wiki:ventana/ubuntu

Version 2 (modified by Chris Lang, 7 years ago) ( diff )

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  1. Ubuntu on Ventana
    1. Gateworks pre-built Ubuntu Disk Image
      1. Ubuntu 16.04 LTS (Xenial Xerus) console image
      2. Ubuntu 14.04 LTS (Trusty Tahr) console image
      3. Ubuntu 14.04 LTS (Trusty Tahr) multimedia image
      4. Ubuntu 14.04 LTS (Trusty Tahr) X11 LXDE image
    2. Ubuntu Packages
    3. Kernel Updates
    4. Modem Support
    5. ssh server
    6. Root filesystem Sources
      1. Ubuntu Core
      2. Linaro
      3. Build your own Ubuntu rootfs via debootstrap
        1. version-specific notes
          1. trusty (14.04) LTS
    7. Adding GStreamer IPU/VPU/GPU support via gstreamer-imx
    8. Adding X11 Support
      1. Hardware GPU Acceleration for X11
    9. Wireless

Ubuntu on Ventana

No image "trusty-ventana-lxde.png" attached to ventana/ubuntu

While Gateworks cannot fully support all Linux distros, it is relatively simple to overlay a Gateworks Ventana kernel onto any non-Gateworks third party Linux distro rootfs image. For a full list of Linux BSP's for Ventana see here

See the Gateworks Ventana third party linux page for more details on how to use other linux distro on Ventana.

Gateworks pre-built Ubuntu Disk Image

Gateworks provides some pre-built Ubuntu firmware images for the Ventana Family:

Name Size Features
xenial-ventana ~600MB1 console support - Ubuntu kernel/drivers
trusty-ventana ~210MB console support - Gateworks kernel/drivers
trusty-mm-ventana ~650MB1 HW acclerated gstreamer/gstreamer-imx
trusty-x11-ventana ~1000MB1 HW accelerated X11 support with LXDE

1. requires 'large' flash size (2GB) or 1GB and larger of removable storage

For a full Board Support Package providing building a Linux distro from source, please see the OpenWrt, Yocto, or Android BSP from the Ventana BSP page

Ubuntu 16.04 LTS (Xenial Xerus) console image

A pre-built console image created using the debootstrap method for ​Ubuntu 16.04 (Xenial Xerus) can be downloaded:

Features:

  • Ubuntu 16.04 core (from debootstrap instructions)
  • Ubuntu Xenial kernel (Linux 4.11 based) with drivers/firmware
  • custom bootscript supporting NAND/UBI, MMC, SATA, USB boot devices and root filesystems
  • extra packages: openssh-server can-utils i2c-tools usbutils pciutils
  • eth0 dhcp
  • user root passwd root
  • * Note *: This is a mainline kernel that does not have Video Hardware Acceleration support for gstreamer and a few other Gateworks specific items. For more information, read Gateworks Mainline Linux Support

Ubuntu 14.04 LTS (Trusty Tahr) console image

A pre-built console image created using the debootstrap method for ​Ubuntu 14.04 (Trusty Tahr) can be downloaded:

Features:

  • Ubuntu 14.04 core (from debootstrap instructions)
  • Gateworks 3.14 kernel with modules
  • ventana bootscript
  • extra packages: openssh-server can-utils i2c-tools usbutils pciutils
  • eth0 dhcp
  • user root passwd root

Ubuntu 14.04 LTS (Trusty Tahr) multimedia image

A pre-built console image created using the debootstrap method for ​Ubuntu 14.04 (Trusty Tahr) and adding gstreamer-imx for IPU/VPU/GPU hw video acceleration can be downloaded:

Features:

  • Ubuntu 14.04 core (from debootstrap instructions)
  • Gateworks 3.14 kernel with modules
  • ventana bootscript
  • extra packages: openssh-server can-utils i2c-tools usbutils pciutils
  • eth0 dhcp
  • user root passwd root
  • gstreamer (gstreamer1.0-x gstreamer1.0-tools gstreamer1.0-plugins-good gstreamer1.0-plugins-bad gstreamer1.0-alsa)
  • fsl vpu firmware
  • fsl lib-vpu
  • fsl codec library
  • fsl libg2d
  • dev tools (build-essential autoconf libtool wget python pkg-config git)
  • python
  • gstreamer/gstreamer-imx/libimxvpuapi
  • v4l-utils

For details on Gstreamer and Gstreamer-imx see our page

Ubuntu 14.04 LTS (Trusty Tahr) X11 LXDE image

A pre-built console image created using the debootstrap method for ​Ubuntu 14.04 (Trusty Tahr) and adding gstreamer-imx for IPU/VPU/GPU hw video acceleration as well as X11/LXDE with hardware acceleration can be downloaded:

Features:

