Architech’s Hachiko/SDRAM documentation¶

Version:	1.0.1A
Copyright:	Architech
Date:	28/01/2014

This documentation is old, you can find the last release: Here

Hachiko board is a deeply embedded board based on Renesas’s RZ/A1 processor, which has a huge internal random access memory, enough to run a Linux distribution directly without the help of memory external to the SoC. The distribution you can run from within the internal RAM must be custom tailored for the final application. If you want to have more flexibility, the board allows you to mount an external memory chip so you can extend the amount of system memory. From the point of view of the SDK, there are differences regarding Linux kernel configuration, cross-toolchain, how the Linux distribution has to be composed, etc., hence there are two different SDKs for the two different configurations and two different documentations.

Important

We will call Hachiko/SDRAM the configuration that employs external memory, while we will call Hachiko the configuration without it.

This documentation is about Hachiko/SDRAM.

Have you just received your Hachiko/SDRAM board? Then you sure want to read the Unboxing chapter first.

If you are a new user of the Yocto based SDK we suggest you to read the Quick start guide chapter, otherwise, if you want to have a better understanding of specific topics, just jump directly to the chapter that interests you the most.

Furthermore, we encourage you to read the official Yocto Project documentation.

Notations¶

Throughout this guide, there are commands, file system paths, etc., that can either refer to the machine (real or virtual) you use to run the SDK or to the board.

Host

This box will be used to refer to the machine running the SDK

Board

This box will be used to refer to Hachiko/SDRAM board

However, the previous notations can make you struggle with long lines. In such a case, the following notation is used.

Host select

This Box will be used where long lines need to be displayed, as well as with system paths, commands, configuration files, etc.
All related to the host.
It will be used to display code example as well.

Board select

The same facility will be used, when needed, for the board.

If you click on select on the top right corner of these two last boxes, you will get the text inside the box selected. We have to warn you that your browser might select the line numbers as well, so, the first time you use such a feature, you are invited to check it.

Sometimes, when referring to file system paths, the path starts with /path/to. In such a case, the documentation is NOT referring to a physical file system path, it just means you need to read the path, understand what it means, and understand what is the proper path on your system. For example, when referring to the device file associated to your USB flash memory you could read something like this in the documentation:

Host select

/path/to/your/USB/device

Since things are different from one machine to another, you need to understand its meaning and corresponding value for your machine, like for example:

Host select

/dev/sdb

Chapters¶

Unboxing¶

This amazing board gets the power directly from the USB, so it comes with no external power supply.

This is what the box looks like

And this is the content of box

The board itself has been programmed to boot to a Linux console of a really tiny distribution, custom tailored to fit the 10MB of internal ram of Renesas’s SoC.

Shall we power on the board for the first time? Of course!

On Hachiko/SDRAM there is the dedicated serial console connector CN2

which you can connect, by means of a mini-USB cable, to your personal computer.

Note

Every operating system has its own killer application to give you a serial terminal interface. In this guide, we are assuming your host operating system is Ubuntu.

On a Linux (Ubuntu) host machine, the console is seen as a ttyUSBX device and you can access to it by means of an application like minicom.

Minicom needs to know the name of the serial device. The simplest way for you to discover the name of the device is by looking to the kernel messages, so:

clean the kernel messages

Host

sudo dmesg -c

connect the mini-USB cable to the board
display the kernel messages

Host

dmesg

read the output

Host select

[ 2912.634893] usb 3-4: >new full-speed USB device number 6 using xhci_hcd
[ 2912.658153] usb 3-4: >New USB device found, idVendor=0403, idProduct=6001
[ 2912.658160] usb 3-4: >New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=3
[ 2912.658164] usb 3-4: >Product: Hachiko Rev. B
[ 2912.658167] usb 3-4: >Manufacturer: AVNET EMG ITALY
[ 2912.658169] usb 3-4: >SerialNumber: A6XGP6WP
[ 2912.660753] ftdi_sio 3-4:1.0: >FTDI USB Serial Device converter detected
[ 2912.660801] usb 3-4: >Detected FT232RL
[ 2912.660805] usb 3-4: >Number of endpoints 2
[ 2912.660809] usb 3-4: >Endpoint 1 MaxPacketSize 64
[ 2912.660812] usb 3-4: >Endpoint 2 MaxPacketSize 64
[ 2912.660815] usb 3-4: >Setting MaxPacketSize 64
[ 2912.661102] usb 3-4: >FTDI USB Serial Device converter now attached to ttyUSB0

As you can see, here the device has been recognized as ttyUSB0.

Now that you know the device name, run minicom:

Host

sudo minicom -ws

If minicom is not installed, you can install it with:

Host

sudo apt-get install minicom

then you can setup your port with these parameters:

+-----------------------------------------------------------------------+
| A -    Serial Device      : /dev/ttyUSB0                              |
| B - Lockfile Location     : /var/lock                                 |
| C -   Callin Program      :                                           |
| D -  Callout Program      :                                           |
| E -    Bps/Par/Bits       : 115200 8N1                                |
| F - Hardware Flow Control : No                                        |
| G - Software Flow Control : No                                        |
|                                                                       |
|    Change which setting?                                              |
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------+
        | Screen and keyboard      |
        | Save setup as dfl        |
        | Save setup as..          |
        | Exit                     |
        | Exit from Minicom        |
        +--------------------------+

If on your system the device has not been recognized as ttyUSB0, just replace ttyUSB0 with the proper device.

Once you are done configuring the serial port, you are back to minicom main menu and you can select exit.

Give root to the login prompt:

Board

hachiko64 login: root

and press Enter.

Note

Sometimes, the time you spend setting up minicom makes you miss all the output that leads to the login and you see just a black screen, press Enter then to get the login prompt.

Enjoy!

Quick start guide¶

This document will guide you from importing the virtual machine to debugging an Hello World! example on a customized Linux distribution you will generate with OpenEmbedded/Yocto toolchain.

Install¶

The development environment is provided as a virtual disk (to be used by a VirtualBox virtual machine) which you can download from this page:

Important

http://downloads.architechboards.com/sdk/virtual_machine/download.html

Important

Compute the MD5SUM value of the zip file you downloaded and compare it to the golden one you find in the download page.

Uncompress the file, and you will get a .vdi file that is our virtual disk image. The environment contains the SDK for all the boards provided by Architech, Hachiko/SDRAM included.

Download VirtualBox¶

For being able to use it, you first need to install VirtualBox (version 4.2.10 or higher). You can get VirtualBox installer from here:

https://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Downloads

Download the version that suits your host operating system. You need to download and install the Extension Pack as well.

Important

Make sure that the extension pack has the same version of VirtualBox.

Install the software with all the default options.

Create a new Virtual Machine¶

Run VirtualBox

Click on New button

Select the name of the virtual machine and the operating system type

Select the amount of memory you want to give to your new virtual machine

Make the virtual machine use Architech’s virtual disk by pointing to the downloaded file. Than click on Create.

Setup the network¶

We need to setup a port forwarding rule to let you (later) use the virtual machine as a local repository of packages.

Note

The virtual machine must be off

Select Architech’s virtual machine from the list of virtual machines

Click on Settings

Select Network

Expand Advanced of Adapter 1

Click on Port Forwarding

_images/vdi_network_nat_port_forwarding.png

Add a new rule

_images/vdi_network_nat_port_forwarding_rule_add.png

Configure the rule

_images/vdi_network_nat_port_forwarding_rule_added.png

Click on Ok

Customize the number of processors¶

Building an entire system from the ground up is a business that can take up to several hours. To improve the performances of the overall build process, you can, if your computer has enough resources, assign more than one processor to the virtual machine.

Note

The virtual machine must be off

Select Architech’s virtual machine from the list of virtual machines

Click on Settings

Select System
Select Processor
Assign the number of processors you wish to assign to the virtual machine

_images/vdi_change_number_of_processors.png

Create a shared folder¶

A shared folder is way for host and guest operating systems to exchange files by means of the file system. You need to choose a directory on your host operating system to share with the guest operating system.

Note

The virtual machine must be off

Select Architech’s virtual machine from the list of virtual machines

Click on Settings

Select Shared Folders
Add a new shared folder

Choose a directory to share on your host machine. Make sure Auto-mount is selected.

Once the virtual machine has been booted, the shared folder will be mounted under /media/ directory inside the virtual machine.

Build¶

Important

A working internet connection, several GB of free disk space and several hours are required by the build process

Select Architech’s virtual machine from the list of virtual machines inside Virtual Box application

Click on the icon Start button in the toolbar and wait until the virtual machine is ready

Double click on Architech SDK icon you have on the virtual machine desktop.

The first screen gives you two choices: ArchiTech and 3rd Party. Choose ArchiTech.

Select Hachiko/SDRAM as board you want develop on.

_images/splashscreen_board_selection.jpg

A new screen opens up from where you can perform a set of actions. Click on Run bitbake to obtain a terminal ready to start to build an image.

Open local.conf file:

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gedit conf/local.conf

Go to the end of the file and add the following lines:

Host select

EXTRA_IMAGE_FEATURES_append = " tools-debug debug-tweaks"
IMAGE_INSTALL_append = " tcf-agent"

This will trigger the installation of a features set onto the final root file system, like tcf-agent and gdbserver.

