meta-axxia
==========
This is the official OpenEmbedded/Yocto BSP layer for Intel’s family of
Axxia Mobile & Enterprise Communication Processors.
Supported MACHINES
==================
Boards Supported by this layer (Please refer to the associate .conf
for more information):
* axxiaarm - Axxia 5000 ARM Mobile & Enterprise Communication
Processors family (32-bit)
* axxiaarm64 - Axxia 5000 and 6000 ARM Mobile & Enterprise
Communication Processors family (64-bit)
NOTE: Machines are divided by architecture. By building Linux for
axxiaarm machine (e.g.), you will build binaries for all available ARM
targets.
Reference Boards
================
Amarillo – Reference board for the Axxia 5500 line of Communication
Processor devices. The 5500 device combines an ARM CPU subsystem with
up to 16 Cortex-A15 Cores along with advanced packet-processing
acceleration engines.
Victoria – Reference board for the Axxia 5600 line of Communication
Processor devices. The 5600 device combines an ARM X9 CPU subsystem
with up to 16 Cortex-A57 Cores along with advanced packet-processing
acceleration engines.
Waco – Reference board for the Axxia 6700 line of Communication
Processor devices. The 6700 device combines an ARM XLF (lionfish) CPU
subsystem with up to 32 Cortex-A53 Cores along with advanced
packet-processing acceleration engines.
Sources
=======
In most cases, the public repositories can be used (poky,
meta-openembedded, etc.). In the meta-axxia case, however, there are
options. Here's what is available and what each provides.
The Intel github.com repositories have the latest. To access the
private repository, request permission from Intel. Note that the
private repository is used for development and is not supported.
$ git clone https://github.com/axxia/meta-axxia_private.git meta-axxia
The public Intel repository contains changes that have been submitted
to Yocto, but may not have been accepted yet.
$ git clone https://github.com/axxia/meta-axxia.git
For changes accepted by the Yocto project, use the following.
$ git clone git://git.yoctoproject.org/meta-axxia
Dependencies
============
This layer depends on:
Poky
----
URI: git://git.yoctoproject.org/poky.git
branch: thud
revision: cdd4a52578f4f1b79b3fc2c92aa4434b99efd91c
OpenEmbedded
------------
URI: https://github.com/openembedded/meta-openembedded.git
branch: thud
revision: 9b3b907f30b0d5b92d58c7e68289184fda733d3e
Yocto Virtualization Layer
--------------------------
URI: git://git.yoctoproject.org/meta-virtualization
branch: thud
revision: bbc38dc9d6d02e73c08df289bb22a292c2264e9b
Building the meta-axxia BSP layer
=================================
To begin using the Yocto Project build tools, you must first setup your work
environment and verify that you have the required host packages installed
on the system you will be using for builds.
Check the YOCTO Reference Manual for the system you are using and verify you
have the minimum required packages installed:
http://www.yoctoproject.org/docs/current/ref-manual/ref-manual.html
1. Create an empty build directory and verify that the partition has
at least 50Gb of free space. Next set an environment variable, YOCTO,
to the full path.
$ cd $HOME
$ df -h . # verify output shows adequate space available
$ mkdir yocto
$ cd yocto
$ export YOCTO=$HOME/yocto # should also add this to your ~/.bashrc file.
2. Clone the Yocto Project build tools (Poky) environment.
$ cd $YOCTO
$ git clone git://git.yoctoproject.org/poky.git
$ cd poky
$ git checkout thud
3. Clone the Axxia meta layer. This provides meta data for building
images for the Axxia specific board types. See 'Sources' above to
select the right meta-axxia repository, branch, and version.
$ cd $YOCTO
$ (the git clone command chosen above)
$ cd meta-axxia
$ git checkout thud
4. The Open Embedded project provides many useful layers and packages
such as networking. Download the Open Embedded Yocto Project hosted
repository with the following.
$ cd $YOCTO
$ git clone https://github.com/openembedded/meta-openembedded.git
$ cd meta-openembedded
$ git checkout thud
5. Clone Yocto Virtualization Layer which provides packages for
virtualization such as Linux Container Support (lxc).