  • ubuntu 14.04 core (from debootstrap instructions)
  • Gateworks 3.14 kernel with modules
  • ventana bootscript
  • extra packages: openssh-server can-utils i2c-tools usbutils pciutils
  • eth0 dhcp
  • user root passwd root
  • gstreamer (gstreamer1.0-x gstreamer1.0-tools gstreamer1.0-plugins-good gstreamer1.0-plugins-bad gstreamer1.0-alsa)
  • fsl vpu firmware
  • fsl lib-vpu
  • fsl codec library
  • fsl libg2d
  • dev tools (build-essential autoconf libtool wget python pkg-config git)
  • python
  • gstreamer/gstreamer-imx/libimxvpuapi
  • v4l-utils
  • lxde

Ubuntu Packages

Ubuntu inherits its package management from Debian Linux using the 'apt' packaging system and 'deb' packages. The list of package feeds is in /etc/apt/sources.list: 

# cat rootfs/etc/apt/sources.list
deb http://ports.ubuntu.com/ubuntu-ports vivid main
deb http://ports.ubuntu.com/ubuntu-ports vivid universe

You can search for Ubuntu packages at ​https://launchpad.net/ubuntu. The search results will show what Ubuntu versions (by name) the package is available in and clicking on the resulting package will show information as to the package feed its contained in.

The standard Ubuntu package feeds are located at ​http://ports.ubuntu.com/ubuntu-ports/ and you will find packages in the dist/<ubuntu-version>/<feed> directories. Ubuntu breaks up feeds into the following:

  • Main - Officially supported software.
  • Restricted - Supported software that is not available under a completely free license.
  • Universe - Community maintained software, i.e. not officially supported software.
  • Multiverse - Software that is not free. (meaning licensing)

If you are trying to find out what package an application belongs to you have a few choices:

  1. Use dpkg -S on your Ubuntu development host. For example to find the package that contains ifconfig: 
    $ dpkg -S $(which ifconfig)
net-tools: /sbin/ifconfig
    • ifconfig is in /sbin/ifconfig and is part of the net-tools package
    • dpkg -L net-tools will show you everything else contained in that package
  2. Use apt-cache search: 
    $ apt-cache search ifconfig
iproute2 - networking and traffic control tools
net-tools - The NET-3 networking toolkit
gnome-nettool - network information tool for GNOME
inetutils-tools - base networking utilities (experimental package)
libnet-ifconfig-wrapper-perl - multiplatform Perl wrapper for ifconfig
moreutils - additional Unix utilities
wmifinfo - Dockapp that shows information for all interfaces
  3. Googling the question 'what package contains <xyz>'

Personal Package Archives (PPAs) are package feeds that are not part of Ubuntu and can be used by people to distribute their own personally built packages. To use a PPA you need to first add it to your repository list and update your package sources.

References:

Kernel Updates

Ubuntu releases are based on a specific major kernel version. However over time the Ubuntu team releases new major kernel version updates for specific distro versions. An apt-get install linux-image will not change the kernel major version and you have to specifically install a new major version to switch to it.

For example the latest kernel release available for Ubuntu 16.04 (Xenail) LTS is 4.11 and can be installed with the following: 

apt-get update
apt-get install linux-image-4.11.0-14-generic
# install mkimage
apt-get install u-boot-tools
# create u-boot image for kernel
mkimage -A arm -O linux -T kernel -C none \
  -a 0x10008000 -e 0x10008000 -n "linux" \
  -d /boot/vmlinuz-4.11.0-14-generic /boot/uImage
# install device-tree blobs
cp /lib/firmware/4.11.0-14-generic/device-tree/imx6*-gw*.dtb /boot
#remove imx rtc driver, Gateworks board uses GSC RTC, and does not use imx RTC
rm /lib/modules/*-generic/kernel/drivers/rtc/rtc-snvs.ko
  • use apt-get search linux-image to determine what Ubuntu kernel versions are available

Modem Support

Aleksander Morgado (​​https://aleksander.es), a key developer behind the ModemManager, libqmi, and libmbim projects that provide modem support on Ubuntu provides up-to-date Ubuntu PPA's for 14.04 trusty and 16.04 xenial.

For Xenial: 

apt-get install software-properties-common # contains add-apt-repository
add-apt-repository ppa:aleksander-m/modemmanager-xenial
apt-get update
apt-get install modemmanager libqmi-utils libmbim-utils network-manager

See modem for more info on how to use these packages

ssh server

The openssh-server package provides an ssh daemon suitable for secure shell (ssh) and secure copy (scp): 

apt-get install openssh-server

During development it may be useful to enable root ssh capability, which is disabled by default. To do this edit /etc/ssh/sshd_config, and:

  1. comment out the following line: 
    PermitRootLogin without-password
  2. Just below it, add the following line: 
    PermitRootLogin yes
  3. Then reload SSH config: 
    service ssh reload

Root filesystem Sources

There are several sources of pre-built root filesystems that are compatible with Ventana. As Ventana uses an i.MX6 SoC, you need to use something that is compatible with an ARMv7 instruction set. Many pre-built distributions will reference 'armhf' which means 'ARM hard-float' which is appropriate for the i.MX6 as it has hardware floating-point.