Save the file and close gedit.
Build core-image-minimal-dev image by means of the following command:

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bitbake core-image-minimal-dev

At the end of the build process, the image will be saved inside directory:

Host select

/home/architech/architech_sdk/architech/hachiko/yocto/build/tmp/deploy/images/hachiko64

Setup sysroot directory on your host machine:

Host select

sudo tar -xjf /home/architech/architech_sdk/architech/hachiko/yocto/build/tmp/deploy/images/hachiko64/core-image-minimal-dev-hachiko64.tar.bz2 -C /home/architech/architech_sdk/architech/hachiko/sysroot/

Note

sudo password is: “architech“

Deploy¶

To deploy the root file system, you are going to need an USB flash drive.

Warning

The USB flash drive content will be lost forever!

Align a new partition to the first sector of your USB device:

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sfdisk /path/to/your/USB/device << EOF
0,
EOF

Format it as an EXT2 partition:

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mkfs.ext2 /path/to/your/USB/device/partition

Extract your image inside such a media:

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sudo tar -xjf /home/architech/architech_sdk/architech/hachiko/yocto/build/tmp/deploy/images/hachiko64/core-image-minimal-dev-hachiko.tar.bz2 -C /path/to/usb/media

Copy the kernel to the USB flash drive:

Host select

cp /home/architech/architech_sdk/architech/hachiko/yocto/build/tmp/deploy/images/hachiko64/uImage /path/to/usb/media/boot

Now copy the device tree:

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cp /home/architech/architech_sdk/architech/hachiko/yocto/build/tmp/deploy/images/hachiko64/uImage-rza1-hachiko.dtb  /path/to/usb/media/boot/rza1-hachiko.dtb

Unmount the flash drive from your system
Insert the USB Flash drive in the USB port at the bottom of the USB connector of Hachiko/SDRAM board

Boot¶

On Hachiko/SDRAM there is the dedicated serial console connector CN2

which you can connect, by means of a mini-USB cable, to your personal computer.

Note

Every operating system has its own killer application to give you a serial terminal interface. In this guide, we are assuming your host operating system is Ubuntu.

On a Linux (Ubuntu) host machine, the console is seen as a ttyUSBX device and you can access to it by means of an application like minicom.

Minicom needs to know the name of the serial device. The simplest way for you to discover the name of the device is by looking to the kernel messages, so:

clean the kernel messages

Host

sudo dmesg -c

connect the mini-USB cable to the board
display the kernel messages

Host

dmesg

read the output

Host select

[ 2912.634893] usb 3-4: >new full-speed USB device number 6 using xhci_hcd
[ 2912.658153] usb 3-4: >New USB device found, idVendor=0403, idProduct=6001
[ 2912.658160] usb 3-4: >New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=3
[ 2912.658164] usb 3-4: >Product: Hachiko Rev. B
[ 2912.658167] usb 3-4: >Manufacturer: AVNET EMG ITALY
[ 2912.658169] usb 3-4: >SerialNumber: A6XGP6WP
[ 2912.660753] ftdi_sio 3-4:1.0: >FTDI USB Serial Device converter detected
[ 2912.660801] usb 3-4: >Detected FT232RL
[ 2912.660805] usb 3-4: >Number of endpoints 2
[ 2912.660809] usb 3-4: >Endpoint 1 MaxPacketSize 64
[ 2912.660812] usb 3-4: >Endpoint 2 MaxPacketSize 64
[ 2912.660815] usb 3-4: >Setting MaxPacketSize 64
[ 2912.661102] usb 3-4: >FTDI USB Serial Device converter now attached to ttyUSB0

As you can see, here the device has been recognized as ttyUSB0.

Now that you know the device name, run minicom:

Host

sudo minicom -ws

If minicom is not installed, you can install it with:

Host

sudo apt-get install minicom

then you can setup your port with these parameters:

+-----------------------------------------------------------------------+
| A -    Serial Device      : /dev/ttyUSB0                              |
| B - Lockfile Location     : /var/lock                                 |
| C -   Callin Program      :                                           |
| D -  Callout Program      :                                           |
| E -    Bps/Par/Bits       : 115200 8N1                                |
| F - Hardware Flow Control : No                                        |
| G - Software Flow Control : No                                        |
|                                                                       |
|    Change which setting?                                              |
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------+
        | Screen and keyboard      |
        | Save setup as dfl        |
        | Save setup as..          |
        | Exit                     |
        | Exit from Minicom        |
        +--------------------------+

If on your system the device has not been recognized as ttyUSB0, just replace ttyUSB0 with the proper device.

Once you are done configuring the serial port, you are back to minicom main menu and you can select exit.

Give root to the login prompt:

Board

hachiko64 login: root

and press Enter.

Note

Sometimes, the time you spend setting up minicom makes you miss all the output that leads to the login and you see just a black screen, press Enter then to get the login prompt.

CN2 is used also to provide the power to the board, so, as soon as your serial terminal emulator is ready you start getting messages from the board.

Code¶

The time to create a simple HelloWorld! application using Eclipse has come.

Return to the Splashscreen, which we left on Hachiko/SDRAM board screen, and click on Develop with Eclipse.

Go to File→ New→ Project, select C/C++→ C Project and press next button.

Insert HelloWorld as project name, select Hello World ANSI C Autotools Project and press next button.

Insert Author field and click on Finish button. Select Yes on the Open Associated Perspective? question.
Build the project by selecting Project→ Build All.

Debug¶

Use an ethernet cable to connect the board (connector XF1) to your PC. Configure your workstation ip address as 192.168.0.100. Make sure the board can be seen by your host machine:

Board select

ifconfig eth0 192.168.0.10

Host select

ping 192.168.0.10

If the output is similar to this one:

Host select

64 bytes from 192.168.0.100: icmp_req=1 ttl=64 time=0.946 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.0.100: icmp_req=2 ttl=64 time=0.763 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.0.100: icmp_req=3 ttl=64 time=0.671 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.0.100: icmp_req=4 ttl=64 time=0.793 ms

then the ethernet connection is ok. Enable the remote debug with Yocto by typing this command on Hachiko/SDRAM console:

Board select

/etc/init.d/tcf-agent restart

On the Host machine, follow these steps to let Eclipse deploy and debug your application:

Select Run→ Debug Configurations...
In the left area, expand C/C++Remote Application.
Locate your project and select it to bring up a new tabbed view in the Debug Configurations Dialog.

Insert in C/C++ Application the filepath (on your host machine) of the compiled binary.
Click on New button near the drop-down menu in the Connection field.
Select TCF icon.

Insert in Host Name and Connection Name fields the IP address of the target board. (e.g. 192.168.0.10)

Then press Finish.
Use the drop-down menu now in the Connection field and pick up the IP Address you entered earlier.
Enter the absolute path on the target into which you want to deploy the cross-compiled application. Use the Browse button near Remote Absolute File Path for C/C++Application: field. No password is needed.

Enter also in the path the name of the application you want to debug. (e.g. Hello)

Select Debugger tab

In GDB Debugger field, insert the filepath of gdb for your toolchain

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/home/architech/architech_sdk/architech/hachiko/toolchain/sysroots/i686-pokysdk-linux/usr/bin/arm-poky-linux-gnueabi/arm-poky-linux-gnueabi-gdb

In Debugger window there is a tab named Shared Library, click on it.
Add the libraries paths lib and usr/lib of the rootfs (which must be the same used in the target board)

Host select

/home/architech/architech_sdk/architech/hachiko/sysroot/lib
/home/architech/architech_sdk/architech/hachiko/sysroot/usr/lib

Click Debug to login.
Accept the debug perspective.

Important

If debug does not work, check on the board if tcf-agent is running and gdbserver has been installed.

SDK Architecture¶

This chapter gives an overview on how the SDK has been composed and where to find the tools on the virtual machine.

SDK¶

The SDK provided by Architech to support Hachiko/SDRAM is composed by several components, the most important of which are:

Yocto,
Eclipse, and
Qt Creator

Regarding the installation and configuration of these tools, you have many options:

get a virtual machine with everything already setup,
download a script to setup your Ubuntu machine, or
just get the meta-layer and compose your SDK by hand

The method you choose depends on your level of expertise and the results you want to achieve.

If you are new to Yocto and/or Linux, or simply you don’t want to read tons of documentation right now, we suggest you to download and install the virtual machine because it is the simplest solution (have a look at VM content), everything inside the virtual machine has been thought to work out of the box, plus you will get support.

If performances are your greatest concerns, consider reading Chapter Create SDK.

Virtual Machine¶

The development environment is provided as a virtual disk (to be used by a VirtualBox virtual machine) which you can download from this page:

Important

http://downloads.architechboards.com/sdk/virtual_machine/download.html

Important

Compute the MD5SUM value of the zip file you downloaded and compare it to the golden one you find in the download page.

Uncompress the file, and you will get a .vdi file that is our virtual disk image. The environment contains the SDK for all the boards provided by Architech, Hachiko/SDRAM included.

Download VirtualBox¶

For being able to use it, you first need to install VirtualBox (version 4.2.10 or higher). You can get VirtualBox installer from here:

https://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Downloads

Download the version that suits your host operating system. You need to download and install the Extension Pack as well.

Important

Make sure that the extension pack has the same version of VirtualBox.

