NXP IMXLXYOCTOUG User Manual
IMXLXYOCTOUG
i.MX Yocto Project User's Guide
Rev. LF5.10.9_1.0.0 — 12 April 2021
1 Overview
This document describes how to build an image for an i.MX board by using
a Yocto Project build environment. It describes the i.MX release layer and
i.MX-specific usage.
The Yocto Project is an open-source collaboration focused on embedded
Linux® OS development. For more information on Yocto Project, see the Yocto
Project page: www.yoctoproject.org/. There are several documents on the
Yocto Project home page that describe in detail how to use the system. To use
the basic Yocto Project without the i.MX release layer, follow the instructions
in the
Yocto Project Quick Start
yocto-project-qs/yocto-project-qs.html.
The FSL Yocto Project Community BSP (found at freescale.github.io) is a
development community outside NXP providing support for i.MX boards in the
Yocto Project environment. i.MX joined the Yocto Project community providing
a release based on the Yocto Project framework. Information specific to FSL
community BSP use is available on the community web page. This document
is an extension of the community BSP documentation.
Files used to build an image are stored in layers. Layers contain different types
of customizations and come from different sources. Some of the files in a layer
are called recipes. Yocto Project recipes contain the mechanism to retrieve
source code, build and package a component. The following lists show the
layers used in this release.
i.MX release layer
• meta-imx
— meta-bsp: updates for meta-freescale, poky, and meta-
openembedded layers
— meta-sdk: updates for meta-freescale-distros
found at www.yoctoproject.org/docs/current/
User's Guide
Contents
1 Overview......................................... 1
1.1 End user licence agreement........ 2
1.2 References...................................2
2 Features.......................................... 3
3 Host Setup.......................................4
3.1 Host packages............................. 5
3.2 Setting up the repo utility............. 5
4 Yocto Project Setup........................ 5
5 Image Build..................................... 6
5.1 Build configurations..................... 6
5.2 Choosing an i.MX Yocto project
image........................................... 8
5.3 Building an image........................ 8
5.4 Bitbake options............................ 8
5.5 U-Boot configuration.................... 9
5.6 Build scenarios...........................10
6 Image Deployment........................ 14
6.1 Flashing an SD card image....... 14
7 Customization................................14
7.1 Creating a custom distro............14
7.2 Creating a custom board
configuration.............................. 14
7.3 Monitoring security vulnerabilities
in your BSP................................16
8 Revision History............................ 16
A Frequently Asked Questions......... 17
A.1 Quick Start................................. 17
A.2 Local configuration tuning..........18
A.3 Recipes......................................19
A.4 How to select additional packages
...................................................19
B References....................................21
— meta-ml: Machine learning recipes
Yocto Project community layers
• meta-freescale: Provides support for the base and for i.MX Arm® reference boards.
• meta-freescale-3rdparty: Provides support for 3rd party and partner boards.
• meta-freescale-distro: Additional items to aid in development and exercise board capabilities.
• fsl-community-bsp-base: Often renamed to base. Provides base configuration for FSL Community BSP.
• meta-openembedded: Collection of layers for the OE-core universe. See layers.openembedded.org/.
• poky: Basic Yocto Project items in Poky. See the Poky README for details.
• meta-browser: Provides several browsers.
NXP Semiconductors
Overview
• meta-qt5: Provides Qt 5.
• meta-timesys: Provides Vigiles tools for monitoring and notification of BSP vulnerabilities (CVEs).
References to community layers in this document are for all the layers in Yocto Project except meta-imx. i.MX boards
are configured in the meta-imx and meta-freescale layers. This includes U-Boot, the Linux kernel, and reference boardspecific details.
i.MX provides an additional layer called the i.MX BSP Release, named meta-imx, to integrate a new i.MX release with the FSL
Yocto Project Community BSP. The meta-imx layer aims to release the updated and new Yocto Project recipes and machine
configurations for new releases that are not yet available on the existing meta-freescale and meta-freescale-distro layers in the
Yocto Project. The contents of the i.MX BSP Release layer are recipes and machine configurations. In many test cases, other
layers implement recipes or include files and the i.MX release layer provides updates to the recipes by either appending to a
current recipe, or including a component and updating with patches or source locations. Most i.MX release layer recipes are
very small because they use what the community has provided and update what is needed for each new package version that is
unavailable in the other layers.
