%poky; ] > This chapter describes standard tasks such as adding new software packages, extending or customizing images, and porting work to new hardware (adding a new machine). The chapter also describes how to combine multiple versions of library files into a single image, how to handle a package name alias, and gives advice about how to make changes to the Yocto Project to achieve the best results.

The OpenEmbedded build system supports organizing metadata into multiple layers. Layers allow you to isolate different types of customizations from each other. You might find it tempting to keep everything in one layer when working on a single project. However, the more modular you organize your metadata, the easier it is to cope with future changes. To illustrate how layers are used to keep things modular, consider machine customizations. These types of customizations typically reside in a BSP Layer. Furthermore, the machine customizations should be isolated from recipes and metadata that support a new GUI environment, for example. This situation gives you a couple a layers: one for the machine configurations, and one for the GUI environment. It is important to understand, however, that the BSP layer can still make machine-specific additions to recipes within the GUI environment layer without polluting the GUI layer itself with those machine-specific changes. You can accomplish this through a recipe that is a BitBake append (.bbappend) file, which is described later in this section.

The source directory contains several layers right out of the box. You can easily identify a layer in the source directory by its folder name. Folders that are layers begin with the string meta. For example, when you set up the source directory structure, you will see several layers: meta, meta-demoapps, meta-skeleton, and meta-yocto. Each of these folders is a layer. Furthermore, if you set up a local copy of the meta-intel Git repository and then explore that folder, you will discover many BSP layers within the meta-intel layer. For more information on BSP layers, see the "BSP Layers" section in the Yocto Project Board Support Package (BSP) Developer's Guide.

It is very easy to create your own layer to use with the OpenEmbedded build system. Follow these general steps to create your layer: Check Existing Layers: Before creating a new layer, you should be sure someone has not already created a layer containing the metadata you need. You can see the LayerIndex for a list of layers from the OpenEmbedded community that can be used in the Yocto Project. Create a Directory: Create the directory for your layer. Traditionally, prepend the name of the folder with the string meta. For example: meta-mylayer meta-GUI_xyz meta-mymachine Create a Layer Configuration File: Inside your new layer folder, you need to create a conf/layer.conf file. It is easiest to take an existing layer configuration file and copy that to your layer's conf directory and then modify the file as needed. The meta-yocto/conf/layer.conf file demonstrates the required syntax: # We have a conf and classes directory, add to BBPATH BBPATH := "${LAYERDIR}:${BBPATH}" # We have recipes-* directories, add to BBFILES BBFILES := "${BBFILES} ${LAYERDIR}/recipes-*/*/*.bb \ ${LAYERDIR}/recipes-*/*/*.bbappend" BBFILE_COLLECTIONS += "yocto" BBFILE_PATTERN_yocto := "^${LAYERDIR}/" BBFILE_PRIORITY_yocto = "5" In the previous example, the recipes for the layers are added to BBFILES. The BBFILE_COLLECTIONS variable is then appended with the layer name. The BBFILE_PATTERN variable is set to a regular expression and is used to match files from BBFILES into a particular layer. In this case, immediate expansion of LAYERDIR sets BBFILE_PATTERN to the layer's path. The BBFILE_PRIORITY variable then assigns a priority to the layer. Applying priorities is useful in situations where the same package might appear in multiple layers and allows you to choose what layer should take precedence. Note the use of the LAYERDIR variable with the immediate expansion operator. The LAYERDIR variable expands to the directory of the current layer and requires the immediate expansion operator so that BitBake does not wait to expand the variable when it's parsing a different directory. Through the use of the BBPATH variable, BitBake locates .bbclass files, configuration files, and files that are included with include and require statements. For these cases, BitBake uses the first file with the matching name found in BBPATH. This is similar to the way the PATH variable is used for binaries. We recommend, therefore, that you use unique .bbclass and configuration file names in your custom layer. Add Content: Depending on the type of layer, add the content. If the layer adds support for a machine, add the machine configuration in a conf/machine/ file within the layer. If the layer adds distro policy, add the distro configuration in a conf/distro/ file with the layer. If the layer introduces new recipes, put the recipes you need in recipes-* subdirectories within the layer. In order to be compliant with the Yocto Project, a layer must contain a README file. To create layers that are easier to maintain, you should consider the following: Avoid "overlaying" entire recipes from other layers in your configuration. In other words, don't copy an entire recipe into your layer and then modify it. Use .bbappend files to override the parts of the recipe you need to modify. Avoid duplicating include files. Use .bbappend files for each recipe that uses an include file. Or, if you are introducing a new recipe that requires the included file, use the path relative to the original layer directory to refer to the file. For example, use require recipes-core/somepackage/somefile.inc instead of require somefile.inc. If you're finding you have to overlay the include file, it could indicate a deficiency in the include file in the layer to which it originally belongs. If this is the case, you need to address that deficiency instead of overlaying the include file. For example, consider how Qt 4 database support plugins are configured. The source directory does not have MySQL or PostgreSQL, however OpenEmbedded's layer meta-oe does. Consequently, meta-oe uses .bbappend files to modify the QT_SQL_DRIVER_FLAGS variable to enable the appropriate plugins. This variable was added to the qt4.inc include file in the source directory specifically to allow the meta-oe layer to be able to control which plugins are built. We also recommend the following: Store custom layers in a Git repository that uses the meta-<layer_name> format. Clone the repository alongside other meta directories in the source directory. Following these recommendations keeps your source directory and its configuration entirely inside the Yocto Project's core base.

Before the OpenEmbedded build system can use your new layer, you need to enable it. To enable your layer, simply add your layer's path to the BBLAYERS variable in your conf/bblayers.conf file, which is found in the build directory. The following example shows how to enable a layer named meta-mylayer: LCONF_VERSION = "1" BBFILES ?= "" BBLAYERS = " \ /path/to/poky/meta \ /path/to/poky/meta-yocto \ /path/to/poky/meta-mylayer \ " BitBake parses each conf/layer.conf file as specified in the BBLAYERS variable within the conf/bblayers.conf file. During the processing of each conf/layer.conf file, BitBake adds the recipes, classes and configurations contained within the particular layer to the source directory.

