Add A New Recipe File

This chapter explains how to write a new recipe file for a platform. If you do not know what a recipe file is and which role it plays in the deployment procedure, please read the chapter Deployment with the Flashtool first. It is also recommended to

Recipe Files Name-Scheme

The name of a recipe file must follow this naming scheme:

{hardware-name}_{identifier}.yml

The name and identifier must not contain underscores, please use dashes instead.

The underscore is used to divide the recipe file name in the two parts platform name and identifier. It is important that the platform name is also registered on the buildserver. You will find the valid platform-strings for your embEDUx system in the User Documentation.

The next example shows how to use this name scheme for a Raspberry Pi. This name scheme is also used in the HTWG setup of embEDUx.

raspberry-pi.yml

raspberry-pi_media-center.yml

The name for a Raspberry Pi in this embEDUx configuration is "raspberry-pi". This name will be used in branches of the git repositories and on the buildbot server to identify a Raspberry Pi.

Recipe Skeletons

For the extensibility of the Flashtool, it provides the possibility to define different recipe skeletons. Each skeleton must have its counterpart implemented in the python code of the Flashtool. By now we support the mmc recipe skeleton which is used in every recipe file on the embEDUx repository.

The recipe skeleton mmc can handle the most deployment procedures for a wide range of embedded hardware. If you need to implement a new recipe skeleton, please read the section How to add a new deployment procedure.

MMC:

This recipe skeleton is used to configure platforms which use a MMC device as storage media. The template below shows, how to state this recipe skeleton in a recipe file.

---

type: mmc

recipe:
    partition_table: #partition table type
    partitions: # list with partition information
        -   name: # label
            size: # size of partition (allowed %/b/kb/mb/gb/)
            fs_type: # filesystem type (e.g. fat32, ext4)
            mount_point: # Mount point in System
            mount_opts:  # Mount options
            flags: # flags for partition
        -   #...
    load:
        Uboot:
            # device: or command:
        Linux_Boot:
            # device: or command:
        Linux_Root:
            # device: or command:
        Linux_Config:
            # device: or command:
        Rootfs:
            # device: or command:
        Misc_Boot:
            # device: or command:
        Misc_Root:
            # device: or command:

partition_table:

This section defines the partition table of the mmc device. The most embedded devices use msods or gpt for the partition table.
partitions:

This section is used to define partitions on the mmc device. Each partition must be listed with a dash and must contain the subsections name, size, fs_type, mount_point, mount_opts and flags. If one of these section is not needed, just leave the value after the colon blank.
- name:
  
  Name or label of the partition. The partition table type must support this feature.
- size:
  
  Size of the partition. The used units are b (byte), kb (kilobyte), mb (megabyte) and gb (gigabyte). It is also possible to use the keyword max for the last stated partition. If you want to state the size of the partion in percentage, please use the percentage notation for each partition.
- fs_type:
  
  Filesystem type of the system. The Flashtool supports ext2, ext3, ext4, fat32 and btrfs.
- mount_point:
  
  Specifies the mount point which will be written in the fstab of the linux system.
- mount_opts:
  
  Specifies the mount options for the partition which will be written in the fstab of the linux system.
- flags:
  
  Flag for the partition. e.g. boot, lba. Multiple flags must be seperated with a comma.
load:

This section defines on which partition a software product should be loaded. The user can choose between the option device or command for every subsection. If a software product should be loaded on a partition of the mmc device, the user must use the option device and state the index of the partition, which is defined in the section partitions. The index starts with zero.

If a product should be loaded with an external command (e.g. dd) to the mmc device, you must use the option command. For a command you can use the two template variables ${file} and ${device}. The variable ${file} will be replaced with the name of the specific software product. The variable ${device} will be replaced with the dev path of the mmc device or the dev path of the mmc partition, if a number is written at the end of the variable (e.g. ${device0}).

The existing software products are Uboot, Linux_Boot, Linux_Root, Linux_Config, Rootfs_Root, Rootfs_Portage, Misc_Boot, Misc_Root. Some products are divided into two parts. For example the product Linux provides packages for boot partition and packages for the root parition.

Example for a recipe file with a mmc recipe (utilite-pro.yml):

This recipe is also available in the HTWG configuration.

---
type: mmc

recipe:
    partition_table: msdos
    partitions:
        -   name: boot
            size: 100mb
            fs_type: fat32
            mount_point: /boot
            mount_opts:
            flags: lba
        -   name: rootfs
            size: max
            fs_type: btrfs
            mount_point: /
            mount_opts:
            flags: 
    load:
        Uboot:
            command: dd if=${file} of=${device} bs=1K skip=1 seek=1 oflag=dsync
        Linux_Boot:
            device: 0
        Linux_Root:
            device: 1
        Linux_Config:
            device: 1
        Rootfs_Root:
            device: 1
        Rootfs_Portage:
            device: 1

This recipe file will configure the deployment procedure for the utilite-pro as follow:

The MMC device will be partition into two partitions. The first partition will have the size of 100 mb, its label is "boot" and the filesystem format is fat32. Also the lba flag set for the partition. The partition will be mounted at /boot in the RootFS. The second partition will get the free space of the MMC device as size, its label is "rootfs" and the filesystem format is btrfs. The partition will be mounted at /.
The uboot product and the