The i.MX BSP Release layer also provides image recipes that include all the components needed for a system image to boot,
making it easier for the user. Components can be built individually or through an image recipe, which pulls in all the components
required in an image into one build process.
The i.MX kernel and U-Boot releases are accessed through i.MX public git servers. However, several components are released
as packages on the i.MX mirror. The package-based recipes pull files from the i.MX mirror instead of a git location and generate
the package needed.
All packages that are released as binary are built with hardware floating point enabled as specified by the DEFAULTTUNE defined
in each machine configuration file. Software floating point packages are not provided starting with the jethro releases.
Release LF5.10.9_1.0.0 is released for Yocto Project 3.2 (Gatesgarth). The same recipes for Yocto Project 3.2 are going to be
upstreamed and made available on the next release of the Yocto Project release. The Yocto Project release cycle lasts roughly
six months.
The recipes and patches in meta-imx are upstreamed to the community layers. After that is done for a particular component, the
files in meta-imx are no longer needed and the FSL Yocto Project Community BSP will provide support. The community supports
i.MX reference boards, community boards, and third-party boards. A complete list can be found at freescale.github.io/doc/
release-notes/3.2/index.html#document-bsp-scope. All board references in this document are related to the i.MX machine
configuration files only.
1.1 End user licence agreement
During the setup environment process of the Freescale Yocto Project Community BSP, the NXP End User License Agreement
(EULA) is displayed. To continue to use the i.MX Proprietary software, users must agree to the conditions of this license. The
agreement to the terms allows the Yocto Project build to untar packages from the i.MX mirror.
NOTE
Read this license agreement carefully during the setup process, because once accepted, all further work in the i.MX
Yocto Project environment is tied to this accepted agreement.
1.2 References
i.MX has multiple families supported in software. The following are the listed families and SoCs per family. The i.MX Linux
Release Notes describes which SoC is supported in the current release. Some previously released SoCs might be buildable in
the current release but not validated if they are at the previous validated level.
®
• i.MX 6 Family: 6QuadPlus, 6Quad, 6DualLite, 6SoloX, 6SLL, 6UltraLite, 6ULL, 6ULZ
• i.MX 7 Family: 7Dual, 7ULP
• i.MX 8 Family: 8QuadMax
• i.MX 8M Family: 8M Plus, 8M Quad, 8M Mini, 8M Nano
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• i.MX 8X Family: 8QuadXPlus, 8DXL, 8DualX
This release includes the following references and additional information.
•
i.MX Linux® Release Notes
•
i.MX Linux® User's Guide
features.
•
i.MX Yocto Project User's Guide
systems using Yocto Project to set up host, install tool chain, and build source code to create images.
•
i.MX Machine Learning User's Guide
•
i.MX Linux Reference Manual
•
i.MX Graphics User's Guide
•
i.MX Porting Guide
•
i.MX VPU Application Programming Interface Linux® Reference Manual
on the VPU API on i.MX 6 VPU.
The quick start guides contain basic information on the board and setting it up. They are on the NXP website.
• SABRE Platform Quick Start Guide (IMX6QSDPQSG)
• SABRE Board Quick Start Guide (IMX6QSDBQSG)
(IMXXBSPPG) - Provides the instructions on porting the BSP to a new board.
(IMXLXRN) - Provides the release information.
(IMXLUG) - Provides the information on installing U-Boot and Linux OS and using i.MX-specific
(IMXLXYOCTOUG) - Describes the board support package for NXP development
(IMXMLUG) - Provides the machine learning information.
(IMXLXRM) - Provides the information on Linux drivers for i.MX.
(IMXGRAPHICUG) - Describes the graphics features.
