wiki:ventana/ubuntu

Version 34 (modified by Tim Harvey, 6 years ago) ( diff )

refactor old pre-built images

  1. Ubuntu on Ventana
    1. Gateworks pre-built Ubuntu Disk Images
      1. Ubuntu 18.04 LTS (Bionic Beaver) console image (Recommended)
    2. Root filesystem Sources
      1. Linaro
      2. Build your own Ubuntu rootfs via debootstrap
        1. version-specific notes
          1. trusty (14.04) LTS
    3. Kernel
      1. Gateworks build kernel
      2. Ubuntu built kernel
    4. Adding GStreamer IPU/VPU/GPU support via gstreamer-imx (Trusty)

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

This page is dedicated details regarding running Ubuntu on an Gateworks Ventana Board.

See also:

Gateworks pre-built Ubuntu Disk Images

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

Name Size Features Notes
bionic-ventana 18.04 ~1.2GB1 console support - Gateworks 4.20 kernel/drivers Recommended
xenial-ventana 16.04 ~1.2GB1 console support - Gateworks 4.20 kernel/drivers
trusty-ventana 14.04 ~210MB console support - Gateworks 3.14 kernel/drivers
trusty-mm-ventana 14.04 ~650MB1 HW acclerated gstreamer/gstreamer-imx - Gateworks 3.14 kernel/drivers
trusty-x11-ventana 14.04 ~1000MB1 HW accelerated X11 support with LXDE - Gateworks 3.14 kernel/drivers
  1. requires 2GB and larger 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 18.04 LTS (Bionic Beaver) console image (Recommended)

  • * 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.

A pre-built console image created using the debootstrap method for ​Ubuntu 18.04 (Bionic Beaver) can be downloaded:

  • ​bionic-ventana_large.ubi - UBI image for 1GB/2GB Flash boards
    • see here for info about flashing UBI images
    • sha256sum: af05263c4142f0c276b8f5944ab9eec3f1e9ccbd4a7ee275c6e03bdead370d96
  • ​bionic-ventana_normal.ubi - UBI image for 2GB Flash boards with new NAND Chip (GW5104-F.1)
    • see here for info about flashing UBI images
    • sha256sum: fb9d847e7fefae1ee2f3547d5d28f278095a71665e742595e13b1b690d1fd941
  • ​bionic-armhf.tar.xz - tarball of rootfs you can use to image onto microSD / mSATA
    • see linux/blockdev for instructions
    • sha256sum: c12d0758a3629d537a1aaeab5c4030ccbf912f99ad2db3c7f490e723dfa77217

Features:

  • Ubuntu 18.04.1 LTS (from debootstrap instructions)
  • Ubuntu Bionic kernel (Linux 4.20 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

CollapsibleStart(Old Releases) Old Releases:

  • Ubuntu 16.04 LTS (Xenial Xerus) console image
  • Ubuntu 14.04 LTS (Trusty Tahr) console image
  • 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 (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 (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

CollapsibleEnd

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)
  • 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.

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:

  • 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 2GB+ of free space (micro-SD, USB mass storage, mSATA, 1GB/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/ and ​https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Releases for a list of Ubuntu releases. For example: 18.04=bionic (latest LTS), 16.04=xenial, 14.04=trusty
    • this minimal rootfs 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 
      apt-get install net-tools ifupdown
cat <<EOF >> /etc/network/interfaces
allow-hotplug eth0
auto eth0
iface eth0 inet dhcp

EOF
    • or static IP: 
      apt-get install net-tools ifupdown
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 (see above for more details). Gateworks recomends using a Gateworks pre-built kernel:
    1. (recommended) Gateworks Pre-built kernel (includes the same kernel drivers typically found on Ubuntu kernels including video capture/display and is built by Gateworks): 
      cd /
wget http://dev.gateworks.com/ventana/images/gateworks-linux-imx6-4.20.7.tar.xz
tar -xvf gateworks-linux-imx6-4.20.7.tar.xz
depmod $(ls /lib/modules/) # create module dependencies
rm gateworks-linux-imx6-4.20.7.tar.xz
      • 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
      • this kernel is recommended over the Ubuntu built kernel because it a) enables some drivers/features that Ubuntu leaves out, such as video capture b) may have patches for features that are not yet in mainline linux c) enables everything needed to boot from a Gateworks board static so that you do not need an initrd.
    2. 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))
    3. 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
export FLASH_KERNEL_SKIP=1 # and export it for current operations
# 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
#blacklist imx rtc driver, Gateworks board uses GSC RTC, and does not use imx RTC
echo "blacklist rtc_snvs" > /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist-rtc.conf
    4. 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://dev.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
    5. 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
    • You may wish to move this file else place for later use should you wish to chroot again.
  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 -O ^64bit -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 1GB/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

