BSP-Android-TI-AM57x-PD17.1.1 Quickstart

This Quickstart provides you with the tools and know-how to install and work with the Android Board Support Package (BSP) for the phyCORE-AM57x Rapid Development Kit. This Quickstart shows you how to do everything from installing the appropriate tools and source, to building custom kernels, to deploying the OS, to exercising the software and hardware. Please refer to the phyCORE-AM57x Hardware Manual for specific information on board-level features such as jumper configuration, memory mapping and pin layout for the phyCORE-AM57x System on Module (SOM) and baseboard. Additionally, gain access to the SOM and baseboard schematics for the phyCORE-AM57x Rapid Development Kit by submitting a Request for Schematic Files from the PHYTEC Service Desk. Sign up or login here: https://support.phytec.com. 

Requirements

The following system requirements are necessary to successfully complete this Quickstart. Deviations from these requirements may suffice, or may have other workarounds.

Hardware

• phyCORE-AM57x System on Module (PCM-057)
• phyCORE-AM57x Baseboard (PCM-948)
• Serial cable (RS-232)
• Ethernet cable
• USB A to mini-B cable
  

• AC adapter supplying 12VDC / min. 2A

• SD card reader operational under Linux
  

• 8GB or 16GB SD Card

Software

• A modern GNU/Linux Operating host system either natively or via a virtual machine:
  • Ubuntu 14.04 LTS recommended, 64-bit required. Other distributions will likely work, please note that some setup information as well as OS-specific commands and paths may differ
    
  • If using a virtual machine, VMWare Workstation, VMWare Player, and VirtualBox are all viable solutions
• Root access to your Linux Host PC. Some commands in the Quickstart will not work if you don’t have sudo access (ex. package installation, formatting SD card)
• At least 120GB free on target build partition.
  
• Active Internet connection
  

Development Host Setup

Host Debian Packages

Android development requires certain packages to be installed. The commands below are separated into two categories: for flashing, and for building.

Packages for Flashing

These packages are the bare minimum required to flash pre-built images to the target. Specifically phablet-tools contains fastboot and adb, and android-tools-fsutils contains make_ext4fs.

sudo apt-get install phablet-tools android-tools-fsutils git

Packages for Building

These packages are required for building from our sources.

sudo apt-get install git-core gnupg flex bison gperf build-essential zip curl zlib1g-dev gcc-multilib g++-multilib libc6-dev-i386 lib32ncurses5-dev x11proto-core-dev libx11-dev lib32z-dev ccache libgl1-mesa-dev libxml2-utils xsltproc unzip lzop device-tree-compiler

Additionally, Android Nougat requires Java 1.8.x to be installed and configured.

This can be done with the following steps:

1. Download the .deb packages for 64-bit architecture from archive.ubuntu.com:
   1. openjdk-8-jre-headless_8u45-b14-1_amd64.deb with
      SHA256 0f5aba8db39088283b51e00054813063173a4d8809f70033976f83e214ab56c0
   2. openjdk-8-jre_8u45-b14-1_amd64.deb with
      SHA256 9ef76c4562d39432b69baf6c18f199707c5c56a5b4566847df908b7d74e15849
   3. openjdk-8-jdk_8u45-b14-1_amd64.deb with
      SHA256 6e47215cf6205aa829e6a0a64985075bd29d1f428a4006a80c9db371c2fc3c4c


2. Optionally, confirm the checksums of the downloaded files against the SHA256 strings using the sha256sum tool:

   Host

   sha256sum {downloaded .deb file}

3. Install the packages:

   Host

   sudo apt-get update

   Run dpkg for the downloaded .deb files. It may produce errors due to missing dependencies:

   Host

   sudo dpkg -i openjdk-8-*

   To fix missing dependencies:

   Host

   sudo apt-get -f install

4. (Optional) If there was another java version previously installed, update the default versions:

   Host

   sudo update-alternatives --config java
   sudo update-alternatives --config javac

Directory Setup

Create a directory that will be used as the root for all of the sources and additional components needed for building:

sudo mkdir -p /opt/PHYTEC_BSPs
sudo chown -R <user>: /opt/PHYTEC_BSPs    # <user> should be replaced by your host's username

mkdir -p /opt/PHYTEC_BSPs/am57xx
cd /opt/PHYTEC_BSPs/am57xx
export AM57XX_DIR=`pwd`
mkdir -p afs
cd afs
export ANDROID_ROOT=`pwd`