Install the software with all the default options.

Create a new Virtual Machine¶

Run VirtualBox

Click on New button

Select the name of the virtual machine and the operating system type

Select the amount of memory you want to give to your new virtual machine

Make the virtual machine use Architech’s virtual disk by pointing to the downloaded file. Than click on Create.

Setup the network¶

We need to setup a port forwarding rule to let you (later) use the virtual machine as a local repository of packages.

Note

The virtual machine must be off

Select Architech’s virtual machine from the list of virtual machines

Click on Settings

Select Network

Expand Advanced of Adapter 1

Click on Port Forwarding

Add a new rule

Configure the rule

Click on Ok

Customize the number of processors¶

Note

The virtual machine must be off

Select Architech’s virtual machine from the list of virtual machines

Click on Settings

Select System
Select Processor
Assign the number of processors you wish to assign to the virtual machine

Create a shared folder¶

Note

The virtual machine must be off

Select Architech’s virtual machine from the list of virtual machines

Click on Settings

Select Shared Folders
Add a new shared folder

Choose a directory to share on your host machine. Make sure Auto-mount is selected.

Once the virtual machine has been booted, the shared folder will be mounted under /media/ directory inside the virtual machine.

VM content¶

The virtual machine provided by Architech contains:

A splash screen, used to easily interact with the boards tools
Yocto/OpenEmbedded toolchain to build BSPs and file systems
A cross-toolchain (derived from Yocto/OpenEmbedded) for all the boards
Eclipse, installed and configured
Qt creator, installed and configured

All the aforementioned tools are installed under directory /home/architech/architech_sdk, its sub-directories main layout is the following:

Host select

architech_sdk
    |
    |_ splashscreen
    |
    |_ spashscreen-interface
    |
    |_ architech-manifest
    |
    |_ architech
        |
        |_ ...
        |
        |_ hachiko
            |
            |_ eclipse
            |
            |_ java
            |
            |_ qtcreator
            |
            |_ splashscreen
            |
            |_ sysroot
            |
            |_ toolchain
            |
            |_ workspace
            |   |
            |   |_ eclipse
            |   |
            |   |_ qt
            |
            |_ yocto
                |
                |_ build
                |
                |_ poky
                |
                |_ meta-hachiko
                |
                |_ ...

hachiko directory contains all the tools composing the ArchiTech SDK for Hachiko/SDRAM board, along with all the information needed by the splash screen application. In particular:

eclipse directory is where Eclipse IDE has been installed
java directory is where the Java Virtual Machine has been installed (needed by Eclipse)
qtcreator contains the installation of Qt Creator IDE
splashscreen directory contains information and scripts used by the splash screen application,
sysroot is supposed to contain the file system you want to compile against,
toolchain is where the cross-toolchain has been installed installed
workspace contains the the workspaces for Eclipse and Qt Creator IDEs
yocto is where you find all the meta-layers Hachiko/SDRAM requires, along with Poky and the build directory

Splash screen¶

The splash screen application has been designed to facilitate the access to the boards tools. It can be opened by clicking on its Desktop icon.

Once started, you can can choose if you want to work with Architech’s boards or with partners’ ones. For Hachiko/SDRAM, choose ArchiTech.

A list of all available Architech’s boards will open, select Hachiko/SDRAM.

A list of actions related to Hachiko/SDRAM that can be activated will appear.

Create SDK¶

If you have speed in mind, it is possible to install the SDK on a native Ubuntu machine (other Linux distributions may support this SDK with minor changes but won’t be supported). This chapter will guide you on how to clone the entire SDK, to setup the SDK for one board or just OpenEmbedded/Yocto for Hachiko/SDRAM board.

Installation¶

Architech’s Yocto based SDK is built on top of Ubuntu 12.04 32bit, hence all the scripts provided are proven to work on such a system.

If you wish to use another distribution/version you might need to change some script option and/or modify the scripts yourself, remember that you won’t get any support in doing so.

Install a clone of the virtual machine inside your native machine¶

To install the same tools you get inside the virtual machine on your native machine you need to download and run a system wide installation script:

Host select

git clone -b dora https://github.com/architech-boards/machine_installer.git
cd machine_installer
./machine_install -g -p

where -g option asks the script to install and configure a few graphic customization, while -p option asks the script to install the required packages on the machine. If you want to install the toolchain on a machine not equal to Ubuntu 12.04 32bit then you may want to read the script, install the required packages by hand, and run it without options. You might need to recompile the Qt application used to render the splashscreen.

At the end of the installation process, you will get the same tools installed within the virtual machine, that is, all the tools necessary to work with Architech’s boards.

Install just one board¶

If you don’t want to install the tools for all the boards, you can install just the subset of tools related to Hachiko/SDRAM:

Host select

git clone -b dora https://github.com/architech-boards/hachiko-splashscreen.git
cd hachiko-splashscreen
./run_install

This script needs the same tools/packages required by machine_install

Yocto¶

The easiest way to setup and keep all the necessary meta-layers in sync with upstream repositories is achieved by means of Google’s repo tool. The following steps are necessary for a clean installation:

Install repo tool, if you already have it go to step 4

Host select

mkdir -p ~/bin
sudo apt-get install curl
curl http://commondatastorage.googleapis.com/git-repo-downloads/repo > ~/bin/repo
chmod a+x ~/bin/repo

Make sure directory ~/bin is included in your PATH variable by printing its content

Host select

echo $PATH

If ~/bin directory is not included, add this line to your ~/.bashrc

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export PATH="$PATH:${HOME}/bin"

Open a new terminal
Change the current directory to the directory where you want all the meta-layers to be downloaded into
Download the manifest

Host select

repo init -u https://github.com/architech-boards/hachiko-manifest.git -b dora -m manifest.xml

Download the repositories

Host select

repo sync

By the end of the last step, all the necessary meta-layers should be in place, anyway, you still need to edit your local.conf and bblayers.conf to compile for hachiko64 machine and using all the downloaded meta-layers.

When you want your local repositories to be updated, just:

Open a terminal
Change the current directory to the directory where you ran repo init
Sync your repositories with upstream

Host select

repo sync

If you really want to download everything by hand, just clone branch dora of meta-hachiko:

Host select

git clone -b dora https://github.com/architech-boards/meta-hachiko.git

and have a look at the README file.

To install Eclipse, Qt Creator, cross-toolchain, NFS, TFTP, etc., read Yocto/OpenEmbedded documentation, along with the other tools one.

BSP¶

The Board Support Package is composed by a set files, patches, recipes, configuration files, etc. This chapter gives you the information you need when you want to customize something, fix a bug, or simply learn how the all thing has been assembled.

U-boot¶

The bootloader used by Hachiko/SDRAM board is U-Boot. If you need to modify the bootloader or to recompile it you have two ways to get the sources:

use the sources you find in Yocto build directory after having compiled at least once a yocto image, or
download the official u-boot release, than patch it with the BSP patches for Hachiko/SDRAM board.

Anyway, we will assume in this giude that u-boot sources will be copied to:

Host select

/home/architech/Documents/u-boot

and such directory does not yet exists on your PC. Of course, you are free to choose the path you like the most for u-boot sources, just remember to replace the path used in this guide with your custom path.

The first way is based on the sources set up by the Yocto build system. However, it is never advisable to work with the sources in the Yocto build directory, if you really want to modify the source code inside the Yocto environment we strongly suggest to refer to the official Yocto documentation. To avoid messing up Yocto recipes and installation, it is desirable to copy the patched u-boot sources you find in the build directory elsewhere. The directory we are talking about is this one:

Host select

/home/architech/architech_sdk/architech/hachiko/yocto/build/tmp/work/hachiko64-poky-linux-gnueabi/u-boot/2013.04-r0/u-boot-2013.04/

Replace:

Host select

/home/architech/architech_sdk/architech/hachiko/yocto/build/

all over this chapter with your custom build directory path if you are not working with the default SDK build directory.

The second way is to get the official U-Boot sources and patch them with Hachiko/SDRAM BSP patches. Hachiko/SDRAM board uses U-Boot version 2013.04, which can be downloaded from:

ftp://ftp.denx.de/pub/u-boot/u-boot-2013.04.tar.bz2.

otherwise a git repository is available for cloning:

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cd /home/architech/Documents
git clone -b v2013.04 http://git.denx.de/u-boot.git

Patches are to be found in the Yocto meta-layer meta-hachiko. You can use them right away if you are working with the SDK:

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patch -p1 -d /home/architech/Documents/u-boot < /home/architech/architech_sdk/architech/hachiko/yocto/meta-hachiko/recipes-bsp/u-boot/files/*.patch

However, if you are not working with the official SDK the most general solution to check them out and patch the sources is:

Host select

cd /home/architech/Documents
git clone -b dora https://github.com/architech-boards/meta-hachiko.git
patch -p1 -d /home/architech/Documents/u-boot < /home/architech/Documents/meta-hachiko/recipes-bsp/u-boot/files/*.patch

Configuration and board files for Hachiko/SDRAM board are in:

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/home/architech/Documents/u-boot/board/renesas/hachiko/*
/home/architech/Documents/u-boot/include/configs/hachiko.h

Suppose you modified something and you wanted to recompile the sources to test your patches, well, you need a cross-toolchain (see Cross compiler Section). Luckily, the SDK already contains the proper cross-toolchain. To use it to compile the bootloader or the operating system kernel, just run:

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source /home/architech/architech_sdk/architech/hachiko/toolchain/environment-nofs

then you can run these commands to compile it:

Host select

cd /home/architech/Documents/u-boot/
make mrproper
make hachiko64
make

Once the build process completes, you can find u-boot.bin file inside directory /home/architech/Documents/u-boot.

