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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

Building procedure

Install the mandatory package listed here:

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 alonemake acme-arietta_defconfig
Arietta + XTerm-01make 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:

Defconfig and dts used:

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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