6 Adding a New Machine
Adding a new machine to the Yocto Project is a straightforward process. This section describes how to add machines that are similar to those that the Yocto Project already supports.
Note
Although well within the capabilities of the Yocto Project, adding a
totally new architecture might require changes to gcc
/glibc
and to the site information, which is beyond the scope of this
manual.
For a complete example that shows how to add a new machine, see the “Creating a new BSP Layer Using the bitbake-layers Script” section in the Yocto Project Board Support Package (BSP) Developer’s Guide.
6.1 Adding the Machine Configuration File
To add a new machine, you need to add a new machine configuration file
to the layer’s conf/machine
directory. This configuration file
provides details about the device you are adding.
The OpenEmbedded build system uses the root name of the machine
configuration file to reference the new machine. For example, given a
machine configuration file named crownbay.conf
, the build system
recognizes the machine as “crownbay”.
The most important variables you must set in your machine configuration file or include from a lower-level configuration file are as follows:
TARGET_ARCH (e.g. “arm”)
PREFERRED_PROVIDER_virtual/kernel
MACHINE_FEATURES (e.g. “apm screen wifi”)
You might also need these variables:
SERIAL_CONSOLES (e.g. “115200;ttyS0 115200;ttyS1”)
KERNEL_IMAGETYPE (e.g. “zImage”)
IMAGE_FSTYPES (e.g. “tar.gz jffs2”)
You can find full details on these variables in the reference section.
You can leverage existing machine .conf
files from
meta-yocto-bsp/conf/machine/
.
6.2 Adding a Kernel for the Machine
The OpenEmbedded build system needs to be able to build a kernel for the
machine. You need to either create a new kernel recipe for this machine,
or extend an existing kernel recipe. You can find several kernel recipe
examples in the Source Directory at meta/recipes-kernel/linux
that
you can use as references.
If you are creating a new kernel recipe, normal recipe-writing rules
apply for setting up a SRC_URI. Thus, you need to specify any
necessary patches and set S to point at the source code. You need to
create a do_configure task that configures the unpacked kernel with
a defconfig
file. You can do this by using a make defconfig
command or, more commonly, by copying in a suitable defconfig
file
and then running make oldconfig
. By making use of inherit kernel
and potentially some of the linux-*.inc
files, most other
functionality is centralized and the defaults of the class normally work
well.
If you are extending an existing kernel recipe, it is usually a matter
of adding a suitable defconfig
file. The file needs to be added into
a location similar to defconfig
files used for other machines in a
given kernel recipe. A possible way to do this is by listing the file in
the SRC_URI and adding the machine to the expression in
COMPATIBLE_MACHINE:
COMPATIBLE_MACHINE = '(qemux86|qemumips)'
For more information on defconfig
files, see the
“Changing the Configuration”
section in the Yocto Project Linux Kernel Development Manual.
6.3 Adding a Formfactor Configuration File
A formfactor configuration file provides information about the target hardware for which the image is being built and information that the build system cannot obtain from other sources such as the kernel. Some examples of information contained in a formfactor configuration file include framebuffer orientation, whether or not the system has a keyboard, the positioning of the keyboard in relation to the screen, and the screen resolution.
The build system uses reasonable defaults in most cases. However, if
customization is necessary, you need to create a machconfig
file in
the meta/recipes-bsp/formfactor/files
directory. This directory
contains directories for specific machines such as qemuarm
and
qemux86
. For information about the settings available and the
defaults, see the meta/recipes-bsp/formfactor/files/config
file
found in the same area.
Following is an example for “qemuarm” machine:
HAVE_TOUCHSCREEN=1
HAVE_KEYBOARD=1
DISPLAY_CAN_ROTATE=0
DISPLAY_ORIENTATION=0
#DISPLAY_WIDTH_PIXELS=640
#DISPLAY_HEIGHT_PIXELS=480
#DISPLAY_BPP=16
DISPLAY_DPI=150
DISPLAY_SUBPIXEL_ORDER=vrgb