If you are not working with the virtual machine, you need to get the toolchain from somewhere. The most comfortable way to get the toolchain is to ask Bitbake for it:

Host select

cd /path/to/yocto/directory
source poky/oe-init-build-env
bitbake meta-toolchain

When Bitbake finishes, you find an installer script under directory:

Host select

/path/to/yocto/directory/build/tmp/deploy/sdk/

Run the script and you get, under the installation directory, a script to source to get your environment almost in place for compiling. The name of the script is:

Host select

environment-setup-cortexa9hf-vfp-neon-poky-linux-gnueabi

Anyway, the environment is not quite right for compiling the bootloader and the Linux kernel, you need to unset a few variables first to get it ready:

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unset CFLAGS CPPFLAGS CXXFLAGS LDFLAGS

Here you go, you now have the proper working environment to compile u-boot (or the Linux kernel).

Linux Kernel¶

As seen for U-Boot in the previous section, the first step is to get the kernel sources, which in this guide we assume that they will be copied to directory:

Host select

/home/architech/Documents/kernel

You are free to choose the path you like the most for the kernel sources, just remember to replace the path used in this guide with your custom path. The suggested way, even for the kernel, to get the sources is to take them from the Yocto build directory (copying them in the aforementioned directory to avoid messing up Yocto):

Host select

/home/architech/architech_sdk/architech/hachiko/yocto/build/tmp/work/hachiko64-poky-linux-gnueabi/linux/3.8.13-r2/linux-3.8.13/

or from the vanilla kernel tarball at this URL:

http://kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/v3.0/linux-3.8.13.tar.bz2.

and patch it using the patches found in Hachiko/SDRAM BSP meta-layer:

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patch -p1 -d /home/architech/Documents/kernel < /home/architech/architech_sdk/architech/hachiko/yocto/meta-hachiko/recipes-kernel/linux/files/*.patch

If you are not developing from within the official SDK, the most general solution to check them out and patch the sources is:

Host select

cd /home/architech/Documents
git clone -b dora https://github.com/architech-boards/meta-hachiko.git
patch -p1 -d /home/architech/Documents/kernel < /home/architech/Documents/meta-hachiko/recipes-kernel/linux/files/*.patch

To compile the kernel just execute these commands:

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cd /home/architech/Documents/kernel
source /home/architech/architech_sdk/architech/hachiko/toolchain/environment-nofs
make hachiko64_defconfig
make uImage dtbs

If you are not developing from within the original SDK, you are going to need to install the cross toolchain. The output of the compilation process is:

Host select

/home/architech/Documents/kernel/arch/arm/boot/uImage
/home/architech/Documents/kernel/arch/arm/boot/dts/rza1-hachiko.dtb

Meta Layer¶

A Yocto/OpenEmbedded meta-layer is a directory that contains recipes, configuration files, patches, and others things all needed by Bitbake to properly “see” and build a BSP, a distrubution, and a (set of) package(s).

meta-hachiko is stored in a git repository that can be cloned with:

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git clone -b dora https://github.com/architech-boards/meta-hachiko.git

For information about Yocto, Bitbake and the directories tree inside the meta-layer, please refer to the Yocto documentation.

Hachiko/SDRAM meta-layer defines two different machines: hachiko and hachiko64, the latter to be used when an external SDRAM is available on the board. Whereas hachiko64 machine can be used for virtually any distro and image available on Yocto, hachiko machine must use a custom tailored distro and image to be able to fit in the limited amount of SRAM available on-chip. This documentation is about hachiko64 machine.

To manually select board and distribution for Bitbake, make sure that file local.conf, that in the SDK has this path:

Host select

/home/architech/architech_sdk/architech/hachiko/yocto/build/conf/local.conf

contains the assignment of these variables:

Host select

MACHINE = "hachiko64"
DISTRO = "poky"

When asked to build an image, Bitbake/Hob produces several files as output, of which these are needed to build the whole system:

the Linux kernel - file uImage
the device tree - file uImage-rza1-hachiko.dtb
U-boot bootloader - file u-boot.bin
the root file system - file *.tar.bz2

Within the SDK, the files will be emitted to directory:

Host select

/home/architech/architech_sdk/architech/hachiko/yocto/build/tmp/deploy/images/hachiko64/

If you are not working with the SDK, just replace:

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/home/architech/architech_sdk/architech/hachiko/yocto/build/

with your build directory path.

Root FS¶

By default, Hachiko/SDRAM Yocto/OpenEmbedded SDK will generate two different types of files when you build an image:

*.tar.bz2, and
*.jffs2

The .tar.bz2 file can be expanded in your final medium partition (flash memory or USB stick) or on your host development system and used for build purposes with the Yocto Project. File .jffs2 can be written out “as is” on the final medium (usually flash NOR partition) with, for example, dd program:

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sudo dd if=/path/to/image.jffs2 of=/path/to/your/USB/device

Board select

flashcp -v /path/to/image.jffs2 /dev/mtd4

Important

Be very careful when you use dd or flashcp to write to a device to pick up the right device

Toolchain¶

Once your (virtual/)machine has been set up you can compile, customize the BSP for your board, write and debug applications, change the file system on-the-fly directly on the board, etc. This chapter will guide you to the basic use of the most important tools you can use to build customize, develop and tune your board.

Bitbake¶

Bitbake is the most important and powerful tool available inside Yocto/OpenEmbedded. It takes as input configuration files and recipes and produces what it is asked for, that is, it can build a package, the Linux kernel, the bootloader, an entire operating system from scratch, etc.

A recipe (.bb file) is a collection of metadata used by BitBake to set variables or define additional build-time tasks. By means of variables, a recipe can specify, for example, where to get the sources, which build process to use, the license of the package, an so on. There is a set of predefined tasks (the fetch task for example fetches the sources from the network, from a repository or from the local machine, than the sources are cached for later reuses) that executed one after the other get the job done, but a recipe can always add custom ones or override/modify existing ones. The most fine-graned operation that Bitbake can execute is, in fact, a single task.

Environment¶

To properly run Bitbake, the first thing you need to do is setup the shell environment. Luckily, there is a script that takes care of it, all you need to do is:

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source /path/to/oe-init-build-env /path/to/build/directory

Inside the virtual machine, you can find oe-init-build-env script inside:

Host select

/home/architech/architech_sdk/architech/hachiko/yocto/poky

If you omit the build directory path, a directory named build will be created under your current working directory.

By default, with the SDK, the script is used like this:

Host select

source /home/architech/architech_sdk/architech/hachiko/yocto/poky/oe-init-build-env

Your current working directory changes to such a directory and you can customize configurations files (that the environment script put in place for you when creating the directory), run Bitbake to build whatever pops to your mind as well run hob. If you specify a custom directory, the script will setup all you need inside that directory and will change your current working directory to that specific directory.

Important

The build directory contains all the caches, builds output, temporary files, log files, file system images... everything!

The default build directory for Hachiko/SDRAM is located under:

Host select

/home/architech/architech_sdk/architech/hachiko/yocto/build

and the splash screen has a facility (a button located under Hachiko/SDRAM’s page) that can take you there with the right environment already in place so you are productive right away.

Configuration files¶

Configuration files are used by Bitbake to define variables value, preferences, etc..., there are a lot of them. At the beginning you should just worry about two of them, both located under conf directory inside your build directory, we are talking about local.conf and bblayers.conf.

local.conf contains your customizations for the build process, the most important variables you should be interested about are: MACHINE, DISTRO, BB_NUMBER_THREADS and PARALLEL_MAKE. MACHINE defines the target machine you want compile against. The proper value for Hachiko/SDRAM is hachiko64:

Host select

MACHINE ??= "hachiko64"

DISTRO let you choose which distribution to use to build the root file systems for the board. The default distribution to use with the board is:

Host select

DISTRO ?= "poky"

BB_NUMBER_THREADS and PARALLEL_MAKE can help you speed up the build process. BB_NUMBER_THREADS is used to tell Bitbake how many tasks can be executed at the same time, while PARALLEL_MAKE contains the -j option to give to make program when issued. Both BB_NUMBER_THREADS and PARALLEL_MAKE are related to the number of processors of your (virtual) machine, and should be set with a number that is two times the number of processors on your (virtual) machine. If for example, your (virtual) machine has/sees four cores, then you should set those variables like this:

Host select

BB_NUMBER_THREADS ?= "8"
PARALLEL_MAKE ?= "-j 8"

bblayers.conf is used to tell Bitbake which meta-layers to take into account when parsing/looking for recipes, machine, distributions, configuration files, bbclasses, and so on. The most important variable contained inside bblayers.conf is BBLAYERS, it’s the variable where the actual meta-layers layout get specified.

All the variables value we just spoke about are taken care of by Architech installation scripts.