Toolchain for Building the Kernel and Bootloaders

The Android Filesystem (AFS) contains a pre-built toolchain, but it is not 100% compatible with our external sources (the Linux kernel and U-boot) so we recommend downloading and utilizing a separate Linaro toolchain for this purpose:

wget https://releases.linaro.org/components/toolchain/binaries/5.3-2016.02/arm-linux-gnueabihf/gcc-linaro-5.3-2016.02-x86_64_arm-linux-gnueabihf.tar.xz
tar -Jxvf gcc-linaro-5.3-2016.02-x86_64_arm-linux-gnueabihf.tar.xz -C /opt/PHYTEC_BSPs
rm gcc-linaro-5.3-2016.02-x86_64_arm-linux-gnueabihf.tar.xz

After extracting the toolchain, it needs to be added to the host's PATH to properly use it for building:

export PATH=/opt/PHYTEC_BSPS/gcc-linaro-5.3-2016.02-x86_64_arm-linux-gnueabihf/bin:$PATH

Git Setup

If you have not yet configured your Git environment on your host machine, please execute the following commands to set your user name and email address. See here for more information on getting started with Git.

git config --global user.email "your@email.com" 
git config --global user.name "Your Name"
git config --global http.sslcainfo /etc/ssl/certs/ca-certificates.crt

Server Setup (Optional)

sudo apt-get install tftpd-hpa

sudo gedit /etc/default/tftpd-hpa
# /etc/default/tftpd-hpa
TFTP_USERNAME="tftp"
TFTP_DIRECTORY="/var/lib/tftpboot"
TFTP_ADDRESS="0.0.0.0:69"
TFTP_OPTIONS="--secure"

sudo restart tftpd-hpa

sudo chmod ugo+rwx <TFTP_DIRECTORY>

ifconfig

sudo apt-get install nfs-kernel-server

sudo gedit /etc/exports
# /etc/exports
/home/<user>/nfs_export-ex *(rw,sync,no_root_squash,no_subtree_check)

sudo /usr/sbin/exportfs -va

sudo apt-get install samba

sudo gedit /etc/samba/smb.conf

#======================= Share Definitions =======================
# Un-comment the following (and tweak the other settings below to suit)
# to enable the default home directory shares. This will share each
# user's home directory as \\server\username
;[homes]
; comment = Home Directories
; browseable = yes
# By default, the home directories are exported read-only. Change the
# next parameter to 'no' if you want to be able to write to them.
; read only = no

#======================= Share Definitions =======================
# Un-comment the following (and tweak the other settings below to suit)
# to enable the default home directory shares. This will share each
# user's home directory as \\server\username
[homes]
comment = Home Directories
browseable = yes
# By default, the home directories are exported read-only. Change the
# next parameter to 'no' if you want to be able to write to them.
read only = no

sudo restart smbd
sudo restart nmbd

sudo smbpasswd -a <user>

Getting Started with Pre-Built Images

This section is intended to walk you through the steps required to retrieve, flash, and boot the released pre-built images.

Retrieve the Pre-Built Images

Download the release images and script used for flashing

wget http://artifactory.phytec.com/artifactory/am57xx-images-released-public/BSP-Android-TI-AM57x-PD17.1.0.tar.bz2
mkdir -p $AM57XX_DIR/emmc_files
tar -jxf BSP-Android-TI-AM57x-PD17.1.0.tar.bz2 -C $AM57XX_DIR/emmc_files
cp /usr/bin/fastboot /usr/bin/make_ext4fs $AM57XX_DIR/emmc_files/.

rm -f BSP-Android-TI-AM57x-PD17.1.0.tar.bz2

Create a Bootable SD Card

Flashing the BSP-Android-TI-AM57x-PD17.1.0 images requires initially booting the system using bootloaders loaded on an SD card.

Specifically, you will need an SD card with the first partition configured for roughly 64MiB. We recommend that you use the attached script here for simplicity: create-sdcard.sh

After the card has been partitioned, remove and reinsert it in your card reader to automount the partitions in Ubuntu. Once the partitions appear in /media/<user>/, copy the MLO and u-boot.img bootloaders to the boot partition.

cp $AM57XX_DIR/emmc_files/MLO $AM57XX_DIR/emmc_files/u-boot.img /media/<user>/boot/.    # as before, replace <user> with your host's username
sync; umount /media/<user>/*

Prepare the Target For Flashing

Now that an SD card is loaded with bootloaders, the target is almost ready for booting.

