Yocto for PandABlocks

This instruction guide is for setting up a Podman image to run a Rocky 9 Linux Distro. Based on this image, the running container would set up Yocto with the "meta-PandABlocks" layer appended and build an embedded Xilinx Linux Kernel, rootfs, bootloader and other associated images and packages.

Image Installation

To create the image on your host Linux machine, clone this repository:

$ cd /scratch/<FedID>/
$ git clone [email protected]:PandABlocks/PandABlocks-Yocto.git

$ Run podman to create the image.
NOTE: Where is the container name:

$ podman build --file <path_to_Dockerfile>/Dockerfile --tag <container-image-tag-name>:latest

If successful, you should see the freshly baked image's name with the command:

$ podman image ls

Finally, disable the SELinux security context check for host folders mounted on the container with this command:

$ sed -i ~/.config/containers/containers.conf -e '/label=false/d' -e '/^\[containers\]$/a label=false'

Start up a container based on the image listed.
Note: Where <container-image-tagname> is the container name.
Using the following command:

$ podman --storage-opt overlay.mount_program=/usr/bin/fuse-overlayfs --storage-opt \
overlay.mountopt=nodev,metacopy=on,noxattrs=1 run -v /scratch/tmp:/scratch/tmp -v /dev/:/dev \
-i -t localhost/<container-image-tagname>:latest /bin/bash

On a host's terminal instance, the podman option container ls could be used to list containers running on the host:

$ podman container ls

To learn more about podman command options and usage:

$ podman --help

Or go to the official website: podman.io

Yocto Installation

Log into a shell instance of the container (if you aren't in one already):

$ podman container ls
# list of container(s), associated image(s), tag(s), ID(s), e.t.c., to identify your container's ID
$ podman exec -it <container_ID> /bin/bash # Assuming your host uses a bash shell, it might be /bin/sh

You would be logged in as a pseudo-root user: root@<container_ID>, now create a new user and log in as the user or use the yocto_user default user created by the default image:

$ useradd <new_user>
$ usermod -a -G <new_user> root
$ su - <new_user>

Change the directory to /scratch/tmp recall that the "Startup a container" step maps the host's /scratch/tmp to the container's /scratch/tmp directories, hence any file structure in this directory will persist on the host's /scratch/tmp even after the container is deleted. Next, create a directory called yocto and change into it

$ cd /scratch/tmp
$ mkdir -p yocto && cd yocto

Follow the instructions on the Xilinx Yocto Manifest page: xilinx.yoctomanifest, to install Xilinx's petalinux-yocto.

NB:

1. For Diamond build servers, use /scratch/tmp as the bind root directory for all files if the files are to persist outside of the container's lifetime.
2. Add /scratch/tmp to the $PATH 'directory search list' within the container.
3. Copy the local.conf file here to /build/conf/local.conf. Otherwise, if you are adept at Yocto, customize your local.conf file, but add the following configurations:

#Change the PACKAGE_CLASS to ipk format
PACKAGE_CLASSES ?= "package_ipk"
INITRAMFS_IMAGE = "petalinux-initramfs-image"
INITRAMFS_IMAGE_BUNDLE = "1"
INIT_MANAGER = "systemd"
BB_NUMBER_THREADS="<your_pc_virtual_thread_count_or_less>"
PARALLEL_MAKE="-j<your_pc_virtual_thread_count_or_less>"
#On Diamond's PC - ws575, AMD thread ripper (32 cores), the above configurations are defined as:
# BB_NUMBER_OF_THREADS = "31"
# PARALLEL_MAKE = "-j31"

Contributing

Pull requests are welcome. For major changes, please open an issue first to discuss what you want to change.

License

MIT