Recipes used to append metadata to other recipes are called BitBake append files. BitBake append files use the .bbappend file type suffix, while underlying recipes to which metadata is being appended use the .bb file type suffix. A .bbappend file allows your layer to make additions or changes to the content of another layer's recipe without having to copy the other recipe into your layer. Your .bbappend file resides in your layer, while the underlying .bb recipe file to which you are appending metadata resides in a different layer. Append files files must have the same name as the underlying recipe. For example, the append file someapp_&DISTRO;.bbappend must apply to someapp_&DISTRO;.bb. This means the original recipe and append file names are version number specific. If the underlying recipe is renamed to update to a newer version, the corresponding .bbappend file must be renamed as well. During the build process, BitBake displays an error on starting if it detects a .bbappend file that does not have an underlying recipe with a matching name. Being able to append information to an existing recipe not only avoids duplication, but also automatically applies recipe changes in a different layer to your layer. If you were copying recipes, you would have to manually merge changes as they occur. As an example, consider the main formfactor recipe and a corresponding formfactor append file both from the source directory. Here is the main formfactor recipe, which is named formfactor_0.0.bb and located in the meta layer at meta/recipes-bsp/formfactor: DESCRIPTION = "Device formfactor information" SECTION = "base" LICENSE = "MIT" LIC_FILES_CHKSUM = "file://${COREBASE}/LICENSE;md5=3f40d7994397109285ec7b81fdeb3b58 \ file://${COREBASE}/meta/COPYING.MIT;md5=3da9cfbcb788c80a0384361b4de20420" PR = "r20" SRC_URI = "file://config file://machconfig" S = "${WORKDIR}" PACKAGE_ARCH = "${MACHINE_ARCH}" INHIBIT_DEFAULT_DEPS = "1" do_install() { # Only install file if it has a contents install -d ${D}${sysconfdir}/formfactor/ install -m 0644 ${S}/config ${D}${sysconfdir}/formfactor/ if [ -s "${S}/machconfig" ]; then install -m 0644 ${S}/machconfig ${D}${sysconfdir}/formfactor/ fi } Here is the append file, which is named formfactor_0.0.bbappend and is from the Crown Bay BSP Layer named meta-intel/meta-crownbay. The file is in recipes-bsp/formfactor: FILESEXTRAPATHS_prepend := "${THISDIR}/${PN}:" PRINC = "1" This example adds or overrides files in SRC_URI within a .bbappend by extending the path BitBake uses to search for files. The most reliable way to do this is by prepending the FILESEXTRAPATHS variable. For example, if you have your files in a directory that is named the same as your package (PN), you can add this directory by adding the following to your .bbappend file: FILESEXTRAPATHS_prepend := "${THISDIR}/${PN}:" Using the immediate expansion assignment operator := is important because of the reference to THISDIR. The trailing colon character is important as it ensures that items in the list remain colon-separated. BitBake automatically defines the THISDIR variable. You should never set this variable yourself. Using _prepend ensures your path will be searched prior to other paths in the final list. For another example on how to use a .bbappend file, see the "Changing recipes-kernel" section.

Each layer is assigned a priority value. Priority values control which layer takes precedence if there are recipe files with the same name in multiple layers. For these cases, the recipe file from the layer with a higher priority number taking precedence. Priority values also affect the order in which multiple .bbappend files for the same recipe are applied. You can either specify the priority manually, or allow the build system to calculate it based on the layer's dependencies. To specify the layer's priority manually, use the BBFILE_PRIORITY variable. For example: BBFILE_PRIORITY := "1" It is possible for a recipe with a lower version number PV in a layer that has a higher priority to take precedence. Also, the layer priority does not currently affect the precedence order of .conf or .bbclass files. Future versions of BitBake might address this.

You can use the BitBake layer management tool to provide a view into the structure of recipes across a multi-layer project. Being able to generate output that reports on configured layers with their paths and priorities and on .bbappend files and their applicable recipes can help to reveal potential problems. Use the following form when running the layer management tool. $ bitbake-layers <command> [arguments] The following list describes the available commands: help: Displays general help or help on a specified command. show-layers: Show the current configured layers. show-recipes: Lists available recipes and the layers that provide them. show-overlayed: Lists overlayed recipes. A recipe is overlayed when a recipe with the same name exists in another layer that has a higher layer priority. show-appends: Lists .bbappend files and the recipe files to which they apply. flatten: Flattens the layer configuration into a separate output directory. Flattening your layer configuration builds a "flattened" directory that contains the contents of all layers, with any overlayed recipes removed and any .bbappend files appended to the corresponding recipes. You might have to perform some manual cleanup of the flattened layer as follows: Non-recipe files (such as patches) are overwritten. The flatten command shows a warning for these files. Anything beyond the normal layer setup has been added to the layer.conf file. Only the lowest priority layer's layer.conf is used. Overridden and appended items from .bbappend files need to be cleaned up. The contents of each .bbappend end up in the flattened recipe. However, if there are appended or changed variable values, you need to tidy these up yourself. Consider the following example. Here, the bitbake-layers command adds the line #### bbappended ... so that you know where the following lines originate: ... DESCRIPTION = "A useful utility" ... EXTRA_OECONF = "--enable-something" ... #### bbappended from meta-anotherlayer #### DESCRIPTION = "Customized utility" EXTRA_OECONF += "--enable-somethingelse" Ideally, you would tidy up these utilities as follows: ... DESCRIPTION = "Customized utility" ... EXTRA_OECONF = "--enable-something --enable-somethingelse" ...

You can customize images to satisfy particular requirements. This section describes several methods and provides guidelines for each.

One way to get additional software into an image is to create a custom image. The following example shows the form for the two lines you need: IMAGE_INSTALL = "packagegroup-core-x11-base package1 package2" inherit core-image By creating a custom image, a developer has total control over the contents of the image. It is important to use the correct names of packages in the IMAGE_INSTALL variable. You must use the OpenEmbedded notation and not the Debian notation for the names (e.g. eglibc-dev instead of libc6-dev). The other method for creating a custom image is to base it on an existing image. For example, if you want to create an image based on core-image-sato but add the additional package strace to the image, copy the meta/recipes-sato/images/core-image-sato.bb to a new .bb and add the following line to the end of the copy: IMAGE_INSTALL += "strace"

For complex custom images, the best approach is to create a custom package group recipe that is used to build the image or images. A good example of a package group recipe is meta/recipes-core/packagegroups/packagegroup-core-boot.bb. The PACKAGES variable lists the package group packages you wish to produce. inherit packagegroup sets appropriate default values and automatically adds -dev and -dbg complementary packages for every package specified in PACKAGES. Note that the inherit line should be towards the top of the recipe, certainly before you set PACKAGES. For each package you specify in PACKAGES, you can use RDEPENDS and RRECOMMENDS entries to provide a list of packages the parent task package should contain. Following is an example: DESCRIPTION = "My Custom Package Groups" inherit packagegroup PACKAGES = "\ packagegroup-custom-apps \ packagegroup-custom-tools \ " RDEPENDS_packagegroup-custom-apps = "\ dropbear \ portmap \ psplash" RDEPENDS_packagegroup-custom-tools = "\ oprofile \ oprofileui-server \ lttng-control \ lttng-viewer" RRECOMMENDS_packagegroup-custom-tools = "\ kernel-module-oprofile" In the previous example, two package group packages are created with their dependencies and their recommended package dependencies listed: packagegroup-custom-apps, and packagegroup-custom-tools. To build an image using these packagegroup packages, you need to add packagegroup-custom-apps and/or packagegroup-custom-tools to IMAGE_INSTALL. For other forms of image dependencies see the other areas of this section.