Command line¶

With your shell setup with the proper environment and your configuration files customized according to your board and your will, you are ready to use Bitbake. The first suggestion is to run:

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bitbake -h

Bitbake will show you all the options it can be run with. During normal activity you will need to simply run a command like:

Host select

bitbake <recipe name>

for example:

Host select

bitbake core-image-minimal-dev

Such a comman will build bootloader, Linux kernel and a root file system. core-image-minimal-dev tells Bitbake to execute whatever recipe

Host select

/home/architech/architech_sdk/architech/hachiko/yocto/poky/meta/recipes-extended/images/core-image-minimal-dev.bb

tells it to do, so, you just place the name of the recipe without the extension.

Of course, there are times when you want more control over Bitbake, for example, you want to execute just one task like recompiling the Linux kernel, no matter what. That action can be achieved with:

Host select

bitbake -c compile -f virtual/kernel

where -c compile states the you want to execute the do_compile task and -f forces Bitbake to execute the command even if it thinks that there are no modifications and hence there is no need to to execute the same command again.

Another useful option is -e which gets Bitbake to print the environment state for the command you ran.

The last option we want to introduce is -D, which can be in fact repeated more than once and asks Bitbake to emit debug print. The amount of debug output you get depend on many times you repeated the option.

Of course, there are other options, but the ones introduced here should give you an head start.

Hob¶

Hob is a graphical interface for Bitbake. It can be called once Bitbake environment has been setup (see Bitbake) like this:

Host

hob

once open, you are required to select the machine you want to compile against

after that, you can select the image you want to build and, of course, you can customize it.

Eclipse¶

Eclipse is an integrated development environment (IDE). It contains a base workspace and the Yocto plug-in system to compile and debug a program for Hachiko/SDRAM. Hereafter, the operating system that runs the IDE/debugger will be named host machine, and the board being debugged will be named target machine. The host machine could be running as a virtual machine guest operating system, anyway, the documentation for the host machine running as a guest operating system and as host operating system is exactly the same.

To write your application you need:

a root file system filesystem (you can use bitbake/hob to build your preferred filesystem) with development support (that is, it must include all the necessary libraries, header files, the tcf-agent program and gdbserver) included
a media with the root filesystem installed and, if necessary, the bootloader
Hachiko/SDRAM powered up with the aforementioned root file system
a working serial console terminal
a working network connection between your workstation and the board (connector XF1), so, be sure that:

your board has ip address 192.168.0.10 on interface eth0, and

your PC has an ip address in the same family of addresses, e.g. 192.168.0.100.

Creating the Project¶

You can create two types of projects: Autotools-based, or Makefile-based. This section describes how to create Autotools-based projects from within the Eclipse IDE. Launch Eclipse using Architech Splashscreen just click on Develop with Eclipse.

To create a project based on a Yocto template and then display the source code, follow these steps:

Select File→New→Project...
Under C/C++, double click on C Project to create the project.
Click on “Next” button
Expand Yocto Project ADT Autotools Project.
Select Hello World ANSI C Autotools Project. This is an Autotools-based project based on a Yocto Project template.

Put a name in the Project name: field. Do not use hyphens as part of the name.
Click Next.
Add information in the Author and Copyright notice fields.
Be sure the License field is correct.
Click Finish.

Note

If the “open perspective” prompt appears, click Yes so that you enter in C/C++ perspective. The left-hand navigation panel shows your project. You can display your source by double clicking on the project source file.

Select Project→Properties→Yocto Project Settings and check Use project specific settings

Building the Project¶

To build the project, select Project→Build Project. The console should update with messages from the cross-compiler. To add more libraries to compile:

Click on Project→Properties.
Expand the box next to Autotools.
Select Configure Settings.
In CFLAGS field, you can add the path of includes with -Ipath_include
In LDFLAGS field, you can specify the libraries you use with -lname_library and you can also specify the path where to look for libraries with -Lpath_library
Click on Project→Build All to compile the project

Note

All libraries must be located in /home/architech/architech_sdk/architech/hachiko/sysroot subdirectories.

Deploying and Debugging the Application¶

Connect Hachiko/SDRAM console to your PC and power-on the board. Once you built the project and the board is running the image, use minicom to run tcf-agent program in target board:

Board select

hachiko login: root
/etc/init.d/tcf-agent restart

On the Host machine, follow these steps to let Eclipse deploy and debug your application:

Select Run→Debug Configurations...
In the left area, expand C/C++ Remote Application.
Locate your project and select it to bring up a new tabbed view in the Debug Configurations Dialog.

Insert in C/C++ Application the filepath of your application binary on your host machine.
Click on “New” button near the drop-down menu in the Connection field.
Select TCF icon.

Insert in Host Name and Connection Name fields the IP address of the target board. (e.g. 192.168.0.10)

Press Finish.
Use the drop-down menu now in the Connection field and pick the IP Address you entered earlier.
Enter the absolute path on the target into which you want to deploy the application. Use Browse button near Remote Absolute File Path for C/C++Application: field. No password is needed.

Enter also in the path the name of the application you want to debug. (e.g. Hello)

Select Debugger tab

In GDB Debugger field, insert the filepath of gdb for your toolchain

Host select

/home/architech/architech_sdk/architech/hachiko/toolchain/sysroots/i686-pokysdk-linux/usr/bin/arm-poky-linux-gnueabi/arm-poky-linux-gnueabi-gdb

In Debugger window there is a tab named Shared Library, click on it.
Add the libraries paths lib and usr/lib of the rootfs (which must be the same used in the target board)

Host select

/home/architech/architech_sdk/architech/hachiko/sysroot/lib
/home/architech/architech_sdk/architech/hachiko/sysroot/usr/lib

Click Debug to bring up a login screen and login.
Accept the debug perspective.

Important

If debug does not work, check on the board if tcf-agent is running and gdbserver has been installed.

Qt Framework¶

The Qt Framework used by this SDK is composed of libraries for your host machine and your target. To compile the libraries for x86 you only need your distribution toolchain, while to compile the libraries for Hachiko/SDRAM board you need the proper cross-toolchain (see Chapter Cross compiler for further information on how to get it).

This section just wants to show you how the framework has been generated.

Before to begin, keep in mind you might need to install the following package to compile yourself the libraries under Ubuntu

Host select

sudo apt-get install libxrender-dev

So, to install qt-everywhere for x86 from sources, the usual drill of download, uncompress, configure, make and make install is required:

Host select

wget http://download.qt-project.org/official_releases/qt/4.8/4.8.5/qt-everywhere-opensource-src-4.8.5.zip
unzip qt-everywhere-opensource-src-4.8.5.zip
cd qt-everywhere-opensource-src-4.8.5
./configure /*Choose Open source Edition when asked, and accept the license*/
make
make install

The installation of the libraries for Hachiko/SDRAM from sources is sligthly more complicated. Once you downloaded and uncompressed the sources

Host select

wget http://download.qt-project.org/official_releases/qt/4.8/4.8.5/qt-everywhere-opensource-src-4.8.5.zip
unzip qt-everywhere-opensource-src-4.8.5.zip
cd qt-everywhere-opensource-src-4.8.5
cp -r mkspecs/qws/linux-arm-g++/ mkspecs/qws/linux-hachiko-g++
cd mkspecs/qws/linux-hachiko-g++/
gedit qmake.conf

you need to customize qmake configuration

Host select

#
# qmake configuration for building with arm-linux-g++
#

include(../../common/linux.conf)
include(../../common/gcc-base-unix.conf)
include(../../common/g++-unix.conf)
include(../../common/qws.conf)

# modifications to g++.conf
QMAKE_CC                = arm-poky-linux-gnueabi-gcc --sysroot=/home/architech/architech_sdk/architech/hachiko/toolchain/sysroots/cortexa9hf-vfp-neon-poky-linux-gnueabi
QMAKE_CXX               = arm-poky-linux-gnueabi-g++ --sysroot=/home/architech/architech_sdk/architech/hachiko/toolchain/sysroots/cortexa9hf-vfp-neon-poky-linux-gnueabi
QMAKE_LINK              = arm-poky-linux-gnueabi-g++ --sysroot=/home/architech/architech_sdk/architech/hachiko/toolchain/sysroots/cortexa9hf-vfp-neon-poky-linux-gnueabi
QMAKE_LINK_SHLIB        = arm-poky-linux-gnueabi-g++ --sysroot=/home/architech/architech_sdk/architech/hachiko/toolchain/sysroots/cortexa9hf-vfp-neon-poky-linux-gnueabi

# modifications to linux.conf
QMAKE_AR                = arm-poky-linux-gnueabi-ar cqs
QMAKE_OBJCOPY           = arm-poky-linux-gnueabi-objcopy
QMAKE_STRIP             = arm-poky-linux-gnueabi-strip

load(qt_config)

save the file and exit from gedit, then configure, make and make install

Host select

cd ../../../
./configure -no-pch -opensource -confirm-license -prefix /usr/local/Trolltech/Hachiko -no-qt3support -embedded arm -nomake examples -nomake demo -little-endian -xplatform qws/linux-hachiko-g++ -qtlibinfix E
make
make install

A comfortable tool to get your job done with Qt is Qt Creator, which its use will be introduced in Section Qt Creator. You can download it from here:

Tip

http://sourceforge.net/projects/qtcreator.mirror/files/Qt%20Creator%202.8.1/qt-creator-linux-x86-opensource-2.8.1.run/download

Qt Creator¶

Qt is a cross-platform application framework that is used to build applications. One of the best features of Qt is its capability of generating Graphical User Interfaces (GUIs).
Qt Creator is a cross-platform C++ IDE which includes a visual debugger, an integrated GUI layout and form designer. It makes possible to compile and debug applications on both x86 (host) and ARM (target) machines.
This SDK relies on version 4.8.5 of Qt and version 2.8.1 of Qt Creator.