(IMXVPUAPI) - Provides the reference information
Features
• i.MX 6UltraLite EVK Quick Start Guide (IMX6ULTRALITEQSG)
• i.MX 6ULL EVK Quick Start Guide (IMX6ULLQSG)
• SABRE Automotive Infotainment Quick Start Guide (IMX6SABREINFOQSG)
• i.MX 7Dual SABRE-SD Quick Start Guide (SABRESDBIMX7DUALQSG)
• i.MX 8M Quad Evaluation Kit Quick Start Guide (IMX8MQUADEVKQSG)
• i.MX 8M Mini Evaluation Kit Quick Start Guide (8MMINIEVKQSG)
• i.MX 8M Nano Evaluation Kit Quick Start Guide (8MNANOEVKQSG)
• i.MX 8QuadXPlus Multisensory Enablement Kit Quick Start Guide (IMX8QUADXPLUSQSG)
• i.MX 8QuadMax Multisensory Enablement Kit Quick Start Guide (IMX8QUADMAXQSG)
• i.MX 8M Plus Evaluation Kit Quick Start Guide (IMX8MPLUSQSG)
Documentation is available online at nxp.com.
• i.MX 6 information is at nxp.com/iMX6series
• i.MX SABRE information is at nxp.com/imxSABRE
• i.MX 6UltraLite information is at nxp.com/iMX6UL
• i.MX 6ULL information is at nxp.com/iMX6ULL
• i.MX 7Dual information is at nxp.com/iMX7D
• i.MX 7ULP information is at nxp.com/imx7ulp
• i.MX 8 information is at nxp.com/imx8
• i.MX 6ULZ information is at nxp.com/imx6ulz
2 Features
i.MX Yocto Project Release layers have the following features:
• Linux kernel recipe
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NXP Semiconductors
— The kernel recipe resides in the recipes-kernel folder and integrates an i.MX kernel from the source downloaded
from the i.MX git server. This is done automatically by the recipes in the project.
— LF5.10.9_1.0.0 is a Linux kernel released for the Yocto Project.
• U-Boot recipe
— The U-Boot recipe resides in the recipes-bsp folder and integrates an i.MX uboot-imx.git from the source
downloaded from the i.MX git server.
— i.MX release LF5.10.9_1.0.0 for the i.MX 6, i.MX 7, i.MX 8 devices uses an updated v2020.04 i.MX U-Boot version.
This version has not been updated for all i.MX hardware.
— The i.MX Yocto Project Community BSP uses u-boot-fslc from the mainline, but this is only supported by the U-Boot
community and is not supported with the L5.10.9 kernel.
— The i.MX Yocto Project Community BSP updates the U-Boot versions frequently, so the information above might
change as new U-Boot versions are integrated to meta-freescale layers and updates from i.MX u-boot-imx releases
are integrated into the mainline.
• Graphics recipes
— Graphics recipes reside in recipes-graphics folder.
— Graphics recipes integrate the i.MX graphics package release. For the i.MX boards that have a GPU, the imx-gpu-viv
recipes package the graphic components for each DISTRO: frame buffer (FB), XWayland, Wayland backend, and
Weston compositor (Weston). Only i.MX 6 and i.MX 7 support Frame Buffer.
Host Setup
— Xorg-driver integrates the xserver-xorg.
• i.MX package recipes
imx-lib, imx-sc-fimrware, and other packages reside in recipes-bsp and pull from the i.MX mirror to build and package into
image recipes.
• Multimedia recipes
— Multimedia recipes reside in recipes-multimedia.
— Proprietary packages like imx-codec and imx-parser have recipes pull from the i.MX mirror to build and package into
image recipes.
— Opensource packages have recipes that pull from the public git repos on source.codeaurora.org and github.
— Some recipes are provided for codecs that are restricted. Packages for these are not on the i.MX mirror. These
packages are available separately. Contact your i.MX Marketing representative to acquire these.
• Core recipes
Some recipes for rules, such as udev, provide updated i.MX rules to be deployed in the system. These recipes are usually
updates of policy and are used for customization only. Releases only provide updates if needed.
