Build a small QT5 WiFi terminal with Arietta G25 and XTERM-01

This article illustrates how to generate an image to create a small QT5 WiFi terminal with Buildroot Linux using an Arietta G25 board and a XTERM-01 2.8 inch LCD with resistive touch

BuildRoot is a set of makefiles and patches that makes it easy to generate a complete and very small Embedded Linux System.

Buildroot can generate the rootfs filesystem with a rich set of application, the kernel and bootloader image but following this article it will generate just the rootfs contents.

To generate the booloader and Linux Kernel image please follow these two articles:

The basic knowledge used on this article comes from Microchip Linux4sam site on https://www.linux4sam.org/bin/view/Linux4SAM/BuildRoot.

Notes

This procedure was tested using a Linux PC with Ubuntu 18.04.4 64bit to cross compile the buildroot image
It is advisable to have a Debug Port Interface or another serial adapter
Hardware used: Arietta board with 128 MByte of RAM and XTERM-01 display

Building procedure

Install the mandatory package listed here:

http://buildroot.uclibc.org/downloads/manual/manual.html#requirement-mandatory

Download BuildRoot and the Microchip external package from these repositories on GitHub:

git clone https://github.com/linux4sam/buildroot-at91.git
git clone https://github.com/linux4sam/buildroot-external-microchip.git

Select the right versions:

cd buildroot-external-microchip
git checkout linux4sam_6.2 -b buildroot-external-microchip-linux4sam_6.2

cd ..
cd buildroot-at91
git checkout linux4sam_6.2 -b buildroot-at91-linux4sam_6.2

Download this patch file from GitHub:

wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/AcmeSystems/acmepatches/master/buildroot-at91-2020.02.patch

and apply it by typing:

patch -p1 < buildroot-at91-2020.02.patch

Select the configuration for your hardware:

Arietta alone	`make acme-arietta_defconfig`
Arietta + XTerm-01	`make acme-xterm-01_defconfig`

Compile

make

If everything goes well you will obtain this binary files in output/images directory:

rootfs.tar

Create two partitions on microSD using gparted:

Type	Label	Size
fat32	boot	>8MB
ext4	rootfs	>128MB

copy on the first partition the file generated following these two articles:

on the second partition copy the rootfs.tar using this command:

sudo tar xvf output/images/rootfs.tar -C /media/$USER/rootfs

Unmount the microSD and boot.

At login and password prompt type:

login: root
password: acmesystems

Try from binaries

Save this file in the first fat32 partition:

Untar this file in the second ext4 partition:

rootfs.tar

Defconfig and dts used:

Kernel
- acme-xterm-01.dts
- acme-xterm-01_defconfig
Buildroot
- buildroot_acme-xterm-01_defconfig

WiFi access

Edit the file /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf to configure the access to your WiFi network (it requires the WIFI-2 adapter)

network={
   ssid="your accesspoint name"
   psk="password"
}

to generate this file automatically from the Buildroot environment edit this file

buildroot-at91/board/acmesystems/arietta-xterm-01/rootfs_overlay/etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf

to create other file in the rootfs tree ad them in

buildroot-at91/board/acmesystems/arietta-xterm-01/rootfs_overlay/

Try the QT5 examples

Set this environment variable

export QT_QPA_EVDEV_TOUCHSCREEN_PARAMETERS="/dev/input/event0:rotate=180"

move inside the QT5 example directory

cd /usr/lib/qt/examples

and try some examples:

widgets/widgets/calculator/calculator -platform linuxfb
widgets/widgets/sliders/sliders -platform linuxfb

Links

Sergio Tanzilli
Systems designer, webmaster of www.acmesystems.it and founder of Acme Systems srl

Personal email: tanzilli@acmesystems.it
Web pages: https://www.acmesystems.it --- https://www.acmestudio.it
Github repositories: https://github.com/tanzilli --- https://github.com/acmesystems
Telegram group dedicated to the Acme Systems boards: https://t.me/acmesystemssrl

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