Before getting our hands dirty, make sure all these steps have been followed:

Use Hob or Bitbake to build an image which includes: openssh, support for C++, tcf-agent and gdbserver.

Note

You could build qt4e-demo-image if you want to see the demo of Qt. Just remember to complete its file system with tcf-agent, gdbserver and openssh.

Deploy the root file system just generated on the final media used to boot the board
Replicate the same root file system into directory

Host select

/home/architech/architech_sdk/architech/hachiko/sysroot

Copy the Qt Libraries to the board media used to boot

Host select

sudo mkdir -p /path/to/board/sysroot/usr/local/Trolltech/
sudo cp -r /usr/local/Trolltech/Hachiko/* /path/to/board/sysroot/usr/local/Trolltech/

Copy the Qt Libraries to your sdk sysroot directory

Host select

sudo mkdir -p ~/architech_sdk/architech/hachiko/sysroot/usr/local/Trolltech/
sudo cp -r /usr/local/Trolltech/Hachiko/* ~/architech_sdk/architech/hachiko/sysroot/usr/local/Trolltech

Unmount the media used to boot the board from your computer and insert it into the board
Power-On the board
Open up the serial console.

If you based your root file system on qt4e-demo-image, be sure you execute this command

Board select

/etc/init.d/qtdemo stop

to stop the execution of the demo application.

Provide a working network connection between your workstation and the board (connector XF1), so, be sure that:

your board has ip address 192.168.0.10 on interface eth0, and

your PC has an ip address in the same family of addresses, e.g. 192.168.0.100.

Hello World!¶

The purpose of this example project is to generate a form with an “Hello World” label in it, at the beginning on the x86 virtual machine and than on Hachiko/SDRAM board.

To create the project follow these steps:

Use the Welcome Screen to run Qt Creator by selecting Architech→Hachiko/SDRAM→Develop with Qt Creator

Go to File -> Open File or Project to open QtHelloWorld.pro file located in /home/architech/architech_sdk/architech/hachiko/workspace/qt/QtHelloWorld/ directory.
Click on “QtHelloWorld” icon to open project menu.

Select the build configuration: Desktop - Debug.

To build the project, click on the bottom-left icon.

Once you built the project, click on the green triangle to run it.

Congratulations! You just built your first Qt application for x86.

In the next section we will debug our Hello World! application directly on Hachiko/SDRAM.

Debug Hello World project¶

Select build configuration: hachiko - Debug and build the project.

Copy the generated executable to the target board (e.g /home/root/).

Host select

scp /home/architech/architech_sdk/architech/hachiko/workspace/qt/build-QtHelloWorld-Hachiko-Debug/QtHelloWorld root@192.168.0.10:/home/root

Use minicom to launch gdbserver application on the target board:

Board select

gdbserver :10000 QtHelloWorld -qws

In Qt Creator, open the source file main.cpp and set a breakpoint at line 6. | To do this go with the mouse at line 6 and click with the right button to open the menu, select Set brackpoint at line 6

Go to Debug→Start Debugging→Attach To Remote Debug Server, a form named “Start Debugger” will appear, insert the following data:

Kit: hachiko
Local executable:

Host select

/home/architech/architech_sdk/architech/hachiko/workspace/qt/build-QtHelloWorld-hachiko-Debug/QtHelloWorld

Press OK button to start the debug.

The hotkeys to debug the application are:

F10: Step over
F11: Step into
Shift + F11: Step out
F5: Continue, or press this icon:

To successfully exit from the debug it is better to close the graphical application from the target board with the mouse by clicking on the ‘X’ symbol.

Cross compiler¶

Yocto/OpenEmbedded can be driven to generate the cross-toolchain for your platform. There are two common ways to get that:

Host select

bitbake meta-toolchain

Host select

bitbake <image recipe name> -c populate_sdk

The first method provides you the toolchain, you need to provide the file system to compile against, the second method provides both the toolchain and the file system along with -dev and -dbg packages installed.

Both ways you get an installation script.

The virtual machine has a cross-toolchain installed for each board, each generated with meta-toolchain. To use it just do:

Host select

source /home/architech/architech_sdk/architech/hachiko/toolchain/environment

to compile Linux user-space stuff. If you want to compile kernel or bootloader then do:

Host select

source /home/architech/architech_sdk/architech/hachiko/toolchain/environment-nofs

and you are ready to go.

Opkg¶

Opkg (Open PacKaGe Management) is a lightweight package management system. It is written in C and resembles apt/dpkg in operation. It is intended for use on embedded Linux devices and is used in this capacity in the OpenEmbedded and OpenWrt projects.

Useful commands:

update the list of available packages:

Board select

opkg update

list available packages:

Board select

opkg list

list installed packages:

Board select

opkg list-installed

install packages:

Board select

opkg install <package 1> <package 2> ... <package n>

list package providing <file>

Board select

opkg search <file>

Show package information

Board select

opkg info <package>

show package dependencies:

Board select

opkg whatdepends <package>

remove packages:

Board select

opkg remove <package 1> <package 2> ... <package n>

Force Bitbake to install Opkg in the final image¶

With some images, Bitbake (e.g. core-image-minimal) does not install the package management system in the final target. To force Bitbake to include it in the next build, edit your configuration file

Host select

/home/architech/architech_sdk/architech/hachiko/yocto/build/conf/local.conf

and add this line to it:

Host select

IMAGE_FEATURES_append = " package-management"

Create a repository¶

opkg reads the list of packages repositories in configuration files located under /etc/opkg/. You can easily setup a new repository for your custom builds:

Install a web server on your machine, for example apache2:

Host select

sudo apt-get install apache2

Configure apache web server to “see” the packages you built, for example:

Host select

sudo ln -s /home/architech/architech_sdk/architech/hachiko/yocto/build/tmp/deploy/ipk/ /var/www/hachiko-ipk

Create a new configuration file on the target (for example /etc/opkg/my_packages.conf) containing lines like this one to index the packages related to a particular machine:

Board select

src/gz hachiko64 http://192.168.0.100:8000/hachiko-ipk/hachiko64

To actually reach the virtual machine we set up a port forwarding mechanism in Chapter Virtual Machine so that every time the board communicates with the workstation on port 8000, VirtualBox actually turns the communication directly to the virtual machine operating system on port 80 where it finds apache waiting for it.

Connect the board and the personal computer you are developing on by means of an ethernet cable
Update the list of available packages on the target

Board select

opkg update

Update repository index¶

Sometimes, you need to force bitbake to rebuild the index of packages by means of:

Host select

bitbake package-index

The board¶

This chapter introduces the board, its hardware and how to boot it.

Hardware¶

The hardware documentation of Hachiko/SDRAM can be found here:

http://downloads.architechboards.com/doc/Hachiko/download.html

Power-On¶

Hachiko/SDRAM takes the power from the micro-USB connector CN11 and/or the mini-USB connector CN2.

On connector CN2 you can also have the serial console, so, during your daily development use, you would just connect your workstation to the board using a mini-USB to connector CN2. If you connect some power ungry device to the board, you can give more power to the board by connecting your workstation (or a smartphone-like battery charger for example) to the board by means of a micro-USB cable to board connector CN11.

Serial Console¶

On Hachiko/SDRAM there is the dedicated serial console connector CN2

which you can connect, by means of a mini-USB cable, to your personal computer.

Note

Every operating system has its own killer application to give you a serial terminal interface. In this guide, we are assuming your host operating system is Ubuntu.

On a Linux (Ubuntu) host machine, the console is seen as a ttyUSBX device and you can access to it by means of an application like minicom.

Minicom needs to know the name of the serial device. The simplest way for you to discover the name of the device is by looking to the kernel messages, so:

clean the kernel messages

Host

sudo dmesg -c

connect the mini-USB cable to the board
display the kernel messages

Host

dmesg

read the output

Host select

[ 2912.634893] usb 3-4: >new full-speed USB device number 6 using xhci_hcd
[ 2912.658153] usb 3-4: >New USB device found, idVendor=0403, idProduct=6001
[ 2912.658160] usb 3-4: >New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=3
[ 2912.658164] usb 3-4: >Product: Hachiko Rev. B
[ 2912.658167] usb 3-4: >Manufacturer: AVNET EMG ITALY
[ 2912.658169] usb 3-4: >SerialNumber: A6XGP6WP
[ 2912.660753] ftdi_sio 3-4:1.0: >FTDI USB Serial Device converter detected
[ 2912.660801] usb 3-4: >Detected FT232RL
[ 2912.660805] usb 3-4: >Number of endpoints 2
[ 2912.660809] usb 3-4: >Endpoint 1 MaxPacketSize 64
[ 2912.660812] usb 3-4: >Endpoint 2 MaxPacketSize 64
[ 2912.660815] usb 3-4: >Setting MaxPacketSize 64
[ 2912.661102] usb 3-4: >FTDI USB Serial Device converter now attached to ttyUSB0

As you can see, here the device has been recognized as ttyUSB0.

