1 Introduction

This project is a build system for MaaXBoard BSP(Board Support Package) developer, it will auto download all the source code and build for it. It also can generate a linux system image, which can be flash into eMMC or TF card and boot up from it.

The build system can support:

• MaaXBoard
• MaaXBoard Mini
• MaaXBoard 8ULP
• MaaXBoard Nano
• MaaXBoard OSM93

And it test on Ubuntu-20.04.

guowenxue@7eeebdd3d42f:~$ lsb_release -a
No LSB modules are available.
Distributor ID: Ubuntu
Description:    Ubuntu 20.04.4 LTS
Release:        20.04
Codename:       focal

Take MaaXBoard 8ULP for example, You can create the work space and fetch the build system tools.

guowenxue@7eeebdd3d42f:~$ git clone https://github.com/Avnet/maaxboard-build-tools.git maaxboard-8ulp

guowenxue@7eeebdd3d42f:~$ cd maaxboard-8ulp && ls
bootloader  config.json  images  kernel  tools  yocto

Below is the build system files.

File	Description
config.json	The build system configure file
bootloader/build.sh	The bootloader build shell script
kernel/build.sh	The Linux kernel build shell script
yocto/build.sh	The Yocto build shell script
images/build.sh	The system image generate shell script
tools/setup_tools.sh	The build system setup shell script
tools/imgmnt	A shell script used to mount the system image for update

2 Setup

Run tools/setup_tools.sh script as root to install all the dependent system tools and cross compiler for this build system.

guowenxue@7eeebdd3d42f:~/maaxboard-8ulp$ sudo ./tools/setup_tools.sh

 --I-- start apt install system tools(commands)

 --I-- start apt install devlopment tools(commands)

 --I-- start download cross compiler from ARM Developer for Cortex-M core
 --I-- cross compiler for Cortex-M installed to "/opt/gcc-arm-none-eabi-10.3-2021.07" successfully

 --I-- start download cross compiler from ARM Developer for Cortex-A core
 --I-- cross compiler for Cortex-A installed to "/opt/gcc-arm-10.3-2021.07" successfully

NOTE: MaaXBoard-8ULP need build the Cortex-M core SDK, so need install cross compiler for it.

3 Configure

config.json is the default configure file for the build system.

guowenxue@7eeebdd3d42f:~/maaxboard-8ulp$ cat config.json
{
    "bsp":
    {
        "board":"maaxboard",
        "version":"lf-6.1.22-2.0.0",
        "giturl":"https://github.com/Avnet/",
        "cortexAtool":"/opt/gcc-arm-10.3-2021.07/bin/aarch64-none-linux-gnu-",
        "cortexMtool":"/opt/gcc-arm-none-eabi-10.3-2021.07/"
    },
    "system":
    {
        "distro":"yocto",
        "version":"mickledore",
        "imgsize":"5120",
        "bootsize":"100"
    }
}

BSP(Board Support Package) configure options:

• board Set the MaaXBoard board name here, it should be maaxboard, maaxboard-mini, maaxboard-8ulp, maaxboard-osm93 or maaxboard-nano;
• version Set the BSP version, it support lf-6.1.22-2.0.0, lf-6.1.1-1.0.0 and lf-5.15.71-2.2.0 till now;
• giturl MaaXBoard BSP source code git repository download URL;
• cortexAtool Set the cross compiler for Cortex-A with Linux;
• cortexMtool Set the cross compiler for Cortex-M with RTOS;

System configure options:

• distro The linux distribution, current only support yocto;
• version The linux distribution version, current support mickledore, langdale and kirkstone for Yocto;
• imgsize The generate system image size;
• bootsize The boot partition size in system image;

4 Build

4.1 Configure

Modify the board name to maaxboard-8ulp. And you can modify some other options as your requirement, such as git repository URL.

guowenxue@7eeebdd3d42f:~/maaxboard-8ulp$ vim config.json
{
    "bsp":
    {
        "board":"maaxboard-8ulp",
... ...
}

4.2 Build bootloader

You can run below command to start build bootloader.

guowenxue@7eeebdd3d42f:~/maaxboard-8ulp$ cd bootloader && ./build.sh

guowenxue@7eeebdd3d42f:~/maaxboard-8ulp/bootloader$ ls
build.sh  firmware  imx-atf  imx-mkimage  install  mcore_sdk_8ulp  uboot-imx

guowenxue@7eeebdd3d42f:~/maaxboard-8ulp/bootloader$ ls install/
u-boot-maaxboard-8ulp.imx