Kernel

While a kernel is not specifically part of a root filesystem it usually resides on the root filesystem. There are several kernel sources you can choose from:

  • Gateworks pre-built 4.20 kernel (recommended)
  • Gateworks pre-built 3.14 kernel
  • Ubuntu built kernel
  • Kernel built by hand

Gateworks build kernel

Gateworks periodically updates their pre-built IMX6 kernel release and it is easy to install on a running system: 

wget http://dev.gateworks.com/ventana/images/gateworks-linux-4.20.7.tar.xz
tar -C / -xvf gateworks-linux-4.20.7.tar.xz
rm gateworks-linux-4.20.7.tar.xz

If you want to clean out old kernels no longer used, you can remove the directory of modules in /lib/modules/<kernel-version>

Benefits of using the Gateworks kernel:

  • contains all drivers 'static' required to boot off boot devices supported by Gateworks boards (ie NAND, SATA, MMC, USB Mass storage all static in kernel) removing requirement for an 'inital ramdisk' (initrd) that Ubuntu Built kernels require
  • contains kernel patches that may not be in mainline yet
  • tested and supported by Gateworks

Ubuntu built kernel

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.

It is recommended that you use the Gateworks kernel above for the following reasons:

  • Ubuntu built kernels can require initrd for some boot devices complicating things (ie NAND and USB Mass Storage are kernel modules)
  • Ubuntu built kernels may be configured in ways not appropriate for Gateworks boards (ie the DS1672 RTC driver is not static which complicates restoring system time on boot from the GSC provided RTC)

If you wish to use an Ubuntu built kernel here are some notes but Gateworks can not support you if you run into issues as we don't maintain this kernel.

To install a specific kernel image search for available packages and pick the version you want. For example if wanting the 4-15.0-34-generic kernel: 

apt-get update
apt-get install linux-image-4.15.0-34-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-4.15.0-34-generic /boot/uImage
# install device-tree blobs
cp /lib/firmware/4.15.0-34-generic/device-tree/imx6*-gw*.dtb /boot
#blacklist imx rtc driver, Gateworks board uses GSC RTC, and does not use imx RTC
echo "blacklist rtc_snvs" > /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist-rtc.conf
# create u-boot image for initrd
mkimage -A arm -O linux -T ramdisk \
  -a 0x0 -e 0x0 -n "initrd" \
  -d /boot/initrd.img-4.15.0-34-generic /boot/uramdisk
  • use apt-get search linux-image to determine what Ubuntu kernel versions are available

If you want to clean out old kernels no longer used you can use {{{apt list --instealled | grep linux}} to list installed packages and remove them (remove linux-headers, linux-image, linux-modules for example). For example if you want to remove the 4.15.0-42-generic packages: 

apt purge linux-image-4.15.0-42-generic linux-modules-4.15.0-42-generic linux-headers-4.15.0-42
  • modify the above to remove the specific version(s) you want to remove

If booting from boot media that requires kernel modules you need to create an initrd:

  • 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

You will need to create a boot script that sets kernel cmdline properly based on boot device and loads the Ubuntu initrd if needed. You can do this on the target board: 

# The Gateworks bootscript is a good starting point
wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Gateworks/linux-imx6/gateworks_4.20.7/gwventana_bootscript -O /boot/6x_bootscript-ventana.txt
# re-enable ramdisk when its needed
sed -i 's/^setenv rd_addr$/#setenv rd_addr/' /boot/6x_bootscript-ventana.txt 
mkimage -A arm -O linux -T script -n bootscript -d /boot/6x_bootscript-ventana.txt /boot/6x_bootscript-ventana

Adding GStreamer IPU/VPU/GPU support via gstreamer-imx (Trusty)

Note: This section pertains only to the Gateworks downstream vendor 3.14 kernel with proprietary Freescale Drivers (Trusty Prebuilt image)

If using the Gateworks downstream vendor 3.14 kernel with proprietary Freescale drivers 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. This procedure has not been proven on versions newer than Trusty.

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.

Note: See TracWiki for help on using the wiki.