Ultimately users might want to add extra image features to the set by using the IMAGE_FEATURES variable. To create these features, the best reference is meta/classes/core-image.bbclass, which shows how to achieve this. In summary, the file looks at the contents of the IMAGE_FEATURES variable and then maps that into a set of tasks or packages. Based on this information the IMAGE_INSTALL variable is generated automatically. Users can add extra features by extending the class or creating a custom class for use with specialized image .bb files. You can also add more features by configuring the EXTRA_IMAGE_FEATURES variable in the local.conf file found in the source directory located in the build directory. The Yocto Project ships with two SSH servers you can use in your images: Dropbear and OpenSSH. Dropbear is a minimal SSH server appropriate for resource-constrained environments, while OpenSSH is a well-known standard SSH server implementation. By default, the core-image-sato image is configured to use Dropbear. The core-image-basic and core-image-lsb images both include OpenSSH. The core-image-minimal image does not contain an SSH server. To change these defaults, edit the IMAGE_FEATURES variable so that it sets the image you are working with to include ssh-server-dropbear or ssh-server-openssh.

It is possible to customize image contents by using variables from your local configuration in your conf/local.conf file. Because it is limited to local use, this method generally only allows you to add packages and is not as flexible as creating your own customized image. When you add packages using local variables this way, you need to realize that these variable changes affect all images at the same time and might not be what you require. The simplest way to add extra packages to all images is by using the IMAGE_INSTALL variable with the _append operator: IMAGE_INSTALL_append = " strace" Use of the syntax is important. Specifically, the space between the quote and the package name, which is strace in this example. This space is required since the _append operator does not add the space. Furthermore, you must use _append instead of the += operator if you want to avoid ordering issues. The reason for this is because doing so unconditionally appends to the variable and avoids ordering problems due to the variable being set in image recipes and .bbclass files with operators like ?=. Using _append ensures the operation takes affect. As shown in its simplest use, IMAGE_INSTALL_append affects all images. It is possible to extend the syntax so that the variable applies to a specific image only. Here is an example: IMAGE_INSTALL_append_pn-core-image-minimal = " strace" This example adds strace to core-image-minimal only. You can add packages using a similar approach through the CORE_IMAGE_EXTRA_INSTALL variable. If you use this variable, only core-image-* images are affected.

To add a package you need to write a recipe for it. Writing a recipe means creating a .bb file that sets some variables. For information on variables that are useful for recipes and for information about recipe naming issues, see the "Required" section of the Yocto Project Reference Manual. Before writing a recipe from scratch, it is often useful to check whether someone else has written one already. OpenEmbedded is a good place to look as it has a wider scope and range of packages. Because the Yocto Project aims to be compatible with OpenEmbedded, most recipes you find there should work for you. For new packages, the simplest way to add a recipe is to base it on a similar pre-existing recipe. The sections that follow provide some examples that show how to add standard types of packages.

Building an application from a single file that is stored locally (e.g. under files/) requires a recipe that has the file listed in the SRC_URI variable. Additionally, you need to manually write the do_compile and do_install tasks. The S variable defines the directory containing the source code, which is set to WORKDIR in this case - the directory BitBake uses for the build. DESCRIPTION = "Simple helloworld application" SECTION = "examples" LICENSE = "MIT" LIC_FILES_CHKSUM = "file://${COMMON_LICENSE_DIR}/MIT;md5=0835ade698e0bcf8506ecda2f7b4f302" PR = "r0" SRC_URI = "file://helloworld.c" S = "${WORKDIR}" do_compile() { ${CC} helloworld.c -o helloworld } do_install() { install -d ${D}${bindir} install -m 0755 helloworld ${D}${bindir} } By default, the helloworld, helloworld-dbg, and helloworld-dev packages are built. For information on how to customize the packaging process, see the "Splitting an Application into Multiple Packages" section.

Applications that use Autotools such as autoconf and automake require a recipe that has a source archive listed in SRC_URI and also inherits Autotools, which instructs BitBake to use the autotools.bbclass file, which contains the definitions of all the steps needed to build an Autotool-based application. The result of the build is automatically packaged. And, if the application uses NLS for localization, packages with local information are generated (one package per language). Following is one example: (hello_2.3.bb) DESCRIPTION = "GNU Helloworld application" SECTION = "examples" LICENSE = "GPLv2+" LIC_FILES_CHKSUM = "file://COPYING;md5=751419260aa954499f7abaabaa882bbe" PR = "r0" SRC_URI = "${GNU_MIRROR}/hello/hello-${PV}.tar.gz" inherit autotools gettext The variable LIC_FILES_CHKSUM is used to track source license changes as described in the "Track License Changes" section. You can quickly create Autotool-based recipes in a manner similar to the previous example.