Sources:

  • build your own via debootstrap (recommended)
  • Ubuntu Core - this is a minimal filesystem that you can build off of at runtime by adding packages from various repositories:
  • Linaro - Linaro has several root filesystems including server, nano, developer, core, and ALIP. Each root filesystem will have different things installed for different purposes. Choose carefully which will work for you.

Ubuntu Core

Ubuntu has supported ​Ubuntu core builds for the ARMv7 Application Processor family (Cortex A8, A9, and above with hardware float) since the 12.04 (Precise Pangolin) releases. Canocial provides multiple images that contain differing functionality (desktop, server, cloud, etc). Since 12.04 they have been providing a 'core' image (Ubuntu Core) which is a minimal rootfs for the use in the creation of custom images for specific needs. This is a suitable rootfs to start with. To deploy Ubuntu Core you need to use an Ubuntu Core rootfs from ​here, and a Ventana kernel (kernel + device-tree dtbs + modules).

Notes:

  • Ubuntu Core ships with no local users, therefore you will need to add a local user and passwd then add that user to adm and sudo groups manually before booting the image
  • You can use apt-get to install additional packages

References:

Linaro

The ​Linaro Developer Platform Team also creates Ubuntu flavored images.

Linaro is a non profit org that manages engineers who work on improving the state of ARM open source software.

They provide 4 different types of rootfs to choose from (unlike the single minimal rootfs choice Ubuntu Core provides):

  • Nano - minimum rootfs containing console support and apt package management
  • Developer - minimum rootfs containing console support and apt package management and development tools (toolchain, debuggers, profiling, etc)
  • ALIP - a small distribution created using upstream Ubuntu packages containing LXDE (Lubuntu) with lightdm, X11 and chromium as the default graphics applications but still with an emphasis on small size
  • Ubuntu Desktop - basically a stock Ubuntu Desktop environment with a few extra packages which should bring the same environment you would find with Unity, Firefox, etc.

These rootfs images can be found ​here within directories based on a year and a month. These directories are not to be confused with Ubuntu versions (also based on a year and a month). Note that not all the above rootfs images are available for every monthly build.

For example, you can find the Linaro built Ubuntu 14.04 (trusty) rootfs images at ​https://releases.linaro.org/14.07/ubuntu/trusty-images

References:

Notes:

  • You can use apt-get to install additional packages

Build your own Ubuntu rootfs via debootstrap

The preferred way to create a Ubuntu root filesystem is to use the deboostrap utility on a Debian or Ubuntu host. This tool provides a 2-stage install where the second stage is within a chroot environment using qemu-arm.

Requirements:

  • Linux Ubuntu or Debian System with network connection and sudo permissions
  • Linux Kernel (ie Gateworks latest pre-built 3.14 kernel with full hardware support, Ubuntu pre-built kernel (missing full video in/out support but more up-to-date), or a vanilla mainline kernel (still missing full video in/out support but even more up-to-date), or a kernel of your own) - see below steps for more detail
  • Ventana target board with bootloader
  • boot device with 300MB+ of free space (micro-SD, USB mass storage, mSATA, 2GB NAND flash)

Important notes:

  • we set and use target and distro env variables in step 2 and use those env variables in the remaining steps to make this tutorial more version-agnostic. Please be aware of this and do not deviate from the steps unless or until you completely understand what you are doing.

Steps:

  1. Install pre-requisites: 
    sudo apt-get install qemu-user-static debootstrap binfmt-support
  1. Perform first stage install of minimal filesystem: 
    target=rootfs
distro=xenial
sudo debootstrap --arch=armhf --foreign $distro $target
# copy qemu-arm-static binary for the binfmt packages to find it and copy in resolv.conf from host
sudo cp /usr/bin/qemu-arm-static $target/usr/bin
    • See ​http://ports.ubuntu.com/ubuntu-ports/dists/ for a list of current Ubuntu releases: 16.10=yakkety (latest), 16.04=xenial (latest LTS), 15.04=vivid, 14.10=utopic (LTS), 14.04=trusty (LTS), 12.04=precise (LTS), 10.04=lucid (LTS).
    • this minimal rootfs can be considered about the same as an Ubuntu-core downloaded rootfs however it is still missing some core packages and configuration before it can be booted. These steps are taken care of in a 2nd stage install within a chroot shell
    • the chroot shell below will provide network support (inherited from the host)
  1. we now have a minimal Ubuntu rootfs - chroot to it and perform the 2nd stage install: 
    sudo chroot $target
# now we are in the chroot
distro=xenial
export LANG=C
# setup second stage
/debootstrap/debootstrap --second-stage
    • this is the most minimal rootfs we would recommend
  1. (optional) add additional apt package repos: 
    cat <<EOT > /etc/apt/sources.list
deb http://ports.ubuntu.com/ubuntu-ports $distro main restricted universe multiverse
deb http://ports.ubuntu.com/ubuntu-ports $distro-updates main restricted universe multiverse
deb http://ports.ubuntu.com/ubuntu-ports $distro-security main restricted universe multiverse
EOT
    • you may want to customize the above list, depending on your needs. See below for more detail on Ubuntu package feeds
  1. (optional) update package database and setup locales (do not skip this step if you are needing to install any packages for the steps below or otherwise) 
    apt-get update
apt-get -f install # fixup missing package dependencies
apt-get install locales dialog
dpkg-reconfigure locales
  1. set hostname: 
    echo ${distro}-armhf > /etc/hostname
  1. create a default fstab: 
    cat <<EOT > /etc/fstab
/dev/root            /                    auto       defaults              1  1
EOT
    • Note that this not required if you pass in 'rw' on the kernel cmdline. However while that is the default for the Ventana bootscripts for removeable storage it is not for NAND boot, therefore we will add a default fstab that will re-mount the kernel mounted rootfs as read-write
    • /dev/root in /etc/fstab will refer to the rootfs mounted by the kernel, thus the above entry simply re-mounts rootfs as read-write
  1. set a root passwd so you can login 
    passwd
    • or consider adding a user via adduser: 
      adduser myuser
usermod -a -G tty myuser # add to tty group for tty access
usermod -a -G dialout myuser # add to dialout group for UART access
usermod -a -G sudo myuser # add to sudo group for root access
  1. (optional) configure networking:
    • wired ethernet with DHCP on eth0 
      cat <<EOF >> /etc/network/interfaces
allow-hotplug eth0
auto eth0
iface eth0 inet dhcp

