comp.ce.460-embedded-linux-drivers/exercises/01/instructions.md

Introduction

The goal of this first exercise session is to familiarize with the tools used throughout the exercises for COMP.CE.460.

Throughout the exercise sessions of COMP.CE.460 Embedded Linux Drivers, we designed, in collaboration with Wapice, a simulation of a typical industry workflow as a System Engineer. We are initially tasked with getting the board to boot a custom GNU Linux distribution built with Yocto.

The starting point of the simulation will be set at receiving a new sample board for a new embedded project.

Rather than providing step-by-step instructions, we provide a list of reading materials and resources you should familiarize with in order to solve the task at hand.

We will use a Ubuntu virtual machine (which already includes all the required prerequisites to successfully build the Yocto Project). The username and (very secure) password for the VM account are: student/student.

WARNING: be aware that files on the VM will be erased at each reboot, commit and push your work to your remote repository (or save your important files to an external drive) before rebooting the VM.

Resources and reading material

• Lecture #1 and #2 on Moodle
• Yocto Project Quick Start
• Yocto Reference Manual (C#7: Source Directory Structure)
• PYNQ-Z1 Board Reference Manual
• Git Submodules
• meta-pynq layer repository

Checklist

• get a microSD kit for your group from the TA
• clone Yocto poky and add support for the PYNQ board as submodules.
  • Hint: check documentation of the PYNQ support layer to determine the proper version of poky and other requirements
  • add each of these repositories as Git Submodules in the root of the student group repository
• initialize the Build Environment, making sure the Build Directory is created as <STUDENT_REPO_ROOT>/build
  • notice that we require the Build Directory to be in a non-default location, requiring knowledge from the linked section of the Yocto Reference Manual
  • DO NOT COMMIT THE WHOLE BUILD DIRECTORY: only the configuration files should be committed.
• setup your local configuration file
• build core-image-minimal
  • Hint: building from scratch could require hours. Read on the Yocto Reference Manual about the SSTATE_MIRRORS variable and check the contents of /opt/poky_cache to speed up this step
• verify that the build was successful and copy the required files to the microSD
• required files:
  • uImage
  • u-boot.img
  • boot.bin
  • core-image-minimal-pynq.cpio.gz.u-boot
  • uEnv.txt
  • devicetree.dtb
• turn off the PYNQ board and set it to boot from the microSD
• turn on and connect via serial to verify successful boot
  • the USB connection provides power to the board and provides a USB serial port on the host workstation: by default the bootloader and the kernel expose a virtual console on this serial interface.
  • use PuTTY on the host to connect to the console
• commit Yocto build configuration files to the student repository
• commit the changes to the question file for this exercise to include your answers
• push to your remote repository
• demonstrate to the TA
• remember to recover your microSD card before leaving