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 be used to set up Yocto and build a Xilinx-embedded Linux Kernel.

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:

$ podman build --file <path_to_Dockerfile>/Dockerfile --tag rocky9-yocto-container: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'

Startup a container based on the image listed 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/rocky9-yocto-dev-container: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:

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

Change 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 yocto.

NB:

1. Use /scratch/tmp as the root directory for all files if the files are to persist post-container existence.
2. Add /scratch/tmp to the $PATH 'directory search list' within the container.
3. Insert the following configuration macros to the /scratch/tmp/yocto/build/conf/local.conf file to limit the parallel build tasks and threads spawn during the kernel image and other boot recipe's build process:

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