**** BEGIN LOGGING AT Mon Feb 18 02:59:57 2008 Feb 18 07:33:31 are there any channels that can help me understand OpenEmbedded ? Feb 18 07:33:56 maybe #oe ? Feb 18 07:34:15 johnx: thanks :) Feb 18 07:34:23 or ask me and I'll see what I can tell you :) Feb 18 07:34:57 johnx: great. Ok i am a complete newbee to the open embedded platforms. Feb 18 07:35:24 I am required to learn to build a platform system for loading a linux OS on a mobile system. (project) Feb 18 07:35:43 so, how exactly will OE help me in all this ? Feb 18 07:36:38 aristrocrat_: you using a common board, or a custom job? Feb 18 07:37:17 XorA: considering that i am using a common board. Feb 18 07:37:48 aristrocrat_: have you checked that OE doesnt already build images for your board? Feb 18 07:38:20 many common boards already have recipes for building at least a minimal image Feb 18 07:38:34 well thats the thing. I am not very clear on what OE actually does. And if not available, where do i start from. Feb 18 07:39:32 OE uses fairly simple recipes to build anything from one package, to a whole distribution Feb 18 07:40:17 if your board isn't supported, you would probably start by looking at examples of other machines that are similar and getting the settings right for your board Feb 18 07:40:44 Does Linux run on this hypothetical board? or is that part of the project as well? Feb 18 07:41:34 well i have to get linux running on this board .. Feb 18 07:42:40 actually, i would like to know on how OE would help a guy like me. Like what does OE 'actually' do ? what requirements does it have ? how do i get an arm build out of OE ? Feb 18 07:43:00 aristrocrat_: OE gives you the ability to generate a linux flash/ext2 image for boards with only editing/creating a couple of text files to tell it the architecture of your board Feb 18 07:43:30 aristrocrat_: to support a new board in OE all that is required is a machine.conf file and a kernel Feb 18 07:44:02 aristrocrat_: once these are in place, you can generate a console image that should boot to some degree on your board Feb 18 07:44:21 aristrocrat_: without repeating the work we already did to get the basics working Feb 18 07:45:20 XorA: Ok. So basically, there should already be a Kernel and machine.conf available specific to a board ? Feb 18 07:45:37 aristrocrat_: yes Feb 18 07:46:25 XorA: so how do i get these, and incase there is no specific kernel available for the board, how would i got and get them built? Feb 18 07:46:53 aristrocrat_: you would create a kernel recipe for your custom kernel if needed Feb 18 07:47:24 aristrocrat_: if your board boots with generic mainstream kernel then there is already a recipe, you just need to add the defconfig Feb 18 07:48:22 ok, how do i add the defconfig ? how do i get the machine.conf ? are there any detailed documentations which i could try out ? Feb 18 07:49:30 aristrocrat_: www.openembedded.org has the docs Feb 18 07:50:07 if you get stuck, looking at a machine that is well supported and similar to your own will probably help Feb 18 07:50:45 XorA: i was kinda not getting the detailed idea from the site :) . Feb 18 07:51:10 ok, in general, how is OE working actually ? What is it doing internally to get me some build done? Feb 18 07:51:15 aristrocrat_: do what johnx said, pick a board you vaguely know that is already in OE and see what it does Feb 18 07:51:27 aristrocrat_: you familiar with gentoo? Feb 18 07:52:12 XorA: not so well with gentoo. but quite rh based platforms Feb 18 07:53:03 aristrocrat_: hmm, well basically OE parses a large (5000+) database of package recipes and generates ones needed to build the image you ask for Feb 18 07:53:35 aristrocrat_: you dont need to give it SDK/cross compiler as it makes its own, therefore breaking you away from those expensive waste of space support contracts Feb 18 07:56:10 XorA: oh Ok. And this database keeps getting added daily. what do i do to get the recipe and how does it generate the build ? Feb 18 07:56:59 you install OE/bitbake as per openembedded.org instructions, setup the configs then bitbake console-image Feb 18 07:58:31 XorA: currenly i just did bitbake nano, and its actually downloading tons of sources. So what is it doing here , or what is it planning at this stage. Feb 18 07:58:53 aristrocrat_: it is building you a toolchain and the dependencies for nano Feb 18 07:59:14 well, it's downloading all the source it needs to build a cross compiling toolchain for the target you specified, then it will build nano and all its dependencies from scratch Feb 18 07:59:18 could take a while :) Feb 18 07:59:38 but next time you build vim or something it won't need to redo 90% of the work Feb 18 08:01:14 * johnx eats dinner Feb 18 08:01:54 ok, arm-angstrom-linux-gnueabi/ contains the compilers (arm) and what is i686-linux supposed to be?, just the sources ? Feb 18 08:02:52 aristrocrat_: you need some tools that run on your host machine Feb 18 08:03:45 XorA: right. so all these are going to be built (as arm binary) and then installed ? Feb 18 08:04:21 aristrocrat_: just the stuff you need Feb 18 08:05:52 XorA: Oh ok. and i could technically get any package built, if i have the .bb file. Right ? Feb 18 08:06:18 aristrocrat_: yes Feb 18 08:06:24 And finally, i can get the final image created by running bitbake console-image? Feb 18 08:07:03 which packs up the current system ? any way to skip stuff that i dont want in it ? Feb 18 08:07:21 aristrocrat_: console-image is very minimal anyway, not much you could skip Feb 18 08:08:43 do i just run "bitbake console-image", is there not supposed to be some kind of config file for it or something ? Feb 18 08:09:54 aristrocrat_: you will need a machine.conf to give vital info about your board, see conf/machine/*.conf for examples Feb 18 08:12:52 XorA: ah now it makes more sense. Feb 18 08:13:14 so how do i create the machine.conf for my custom board if required ? Feb 18 08:16:40 aristrocrat_: fill in the values like the exampoles Feb 18 08:17:44 XorA: Alright.. looks like a start. Feb 18 08:18:09 XorA: one last doubt. When is the Qemu used with OE ? Feb 18 08:18:55 aristrocrat_: part of glibc needs to be run on arm (the locales) so we use qemu for this when building for arm Feb 18 08:34:13 if you can't get qemu to build you can skip building the binary locales Feb 18 08:35:20 XorA: only glibc locales ? Anything other than this is requried by qemu ? Feb 18 08:36:07 no Feb 18 16:04:47 Hi, all. Do I get it right, that the release of new 2.6.24 kernel tuned for PXA270 CPUs should imporve Angstrom's builds for that platform? **** BEGIN LOGGING AT Mon Feb 18 18:44:15 2008 **** ENDING LOGGING AT Mon Feb 18 18:47:08 2008 **** BEGIN LOGGING AT Mon Feb 18 19:56:14 2008 **** ENDING LOGGING AT Tue Feb 19 02:59:56 2008