• It will auto download imx-atf, imx-mkimage, uboot-imx from the git repository set in the configure file;
• It will auto download firmware image files from NXP official site;
• The build output bootloader image will be installed to foler bootloader/install/ ;

4.3 Build kernel

You can run below command to start build linux kernel.

guowenxue@7eeebdd3d42f:~/maaxboard-8ulp$ cd kernel && ./build.sh

guowenxue@7eeebdd3d42f:~/maaxboard-8ulp/kernel$ ls
build.sh  install  linux-imx  mwifiex

guowenxue@7eeebdd3d42f:~/maaxboard-8ulp/kernel$ ls install/
Image  lib  maaxboard-8ulp.dtb  overlays

• It will auto download linux kernel source code linux-imx from the git repository set in the configure file;
• It will auto download extra Wireless module driver mwifiex from NXP official site;
• The build output linux kernel image will be installed to foler kernel/install/ ;

4.3 Build Yocto

You can run below command to start build Yocto.

guowenxue@7eeebdd3d42f:~/maaxboard-8ulp$ cd yocto && ./build.sh

guowenxue@7eeebdd3d42f:~/maaxboard-8ulp/yocto$ ls
build.sh  install  mickledore-lf-6.1.22-2.0.0

guowenxue@7eeebdd3d42f:~/maaxboard-8ulp/yocto$ ls install/
avnet-image-full-maaxboard-8ulp.wic.zst  rootfs.tar.zst  u-boot-maaxboard-8ulp.bin

• It will auto download repo and fetch Yocto source code from NXP offical site;
• It will auto download meta-maaxboard from the git repository set in the configure file;
• The build output Yocto system image and root file system will be installed to foler yocto/install/ ;

4.4 Generate Image

You can run below command to start generate system image.

guowenxue@7eeebdd3d42f:~/maaxboard-8ulp$ cd images && sudo ./build.sh

guowenxue@7eeebdd3d42f:~/maaxboard-8ulp/images$ ls
build.sh  install  rootfs-mickledore

guowenxue@7eeebdd3d42f:~/maaxboard-8ulp/images$ ls install/
maaxboard-8ulp-mickledore.img  u-boot-maaxboard-8ulp.imx

• Build system image need sudo privilege;
• It will auto find bootloader image file in bootloader/install;
• It will auto find linux kernle image files in kernel/install;
• It will auto find root file system tarball file in yocto/install;
• The generate output system image will installed to foler images/install ;

4.5 Update Image

You can install the imgmnt tool to system path /usr/bin;

guowenxue@7eeebdd3d42f:~/maaxboard-8ulp$ sudo cp tools/imgmnt /usr/bin/
guowenxue@7eeebdd3d42f:~/maaxboard-8ulp$ sudo chmod +x /usr/bin/imgmnt

We can mount the system image by imgmnt command with '-m' option.

guowenxue@7eeebdd3d42f:~/maaxboard-8ulp/images/install$ sudo imgmnt -m maaxboard-8ulp-mickledore.img
INFO: losetup /dev/loop0 maaxboard-8ulp-mickledore.img
INFO: kpartx -av /dev/loop0
add map loop0p1 (253:0): 0 194560 linear 7:0 20480
add map loop0p2 (253:1): 0 10270720 linear 7:0 215040
INFO: mount boot rootfs
INFO: mount maaxboard-8ulp-mickledore.img done.

It will mount the boot partition(FAT32) to boot folder and root file system partition(EXT4) to rootfs folder.

guowenxue@7eeebdd3d42f:~/maaxboard-8ulp/images/install$ ls boot/
Image  maaxboard-8ulp.dtb  overlays  readme.txt  uEnv.txt

guowenxue@7eeebdd3d42f:~/maaxboard-8ulp/images/install$ ls rootfs/
bin  boot  dev  etc  home  lib  lost+found  media  mnt  opt  proc  run  sbin  srv  sys  tmp  unit_tests  usr  var

After mount the system image on the linux system, now we can:

• Update bootloader or linux kernel image files in mount point boot;
• Update application program files in mount point rootfs;

We can unmount the system image by imgmnt command with '-u' option.

guowenxue@7eeebdd3d42f:~/maaxboard-8ulp/images/install$ sudo imgmnt -u maaxboard-8ulp-mickledore.img
INFO: umount boot
INFO: umount rootfs
INFO: kpartx -dv /dev/loop0
del devmap : loop0p1
del devmap : loop0p2
INFO: losetup -d /dev/loop0
INFO: umount maaxboard-8ulp-mickledore.img done.