Applications that use GNU make also require a recipe that has the source archive listed in SRC_URI. You do not need to add a do_compile step since by default BitBake starts the make command to compile the application. If you need additional make options you should store them in the EXTRA_OEMAKE variable. BitBake passes these options into the make GNU invocation. Note that a do_install task is still required. Otherwise BitBake runs an empty do_install task by default. Some applications might require extra parameters to be passed to the compiler. For example, the application might need an additional header path. You can accomplish this by adding to the CFLAGS variable. The following example shows this: CFLAGS_prepend = "-I ${S}/include " In the following example, mtd-utils is a makefile-based package: DESCRIPTION = "Tools for managing memory technology devices." SECTION = "base" DEPENDS = "zlib lzo e2fsprogs util-linux" HOMEPAGE = "http://www.linux-mtd.infradead.org/" LICENSE = "GPLv2+" LIC_FILES_CHKSUM = "file://COPYING;md5=0636e73ff0215e8d672dc4c32c317bb3 \ file://include/common.h;beginline=1;endline=17;md5=ba05b07912a44ea2bf81ce409380049c" SRC_URI = "git://git.infradead.org/mtd-utils.git;protocol=git;tag=995cfe51b0a3cf32f381c140bf72b21bf91cef1b \ file://add-exclusion-to-mkfs-jffs2-git-2.patch" S = "${WORKDIR}/git/" PR = "r1" EXTRA_OEMAKE = "'CC=${CC}' 'RANLIB=${RANLIB}' 'AR=${AR}' \ 'CFLAGS=${CFLAGS} -I${S}/include -DWITHOUT_XATTR' 'BUILDDIR=${S}'" do_install () { oe_runmake install DESTDIR=${D} SBINDIR=${sbindir} MANDIR=${mandir} \ INCLUDEDIR=${includedir} install -d ${D}${includedir}/mtd/ for f in ${S}/include/mtd/*.h; do install -m 0644 $f ${D}${includedir}/mtd/ done } PARALLEL_MAKE = "" BBCLASSEXTEND = "native" If your sources are available as a tarball instead of a Git repository, you will need to provide the URL to the tarball as well as an md5 or sha256 sum of the download. Here is an example: SRC_URI="ftp://ftp.infradead.org/pub/mtd-utils/mtd-utils-1.4.9.tar.bz2" SRC_URI[md5sum]="82b8e714b90674896570968f70ca778b" You can generate the md5 or sha256 sums by using the md5sum or sha256sum commands with the target file as the only argument. Here is an example: $ md5sum mtd-utils-1.4.9.tar.bz2 82b8e714b90674896570968f70ca778b mtd-utils-1.4.9.tar.bz2

You can use the variables PACKAGES and FILES to split an application into multiple packages. Following is an example that uses the libXpm recipe. By default, this recipe generates a single package that contains the library along with a few binaries. You can modify the recipe to split the binaries into separate packages: require xorg-lib-common.inc DESCRIPTION = "X11 Pixmap library" LICENSE = "X-BSD" LIC_FILES_CHKSUM = "file://COPYING;md5=3e07763d16963c3af12db271a31abaa5" DEPENDS += "libxext libsm libxt" PR = "r3" PE = "1" XORG_PN = "libXpm" PACKAGES =+ "sxpm cxpm" FILES_cxpm = "${bindir}/cxpm" FILES_sxpm = "${bindir}/sxpm" In the previous example, we want to ship the sxpm and cxpm binaries in separate packages. Since bindir would be packaged into the main PN package by default, we prepend the PACKAGES variable so additional package names are added to the start of list. This results in the extra FILES_* variables then containing information that define which files and directories go into which packages. Files included by earlier packages are skipped by latter packages. Thus, the main PN package does not include the above listed files.

If you are building a library and the library offers static linking, you can control which static library files (*.a files) get included in the built library. The PACKAGES and FILES_* variables in the meta/conf/bitbake.conf configuration file define how files installed by the do_install task are packaged. By default, the PACKAGES variable contains ${PN}-staticdev, which includes all static library files. Previously released versions of the Yocto Project defined the static library files through ${PN}-dev. Following, is part of the BitBake configuration file. You can see where the static library files are defined: PACKAGES = "${PN}-dbg ${PN} ${PN}-doc ${PN}-dev ${PN}-staticdev ${PN}-locale" PACKAGES_DYNAMIC = "${PN}-locale-*" FILES = "" FILES_${PN} = "${bindir}/* ${sbindir}/* ${libexecdir}/* ${libdir}/lib*${SOLIBS} \ ${sysconfdir} ${sharedstatedir} ${localstatedir} \ ${base_bindir}/* ${base_sbindir}/* \ ${base_libdir}/*${SOLIBS} \ ${datadir}/${BPN} ${libdir}/${BPN}/* \ ${datadir}/pixmaps ${datadir}/applications \ ${datadir}/idl ${datadir}/omf ${datadir}/sounds \ ${libdir}/bonobo/servers" FILES_${PN}-doc = "${docdir} ${mandir} ${infodir} ${datadir}/gtk-doc \ ${datadir}/gnome/help" SECTION_${PN}-doc = "doc" FILES_${PN}-dev = "${includedir} ${libdir}/lib*${SOLIBSDEV} ${libdir}/*.la \ ${libdir}/*.o ${libdir}/pkgconfig ${datadir}/pkgconfig \ ${datadir}/aclocal ${base_libdir}/*.o" SECTION_${PN}-dev = "devel" ALLOW_EMPTY_${PN}-dev = "1" RDEPENDS_${PN}-dev = "${PN} (= ${EXTENDPKGV})" FILES_${PN}-staticdev = "${libdir}/*.a ${base_libdir}/*.a" SECTION_${PN}-staticdev = "devel" RDEPENDS_${PN}-staticdev = "${PN}-dev (= ${EXTENDPKGV})"

To add a post-installation script to a package, add a pkg_postinst_PACKAGENAME() function to the .bb file and use PACKAGENAME as the name of the package you want to attach to the postinst script. Normally PN can be used, which automatically expands to PACKAGENAME. A post-installation function has the following structure: pkg_postinst_PACKAGENAME () { #!/bin/sh -e # Commands to carry out } The script defined in the post-installation function is called when the root filesystem is created. If the script succeeds, the package is marked as installed. If the script fails, the package is marked as unpacked and the script is executed when the image boots again. Sometimes it is necessary for the execution of a post-installation script to be delayed until the first boot. For example, the script might need to be executed on the device itself. To delay script execution until boot time, use the following structure in the post-installation script: pkg_postinst_PACKAGENAME () { #!/bin/sh -e if [ x"$D" = "x" ]; then # Actions to carry out on the device go here else exit 1 fi } The previous example delays execution until the image boots again because the D variable points to the directory containing the image when the root filesystem is created at build time but is unset when executed on the first boot.

Adding a new machine to the Yocto Project is a straightforward process. This section provides information that gives you an idea of the changes you must make. The information covers adding machines similar to those the Yocto Project already supports. Although well within the capabilities of the Yocto Project, adding a totally new architecture might require changes to gcc/eglibc and to the site information, which is beyond the scope of this manual. For a complete example that shows how to add a new machine, see the "BSP Development Example" in Appendix A.

To add a machine configuration you need to add a .conf file with details of the device being added to the conf/machine/ file. The name of the file determines the name the OpenEmbedded build system uses to reference the new machine. The most important variables to set in this file are as follows: TARGET_ARCH (e.g. "arm") PREFERRED_PROVIDER_virtual/kernel (see below) MACHINE_FEATURES (e.g. "apm screen wifi") You might also need these variables: SERIAL_CONSOLE (e.g. "115200 ttyS0") KERNEL_IMAGETYPE (e.g. "zImage") IMAGE_FSTYPES (e.g. "tar.gz jffs2") You can find full details on these variables in the reference section. You can leverage many existing machine .conf files from meta/conf/machine/.