$ cd $YOCTO
$ git clone git://git.yoctoproject.org/meta-virtualization
$ cd meta-virtualization
$ git checkout thud
6. Create the build directory. The name is optional and will default
to 'build', however it helps to choose a name to match the board
type. For example, we will use axxia.
$ cd $YOCTO
$ source meta-axxia/axxia-env
$ source poky/oe-init-build-env axxia-build
7. Check the conf/bblayers.conf file and edit if necessary.
$ pwd (you should be at $YOCTO/axxia-build)
$ vi conf/bblayers.conf
BBLAYERS variable should have the following content (references to $YOCTO
below shoud be replaced with the actual value you provided in step 1).
BBLAYERS ?= " \
$YOCTO/poky/meta \
$YOCTO/poky/meta-poky \
$YOCTO/meta-openembedded/meta-oe \
$YOCTO/meta-openembedded/meta-networking \
$YOCTO/meta-openembedded/meta-filesystems \
$YOCTO/meta-openembedded/meta-python \
$YOCTO/meta-virtualization \
$YOCTO/meta-axxia \
"
8. Check the conf/local.conf file and edit if necessary.
$ vi conf/local.conf
8.1 Set distribution configuration to have all Axxia specific features.
DISTRO = "axxia"
8.2 Set Release version. Replace it with the release tag for meta-axxia.
RELEASE_VERSION = "(meta-axxia-tag)"
8.3 Depending on your processor, set these two options that control
how much parallelism BitBake should use:
BB_NUMBER_THREADS = "12"
PARALLEL_MAKE = "-j 12"
8.4 Select a specific machine to target the build with:
NOTE: Machines are divided by architecture. By building Linux for
axxiaarm machine (e.g.), you will build binaries for all available
ARM targets.
- Axxia 5500 ARM Mobile & Enterprise Communication Processors family
(Amarillo)
MACHINE = "axxiaarm"
- Axxia 5600 and 6700 ARM Mobile & Enterprise Communication Processors
family (Victoria and Waco).
MACHINE = "axxiaarm64"
8.5 Select the root filesystem image compression type (can set
multiple types):
NOTE: Default types are set for each machine configuration file
from conf/machine.
IMAGE_FSTYPES += "ext2"
IMAGE_FSTYPES += "tar.gz"
IMAGE_FSTYPES += "hddimg"
8.6 Select the kernel to use.
Meta-axxia is able to build the kernel from 3 sources:
a. Yocto Project Source repositories (git.yoctoproject.org)
for standard
PREFERRED_PROVIDER_virtual/kernel = "linux-yocto"
for preempt-rt
PREFERRED_PROVIDER_virtual/kernel = "linux-yocto-rt"
will build from Yocto repos:
4.12: http://git.yoctoproject.org/git/linux-yocto-4.12
standard/axxia/base or standard/preempt-rt/axxia/base branch
4.19: http://git.yoctoproject.org/git/linux-yocto
v4.19/standard/axxia or v4.19/standard/preempt-rt/axxia branch
b. Private Axxia Github (github.com/axxia)
for standard
PREFERRED_PROVIDER_virtual/kernel = "linux-axxia"
for preempt-rt
PREFERRED_PROVIDER_virtual/kernel = "linux-axxia-rt"
will build kernel from GitHub private repos (require authentication with
public key):
4.12: git@github.com:axxia/axxia_yocto_linux_4.12_private.git
standard/axxia-dev/base or standard/preempt-rt/axxia/base branch
4.19: git@github.com:axxia/linux-yocto_private.git
v4.19/standard/axxia-dev/base or v4.19/standard/preempt-rt/axxia-dev/base branch
c. Local Kernel repositories (development purpose)
PREFERRED_PROVIDER_virtual/kernel = "linux-local"
To use a local kernel repository, you also need to add in local.conf
or to ajust directly in recipes-kernel/linux/linux-local.bb recipe:
LOCAL_KERNEL_PATH = "(path-to-local-kernel-repository)"
LOCAL_KERNEL_BRANCH = "(kernel-branch)"
NOTE: All changes should be committed in the local kernel.
NOTE: Full defconfig should be copied in recipes-kernel/linux,
besides linux-local.bb recipe.
