Building TX8M/QS8M Series¶
We provide a script, karo-nxp-release.sh, that simplifies the setup for our machines. To use the script, the name
of the specific machine to be built for needs to be specified as well as the desired graphical backend. The script sets up a
directory and the configuration files for the specified machine and backend. [1] It also adds our layer to the bblayers.conf
file.
There are different configurations you can choose from.
- DISTRO configurations:
DISTRO= |
Description |
|---|---|
| fsl-imx-x11 | X11 graphics are not supported on i.MX 8 |
| fsl-imx-wayland | Wayland weston graphics |
| fsl-imx-xwayland | Wayland graphics and X11. X11 applications using EGL are not supported |
| fsl-imx-fb | Frame Buffer graphics - no X11 or Wayland. Frame Buffer is not supported on i.MX 8 |
- A list of supported MACHINE configurations:
MACHINE= |
Description |
|---|---|
| qs8m-mq00 | QS8M-MQ00 i.MX8M Mini Solder-in Module on QSBase2 Mainboard |
| tx8m-1610 | TX8M-1610 i.MX8M Mini CoM on MIPI-LVDS-Mainboard |
| tx8m-nd00 | TX8M-ND00 i.MX8M Nano CoM on MIPI-LVDS-Mainboard |
| tx8m-1620 | TX8M-1620 i.MX8M Mini CoM on LVDS-Mainboard (BETA) |
Use this command to setup your build directory (specify the distro you want to use, the machine, and the build directory):
DISTRO=<distro> MACHINE=<machine> source karo-nxp-release.sh -b <build-dir>
When the script has run, your current directory changes to the <build-dir> you chose before.
Example:
DISTRO=fsl-imx-wayland MACHINE=tx8m-1610 source karo-nxp-release.sh -b build-tx8m-1610
U-Boot Version¶
Inside your build-directory in conf/local.conf you can set the variable UBOOT_CONFIG. This sets which u-boot should be built. If you leave it unset, “default” is built.
UBOOT_CONFIG = |
Description |
|---|---|
| default | Our U-Boot with default environment to write inside the eMMC and boot your module. |
| noenv | Our U-Boot with an empty environment. |
| mfg | Our U-Boot with enabled fastboot protocol. (e.g. for using uuu) |
| secure-boot | Our U-Boot with secure-boot enabled. |
Note
For programming TX8M/QS8M with uuu (see UUU - Universal Update Utility), it is necessary to build both, default and mfg U-Boot.
Building The Image¶
Note
Before starting a build, you should consider enabling the SSTATE CACHE to speedup the build process.
Here are the different images you can build:
| Image | Description | Provided by layer |
|---|---|---|
| imx-boot | U-Boot flashable binary, variant specified with above mentioned UBOOT_CONFIG |
|
| linux-imx | Linux Kernel and specified .dtb files only | |
| core-image-minimal | See https://layers.openembedded.org/layerindex/recipe/579/ | Poky |
| core-image-base | See https://layers.openembedded.org/layerindex/recipe/584/ | Poky |
| core-image-sato | See https://layers.openembedded.org/layerindex/recipe/658/ | Poky |
| fsl-image-machine-test | An FSL Community i.MX core image with console environment - no GUI interface. | meta-freescale-distro |
| fsl-image-validation-imx | Builds an i.MX image with a GUI without any Qt content. | meta-fsl-bsp-release/imx/meta-sdk |
| fsl-image-qt5-validation-imx | Builds an opensource Qt 5 image. These images are only supported for i.MX SoC with hardware graphics. They are not supported on the i.MX 6UltraLite, i.MX 6UltraLiteLite, and i.MX 7Dual. | meta-fsl-bsp-release/imx/meta-sdk |
| fsl-image-qt5 | Fsl-image-gui with QT 5.9. | |
| meta-toolchain-qt5 | QT 5 Toolchain SDK. | |
| fsl-image-multimedia | ||
| fsl-image-multimedia-full | ||
| fsl-image-gui | Full image with demos and tests, used for testing with graphics, no QT |
Build the image with the following command inside your <build-dir>:
bitbake <image>
Restarting a build environment [1]¶
If a new terminal window is opened or the machine is rebooted after a build directory is set up, the setup environment script
should be used to set up the environment variables and run a build again. The full karo-nxp-release.sh is not needed.
You can simply run:
source setup-environment <build-dir>
Image Deployment¶
After a build is complete, the created image resides in the tmp/deploy/images sub-directory. An image is, for the most part, specific to the machine set in the environment setup. Each image build usually creates U-Boot, kernel, and an images based on the IMAGE_FSTYPES defined in the machine configuration file.
Usually created files are:
| Filename | Content |
|---|---|
| imx-boot-<machine>-<version>.bin | U-Boot binaries |
| Image-<version>-<machine>.bin | Kernel image |
| modules-<machine>.tgz | Kernel modules |
| <image>-<machine>.ext4 | RFS |
| *.dtb | Devicetree blob |
To continue programming your board with these images have a look at UUU - Universal Update Utility.
| [1] | (1, 2) Copied from the official NXP Yocto Project User’s Guide, mentioned above. |