EOF
    • or static IP: 
      cat <<EOF >> /etc/network/interfaces
allow-hotplug eth0
auto eth0
iface eth0 inet static
address 192.168.1.1
netmask 255.255.255.0
gateway 192.168.1.254

EOF
    • or wireless (requires ~3MB of additional packages): 
      apt-get install wpasupplicant iw
cat << EOF >> /etc/network/interfaces
# Wireless interface
auto wlan0
iface wlan0 inet dhcp
        wireless_mode managed
        wireless_essid any
        wpa-driver nl80211
        wpa-conf /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf

EOF
wpa_passphrase <myssid> <mypass> >> /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf
  1. (optional) install some useful packages 
    apt-get install openssh-server # ssh server for remote access
apt-get install can-utils i2c-tools usbutils pciutils # cmdline tools for various Ventana hardware support
    • Note that by default root ssh access is disabled for security. See below for info on enabling it
  1. install a kernel and kernel support (kernel+dtbs+modules+firmware+initrd). You have several options here:
    1. Ubuntu Pre-built kernel (includes the most kernel drivers and is built by and supported by Ubuntu): 
      # disable flash-kernel as its not needed and will otherwise error out
echo "FLASH_KERNEL_SKIP=1" >> /etc/environment
# install kernel/firmware/headers
apt-get install linux-generic
# install mkimage
apt-get install u-boot-tools
# create u-boot image for kernel
mkimage -A arm -O linux -T kernel -C none \
  -a 0x10008000 -e 0x10008000 -n "linux" \
  -d /boot/vmlinuz-*-generic /boot/uImage
# install device-tree blobs
cp /lib/firmware/*-generic/device-tree/imx6*-gw*.dtb /boot
#remove imx rtc driver, Gateworks board uses GSC RTC, and does not use imx RTC
rm /lib/modules/*-generic/kernel/drivers/rtc/rtc-snvs.ko
      • The default Ubuntu kernel supports booting a microSD/SATA rootfs directly, but lacks nand/ubifs/ubi/usb-storage support. If you need that (and have a large enough flash to boot from that) you will need to use the Ubuntu initrd:
        • add NAND/ubifs/usb-storage modules to the initrd: 
          cat << EOF >> /etc/initramfs-tools/modules
# for NAND/ubi
gpmi_nand
ubi mtd=2
ubifs

# for usb-storage
ci_hdrc_imx
usb-storage
EOF
update-initramfs -u # press 'Enter' when prompted
# create u-boot image for initrd
mkimage -A arm -O linux -T ramdisk \
  -a 0x0 -e 0x0 -n "initrd" \
  -d /boot/initrd.img-*-generic /boot/uramdisk
        • create a bootscript that uses the Ubuntu initrd appropriately for NAND/usb-storage (utilizing the 'dtype' var that is set by the default ventana bootscript): 
          cat << EOF > /tmp/bootscript