Now that you know the device name, run minicom:

Host

sudo minicom -ws

If minicom is not installed, you can install it with:

Host

sudo apt-get install minicom

then you can setup your port with these parameters:

+-----------------------------------------------------------------------+
| A -    Serial Device      : /dev/ttyUSB0                              |
| B - Lockfile Location     : /var/lock                                 |
| C -   Callin Program      :                                           |
| D -  Callout Program      :                                           |
| E -    Bps/Par/Bits       : 115200 8N1                                |
| F - Hardware Flow Control : No                                        |
| G - Software Flow Control : No                                        |
|                                                                       |
|    Change which setting?                                              |
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------+
        | Screen and keyboard      |
        | Save setup as dfl        |
        | Save setup as..          |
        | Exit                     |
        | Exit from Minicom        |
        +--------------------------+

If on your system the device has not been recognized as ttyUSB0, just replace ttyUSB0 with the proper device.

Once you are done configuring the serial port, you are back to minicom main menu and you can select exit.

Bootstrap¶

In the latest release only bootmode 3 is supported by Hachiko/SDRAM board. That is the board boots from the serial flash memory connected to the SPI multi I/O bus. To enable bootmode 3 the jumpers J4, J5 and J6 must be respectively in position 0, 1 and 1. When set for bootmode 3, the bootloader (U-Boot) must be flashed on the serial NOR at address 0x18000000 (SPI multi I/O bus space). Hachiko/SDRAM boards already have the latest version of U-Boot flashed on SPI NOR at factory time.

For more information:

Write to NOR¶

If for any reason U-Boot is corrupted or broken or simply the board refuses to boot again, the only way to recover the board is to try to flash a new U-Boot binary on the serial NOR. Flashing the NOR without U-Boot or Linux on the board being accessible is an easy task with the correct setup.

Renesas already has brief information about how to use a PARTNER-Jet or ULINK2 to write U-Boot in serial flash. Follows an extract from Renesas documentation.

Using PARTNER-Jet¶

Write to serial flash:
1. Execute PARTNER-Jet_ARM_V5_71b.exe
2. Create a new project
3. Copy “JETARM.CFG” and “usrflash_arm.MON” from flash directory to created project.
4. Push power on button of PARTNER-JET
5. Write U-boot image data for serial flash boot to 0x18000000.

Using ULINK2¶

To use ULINK2, DS-5 from ARM Ltd. and binary writing tool provided from Renesas are needed. As for the way to obtain these tools, please ask Renesas electronics sales representative. After the installation of DS5 and binary writing tool, please go to the next step.

Writing to serial flash:
1. Clear RZ_A1H_spibsc_boot_init\Debug\RZ_A1H_spibsc_boot_init.bin\ directory in DS-5 workspace.
2. Rename U-boot image file for serial flash boot u-boot.bin as VECTOR_TABLE and put it on the above directory.
3. Run DS-5.
4. Connect ULINK2 to the board and poweron the board.
5. Click script tag and double click RZ_A1H_sflash_boot_user.ds

The process using the ULINK2 is described here more in detail.

Software you need:

SPIBSCBoot.zip file containing the DS-5 workspace, the script file and a launcher configuration (download link)
DS-5 (preferred and tested version: DS500-BN-00003-r5p0-15rel1)

Setup of the environment and first run:

Install the DS-5 and use the activation code found here http://ds.arm.com/renesas/rza-starter-kit/ to enable the Renesas compiler when a valid licence is asked the first time DS-5 is started
Unzip the content of SPIBSCBoot.zip. Three more files should be available: Connection_Only.launch, Workspace.zip and script.zip. Unzip also Workspace.zip and script.zip
Start DS-5 and import into workspace all the three projects ([File] >> [Import Existing Projects into Workspace]) taking care of select [Copy projects into workspace] when importing
Import also the launch configuration (file Connection_Only.launch) ([File] >> [Import] >> [Launch configurations])
Copy the script directory into workspace directory and copy only the script RZ_A1H_sflash_boot_user.ds in the workspace directory (outside the script dir)
Open [Run] >> [Debug Configurations...] menu, then click on [DS-5 Debugger] >> [Connction_only]. In the [Connection] tab select [Renesas]/[RZ/A Series-R7S72100]/[Bare Metal Debug]/[Debug of Coretex-A9 via ULINK2] and press the [Browse] button to identify and select the attached debugger. Press Apply to save changes.
Rename u-boot.bin file as VECTOR_TABLE and copy it in RZ_A1H_spibsc_boot_init\Debug\RZ_A1H_spibsc_boot_init.bin\ directory inside the workspace
Connect the ULINK2 and power on the board. Select again [Run] >> [Debug Configurations...] menu, click on [DS-5 Debugger] >> [Connction_only] and on the Debug button.
When the DS-5 Dubug perspective is open, in the [Script] tab of DS-5 import the script RZ_A1H_sflash_boot_user.ds
Pause the microprocessor with the button in the toolbar and double-click on the script to run it
When the download script runs, the flash downloader is launched and a message is shown in the [Application Console]. Answer Y to the first question and N to the second one
When downloading finishes, it is possible to disconnect from target

For all the subsequent times it will be enough:

Open the DS-5
Switch to DS-5 Debug perspective
Select the launcher from the [Debug control] tab
Press the [Connect to Target] button in the toolbar
Double click on the script in the [Script] tab
Answer Y and N to the two questions in the [Application Console]
Disconnect from the target using the [Disconnect from the Target] button in the toolbar

For a more detailed description of the entire process, see:

Renesas Application Note: Example of Downloading to Serial Flash Memory Using the Semihost Function of ARM DS-5”
Renesas Applicaton Note: Example of Booting from Serial Flash Memory

Note

* To change file to program in serial NOR it is enough to overwrite again the file named VECTOR_TABLE as seen at step (8)

* It is not possible to reprogram the NOR flash if the board successfully boots Linux. To be able to write the NOR using the DS-5 it is required that the board stops in U-Boot or at first stage bootloader (before U-Boot is loaded)

U-Boot¶

To check if the board is correctly programmed, connect the board to a terminal emulator on your computer. To see how this can be achieved please refer to section serial_console_label.

If everything is setup correctly you should be able to see the bootstrap process and the U-Boot output. In particular, as soon as the board is powered a countdown is started and displayed on the serial output. If a key is pressed before the countdown expires the autoboot stops, otherwise Linux is loaded from USB or SPI NOR.

On Hachiko/SDRAM board you can boot using the USB or the serial NOR. During the boot process, if U-Boot detects a correct kernel and rootfs on the USB drive it will boot from this USB device, otherwise it will switch to SPI NOR. In case no correct linux kernel is detected, the boot stops in the U-Boot console.

For a brief documentation about U-Boot:

Renesas U-Boot documentation:

Boot from USB¶

Booting from USB requires that an USB pen drive is prepared with all the files needed for booting Linux and that it is correctly partitioned.

Important

The only USB port that it is possible to use for booting is the USB port at the bottom of the USB connector.

USB partitioning¶

The USB pen driver is required to have one single EXT2 partition with a start sector of the partition below the 63rd sector. It is possible to use tools as fdisk or cfdisk to partition the USB drive.

Host select

cfdisk /path/to/your/USB/device

As alternative it is possible to use the sfdisk tools to have the partition correctly aligned to the first sector:

Host select

sfdisk /path/to/your/USB/device << EOF
0,
EOF

To format the partition it is enough:

Host select

mkfs.ext2 /path/to/your/USB/device/partition

USB content¶

When booting from USB, U-Boot expects to find a valid single EXT2 partition in the USB pen drive containing the rootfs. Moreover U-Boot needs to find in /boot directory a valid kernel image and a valid DTB file respectively named uImage and rza1-hachiko.dtb.

When using Yocto to generate the rootfs we need to extract the compressed rootfs found in

Host select

/home/architech/architech_sdk/architech/hachiko/yocto/build/tmp/deploy/images/hachiko64

in the partition on the USB and copy the kernel in /boot/uImage and DTB file in /boot/rza1-hachiko.dtb.

Briefly, to have a bootable USB stick after having compiled an image with Yocto:

Create one EXT2 partition in the USB stick

Extract the content of your .tar.bz2 rootfs tarball file in the EXT2 partition

Copy uImage to /boot

Copy uImage-rza1-hachiko.dtb to /boot and rename it as rza1-hachiko.dtb

At this point it is possible to boot Linux by inserting the USB pen drive in the correct USB port and power on the board.

Boot from NOR¶

When no USB device is attached or the kernel image is not valid, U-Boot tries to boot from SPI NOR. In Hachiko/SDRAM board the NOR is required to contain all the needed files in the first serial flash memory on channel 0.

Note

A valid NOR Linux image is programmed at factory time in Hachiko/SDRAM NOR, so it is possible to start using Hachiko/SDRAM board right away.

