Poky manual

Description

Build the firmware for Elphel 10393 series camera systems from scratch.

Prebuilt releases can be found here.

Use cases

• Update Linux Kernel when developing a driver
• Include application to the default firmware package
• Update Elphel's PHP extension
• C/C++ applications if developed on PC require a cross-compiler and require Yocto installation or some other alternative.

Other projects written in Python, PHP, Javascript, HTML, C/C++ (gcc is installed on the system board) can be developed on the camera. Installing the framework is not required but it can simplify the development process.

Description

• Building embedded Linux image for Zynq ARMv7 platform - Elphel 10393 board
• Yocto Poky revision = 2.7.1 (Warrior) - builds in Kubuntu 20.04. Older OSes are not supported. Roll back to get built in 16.04.
• Yocto Poky revision = 2.4 (Rocko) - builds in Kubuntu 16.04. Won't build in 18.04 or 20.04.
• Yocto Poky revision = 2.0 (Jethro)

Features

• Environment is set up with a single script
• All Elphel projects are configured for Eclipse IDE:
  • fpga projects (verilog)
  • kernel
  • applications projects
• All steps for fpga projects are run from Eclipse IDE
  • Read about setting up Eclipse based FPGA development
  • VDT Plugin repository

• Once everything is built it supports updating software projects (files and binaries) on the target system
  • access is set up in yocto's local.conf (see setup.py output) + ssh-copy-id
  • bitbake some-app -c target_scp from the command line or Eclipse IDE - see examples in elphel-apps-... at Git

Requirements

• Kubuntu 20.04 x64
• Kubuntu 18.04 x64 (as of Dec 2018) - Poky: 2.7.1 Warrior (not tested but might build w/o problems)
• Kubuntu 16.04 x64 (as of Dec 2018) - Poky: 2.4 Rocko, 2.7.1 Warrior

Output files

The names are listed as they appear in the u-boot configuration header file - actual output files have different names:

File(s)	Build Command	Description
boot.bin	bitbake u-boot	u-boot as the first stage bootloader = Secondary Program Loader (SPL) that boots u-boot-dtb.img
u-boot-dtb.img	bitbake u-boot	full size u-boot with a stripped device tree (cat u-boot.img some_stripped_devicetree.dtb > u-boot-dtb.img)
devicetree.dtb	bitbake device-tree	device tree with listed interfaces, zynq registers, interrupts and drivers elphel393/bootable-images/mmc/devicetree.dtb - mount rootfs from mmc partition elphel393/bootable-images/nand/devicetree.dtb - mount rootfs from NAND flash
uImage	bitbake linux-xlnx	kernel, drivers
rootfs.ubifs, rootfs.ubi, rootfs.tar.gz	bitbake core-image-elphel393	rootfs in different formats - *.ubi* for NAND, *.tar.gz for mmc

The file are located at elphel393/bootable-images/, which is a link to poky's deploy directory elphel393/poky/build/tmp/deploy/images/elphel393/

• complete set of files for rootfs in NAND Flash: elphel393/bootable-images/nand/
• complete set of files for rootfs on MMC (micro SD card): elphel393/bootable-images/mmc/

Write files to media and boot

Boot from micro SD card

• Use recovery or regular μSD card
• EXT4 partition mounted as /

Detailed instructions

Boot from NAND flash

• The default boot option - power on.
• A UBIFS image is written to /dev/mtd4 - is mounted as /

Detailed instructions

Notes

• Read more about boot options.

Setup

• Poky 2.7.1 Warrior (Kubuntu 20.04)

git clone -b warrior https://git.elphel.com/Elphel/elphel393.git
cd elphel393
./setup.py
cd poky
. ./oe-init-build-env
bitbake u-boot device-tree linux-xlnx core-image-elphel393

• Poky 2.4 Rocko (Kubuntu 16.04)

git clone -b rocko https://git.elphel.com/Elphel/elphel393.git
cd elphel393
./setup.py
cd poky
. ./oe-init-build-env
bitbake u-boot device-tree linux-xlnx core-image-elphel393

• Notes: When trying to run bitbake on a new install got problems with older bitbake version (current build uses specific snapshot) and python3.8. So I install old python2.7 and linked it:

sudo apt install python2.7
sudo ln -s python2.7 python2
sudo ln -s python2.7 python

After this bitbake just complained about missing tools (git, build-essential were already installed):

sudo apt install chrpath diffstat gawk makeinfo

Program test_mcntrl.py that builds x393.h header files from FPGA code that runs during ./setup.py requires numpy and results in error output if missing Still setup.py continues, you need to look through its output few lines after

* x393
git host: git.elphel.com
Clone and checkout: x393

You may install numpy with

sudo apt install python3-numpy

Compare built vs deployed software versions

cd elphel393
./check_versions.py root@192.168.0.9

check_versions.py output in terminal (web-393 revision on PC is ahead of the one installed on the camera)

Details for development

Development for 10393