# if nand|usb dtype use initrd - sata|mmc don't require initrd
if itest.s "x\${dtype}" == "xnand" ; then
  echo "Booting from NAND/ubifs..."
  setenv bootargs "console=\${console},\${baudrate} root=ubi0:rootfs rootfstype=ubifs rootwait \${video} \${extra}"
  ubifsload \$fdt_addr boot/\$fdt_file ||
  ubifsload \$fdt_addr boot/\$fdt_file1 ||
  ubifsload \$fdt_addr boot/\$fdt_file2
  test -n "\$fixfdt" && run fixfdt
  ubifsload \$loadaddr boot/uImage
  ubifsload 16000000 boot/uramdisk
  ubifsumount
  bootm \$loadaddr 16000000 \$fdt_addr
elif itest.s "x\${dtype}" == "xusb" ; then
  echo "Booting from usb..."
  setenv bootargs "console=\${console},\${baudrate} root=/dev/sda1  rootwait \${video} \${extra}"
  ext4load usb 0:1 \$fdt_addr boot/\$fdt_file ||
  ext4load usb 0:1 \$fdt_addr boot/\$fdt_file1 ||
  ext4load usb 0:1 \$fdt_addr boot/\$fdt_file2
  test -n "\$fixfdt" && run fixfdt
  ext4load usb 0:1 \$loadaddr boot/uImage
  ext4load usb 0:1 16000000 boot/uramdisk
  bootm \$loadaddr 16000000 \$fdt_addr
fi
EOF
mkimage -A arm -O linux -T script -n "bootscript" \
  -d /tmp/bootscript /boot/6x_bootscript-ventana
    2. Gateworks pre-built downstream vendor kernel: 3.14 kernel supporting full video input (which is not currently in upstream Linux) - use this if you are going to be using video input 
      cd /
wget http://svn.gateworks.com/ventana/images/gateworks-linux-imx6-3.14.48.tar.gz
tar -xvf gateworks-linux-imx6-3.14.48.tar.gz
depmod $(ls /lib/modules/) # create module dependencies
rm gateworks-linux-imx6-3.14.48.tar.gz
      • the depmod trick above is to run depmod with the exact kernel version (which will be the subdir in /lib/modules). An alternative is to run depmod after the first boot
    3. Build your own kernel and install it as above with proper bootscript - see linux/kernel for more info (you can do this on a development host with a cross-toolchain or even even install development tools via the build-essential meta-package and build and install sources such as the kernel below (adds appx 180MB))
  1. exit the chroot shell and remove files we no longer need 
    exit
sudo rm $target/usr/bin/qemu-arm-static
  1. install to bootable media:
    • For a removable block storage device supported by your board such as a USB Mass Storage device, a microSD, an mSATA SSD the example below will create a single ext4 rootfs partition on a removable block storage device. Ensure you set DEVICE properly for your system. We use the 'udisks' application for mount/unmount so that the mount-point is obvious - if you know what your doing you could use standard mount/unmount as well: 
      DEVICE=/dev/sdc
# unmount all auto-mounted partitions for this device
sudo umount ${DEVICE}?
# partition disk - single ext partition
printf ",,L,,\n" | sudo sfdisk -uS ${DEVICE}
sync
sudo mkfs.ext4 -L rootfs ${DEVICE}1
# mount partition (will mount to /media/rootfs/)
sudo udisks --mount ${DEVICE}1
# copy the root filesystem
sudo cp -rupv $target/*  /media/rootfs/
# unmount the disk
sudo udisks --unmount ${DEVICE}1
    • To create a ubifs suitable for 2GB NAND flash (large layout) use the following: 
      mkfs.ubifs -d $target -F -m 4096 -e 248KiB -c 8124 -x zlib -o ${distro}_large.ubifs
      • For details on how to flash this onto NAND see linux/ubi

version-specific notes

trusty (14.04) LTS

An extra step is needed for serial console configuration: 

cat << EOT >> /etc/init/serial.conf
start on stopped rc RUNLEVEL=[2345]
stop on runlevel [!2345]
respawn
exec /sbin/getty 115200 ttymxc1
EOT

Adding GStreamer IPU/VPU/GPU support via gstreamer-imx

You can easily add IMX6 IPU, VPU, and GPU support via GStreamer and Gstreamer-imx plugins. Many of the pieces needed (firmware and source-code) are from Freescale and not freely redistributable thus must be downloaded from their mirror and extracted from a shell script that forces you to read and agree to their End User License Agreement (EULA).

This support requires that you are using the Gateworks downstream vendor kernel as it has the necessary driver support that is not in the mainline Linux kernel.

There are several pre-requisites you will need to install and/or build using the instructions below:

  • Gateworks downstream vendor kernel (containing non-upstreamed IPU/VPU/GPU drivers) with kernel headers. See here for instructions on building, or ​here for a pre-built kernel tarball
  • gstreamer and libs
  • firmware-imx-3.14.28-1.0.0.bin - Freescale VPU firmware (EULA required)
  • imx-vpu-5.4.31.bin - Freescale lib_vpu (EULA required) - this is the low-level documented API that works with the (undocumented) VPU kernel driver API. You can think of this as a kernel driver in userspace
  • libfslcodec-4.0.3.bin - Freescale Codec Library (EULA required)
  • imx-gpu-viv-5.0.11.p4.5-hfp.bin - Freescale libg2d (EULA required) - this is the low-level documented API that works with the (undocumented) Vivante Galcore GPU kernel driver API. You can think of this as a kernel driver in userspace
  • libimxvpuapi - community based open-source high-level library over the low-level imx-vpu API
  • gstreamer-imx - community based open-source GStreamer plugins to utilize hardware accellerated capture, display, transforms, compositing, decode, encode capabilities of the IMX6.

The following instructions can be used on top of the debootstrap created rootfs but should work on other sources of Ubuntu or other Linux distributions root filesystems as well.

