Miscellaneous Files

This guide will help you through the steps to build archives, containing the files for your boot and root partition of your desired platform.

If you wonder why you would even need this repository, please consider having a look at background/misc.

Prerequisites

All of the common prerequisites apply.

Requirements

• Access to an embEDUx buildserver system
• User Documentation.
  • At the end of the setup, the Administrator is instructed to create the User Documentation.
  • Your platform needs to be included in the User Documentation, if that isn't the case, please contact an Administrator to add your platform to the embEDUx build system.

• misc-specs Git-Repository

  The Miscellaneous-File-specification is supplied to the buildserver via git. Consult your User Documentation for the repository URLs. (See previous link)

Suggestions

• Have a look at the default build script. As the buildserver just executes this script, you have no limits on what you want to do before, during and after the build process.

Branch Name-Scheme

The builserver can only build your images, if you follow the correct name-scheme for the branches.

The variables that are needed for your platform can be found in the User Documentation.

Variables

Variable	Notes
Platform-String	Specified and mapped to the target architecture by the Administrator. Found in the User Documentation

Branches

Branch	Scheme	Example
platform	< platform-string >	raspberry-pi

Side Note

Two mandatory files, which are always needed are:

File	Folder	Notes
boot.scr.txt	src_boot	Script for U-Boot boot sequence (source)
inittab	src_root/etc	Describes which processes are started at boot (source)

Store the files within their desired folder structure. Eg. inittab has to be in /etc at the root partition

For deeper insight have a look at the default build script.

Step-by-Step Example

The following example will give you a detailed overview of the necessary steps to build the misc files for the raspberry pi. We assume that at this point the misc-specs repository is empty.

Add New Platform

1. Clone the misc-specs repository with the URL provided in the user documentation.

   $ git@apu.in.htwg-konstanz.de:labworks-embEDUx/uboot.git

2. Add a platform branch to the misc-specs repository. It is necessary that you push the branch at this point upstream, so the buildserver can find the new platform branch.

   $ git checkout master $ git branch raspberry-pi $ git checkout raspberry-pi $ touch README.md $ git add README.md $ git commit -m "inital commit" $ git push --set-upstream origin raspberry-pi

3. Add the default build script as build to the branch and make it executable.

   $ ls -hl

   total 8.0K
   -rwxr-xr-x 1 user user 939 Mar  2 19:35 build
   -rw-r--r-- 1 user user   1 Mar  2 19:33 README.md
   

4. As described in background/misc we need at least boot.scr.txt and inittab in this repository. So we prepare these files for the raspberry pi (example: boot.scr.txt, inittab and add them to the branch.

   $ mkdir src_boot $ touch src_boot/boot.scr.txt $ vim src_boot/boot.scr.txt $ mkdir src_root $ mkdir src_root/etc/ $ touch src_root/etc/inittab $ vim src_root/inittab

5. The raspberry pi also needs some firmware files present at boot, so we simply add these files to the src_boot folder.

   $ ls -hl src_boot/

   total 6.6M
   -rw-r--r-- 1 user user  18K Mar  2 19:53 bootcode.bin
   -rw-r--r-- 1 user user  307 Mar  2 19:53 boot.scr.txt
   -rw-r--r-- 1 user user   18 Mar  2 19:53 config.txt
   -rw-r--r-- 1 user user  19K Mar  2 19:53 COPYING.linux
   -rw-r--r-- 1 user user 2.3K Mar  2 19:53 fixup_cd.dat
   -rw-r--r-- 1 user user 6.0K Mar  2 19:53 fixup.dat
   -rw-r--r-- 1 user user 9.0K Mar  2 19:53 fixup_x.dat
   -rw-r--r-- 1 user user 1.5K Mar  2 19:53 LICENCE.broadcom
   -rw-r--r-- 1 user user 525K Mar  2 19:53 start_cd.elf
   -rw-r--r-- 1 user user 2.5M Mar  2 19:53 start.elf
   -rw-r--r-- 1 user user 3.5M Mar  2 19:53 start_x.elf
   

6. Before you push your changes upstream, make sure your build script is running without any errors!

7. Add the changes, commit and push them upstream.

   $ git add build $ git add src_boot $ git add src_root $ git commit -m "new platform" $ git push

8. The buildserver should start building your misc files now. For further informations on how to monitor the build check monitoring guide.

9. Congratulations, you just built your first misc files for your first platform. If you have a linux, a uboot and a rootfs, you can flash everything with the Flashtool or deploy your files manually (see Hardware Deployment).