The OpenEmbedded build system needs to be able to build a kernel for the machine. You need to either create a new kernel recipe for this machine, or extend an existing recipe. You can find several kernel examples in the source directory at meta/recipes-kernel/linux that you can use as references. If you are creating a new recipe, normal recipe-writing rules apply for setting up a SRC_URI. Thus, you need to specify any necessary patches and set S to point at the source code. You need to create a configure task that configures the unpacked kernel with a defconfig. You can do this by using a make defconfig command or, more commonly, by copying in a suitable defconfig file and and then running make oldconfig. By making use of inherit kernel and potentially some of the linux-*.inc files, most other functionality is centralized and the the defaults of the class normally work well. If you are extending an existing kernel, it is usually a matter of adding a suitable defconfig file. The file needs to be added into a location similar to defconfig files used for other machines in a given kernel. A possible way to do this is by listing the file in the SRC_URI and adding the machine to the expression in COMPATIBLE_MACHINE: COMPATIBLE_MACHINE = '(qemux86|qemumips)'

A formfactor configuration file provides information about the target hardware for which the image is being built and information that the build system cannot obtain from other sources such as the kernel. Some examples of information contained in a formfactor configuration file include framebuffer orientation, whether or not the system has a keyboard, the positioning of the keyboard in relation to the screen, and the screen resolution. The build system uses reasonable defaults in most cases, but if customization is necessary you need to create a machconfig file in the meta/recipes-bsp/formfactor/files directory. This directory contains directories for specific machines such as qemuarm and qemux86. For information about the settings available and the defaults, see the meta/recipes-bsp/formfactor/files/config file found in the same area. Following is an example for qemuarm: HAVE_TOUCHSCREEN=1 HAVE_KEYBOARD=1 DISPLAY_CAN_ROTATE=0 DISPLAY_ORIENTATION=0 #DISPLAY_WIDTH_PIXELS=640 #DISPLAY_HEIGHT_PIXELS=480 #DISPLAY_BPP=16 DISPLAY_DPI=150 DISPLAY_SUBPIXEL_ORDER=vrgb

The build system offers the ability to build libraries with different target optimizations or architecture formats and combine these together into one system image. You can link different binaries in the image against the different libraries as needed for specific use cases. This feature is called "Multilib." An example would be where you have most of a system compiled in 32-bit mode using 32-bit libraries, but you have something large, like a database engine, that needs to be a 64-bit application and use 64-bit libraries. Multilib allows you to get the best of both 32-bit and 64-bit libraries. While the Multilib feature is most commonly used for 32 and 64-bit differences, the approach the build system uses facilitates different target optimizations. You could compile some binaries to use one set of libraries and other binaries to use other different sets of libraries. The libraries could differ in architecture, compiler options, or other optimizations. This section overviews the Multilib process only. For more details on how to implement Multilib, see the Multilib wiki page.

User-specific requirements drive the Multilib feature, Consequently, there is no one "out-of-the-box" configuration that likely exists to meet your needs. In order to enable Multilib, you first need to ensure your recipe is extended to support multiple libraries. Many standard recipes are already extended and support multiple libraries. You can check in the meta/conf/multilib.conf configuration file in the source directory to see how this is done using the BBCLASSEXTEND variable. Eventually, all recipes will be covered and this list will be unneeded. For the most part, the Multilib class extension works automatically to extend the package name from ${PN} to ${MLPREFIX}${PN}, where MLPREFIX is the particular multilib (e.g. "lib32-" or "lib64-"). Standard variables such as DEPENDS, RDEPENDS, RPROVIDES, RRECOMMENDS, PACKAGES, and PACKAGES_DYNAMIC are automatically extended by the system. If you are extending any manual code in the recipe, you can use the ${MLPREFIX} variable to ensure those names are extended correctly. This automatic extension code resides in multilib.bbclass.

After you have set up the recipes, you need to define the actual combination of multiple libraries you want to build. You accomplish this through your local.conf configuration file in the build directory. An example configuration would be as follows: MACHINE = "qemux86-64" require conf/multilib.conf MULTILIBS = "multilib:lib32" DEFAULTTUNE_virtclass-multilib-lib32 = "x86" IMAGE_INSTALL = "lib32-connman" This example enables an additional library named lib32 alongside the normal target packages. When combining these "lib32" alternatives, the example uses "x86" for tuning. For information on this particular tuning, see meta/conf/machine/include/ia32/arch-ia32.inc. The example then includes lib32-connman in all the images, which illustrates one method of including a multiple library dependency. You can use a normal image build to include this dependency, for example: $ bitbake core-image-sato You can also build Multilib packages specifically with a command like this: $ bitbake lib32-connman

Different packaging systems have different levels of native Multilib support. For the RPM Package Management System, the following implementation details exist: A unique architecture is defined for the Multilib packages, along with creating a unique deploy folder under tmp/deploy/rpm in the build directory. For example, consider lib32 in a qemux86-64 image. The possible architectures in the system are "all", "qemux86_64", "lib32_qemux86_64", and "lib32_x86". The ${MLPREFIX} variable is stripped from ${PN} during RPM packaging. The naming for a normal RPM package and a Multilib RPM package in a qemux86-64 system resolves to something similar to bash-4.1-r2.x86_64.rpm and bash-4.1.r2.lib32_x86.rpm, respectively. When installing a Multilib image, the RPM backend first installs the base image and then installs the Multilib libraries. The build system relies on RPM to resolve the identical files in the two (or more) Multilib packages. For the IPK Package Management System, the following implementation details exist: The ${MLPREFIX} is not stripped from ${PN} during IPK packaging. The naming for a normal RPM package and a Multilib IPK package in a qemux86-64 system resolves to something like bash_4.1-r2.x86_64.ipk and lib32-bash_4.1-rw_x86.ipk, respectively. The IPK deploy folder is not modified with ${MLPREFIX} because packages with and without the Multilib feature can exist in the same folder due to the ${PN} differences. IPK defines a sanity check for Multilib installation using certain rules for file comparison, overridden, etc.

Configuring the Yocto Project kernel consists of making sure the .config file has all the right information in it for the image you are building. You can use the menuconfig tool and configuration fragments to make sure your .config file is just how you need it. This section describes how to use menuconfig, create and use configuration fragments, and how to interactively tweak your .config file to create the leanest kernel configuration file possible. For concepts on kernel configuration, see the "Kernel Configuration" section in the Yocto Project Kernel Architecture and Use Manual.