  1. install build deps (~165MB): 
    apt-get install build-essential autoconf libtool wget python pkg-config git
  1. install gstreamer1.x (~200MB): 
    apt-get install gstreamer1.0-x gstreamer1.0-tools
# install videoparserbad for video parsers like h264parse, mpegvideoparse and mpeg4videoparse
apt-get install gstreamer1.0-plugins-good gstreamer1.0-plugins-bad
# install alsa plugin
apt-get install gstreamer1.0-alsa
    • note that the gstreamer1.0-plugins-bad meta-package is in the multiverse package feed
    • at this point you could use 'gst-launch-1.0 videotestsrc ! fbdevsink' but it will not stretch to the display, and will not be hardware accelerated
  1. install Freescale VPU firmware (firmware-imx) (EULA required) 
    wget http://www.freescale.com/lgfiles/NMG/MAD/YOCTO/firmware-imx-3.14.28-1.0.0.bin
/bin/sh firmware-imx-*.bin
# install firmware
mkdir -p /lib/firmware/vpu
cp firmware-imx-*/firmware/vpu/vpu_fw_imx6*.bin /lib/firmware/vpu
  1. build and install Freescale lib_vpu (EULA required) 
    wget http://www.freescale.com/lgfiles/NMG/MAD/YOCTO/imx-vpu-5.4.31.bin
/bin/sh imx-vpu-*.bin
cd imx-vpu-*
make PLATFORM=IMX6Q all
make install # installs vpu_lib.h and vpu_io.h in /usr/include and libvpu.* in /usr/lib
cd ..
  1. (optional) build and install Freescale Codec Library (libfslcodec) (EULA required) 
    wget http://www.freescale.com/lgfiles/NMG/MAD/YOCTO/libfslcodec-4.0.3.bin
/bin/sh libfslcodec-*.bin
cd libfslcodec-*
./autogen.sh --prefix=/usr --enable-fhw --enable-vpu
make all
make install
# move the libs where gstreamer plugins will find them
mv /usr/lib/imx-mm/video-codec/* /usr/lib
mv /usr/lib/imx-mm/audio-codec/* /usr/lib
rm -rf /usr/lib/imx-mm/
cd ..
    • this is optional and is needed if you want the audio codec support in gstreamer-imx
    • Note the Makefile will install the libs into $prefix/lib/imx-mm which is undesirable so we move them after 'make install'
  1. (optional) install Freescale libg2d (EULA required) 
    wget http://www.freescale.com/lgfiles/NMG/MAD/YOCTO/imx-gpu-viv-5.0.11.p4.5-hfp.bin
/bin/sh imx-gpu-viv-*.bin
cd imx-gpu-viv-*
# install just the g2d headers/libs
cp g2d/usr/include/* /usr/include/
cp -d g2d/usr/lib/* /usr/lib/
# install gpu-core headers/libs
cp -d gpu-core/usr/lib/*.so* /usr/lib/
cp -Pr gpu-core/usr/include/* /usr/include/
# optional: install demos
cp -r gpu-demos/opt /
# optional: install gpu tools
cp -axr gpu-tools/gmem-info/usr/bin/* /usr/bin/
cd ..
    • this is part of the Freescale Vivante GPU driver and apps (imx-gpu-viv) package which provides libgl/libgles1/libgles2/wayland-egl/libgal-x11/egl/libopenvg/libg2d
    • it comes in soft-float (sfp) and hard-float (hfp) - we want the hard-float as we are using an armhf rootfs
    • this is not required but needed for the gstreamer-imx g2d transform and sink plugins
  1. build and install libimxvpuapi library:
    • This library provides a community based open-source API to the Freescale imx-vpu library (the low-level IMX6 VPU interface). It is a replacement for Freescale's closed-development libfslvapwrapper library. 
      git clone git://github.com/Freescale/libimxvpuapi.git
cd libimxvpuapi
./waf configure --prefix=/usr
./waf
./waf install
cd ..
  1. build and install gstreamer-imx: 
    apt-get install libgstreamer1.0-dev libgstreamer-plugins-base1.0-dev libgstreamer-plugins-good1.0-dev # +70MB
git clone git://github.com/Freescale/gstreamer-imx.git
cd gstreamer-imx
ln -s /usr/lib/arm-linux-gnueabihf/gstreamer-1.0/ /usr/lib/gstreamer-1.0
./waf configure --prefix=/usr --kernel-headers=/include
./waf
./waf install
cd ..
    • note './waf install' installs artifacts to its prefix + /lib/gstreamer-1.0 but they need to be installed to /usr/lib/arm-linux-gnueabihf/gstreamer-1.0 which is why we created a symlink above before installing
    • note the uniaudio decoder codecs are from Freescale (found in the fsl-mm-codeclib package) and you do not need these unless you want to use FSL's audio codecs instead of the GStreamer ones
    • note g2d lib required to build G2D
    • note that linux kernel headers are required to build PxP and IPU
    • note that x11 library is required to build EGL sink with Vivante direct textures (only needed for X11 support)
    • note that libfslaudiocodec is required to build audio plugins
    • After this step you should be able to see several plugins with gst-inspect-1.0: 
      # gst-inspect-1.0 | grep imx
imxv4l2videosrc:  imxv4l2videosrc: V4L2 CSI Video Source
imxipu:  imxipucompositor: Freescale IPU video compositor
imxipu:  imxipuvideosink: Freescale IPU video sink
imxipu:  imxipuvideotransform: Freescale IPU video transform
imxpxp:  imxpxpvideotransform: Freescale PxP video transform
imxpxp:  imxpxpvideosink: Freescale PxP video sink
imxvpu:  imxvpuenc_mjpeg: Freescale VPU motion JPEG video encoder
imxvpu:  imxvpuenc_mpeg4: Freescale VPU MPEG-4 video encoder
imxvpu:  imxvpuenc_h264: Freescale VPU h.264 video encoder
imxvpu:  imxvpuenc_h263: Freescale VPU h.263 video encoder
imxvpu:  imxvpudec: Freescale VPU video decoder
imxg2d:  imxg2dcompositor: Freescale G2D video compositor
imxg2d:  imxg2dvideotransform: Freescale G2D video transform
imxg2d:  imxg2dvideosink: Freescale G2D video sink
  1. install a U-Boot bootscript to setup kernel parameters for your display output: 
    apt-get install u-boot-tools
wget https://github.com/Freescale/meta-freescale-3rdparty/raw/master/recipes-bsp/u-boot/u-boot-script-gateworks-imx/6x_bootscript-yocto.txt
mkimage -A arm -O linux -T script -C none -a 0 -e 0 -n "boot script" -d 6x_bootscript-yocto.txt /boot/6x_bootscript-ventana
reboot # reboot to setup bootargs for display
    • The Freescale IMX6 display drivers use kernel parameters to configure what display outputs to enable and in what format. What displays, resolutions, and formats affect how much contiguous memory is needed (CMA) as well. The Gateworks Yocto BSP has a bootscript that configures connected displays based on various rules and we will use this here. See http://trac.gateworks.com/wiki/Yocto/Video_Out#DisplaysDevices for more info