8.7 Select the kernel version:
for 4.12, depending on PREFERRED_PROVIDER_virtual/kernel
PREFERRED_VERSION_(preferred-provider)= "4.12%"
for 4.19, depending on PREFERRED_PROVIDER_virtual/kernel
PREFERRED_VERSION_(preferred-provider)= "4.19%"
NOTE: (preferred-provider) can be linux-yocto, linux-yocto-rt,
linux-axxia, linux-axxia-rt. See 9.5.
NOTE: No preferred version should be set for linux-local provider.
8.8 Customizing the Kernel .config file
NOTE: For linux-axxia (kernel from the Github repositories), defconfigs
from kernel source tree are used to generate the final .config.
For linux-yocto (kernel from the Yocto repositories), configuration
fragments from yocto-kernel-cache repository and from meta layer are
used to generate the final .config.
Besides the options specific to the standard and preempt-rt kernel,
you are able to add extra customizations to the .config by setting the
following options:
a. Debug options (axxia and yocto):
- DBG = "no" (DEFAULT)
- DBG = "yes"
Will enable options for debug in the Kernel config.
b. Chip specific options (axxia and yocto):
CHIPSET = "X9" -> add X9 specific kernel options
CHIPSET = "XLF" -> add XLF specific kernel options
Note: CHIPSET variable is also used for fine tuning (see 8.9).
c. Power management scheme (yocto only):
- POWER_MANAGEMENT = "low-power" (DEFAULT)
to keep the core low power when is shut down
- POWER_MANAGEMENT = "full-power"
to complete power down the core when is shut down
- POWER_MANAGEMENT = "full-power-L2"
to complete power down the core and L2 cache when is shut down
d. Big-endian or little-endian (yocto only):
Set the order in which a sequence of bytes are stored in computer memory.
- BIG_ENDIAN = "no" (DEFAULT)
Little-endian is the default settings.
- BIG_ENDIAN = "yes"
Kernel will be built with CONFIG_CPU_BIG_ENDIAN enabled.
e. SMP options (yocto only):
- SMP = "yes" (DEFAULT)
- SMP = "no"
Will enable or disable SMP related kernel options.
f. Regression testing (yocto only):
TESTING = "yes"
8.9 Choose proper fine tuning for each CHIPSET As long as specfic
tunes are defined, user can choose the proper tune using the CHIPSET
variable. Features and flags for each tune are defined bellow:
- for axxiaarm:
- CHIPSET = "5500" (DEFAULT) -> default tune: cortexa15-neon
- TUNE_FEATURES = "arm armv7ve vfp neon"
- CFLAGS = "arm-poky-linux-gnueabi-gcc -march=armv7ve -mfpu=neon
-mfloat-abi=softfp
- CHIPSET = "X9" -> default tune: cortexa57_32-crypto
- TUNE_FEATURES = "arm aarch32 neon fp-armv8 callconvention-hard
crypto cortexa57"
- CFLAGS = "arm-poky-linux-gnueabi-gcc -mfpu=crypto-neon-fp-armv8
-mfloat-abi=hard -mcpu=cortex-a57 -mtune=cortex-a57"
- CHIPSET = "XLF" -> default tune: cortexa53_32-crypto
- TUNE_FEATURES = "arm aarch32 neon fp-armv8 callconvention-hard
crypto cortexa53"
- CFLAGS = "arm-poky-linux-gnueabi-gcc -mfpu=crypto-neon-fp-armv8
-mfloat-abi=hard -mcpu=cortex-a53 -mtune=cortex-a53"
- for axxiaarm64:
- CHIPSET = "X9" (DEFAULT) -> default tune: cortexa57_64-crypto
- TUNE_FEATURES = "aarch64 crypto cortexa57"
- CFLAGS = "aarch64-poky-linux-gcc -march=armv8-a+crypto
-mcpu=cortex-a57+crypto -mtune=cortex-a57"
- CHIPSET = "XLF" -> default tune: cortexa53_64-crypto
- TUNE_FEATURES = "aarch64 crypto cortexa53"
- CFLAGS = "aarch64-poky-linux-gcc -march=armv8-a+crypto
-mcpu=cortex-a53+crypto -mtune=cortex-a53"
NOTE: For ARMv8, AArch64 state, other availabe tunes are for BE with
and without crypto (crypto enables olso floating point and advanced
SIMD). See conf/machine/include/arm/arch-armv8a.inc
For ARMv8, AArch32 state, default tunes include hard float, fp-armv8
floating-point, thumb and neon extensions. Crypto, thumb and BE are
optional.