The easiest way to define kernel configurations is to set them through the menuconfig tool. For general information on menuconfig, see . To use the menuconfig tool in the Yocto Project development environment, you must build the tool using BitBake. The following commands build and invoke menuconfig assuming the source directory top-level folder is ~/poky: $ cd ~/poky $ source oe-init-build-env $ bitbake linux-yocto -c menuconfig Once menuconfig comes up, its standard interface allows you to examine and configure all the kernel configuration parameters. Once you have made your changes, simply exit the tool and save your changes to create an updated version of the .config configuration file. For an example that shows how to change a specific kernel option using menuconfig, see the "Changing the CONFIG_SMP Configuration Using menuconfig" section.

Configuration fragments are simply kernel options that appear in a file placed where the OpenEmbedded build system can find and apply them. Syntactically, the configuration statement is identical to what would appear in the .config file, which is in the build directory in tmp/work/<arch>-poky-linux/linux-yocto-<release-specific-string>/linux-<arch>-<build-type>. It is simple to create a configuration fragment. For example, issuing the following from the shell creates a configuration fragment file named my_smp.cfg that enables multi-processor support within the kernel: $ echo "CONFIG_SMP=y" >> my_smp.cfg All configuration files must use the .cfg extension in order for the OpenEmbedded build system to recognize them as a configuration fragment. Where do you put your configuration files? You can place these configuration files in the same area pointed to by SRC_URI. The OpenEmbedded build system will pick up the configuration and add it to the kernel's configuration. For example, suppose you had a set of configuration options in a file called myconfig.cfg. If you put that file inside a directory named /linux-yocto that resides in the same directory as the kernel's append file and then add a SRC_URI statement such as the following to the kernel's append file, those configuration options will be picked up and applied when the kernel is built. SRC_URI += "file://myconfig.cfg" As mentioned earlier, you can group related configurations into multiple files and name them all in the SRC_URI statement as well. For example, you could group separate configurations specifically for Ethernet and graphics into their own files and add those by using a SRC_URI statement like the following in your append file: SRC_URI += "file://myconfig.cfg \ file://eth.cfg \ file://gfx.cfg"

You can make sure the .config is as lean or efficient as possible by reading the output of the kernel configuration fragment audit, noting any issues, making changes to correct the issues, and then repeating. As part of the kernel build process, the kernel_configcheck task runs. This task validates the kernel configuration by checking the final .config file against the input files. During the check, the task produces warning messages for the following issues: Requested options that did not make the final .config file. Configuration items that appear twice in the same configuration fragment. Configuration items tagged as 'required' were overridden. A board overrides a non-board specific option. Listed options not valid for the kernel being processed. In other words, the option does not appear anywhere. The kernel_configcheck task can also optionally report if an option is overridden during processing. For each output warning, a message points to the file that contains a list of the options and a pointer to the config fragment that defines them. Collectively, the files are the key to streamlining the configuration. To streamline the configuration, do the following: Start with a full configuration that you know works - it builds and boots successfully. This configuration file will be your baseline. Separately run the configme and kernel_configcheck tasks. Take the resulting list of files from the kernel_configcheck task warnings and do the following: Drop values that are redefined in the fragment but do not change the final .config file. Analyze and potentially drop values from the .config file that override required configurations. Analyze and potentially remove non-board specific options. Remove repeated and invalid options. After you have worked through the output of the kernel configuration audit, you can re-run the configme and kernel_configcheck tasks to see the results of your changes. If you have more issues, you can deal with them as described in the previous step. Iteratively working through steps two through four eventually yields a minimal, streamlined configuration file. Once you have the best .config, you can build the Linux Yocto kernel.

Often, rather than re-flashing a new image, you might wish to install updated packages into an existing running system. You can do this by first sharing the tmp/deploy/ipk/ directory through a web server and then by changing /etc/opkg/base-feeds.conf to point at the shared server. Following is an example: $ src/gz all http://www.mysite.com/somedir/deploy/ipk/all $ src/gz armv7a http://www.mysite.com/somedir/deploy/ipk/armv7a $ src/gz beagleboard http://www.mysite.com/somedir/deploy/ipk/beagleboard

If a committed change results in changing the package output, then the value of the PR variable needs to be increased (or "bumped") as part of that commit. This means that for new recipes you must be sure to add the PR variable and set its initial value equal to "r0". Failing to define PR makes it easy to miss when you bump a package. Note that you can only use integer values following the "r" in the PR variable. If you are sharing a common .inc file with multiple recipes, you can also use the INC_PR variable to ensure that the recipes sharing the .inc file are rebuilt when the .inc file itself is changed. The .inc file must set INC_PR (initially to "r0"), and all recipes referring to it should set PR to "$(INC_PR).0" initially, incrementing the last number when the recipe is changed. If the .inc file is changed then its INC_PR should be incremented. When upgrading the version of a package, assuming the PV changes, the PR variable should be reset to "r0" (or "$(INC_PR).0" if you are using INC_PR). Usually, version increases occur only to packages. However, if for some reason PV changes but does not increase, you can increase the PE variable (Package Epoch). The PE variable defaults to "0". Version numbering strives to follow the Debian Version Field Policy Guidelines. These guidelines define how versions are compared and what "increasing" a version means. There are two reasons for following the previously mentioned guidelines. First, to ensure that when a developer updates and rebuilds, they get all the changes to the repository and do not have to remember to rebuild any sections. Second, to ensure that target users are able to upgrade their devices using package manager commands such as opkg upgrade (or similar commands for dpkg/apt or rpm-based systems). The goal is to ensure the Yocto Project has packages that can be upgraded in all cases.

Sometimes a package name you are using might exist under an alias or as a similarly named package in a different distribution. The OpenEmbedded build system implements a distro_check task that automatically connects to major distributions and checks for these situations. If the package exists under a different name in a different distribution, you get a distro_check mismatch. You can resolve this problem by defining a per-distro recipe name alias using the DISTRO_PN_ALIAS variable. Following is an example that shows how you specify the DISTRO_PN_ALIAS variable: DISTRO_PN_ALIAS_pn-PACKAGENAME = "distro1=package_name_alias1 \ distro2=package_name_alias2 \ distro3=package_name_alias3 \ ..." If you have more than one distribution alias, separate them with a space. Note that the build system currently automatically checks the Fedora, OpenSuSE, Debian, Ubuntu, and Mandriva distributions for source package recipes without having to specify them using the DISTRO_PN_ALIAS variable. For example, the following command generates a report that lists the Linux distributions that include the sources for each of the recipes. $ bitbake world -f -c distro_check The results are stored in the build/tmp/log/distro_check-${DATETIME}.results file found in the source directory.