• Demo recipes
Demonstration recipes reside in the meta-sdk directory. This layer contains image recipes and recipes for customization, such
as touch calibration, or recipes for demonstration applications.
• Machine learning recipes
Machine learning recipes reside in meta-ml directory. This layer contains machine learning recipes for packages like
tensorflolite, onnx, and armnn as well as others.
3 Host Setup
To get the Yocto Project expected behavior in a Linux Host Machine, the packages and utilities described below must be installed.
An important consideration is the hard disk space required in the host machine. For example, when building on a machine running
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Yocto Project Setup
Ubuntu, the minimum hard disk space required is about 50 GB. It is recommended that at least 120 GB is provided, which is
enough to compile all backends together. For building machine learning components, at least 250 GB is recommended.
The recommended minimum Ubuntu version is 18.04 or later. The Chromium version 74 requires Ubuntu 18.04. The latest release
supports Chromium V74, which requires an increase to the ulimit (number of open files) to 4098. If Chromium is not used, 18.04
should work. Earlier versions before 16.04 may cause the Yocto Project build setup to fail, because it requires python versions
only available starting with Ubuntu 12.04. See the Yocto Project Reference Manual for more information.
Ubuntu 16.04 users have commented on errors during build for SDL. To fix this, comment out the following lines in local.conf,
such as adding the # character:
#PACKAGECONFIG_append_pn-qemu-native = " sdl"
#PACKAGECONFIG_append_pn-nativesdk-qemu = " sdl"
3.1 Host packages
A Yocto Project build requires that some packages be installed for the build that are documented under the Yocto Project. Go to
Yocto Project Quick Start and check for the packages that must be installed for your build machine.
Essential Yocto Project host packages are:
$ sudo apt-get install gawk wget git-core diffstat unzip texinfo gcc-multilib \
build-essential chrpath socat cpio python python3 python3-pip python3-pexpect \
xz-utils debianutils iputils-ping python3-git python3-jinja2 libegl1-mesa libsdl1.2-dev \
pylint3 xterm rsync curl
The configuration tool uses the default version of grep that is on your build machine. If there is a different version of grep in your
path, it may cause builds to fail. One workaround is to rename the special version to something not containing "grep".
3.2 Setting up the repo utility
Repo is a tool built on top of Git that makes it easier to manage projects that contain multiple repositories, which do not need to be
on the same server. Repo complements very well the layered nature of the Yocto Project, making it easier for users to add their
own layers to the BSP.
To install the “repo” utility, perform these steps:
1. Create a bin folder in the home directory.
$ mkdir ~/bin (this step may not be needed if the bin folder already exists)
$ curl https://storage.googleapis.com/git-repo-downloads/repo > ~/bin/repo
$ chmod a+x ~/bin/repo
2. Add the following line to the .bashrc file to ensure that the ~/bin folder is in your PATH variable.
export PATH=~/bin:$PATH
4 Yocto Project Setup
First, make sure that git is set up properly with the commands below:
$ git config --global user.name "Your Name"
$ git config --global user.email "Your Email"
$ git config --list
The i.MX Yocto Project BSP Release directory contains a sources directory, which contains the recipes used to build one or more
build directories, and a set of scripts used to set up the environment.
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NXP Semiconductors
Image Build
The recipes used to build the project come from both the community and i.MX. The Yocto Project layers are downloaded to the
sources directory. This sets up the recipes that are used to build the project.
The following example shows how to download the i.MX Yocto Project Community BSP recipe layers. For this example, a directory
called imx-yocto-bsp is created for the project. Any name can be used instead of this.
$ mkdir imx-yocto-bsp
$ cd imx-yocto-bsp
$ repo init -u https://source.codeaurora.org/external/imx/imx-manifest
-b imx-linux-gatesgarth -m imx-5.10.9-1.0.0.xml
$ repo sync
NOTE
https://source.codeaurora.org/external/imx/imx-manifest/tree/?h=imx-linux-gatesgarth has a list of all manifest
files supported in this release.
When this process is completed, the source code is checked out into the directory imx-yocto-bsp/sources.