8.10 Building a 32-bit RootFS for ARMv8 based boards:
For ARM architecture, depending on the machine selected on step 7.2,
specific Kernel and RootFS are built for specific boards:
- axxiaarm: 32-bit Kernel and Rootfs for 5500 board series which have
ARMv7 based processors (cortex-a15)
- axxiaarm64: 64-bit Kernel and Rootfs for 5600 board series which have
ARMv8 based processors (cortex-a53 for XLF board or
cortex-a57 for X9 board).
But ARMv8 architecture support both 32-bit and 64-bit instruction sets.
To build a 32-bit Kernel and RootFS for ARMv8, you will need to set the
following variables in local.conf:
MACHINE = "axxiaarm" # for 32-bit
CHIPSET = "X9" of CHIPSET = "XLF" (see 7.9) # for 5600 boards (ARMv8)
If CHIPSET is not set, it will default to 5500 (ARMv7).
NOTE: You can boot the resulting 32-bit RootFS with a 64-bit Kernel
resulting from an axxiaarm64 build.
8.11 Other optional settings for saving disk space and build time:
DL_DIR = "/(some-shared-location)/downloads"
SSTATE_DIR = "/(some-shared-location)/sstate-cache
8.12 Examples.
See http://www.yoctoproject.org/docs/2.3/mega-manual/mega-manual.html
for complete documentation on the Yocto build system.
Here are the local.conf files used for open builds.
8.13.1 axxiaarm
MACHINE = "axxiaarm"
CHIPSET = "5500"
SDKIMAGE_FEATURES = "dev-pkgs dbg-pkgs staticdev-pkgs"
IMAGE_FSTYPES += "ext2"
IMAGE_FSTYPES += "tar.gz"
PREFERRED_PROVIDER_virtual/kernel = "linux-yocto-rt"
PREFERRED_VERSION_linux-yocto = "4.12%"
DISTRO = "axxia"
PACKAGE_CLASSES ?= "package_rpm"
EXTRA_IMAGE_FEATURES = "debug-tweaks"
USER_CLASSES ?= "buildstats image-mklibs image-prelink"
PATCHRESOLVE = "noop"
BB_DISKMON_DIRS = "\
STOPTASKS,${TMPDIR},1G,100K \
STOPTASKS,${DL_DIR},1G,100K \
STOPTASKS,${SSTATE_DIR},1G,100K \
STOPTASKS,/tmp,100M,100K \
ABORT,${TMPDIR},100M,1K \
ABORT,${DL_DIR},100M,1K \
ABORT,${SSTATE_DIR},100M,1K \
ABORT,/tmp,10M,1K"
PACKAGECONFIG_append_pn-qemu-native = " sdl"
PACKAGECONFIG_append_pn-nativesdk-qemu = " sdl"
CONF_VERSION = "1"
8.13.2 axxiaarm64
MACHINE = "axxiaarm64"
CHIPSET = "X9"
SDKIMAGE_FEATURES = "dev-pkgs dbg-pkgs staticdev-pkgs"
IMAGE_FSTYPES += "ext2"
IMAGE_FSTYPES += "tar.gz"
PREFERRED_PROVIDER_virtual/kernel = "linux-yocto-rt"
PREFERRED_VERSION_linux-yocto-rt = "4.12%"
DISTRO = "axxia"
PACKAGE_CLASSES ?= "package_rpm"
EXTRA_IMAGE_FEATURES = "debug-tweaks"
USER_CLASSES ?= "buildstats image-mklibs image-prelink"
PATCHRESOLVE = "noop"
BB_DISKMON_DIRS = "\
STOPTASKS,${TMPDIR},1G,100K \
STOPTASKS,${DL_DIR},1G,100K \
STOPTASKS,${SSTATE_DIR},1G,100K \
STOPTASKS,/tmp,100M,100K \
ABORT,${TMPDIR},100M,1K \
ABORT,${DL_DIR},100M,1K \
ABORT,${SSTATE_DIR},100M,1K \
ABORT,/tmp,10M,1K"
PACKAGECONFIG_append_pn-qemu-native = " sdl"
PACKAGECONFIG_append_pn-nativesdk-qemu = " sdl"
CONF_VERSION = "1"
9. Select the image type and start the build
$ cd $YOCTO/axxia-build
$ bitbake (image type)
Available root filesystem types:
* axxia-image-small
A small image used in simulation, flash, or as a ram disk. Should be
sufficient to use the RTE.