By default, the OpenEmbedded build system does its work from within the build directory. The build process involves fetching the source files, unpacking them, and then patching them if necessary before the build takes place. Situations exist where you might want to build software from source files that are external to and thus outside of the source directory. For example, suppose you have a project that includes a new BSP with a heavily customized kernel, a very minimal image, and some new user-space recipes. And, you want to minimize the exposure to the build system to the development team so that they can focus on their project and maintain everyone's workflow as much as possible. In this case, you want a kernel source directory on the development machine where the development occurs. You want the recipe's SRC_URI variable to point to the external directory and use it as is, not copy it. To build from software that comes from an external source, all you need to do is change your recipe so that it inherits the externalsrc.bbclass class and then sets the S variable to point to your external source code. Here are the statements to put in your recipe: inherit externalsrc S = "/some/path/to/your/package/source" It is important to know that the externalsrc.bbclass assumes that the source directory S and the build directory B are different even though by default these directories are the same. This assumption is important because it supports building different variants of the recipe by using the BBCLASSEXTEND variable. You could allow the build directory to be the same as the source directory but you would not be able to build more than one variant of the recipe. Consequently, if you are building multiple variants of the recipe, you need to establish a build directory that is different than the source directory.

You might find that there are groups of recipes you want to filter out of the build process. For example, recipes you know you will never use or want should not be part of the build. Removing these recipes from parsing speeds up parts of the build. It is possible to filter or mask out .bb and .bbappend files. You can do this by providing an expression with the BBMASK variable. Here is an example: BBMASK = ".*/meta-mymachine/recipes-maybe/" Here, all .bb and .bbappend files in the directory that match the expression are ignored during the build process.

If you're working on a recipe that pulls from an external Source Code Manager (SCM), it is possible to have the OpenEmbedded build system notice new changes added to the SCM and then build the package that depends on them using the latest version. This only works for SCMs from which it is possible to get a sensible revision number for changes. Currently, you can do this with Apache Subversion (SVN), Git, and Bazaar (BZR) repositories. To enable this behavior, simply add the following to the local.conf configuration file found in the build directory: SRCREV_pn-<PN> = "${AUTOREV}" where PN is the name of the package for which you want to enable automatic source revision updating.

GDB allows you to examine running programs, which in turn help you to understand and fix problems. It also allows you to perform post-mortem style analysis of program crashes. GDB is available as a package within the Yocto Project and by default is installed in sdk images. See the "Images" chapter in the Yocto Project Reference Manual for a description of these images. You can find information on GDB at . For best results, install -dbg packages for the applications you are going to debug. Doing so makes available extra debug symbols that give you more meaningful output. Sometimes, due to memory or disk space constraints, it is not possible to use GDB directly on the remote target to debug applications. These constraints arise because GDB needs to load the debugging information and the binaries of the process being debugged. Additionally, GDB needs to perform many computations to locate information such as function names, variable names and values, stack traces and so forth - even before starting the debugging process. These extra computations place more load on the target system and can alter the characteristics of the program being debugged. To help get past the previously mentioned constraints, you can use Gdbserver. Gdbserver runs on the remote target and does not load any debugging information from the debugged process. Instead, a GDB instance processes the debugging information that is run on a remote computer - the host GDB. The host GDB then sends control commands to Gdbserver to make it stop or start the debugged program, as well as read or write memory regions of that debugged program. All the debugging information loaded and processed as well as all the heavy debugging is done by the host GDB. Offloading these processes gives the Gdbserver running on the target a chance to remain small and fast. Because the host GDB is responsible for loading the debugging information and for doing the necessary processing to make actual debugging happen, the user has to make sure the host can access the unstripped binaries complete with their debugging information and also be sure the target is compiled with no optimizations. The host GDB must also have local access to all the libraries used by the debugged program. Because Gdbserver does not need any local debugging information, the binaries on the remote target can remain stripped. However, the binaries must also be compiled without optimization so they match the host's binaries. To remain consistent with GDB documentation and terminology, the binary being debugged on the remote target machine is referred to as the "inferior" binary. For documentation on GDB see the GDB site.

First, make sure Gdbserver is installed on the target. If it is not, install the package gdbserver, which needs the libthread-db1 package. As an example, to launch Gdbserver on the target and make it ready to "debug" a program located at /path/to/inferior, connect to the target and launch: $ gdbserver localhost:2345 /path/to/inferior Gdbserver should now be listening on port 2345 for debugging commands coming from a remote GDB process that is running on the host computer. Communication between Gdbserver and the host GDB are done using TCP. To use other communication protocols, please refer to the Gdbserver documentation.

Running GDB on the host computer takes a number of stages. This section describes those stages.

A suitable GDB cross-binary is required that runs on your host computer but also knows about the the ABI of the remote target. You can get this binary from the meta-toolchain. Here is an example: /usr/local/poky/eabi-glibc/arm/bin/arm-poky-linux-gnueabi-gdb where arm is the target architecture and linux-gnueabi the target ABI. Alternatively, you can use BitBake to build the gdb-cross binary. Here is an example: $ bitbake gdb-cross Once the binary is built, you can find it here: tmp/sysroots/<host-arch>/usr/bin/<target-abi>-gdb

The inferior binary (complete with all debugging symbols) as well as any libraries (and their debugging symbols) on which the inferior binary depends need to be available. There are a number of ways you can make these available. Perhaps the easiest way is to have an 'sdk' image that corresponds to the plain image installed on the device. In the case of core-image-sato, core-image-sato-sdk would contain suitable symbols. Because the sdk images already have the debugging symbols installed, it is just a question of expanding the archive to some location and then informing GDB. Alternatively, the OpenEmbedded build system can build a custom directory of files for a specific debugging purpose by reusing its tmp/rootfs directory. This directory contains the contents of the last built image. This process assumes two things: The image running on the target was the last image to be built. The package (foo in the following example) that contains the inferior binary to be debugged has been built without optimization and has debugging information available. The following steps show how to build the custom directory of files: Install the package (foo in this case) to tmp/rootfs: $ tmp/sysroots/i686-linux/usr/bin/opkg-cl -f \ tmp/work/<target-abi>/core-image-sato-1.0-r0/temp/opkg.conf -o \ tmp/rootfs/ update Install the debugging information: $ tmp/sysroots/i686-linux/usr/bin/opkg-cl -f \ tmp/work/<target-abi>/core-image-sato-1.0-r0/temp/opkg.conf \ -o tmp/rootfs install foo $ tmp/sysroots/i686-linux/usr/bin/opkg-cl -f \ tmp/work/<target-abi>/core-image-sato-1.0-r0/temp/opkg.conf \ -o tmp/rootfs install foo-dbg