Now you will be able to use Gstreamer and Gstreamer-imx to tap the full potential of the IMX IPU/VPU/GPU hardware.

Examples:

  • show gstreamer-imx plugins: 
    # gst-inspect-1.0 | grep imx
imxvpu:  imxvpuenc_mjpeg: Freescale VPU motion JPEG video encoder
imxvpu:  imxvpuenc_mpeg4: Freescale VPU MPEG-4 video encoder
imxvpu:  imxvpuenc_h264: Freescale VPU h.264 video encoder
imxvpu:  imxvpuenc_h263: Freescale VPU h.263 video encoder
imxvpu:  imxvpudec: Freescale VPU video decoder
imxv4l2videosrc:  imxv4l2videosrc: V4L2 CSI Video Source
imxg2d:  imxg2dcompositor: Freescale G2D video compositor
imxg2d:  imxg2dvideotransform: Freescale G2D video transform
imxg2d:  imxg2dvideosink: Freescale G2D video sink
imxipu:  imxipucompositor: Freescale IPU video compositor
imxipu:  imxipuvideosink: Freescale IPU video sink
imxipu:  imxipuvideotransform: Freescale IPU video transform
imxpxp:  imxpxpvideotransform: Freescale PxP video transform
imxpxp:  imxpxpvideosink: Freescale PxP video sink
  • imxipuvideosink: 
    gst-launch-1.0 videotestsrc ! imxipuvideosink
  • imxg2dvideosink: 
    gst-launch-1.0 videotestsrc ! imxg2dvideosink

See the Gstreamer wiki page for more details.

Adding X11 Support

You can easily add X11 support to a base image created with the debootstrap instructions above by adding a few package groups. You will need the following:

  • X11 server - ie Xorg
  • Display Manager - this controls the login to the X session
  • Window Manager - manages window position, re-sizing, decorations, etc for X clients

A common solution is to install a Desktop Environment such as the ​Lightweight X11 Desktop Environment (LXDE) that is used for Lubuntu. LXDE includes the Xorg X11 server, the lxdm Display Manager, the openbox Window Manager, and a slew of useful user applications including the Chromium browser: 

apt-get install lxde xinit # adds ~434MB to a base console image

Notes:

  • you will need to add a non-root user with adduser for Chromium browser to work. You may choose to set up auto-login for that user by editing /etc/lxdm/default.conf and setting the autologin property in the base section at the beginning of the config file.
  • you will need to use a kernel with the vivante GPU driver built as a module or the Xorg server will crash

Hardware GPU Acceleration for X11

To add hardware GPU acceleration to X11 you need to add some libraries and drivers provided by Freescale from the imx-gpu-viv package. This requires signing Freescales End User License Agreement (EULA). This package provides the following:

  • libg2d - a documented low-level API to the GPU (used by things like libimxvpuapi for gstreamer-imx and the gpu-core drivers)
  • gpu-core - provides all the various OpenGL libs (libGL, libGLESv1_CM, libGLESv1_CL, libGLESv2, libGLSLC, libCLC, libEGL, libGAL, libOpenCL, libOpenVG) typically provided by the mesa project. Note that several versions of libEGL/libGAL/libGLESv2/libVIVANTE are provided for different backend rendering systems: dfb, fb, wl, x11.