* axxia-image-sim
An image used in simulation.
* axxia-image-large
A more complete image.
* axxia-image-large-sdk
Image that includes everything within axxia-image-large plus meta-toolchain,
development headers and libraries to form a standalone SDK.
Once complete the images for the target machine will be available in the output
directory 'tmp/deploy/images/$MACHINE'.
10. Images generated:
* (image type)-(machine name).ext2 (rootfs in EXT2 format)
* (image type)-(machine name).tar.gz (rootfs in tar+GZIP format)
* modules-(machine name).tgz (modules in tar+GZIP format)
* zImage and zImage-(machine name) (Linux Kernel binary, in u-boot wrapped
format)
NOTE: For axxiaarm64, only Image files are generated, instead of zImage.
Use mkimage to convert them to zImage format.
* (target name).dtb
* FIT images, 3 types:
* fdt.fit-(target name) (DTB in fit image format)
* linux.fit-(target name) (Kernel binary in fit image format)
* multi.fit-(target name) (Kernel binary + DTB in fit image format)
11. Build and install the SDK:
In step 9. above, add '-c populate_sdk' to create the SDK install self
extracting script in tmp/deploy/sdk. Simply run the poky*.sh script.
To set up the environment to use the tools, source environment-setup*
in the install directory.
Note that to include the Linux source (to build external modules), use
'bitbake axxia-image-large-sdk -c populate_sdk'. For other targets,
the Linux source will not be available.
After the installation completes, do the following.
11.1 libnl Links
At present, no links get created in (sysroot)/usr/lib for the expected
names of the netlink libraries. DPDK, for example, expects
libnl-3.so, but the SDK has libnl-3.so.200 (which is a link to the
actual library, libnl-3.so.200.23.0 etc.). Fix this as follows.
cd $SYSROOT/usr/lib
ln -s libnl-3.so.200 libnl-3.so
ln -s libnl-genl-3.so.200 libnl-genl-3.so
ln -s libnl-nf-3.so.200 libnl-nf-3.so
ln -s libnl-route-3.so.200 libnl-route-3.so
11.2 Some Updates for LTTng
cd $SYSROOT/usr/lib
sed -i "s|/usr/lib|$SYSROOT/usr/lib|" liblttng-ust.la
11.3 Optional Linux Module Tools Update
If external Linux modules need to be buildable on multiple versions of
Linux hosts, and the tools were installed on the most recent version,
external Linux modules may not build. This is because the version of
glibc on the Linux host that the SDK install script was executed on
are expected. To use an older version, simply do the following on the
older Linux host.
source (install directory)/environment-setup*
cd $SYSROOT/usr/src/kernel
make clean silentoldconfig scripts
Guidelines for submitting patches
=================================
Please submit any patches against meta-axxia BSPs to the meta-axxia
mailing list (meta-lsi@yoctoproject.org) and cc: the maintainers.
Mailing list:
https://lists.yoctoproject.org/listinfo/meta-lsi
When creating patches, please use something like:
git format-patch -s --subject-prefix='meta-axxia][PATCH' origin
When sending patches, please use something like:
git send-email --to meta-lsi@yoctoproject.org --cc (maintainers)
(generated patch)
Maintenance
===========
Maintainers: Daniel Dragomir (daniel.dragomir@windriver.com)
John Jacques (john.jacques@intel.com)
Please see the meta-axxia/MAINTAINERS file for more details.
License
=======
All metadata is MIT licensed unless otherwise stated. Souce code included
in tree for individual recipes is under the LICENSE stated in each recipe
(.bb file) unless otherwise stated.