To launch the host GDB, you run the cross-gdb binary and provide the inferior binary as part of the command line. For example, the following command form continues with the example used in the previous section. This command form loads the foo binary as well as the debugging information: $ <target-abi>-gdb rootfs/usr/bin/foo Once the GDB prompt appears, you must instruct GDB to load all the libraries of the inferior binary from tmp/rootfs as follows: $ set solib-absolute-prefix /path/to/tmp/rootfs The pathname /path/to/tmp/rootfs must either be the absolute path to tmp/rootfs or the location at which binaries with debugging information reside. At this point you can have GDB connect to the Gdbserver that is running on the remote target by using the following command form: $ target remote remote-target-ip-address:2345 The remote-target-ip-address is the IP address of the remote target where the Gdbserver is running. Port 2345 is the port on which the GDBSERVER is running.

You can now proceed with debugging as normal - as if you were debugging on the local machine. For example, to instruct GDB to break in the "main" function and then continue with execution of the inferior binary use the following commands from within GDB: (gdb) break main (gdb) continue For more information about using GDB, see the project's online documentation at .

OProfile is a statistical profiler well suited for finding performance bottlenecks in both userspace software and in the kernel. This profiler provides answers to questions like "Which functions does my application spend the most time in when doing X?" Because the OpenEmbedded build system is well integrated with OProfile, it makes profiling applications on target hardware straightforward. To use OProfile, you need an image that has OProfile installed. The easiest way to do this is with tools-profile in the IMAGE_FEATURES variable. You also need debugging symbols to be available on the system where the analysis takes place. You can gain access to the symbols by using dbg-pkgs in the IMAGE_FEATURES variable or by installing the appropriate -dbg packages. For successful call graph analysis, the binaries must preserve the frame pointer register and should also be compiled with the -fno-omit-framepointer flag. You can achieve this by setting the SELECTED_OPTIMIZATION variable to -fexpensive-optimizations -fno-omit-framepointer -frename-registers -O2. You can also achieve it by setting the DEBUG_BUILD variable to "1" in the local.conf configuration file. If you use the DEBUG_BUILD variable you will also add extra debug information that can make the debug packages large.

Using OProfile you can perform all the profiling work on the target device. A simple OProfile session might look like the following: # opcontrol --reset # opcontrol --start --separate=lib --no-vmlinux -c 5 . . [do whatever is being profiled] . . # opcontrol --stop $ opreport -cl In this example, the reset command clears any previously profiled data. The next command starts OProfile. The options used when starting the profiler separate dynamic library data within applications, disable kernel profiling, and enable callgraphing up to five levels deep. To profile the kernel, you would specify the --vmlinux=/path/to/vmlinux option. The vmlinux file is usually in the source directory in the /boot/ directory and must match the running kernel. After you perform your profiling tasks, the next command stops the profiler. After that, you can view results with the opreport command with options to see the separate library symbols and callgraph information. Callgraphing logs information about time spent in functions and about a function's calling function (parent) and called functions (children). The higher the callgraphing depth, the more accurate the results. However, higher depths also increase the logging overhead. Consequently, you should take care when setting the callgraphing depth. On ARM, binaries need to have the frame pointer enabled for callgraphing to work. To accomplish this use the -fno-omit-framepointer option with gcc. For more information on using OProfile, see the OProfile online documentation at .

A graphical user interface for OProfile is also available. You can download and build this interface from the Yocto Project at . If the "tools-profile" image feature is selected, all necessary binaries are installed onto the target device for OProfileUI interaction. Even though the source directory usually includes all needed patches on the target device, you might find you need other OProfile patches for recent OProfileUI features. If so, see the OProfileUI README for the most recent information.

Using OProfile in online mode assumes a working network connection with the target hardware. With this connection, you just need to run "oprofile-server" on the device. By default, OProfile listens on port 4224. You can change the port using the --port command-line option. The client program is called oprofile-viewer and its UI is relatively straightforward. You access key functionality through the buttons on the toolbar, which are duplicated in the menus. Here are the buttons: Connect: Connects to the remote host. You can also supply the IP address or hostname. Disconnect: Disconnects from the target. Start: Starts profiling on the device. Stop: Stops profiling on the device and downloads the data to the local host. Stopping the profiler generates the profile and displays it in the viewer. Download: Downloads the data from the target and generates the profile, which appears in the viewer. Reset: Resets the sample data on the device. Resetting the data removes sample information collected from previous sampling runs. Be sure you reset the data if you do not want to include old sample information. Save: Saves the data downloaded from the target to another directory for later examination. Open: Loads previously saved data. The client downloads the complete 'profile archive' from the target to the host for processing. This archive is a directory that contains the sample data, the object files, and the debug information for the object files. The archive is then converted using the oparchconv script, which is included in this distribution. The script uses opimport to convert the archive from the target to something that can be processed on the host. Downloaded archives reside in the build directory in /tmp and are cleared up when they are no longer in use. If you wish to perform kernel profiling, you need to be sure a vmlinux file that matches the running kernel is available. In the source directory, that file is usually located in /boot/vmlinux-KERNELVERSION, where KERNEL-version is the version of the kernel. The OpenEmbedded build system generates separate vmlinux packages for each kernel it builds. Thus, it should just be a question of making sure a matching package is installed (e.g. opkg install kernel-vmlinux. The files are automatically installed into development and profiling images alongside OProfile. A configuration option exists within the OProfileUI settings page that you can use to enter the location of the vmlinux file. Waiting for debug symbols to transfer from the device can be slow, and it is not always necessary to actually have them on the device for OProfile use. All that is needed is a copy of the filesystem with the debug symbols present on the viewer system. The "Launching GDB on the Host Computer" section covers how to create such a directory with the source directory and how to use the OProfileUI Settings dialog to specify the location. If you specify the directory, it will be used when the file checksums match those on the system you are profiling.

If network access to the target is unavailable, you can generate an archive for processing in oprofile-viewer as follows: # opcontrol --reset # opcontrol --start --separate=lib --no-vmlinux -c 5 . . [do whatever is being profiled] . . # opcontrol --stop # oparchive -o my_archive In the above example, my_archive is the name of the archive directory where you would like the profile archive to be kept. After the directory is created, you can copy it to another host and load it using oprofile-viewer open functionality. If necessary, the archive is converted.