The following image will help for the next steps below:

1. Insert the SD card into X2.
2. Verify all of the S5 switches are set to OFF as shown above.
3. Connect a USB A to Mini-B cable to both the host and X9
4. Connect the kit-supplied serial cable between a host RS-232 serial port and X18
5. (Recommended) connect a display output to the carrier board (Parallel Display @ X25 or HDMI @ X24)
   1. X25: connect a LCD-018-070-KAP display for both video output and capacitive touch

   2. X24: connect a HDMI to Micro-HDMI cable between a consumer monitor and the target for video output

      Although some HDMI monitors have touch capabilities, this is currently untested and therefore unsupported

6. Start terminal software (i.e. Minicom, TeraTerm, or PuTTY) on your host and configure it for 115200 baud, 8 data bits, no parity, and 1 stop bit (8n1) with no handshaking or flow control.
7. Insert the kit-supplied 12V power adapter into X4. There will be two green LEDs visible on the carrier board.
8. Press S2 to power on the board, resulting in additional green LEDs lighting up and console output on the terminal.
9. Press any key in the serial console to stop u-boot from proceeding further.

10. Type the following commands into the serial console to set up the u-boot environment:

    Target

    env default -f -a
    set partitions $partitions_android
    saveenv
    env save
    reset

11. Press any key in the serial console to stop in u-boot again and type this command to prepare the target for flashing:

    Target

    fastboot 1

Flash the Target with Pre-Built Images

Now that the target is ready to receive images, we need to tell the host what to send over USB. To this end, we use the commands fastboot and the fastboot.sh script that has been created to facilitate the process.

Perform these commands from the host:

cd $AM57XX_DIR/emmc_files
sudo ./fastboot.sh

This will start a flurry of output on both the host PC's terminal and the serial console. Once the transfer and flashing is complete, this is an example of what you will see on the host:

Following that, we use fastboot to reboot the board completely into Android with the following command:

sudo ./fastboot reboot

Booting into Android will begin with an animated "android" logo visible on an attached display. Additionally, there will be console access to the filesystem shortly after the animated logo appears.

Booting is complete when a minimal Android home screen is visible.

To properly power the target down after you are finished with it, use the following command on the console:

reboot -p

Building the BSP from Source

This section will explain how to build the individual pieces of the BSP from source to create your own customized images.

Building the Bootloaders (U-Boot)

The first step to building the bootloaders is to fetch the source from the PHYTEC git repository:

cd $AM57XX_DIR
git clone https://stash.phytec.com/scm/asdk/uboot-phytec.git -b BSP-Android-TI-AM57x-PD17.1.1
cd uboot-phytec

After downloading the source you will have the BSP-Android-TI-AM57x-PD17.1.1 tag checked out and it is recommended that you create a branch from this location to manage any changes that you make to the source. The following command can be used to create a branch and switch to it:

git checkout -b "WIP/mychanges"    # this is a basic example of a branch name

Following that, the images can be built using the following make command:

make ARCH=arm CROSS_COMPILE=arm-linux-gnueabihf- O=am57xx_phycore_rdk am57xx_phycore_rdk_defconfig all

The above make command creates the build in an output directory am57xx_phycore_rdk instead of in the local directory, keeping the local directory clean and all build settings contained. After it finishes, the MLO and u-boot.img binary images are located in the am57xx_phycore_rdk directory.

To flash these images using the fastboot.sh script utilized to Flash the Target with Pre-Built Images, copy them to the aforementioned emmc_files directory:

cp am57xx_phycore_rdk/MLO am57xx_phycore_rdk/u-boot.img $AM57XX_DIR/emmc_files/.

Building the Kernel

Like the instructions for the bootloaders, you first need to fetch the kernel source from the PHYTEC git repository:

cd $AM57XX_DIR
git clone https://stash.phytec.com/scm/asdk/linux-phytec-ti.git -b BSP-Android-TI-AM57x-PD17.1.1
cd linux-phytec-ti

After downloading the source you will have the BSP-Android-TI-AM57x-PD17.1.1 tag checked out and it is recommended that you create a branch from this location to manage any changes that you make to the source. The following command can be used to create a branch and switch to it:

git checkout -b "WIP/mychanges"    # this is a basic example of a branch name

Following that, the images can be built using the following make commands:

export KERNELDIR=`pwd`

make ARCH=arm am57xx_phycore_rdk_defconfig
make -j<N> ARCH=arm CROSS_COMPILE=arm-linux-gnueabihf-    # replace <N> with the number of CPU threads you want to use. Suggested value for <N> is (number of CPU threads) - 1

When the build is complete, you will find the kernel at arch/arm/boot/zImage and the devicetree binary at arch/arm/boot/dts/am57xx-phycore-rdk.dtb.

