Categroy:how to - verdex
An experimental version of the Open Embedded repository is available for the Verdex. This repository brings a more recent Linux kernel (2.6.31) to Verdex compared with those available in the older Subversion repository. As well, the most recent code from the Open Embedded repository is now available for Verdex-Pro COMs and the building process reflects that used on the Overo boards.
Two Disclaimers: 1. This repository is unstable and the kernel may be missing features--use at your own risk. 2. U-boot has not yet been updated and the default kernels are larger than 1MB so flashing them to memory won't work. You'll need to run off a microSD card.
The Straight Dope
Follow the basic instructions for setting up an OE repository for Overo but replace this instruction: $ git checkout --track -b overo origin/overo $ git checkout --track -b verdex origin/verdex
Your repository will now be tracking the Verdex branch of the Gumstix OE Git repository. Your machine type should be 'gumstix-verdex' set in build/conf/auto.conf Four images are available:
- verdex-console-image
- verdex-palmtop-image
- verdex-desktop-image
- verdex-gnome-image
Step by Step
These instructions assume you are using a recent release of Ubuntu on which your have 'sudo' permissions. For information about installing Open Embedded on other distributions, see (). 1. Configure your system and get required and recommended software packages. sudo apt-get update sudo apt-get install -y git-core subversion build-essential help2man diffstat texi2html texinfo libncurses5-dev cvs gawk python-dev python-pysqlite2 unzip python-psyco sudo ln -sf bash /bin/sh sudo sh -c 'echo -e "vm.vdso_enabled=0\nvm.mmap_min_addr=0" >> /etc/sysctl.conf' sudo sysctl -p 2. Download the Verdex repository and the bitbake tool into the verdex-oe directory in your home folder. mkdir -p ~/overo-oe cd ~/verdex-oe git clone git://gitorious.org/gumstix-oe/mainline.git org.openembedded.dev cd org.openembedded.dev git checkout --track -b verdex origin/verdex cd ~/verdex-oe git clone git://git.openembedded.net/bitbake bitbake cd bitbake git checkout 1.8.18 cd ~/verdex-oe cp -r org.openembedded.dev/contrib/gumstix/build . 3. Set up the environment variables. You can do this manually each time you open a terminal: $ source ~/verdex-oe/build/profile Or set your .bashrc to load them automatically every time you open a console. $ cat ~/verdex-oe/build/profile >> ~/.bash_profile
4.(Optional) a) If you are building on a multi-core machine, edit b) Get rid of a warning about a missing user.collection directory. Either make a user.collections/recipes directory $ mkdir -p ~/verdex-oe/user.collection/recipes Or, untar the Open Embedded 'helloworld' tutorial code package c) Create a symbolic link into the directory where the verdex images will be built $ ln -sf ~/verdex-oe/tmp/ ~/verdex-oe/images d) If you have already downloaded much of the required source code for OE, point your 4. Now you are set to build (note, this step takes several hours
- Create a microSD card with a small (20MB) FAT partition and an Ext3 partition large enough to hold your untarred root file system.
- Copy your kernel to the VFAT partition of the microSD and untar your rootfs to the Ext3 partition. We've assumed that the FAT partition is mounted at /media/card_fat and the Ext3 partition is mounted at /media/card_ext however run 'mount' to check where they are mounted on your system.
$ sudo cp ~/verdex-oe
- Boot your Verdex!
Future Plans
Once this repository has become more stable, it will supersede the older SVN repository as the main source of code for the Verdex COMs. This should include updated kernels and U-Boot as well as updated OE code pulled from (and eventually merged into) the Overo branch. Documentation will be refined based on this wiki page.
Problems? Improvements?
- bug reports and, better yet, bug fixes are always welcome. Send mail to the Gumstix users mailing list and copy Ash (ash (at) gumstix (dot) com).
- make changes to this wiki page to highlight known issues and suggest improvements