You can perform repo synchronization, with the command repo sync, periodically to update to the latest code.
If errors occur during repo initialization, try deleting the .repo directory and running the repo initialization command again.
The repo init is configured for the latest patches in the line. Follow the instructions in index: imx-manifest.git to retrieve the
original GA. Otherwise, GA plus patches are picked up by default. To pick up previous releases from zeus base, add -m (release
manifest name) at the end of repo initialization line and it will retrieve previous releases. Examples are provided in the README
file in the link provided above.
5 Image Build
This section provides the detailed information along with the process for building an image.
5.1 Build configurations
i.MX provides a script, imx-setup-release.sh, that simplifies the setup for i.MX 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.
In the meta-imx layer, i.MX provides new or updated machine configurations that overlay the meta-freescale machine
configurations. These files are copied into the meta-freescale/conf/machine directory by the imx-setup-release.sh script.
The following are i.MX machine configuration files that can be selected. Check either the release notes or the machine directory
for the latest additions.
i.MX 6 i.MX 7 i.MX 8
• imx6qpsabreauto
• imx6qpsabresd
• imx6ulevk
• imx6ulz14x14evk
• imx6ull14x14evk
• imx6ull9x9evk
• imx7dsabresd
• imx7ulpevk
• imx8qmmek
• imx8qxpmek
• imx8qxpc0mek
• imx8dxmek
• imx8mqevk
• imx8mmevk
• imx6dlsabreauto
• imx6dlsabresd
• imx6qsabreauto
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• imx8mnevk
• imx8mpevk
• imx8dxlevk
NXP Semiconductors
i.MX 6 i.MX 7 i.MX 8
Image Build
• imx6qsabresd
• imx8mnddr3levk
• imx6solosabreauto
• imx6solosabresd
• imx6sxsabresd
• imx6sllevk
Each build folder must be configured in such way that they only use one distro. Each time the variable DISTRO_FEATURES
is changed, a clean build folder is needed. Each graphical backend Frame Buffer, Wayland, and XWayland each have a distro
configuration. If no DISTRO file is specified, the XWayland distro is set up as default. Distro configurations are saved in the
local.conf file in the DISTRO setting and are displayed when the bitbake is running. In past releases, we used the poky distro
and customized versions and providers in our layer.conf but a custom distro is a better solution. When the default poky distro is
used, the default community configuration is used. As an i.MX release, we prefer to have a set of configurations that NXP supports
and has been testing.
Here are the list of DISTRO configurations. Note that fsl-imx-fb is not supported on i.MX 8 and fsl-imx-x11 is not
supported anymore.
• 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.
Users are welcome to create their own distro file based on one of these to customize their environment without updating the
local.conf to set preferred versions and providers.
The syntax for the imx-setup-release.sh script is shown below:
$ DISTRO=<distro name> MACHINE=<machine name> source imx-setup-release.sh -b <build dir>
DISTRO=<distro configuration name> is the distro, which configures the build environment and it is stored in meta-imx/meta-sdk/
conf/distro.
MACHINE=<machine configuration name> is the machine name which points to the configuration file in conf/machine in
meta-freescale and meta-imx.
-b <build dir> specifies the name of the build directory created by the imx-setup-release.sh script.
When the script is run, it prompts the user to accept the EULA. Once the EULA is accepted, the acceptance is stored in
local.conf inside each build folder and the EULA acceptance query is no longer displayed for that build folder.
After the script runs, the working directory is the one just created by the script, specified with the -b option. A conf folder is created
containing the files bblayers.conf and local.conf.
The <build dir>/conf/bblayers.conf file contains all the metalayers used in the i.MX Yocto Project release.
The local.conf file contains the machine and distro specifications:
MACHINE ??= 'imx7ulpevk'
DISTRO ?= 'fsl-imx-xwayland'
ACCEPT_FSL_EULA = "1"
The MACHINE configuration can be changed by editing this file, if necessary.
ACCEPT_FSL_EULA in the local.conf file indicates that you have accepted the conditions of the EULA.
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