In Android, the kernel becomes part of the boot.img file/partition and cannot be flashed by itself, but to flash the devicetree binary using the fastboot.sh script utilized to Flash the Target with Pre-Built Images, copy it to the aforementioned emmc_files directory:

cp arch/arm/boot/dts/am57xx-phycore-rdk.dtb $AM57XX_DIR/emmc_files/.

cp arch/arm/boot/zImage $ANDROID_ROOT/device/phytec/am57xx_rdk/kernel

rm -f $ANDROID_ROOT/out/target/product/am57xx_rdk/boot.img

Building the Android Filesystem (AFS)

The Android filesystem contains many different git repositories and packages so we use the repo tool to fetch and prepare everything we need for building based on our customized manifest file.

cd $ANDROID_ROOT
repo init -u https://stash.phytec.com/scm/asdk/platform-manifests.git -b nougat-mr1-release -m default.xml
repo sync -j<N>    # replace <N> with the number of threads you wish to use. For repo, this also means more parallel downloads and increased bandwidth usage in addition to CPU thread usage.

After successfully fetching all of the sources, we need to apply a couple patches to modify TI's sources to build properly with our board.

cp device/phytec/am57xx_rdk/ti-proprietary-open-patches/patch-ti-proprietary-open.sh $ANDROID_ROOT/.
./patch-ti-proprietary-open.sh device/phytec/am57xx_rdk/ti-proprietary-open-patches

Set up the AFS build environment and set it to build for the phyCORE-AM57xx RDK

source build/envsetup.sh
lunch full_am57xx_rdk-userdebug

Lastly, initiate the build.

make -j<N>    # replace <N> with the number of CPU threads you want to use. Suggested value for <N> is (number of CPU threads) - 1.

After the build is complete, the output images are in out/target/product/am57xx_rdk.

To flash these images using the fastboot.sh script utilized to Flash the Target with Pre-Built Images, copy them to the aforementioned emmc_files directory:

cp $ANDROID_ROOT/out/target/product/am57xx/*.img $AM57XX_DIR/emmc_files/.

Rebuilding the PowerVR SGX Kernel Module

If the kernel .config has been modified, potentially resulting in different headers, the SGX kernel module pvrsrvkm.ko will need to be rebuilt and a new system.img generated that contains it. The following commands will need to be executed:

# configure additional environment variables
export CROSS_COMPILE=$ANDROID_ROOT/prebuilts/gcc/linux-x86/arm/arm-eabi-4.8/bin/arm-eabi-
export KERNEL_CROSS_COMPILE=arm-linux-gnueabihf-
export OUT_DIR=$ANDROID_ROOT/out


cd device/ti/proprietary-open/jacinto6/sgx_src/eurasia_km/eurasiacon/build/linux2/omap_android
make ARCH=arm TARGET_PRODUCT="am57xx_rdk" BUILD=release

After the make command succeeds, you can find the new SGX module here: $ANDROID_ROOT/device/ti/proprietary-open/jacinto6/sgx_src/eurasia_km/eurasiacon/binary2_omap_android_release/target/pvrsrvkm.ko. To make it part of your next AFS build, it needs to be copied to the system directory and some files deleted to force system.img to be rebuilt:

cp $ANDROID_ROOT/device/ti/proprietary-open/jacinto6/sgx_src/eurasia_km/eurasiacon/binary2_omap_android_release/target/pvrsrvkm.ko $ANDROID_ROOT/out/target/product/am57xx_rdk/system/lib/modules/pvrsrvkm.ko


rm -f $ANDROID_ROOT/out/target/product/am57xx_rdk/system.img
rm -f $ANDROID_ROOT/out/target/product/am57xx_rdk/obj/PACKAGING/systemimage_intermediates/system.img

Now the next make command run from $ANDROID_ROOT should generate a new system.img with the updated SGX module.

cd $ANDROID_ROOT
make -j<N>    # replace <N> with the number of CPU threads you want to use. Suggested value for <N> is (number of CPU threads) - 1.