Procedure:

  1. Install Freescale Vivante GPU libs (EULA): 
    wget http://www.freescale.com/lgfiles/NMG/MAD/YOCTO/imx-gpu-viv-5.0.11.p4.5-hfp.bin
/bin/sh imx-gpu-viv-*.bin # accept EULA
cd imx-gpu-viv-*
# install just the g2d headers/libs
cp g2d/usr/include/g2d.h /usr/include/
cp -d g2d/usr/lib/libg2d* /usr/lib/
# install gpu-core headers/libs
cp -Pr gpu-core/usr/* /usr
# install vivante driver for accelerated X11:
cp vivante_drv.so /usr/lib/xorg/modules/drivers/
chmod 644 /usr/lib/xorg/modules/drivers/vivante_drv.so
# optional: install demos
cp -r gpu-demos/opt /
# optional: install gpu tools
cp -axr gpu-tools/gmem-info/usr/bin/* /usr/bin/
# fix lib collision between fsl/viv gpu-core and libgl1-mesa package
rm /usr/lib/arm-linux-gnueabihf/mesa/libGL.so*
# fix lib collision between fsl/viv gpu-core and libegl1-mesa package
rm /usr/lib/arm-linux-gnueabihf/mesa-egl/libEGL.so*
# fix lib collision between fsl/viv gpu-core and libgles1-mesa package
#rm /usr/lib/arm-linux-gnueabihf/libGLESv1_CM.so*
#rm /usr/lib/arm-linux-gnueabihf/mesa-egl/libGLESv1_CM.so*
# fix lib collision between fsl/viv gpu-core and libgles2-mesa package
#rm /usr/lib/arm-linux-gnueabihf/libGLESv2.so* # not there
rm /usr/lib/arm-linux-gnueabihf/mesa-egl/libGLESv2.so*
# fix lib collision between fsl/viv gpu-core and libopenvg1-mesa package
rm /usr/lib/arm-linux-gnueabihf/mesa-egl/libOpenVG.so*
    • Note: this could be better handled by creating a package and using Ubuntu/Debian 'alternatives' to handle library selection
  1. switch to gpu-core x11 backend: 
    backend=x11
ln -sf libEGL-${backend}.so /usr/lib/libEGL.so
ln -sf libEGL-${backend}.so /usr/lib/libEGL.so.1
ln -sf libEGL-${backend}.so /usr/lib/libEGL.so.1.0
ln -sf libGAL-${backend}.so /usr/lib/libGAL.so
ln -sf libGLESv2-${backend}.so /usr/lib/libGLESv2.so
ln -sf libGLESv2-${backend}.so /usr/lib/libGLESv2.so.2
ln -sf libGLESv2-${backend}.so /usr/lib/libGLESv2.so.2.0.0
ln -sf libVIVANTE-${backend}.so /usr/lib/libVIVANTE.so
ln -sf libGAL_egl.dri.so /usr/lib/libGAL_egl.so
for i in egl glesv1_cm glesv2 vg; do
cp /usr/lib/pkgconfig/${i}_${backend}.pc /usr/lib/pkgconfig/${i}.pc
done
# remove the other backends we no longer need
rm /usr/lib/*-dfb.so /usr/lib/*-fb.so /usr/lib/*-wl.so
  1. make vivante kernel module (GPU kernel driver) load on boot: 
    echo vivante >> /etc/modules
cat << EOT > /etc/udev/rules.d/10-imx.rules
KERNEL=="galcore",  MODE="0660", GROUP="video"
KERNEL=="mxc_asrc",  MODE="0666"
EOT
  1. create an xorg.conf configured for the Vivante fbdev driver: 
    cat << EOT > /etc/X11/xorg.conf
Section "Device"
    Identifier  "i.MX Accelerated Framebuffer Device"
    Driver      "vivante"
    Option      "fbdev"     "/dev/fb0"
    Option      "vivante_fbdev" "/dev/fb0"
    Option      "HWcursor"  "false"
EndSection

Section "ServerFlags"
    Option "BlankTime"  "0"
    Option "StandbyTime"  "0"
    Option "SuspendTime"  "0"
    Option "OffTime"  "0"
EndSection
EOT
  1. Optional: re-build gstreamer-imx (above) if you wish to use gstreamer-imx IPU/VPU/GPU acceleration within an OpenGL window (egl)
  1. Sync filesystem and reboot

Examples:

  • The imxeglvivsink allows hardware accelerated display to a window on the X11 host: 
    DISPLAY=:0.0 gst-launch-1.0 videotestsrc ! imxeglvivsink
  • The glxgears application is a demo of OpenGL that often is used to benchmark rendering performance 
    DISPLAY=:0.0 glxgears -info # ~300fps on IMX6Q

Wireless

Please see here.

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