot from uSD/SD

Reboot

   and check UBoot messages on the 'TTL' serial port

   U-Boot 2014.04-00075-g4057f9f-dirty (May 31 2014 - 14:21:56)

Starting kernel ...

Forgot, Step C need a

       fdisk /dev/sdx

before the mkfs

       new partition, primary  1, etc bla bla bla

The start is very important, it must be 2048, the rest could be default

Device         Boot    Start       End  Blocks  Id System

/dev/sdx                  2048   xxxx       yyy   83 Linux

Hi Gerrie,

I´m trying right now to get u-boot to boot my kernel.

I´ve got this to work a hundred times before. But now it won´t work anymore.

As always I compiled u-boot myself, but they changed something.

Looking at the u-boot args I think it´s expecting an extra partition in fat32 where the bootscript and kernel is located.

(Similar to the raspberry pi I think.)

I don´t like that. Not at all...

Could you upload your u-boot.imx so I can compare yours with mine?

And also have you created it yourself from the source at http://git.denx.de/u-boot.git?

Or is it some other file?

Attached the image  am using . Unfortunately I have not yet compile my own UBoot yet, but this might be helpfull

v2014.04 has no support of the RIoT. However Eric Bénard posted patches Gmane --  PATCH v2 4 8  RiOTboard and MarSBoard: add new boards support .

Gmane -- PATCH v2 4 8 RiOTboard and MarSBoard: add new boards support

dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sdx bs=1M count=100
Write our newly created u-boot.imx file onto the card.

dd if=u-boot.imx of=/dev/mmcblk0 bs=1k seek=1

Hope this help

The image I have

Thanks for the file.

But I already sorted that out though.

The patches you mentioned are already in mainline code by the way.

So that´s not a problem.

The reason I asked is I´m writing some blogs where you compile everything yourself.

Starting with u-boot over to the kernel, a debian rootfs and and then flashing everything together.

And I have been using the mainline code since the patches are in there.

But they changed the boot process in u-boot completely.

That´s something I hate with u-boot by the way. Wasn´t the first time they changed it so previous methods wouldn´t work anymore...

(They even removed a command i used in my bootscript)

I first didn´t want´to describe on how to change the boot process.

But I decided that I take this as a chance and teach in these blogs additionally how u-boot works and will write what has to be changed.

Thanks again for the reply