NOR Partitioning¶

The serial flash memory is divided into 5 partitions according to the following scheme (the base address is 0x18000000):

0x18000000-0x18080000 spibsc0_loader  (offset: 0x00000000)
0x18080000-0x180c0000 spibsc0_bootenv (offset: 0x00080000)
0x180c0000-0x184c0000 spibsc0_kernel  (offset: 0x000c0000)
0x184c0000-0x18500000 spibsc0_dtb     (offset: 0x004c0000)
0x18500000-0x1c000000 spibsc0_rootfs  (offset: 0x00500000)

spibsc0_loader: contains u-boot (u-boot.bin)
spibsc0_bootenv: contains u-boot environment
spibsc0_kernel: contains the Linux kernel (uImage)
spibsc0_dtb: contains the DTB file (rza1-hachiko.dtb)
spibsc0_rootfs: contains the rootfs

NOR content¶

To write in NOR and replace or update the content of the NOR partitions you can go through U-Boot or Linux. It is strongly recommended to use Linux for writing new data in NOR partitions, especially when no external SDRAM is available.

Using U-Boot [not recommended]¶

Using U-Boot for writing or updating data in SPI NOR is not advisable especially when no external SDRAM is available.

Warning

The operation is prone to failure, use it at your own risk.

The process of writing data in serial NOR using U-Boot goes through 3 main steps: 1) load the file to write in a temporary RAM location, 2) erase data on the NOR partition and 3) write the new data.

Assuming you have the file on the USB pen drive you have to load it in RAM using the following commands:

Board select

usb start
ext2load usb 0 0x0c000000 /path/to/your/u-boot.bin

The output from the command is also the size of the file loaded, info useful for step (3).

RAM ranges:

0x0c000000 - 0x10000000

Please, note that while spibsc0_loader, spibsc0_kernel, and spibsc0_dtb partitions of the flash memory contain raw data respectively for u-boot.bin, uImage and rza1-hachiko.dtb, whereas partition spibsc0_rootfs contains raw data for the filesystem that, in our case, is a JFFS2 image. That is, when writing a new rootfs in spibsc0_rootfs partition it is needed to use the image file .jffs2 generated by Yocto.

To erase data on the NOR partition;

Board select

sf erase $OFFSET $SIZE

where $OFFSET is the partition offset and $SIZE its size in bytes.

To write new data:

Board select

sf write $RAM_ADDR $OFFSET $SIZE

where $RAM_ADDR is the temporary RAM location holding our file (tipically 0x0c000000), $OFFSET is the partition offset and $SIZE is the file size in bytes as obtained by the output of the comman ext2load in step (1).

For more informations about flash managing with U-Boot refer to:

Renesas U-Boot documentation

Using Linux¶

To use linux for writing or updating data on the serial NOR you are going to need MTD utils. It is possible to compile a small image containing the MTD utils with Yocto by means, for example, of image core-image-minimal-mtdutils that can be generated by Bitbake with this command line:

Host select

bitbake core-image-minimal-mtdutils

In Linux, the process is made easier by the MTD framework that remap each NOR partition to a different device file. In particular:

Board select

/dev/mtd0: spibsc0_loader
/dev/mtd1: spibsc0_bootenv
/dev/mtd2: spibsc0_kernel
/dev/mtd3: spibsc0_dtb
/dev/mtd4: spibsc0_rootfs

Again the process goes through 2 steps: (1) erasing the content of the serial NOR partition and (2) write the new data.

To erase the content of the partition the tool flash_erase can be used. For raw files as u-boot.bin, uImage or rza1-hachiko.dtb, the tool can be used as follow:

Board select

flash_erase /path/to/your/mtd/device 0 0

This command completely erases the content of the partition. For the root file system the command is slightly different, since being spibsc0_rootfs a JFFS2 partition, it requires proper formatting, so for mtd4 device you need to run this command:

Board select

flash_erase -j /dev/mtd4 0 0

To write the new data on the serial NOR the tool flashcp is used. Again for raw file the simple syntax is:

Board select

flashcp -v /path/to/your/file /path/to/your/mtd/device

For rootfs we have two different ways to write data in spibsc0_rootfs partition:

Using the image file .jffs2 generated by Yocto

Board select

flashcp -v /path/to/your/image/file.jffs2 /dev/mtd4

If you wish to use the image file .tar.bz2 instead, you need to mount the partition and decompress the file content in place.

Board select

mount -t jffs2 mtd4 /mnt/
tar xv -C /mnt/ -f /path/to/your/image/file.tar.bz2
umount /mnt/

For more information on how to manage flash storage with Linux:

http://free-electrons.com/blog/managing-flash-storage-with-linux/

Network¶

The network PHY is provided by Renesas’s chip 60610 (U6). Within Linux, you can see the network interface as eth0.

FAQ¶

Virtual Machine¶

What is the password for the default user of the virtual machine?¶

The password for the default user, that is architech, is:

Host

architech

What is sudo?¶

sudo is a program for Unix-like computer operating systems that allows users to run programs/commands with the security privileges of another user, normally the superuser or root. Not all the users can call sudo, only the sudoers, architech (the default user of the virtual machine) user is a sudoer. When you run a command preceeded by sudo Linux will ask you the user password, for architech user the password is architech.

What is the password for user root?¶

By default, Ubuntu 12.04 32bit comes with no password defined for roor user, to set it run the following command:

Host

sudo passwd root

Linux will ask you (twice, the second time is just for confirmation) to write the password for user root.

Hachiko/SDRAM¶

How to switch from hachiko to hachiko/SDRAM and viceversa¶

Switching from hachiko to hachiko/SDRAM or viceversa (adding or removing the external SDRAM) is a delicate operation that involves flashing a new U-Boot and using a new Kernel. To flash a new U-Boot it is needed to follow Section Write to NOR, writing the new U-Boot from the U-Boot itself or from Linux. After the first boot with the new U-Boot it is always suggested to give the following commands to reset the U-Boot environment stored in the second partition of the serial NOR:

Board select

env default -a
saveenv

and reboot the board.

Also the Linux kernel must be recompiled for the new configuration and substituted to the old one in the USB pend drive or in the NOR.

Bootargs and Framebuffer¶

Hachiko kernel uses two parameters passed by U-Boot at boot time to enable / disable / configure the framebuffer. These two parameters are vdc5fb0 for channel 0 and vdc5fb1 for channel 1 of the video display controller.

The default value for these parameters is:

hachiko/SDRAM:

Board

vdc5fb0=3 vdc5fb1=4

Hachiko:

Board

vdc5fb0=0 vdc5fb1=0

The meaning of the values are here reported:

Channel 0 (vdc5fb0):

(0) unuse

(1) / (2) reserved for RZARSK dev board

(3) LCD parallel out enabled

Channel 1 (vdc5fb1):

(0) unuse

(1) / (2) / (3) reserved for RZARSK dev board

(4) LVDS output

It is possible to modify the default setting in U-Boot with the command:

Board

env set fbparam vdc5fb0=$B vdc5fb1=$A

with $A and $B the new set of parameters. To make the configuration permanent:

Board

saveenv

Note

For the hachiko board without external SDRAM the usage of framebuffer can result in instability if not used with care.

Change Framebuffer Resolution¶

The default kernel shipped has the following default resolutions:

LCD parallel out:

480x272

LVDS output:

800x480

to change them the file arch/arm/mach-shmobile/rskrza1-vdc5fb.c must be modified. Specifically the two structures containing the screen timings are:

Channel 0 (parallel LCD):

struct fb_videomode videomode_wqvga_lcd_kit

Channel 1 (LVDS):

struct fb_videomode videomode_lvds

Table Of Contents

Architech’s Hachiko/SDRAM documentation¶

Notations¶

Chapters¶

Unboxing¶

Quick start guide¶

Install¶

Download VirtualBox¶

Create a new Virtual Machine¶

Setup the network¶

Customize the number of processors¶

Create a shared folder¶

Build¶

Deploy¶

Boot¶

Code¶

Debug¶

SDK Architecture¶

SDK¶

Virtual Machine¶

Download VirtualBox¶

Create a new Virtual Machine¶

Setup the network¶

Customize the number of processors¶

Create a shared folder¶

VM content¶

Splash screen¶

Create SDK¶

Installation¶

Install a clone of the virtual machine inside your native machine¶

Install just one board¶

Yocto¶

BSP¶

U-boot¶

Linux Kernel¶

Meta Layer¶

Root FS¶

Toolchain¶

Bitbake¶

Environment¶

Configuration files¶

Command line¶

Hob¶

Eclipse¶

Creating the Project¶

Building the Project¶

Deploying and Debugging the Application¶

Qt Framework¶

Qt Creator¶

Hello World!¶

Debug Hello World project¶

Cross compiler¶

Opkg¶

Force Bitbake to install Opkg in the final image¶

Create a repository¶

Update repository index¶

The board¶

Hardware¶

Power-On¶

Serial Console¶

Bootstrap¶

Write to NOR¶

Using PARTNER-Jet¶

Using ULINK2¶

U-Boot¶

Boot from USB¶

USB partitioning¶

USB content¶

Boot from NOR¶

NOR Partitioning¶

NOR content¶

Using U-Boot [not recommended]¶

Using Linux¶

Network¶

FAQ¶

Virtual Machine¶

What is the password for the default user of the virtual machine?¶

What is sudo?¶

What is the password for user root?¶

Hachiko/SDRAM¶