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BuildRoot 2015.08.1 + Linux 4.2.2 on Arietta G25

BuildRoot is a set of makefiles and patches that makes it easy to generate a complete Embedded Linux System. It can generate any or all of a cross-compilation toolchain, a root filesystem, a kernel image and a bootloader image

This article explains how to create a bootable class='acmetable' microSD for Arietta G25 SoM using the latest BuildRoot version and the latest stable class='acmetable' Kernel version available now (Oct 2, 2015).

Building procedure

Download BuildRoot version 2015.08.1 from its repository:

Download buildroot-2015.08.1.tar.bz2

Decompress the .bz2 file in your home directory and move inside the new directory:

~$ tar xjvf buildroot-2015.08.1.tar.bz2
~$ cd buildroot-2015.08.1
~/buildroot-2015.08.1$

Download our patch file to add the file requested by Arietta G25:

Download acme.patch

and apply it by typing:

~/buildroot-2015.08.1$ patch -p1 < acme.patch

Select the Arietta G25 defconfig:

~/buildroot-2015.08.1$ make arietta_defconfig

If you're running an Ubuntu distribution at 64 bit, install the libc6-i386 (sudo apt-get install libc6-i386)

Install liblz4-tool (sudo apt-get install liblz4-tool) used to generate the Linux Kernel zImage

Save and exit from the configuration menu and launch the BuildRoot compilation.

This operation will take about 1 hour to download and compile any source of any part of your Linux distribution.

~/buildroot-2015.08.1$ make
...

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

  • The Linux Kernel image: zImage
  • The device tree blob file: acme-arietta.dtb
  • The whole root file system contents: rootfs.tar

Insert a microSD formated in this way using gparted:

  • a first fat16 or fat32 partition (>6 MB) labeled boot
  • a second ext4 partition (>32 MB) labeled rootfs

Copy the files generated renaming some of them in this way:

cp output/images/at91-ariettag25.dtb /media/$USER/boot/acme-arietta.dtb
cp output/images/zImage /media/$USER/boot
sudo tar xvf output/images/rootfs.tar -C /media/$USER/rootfs

Unmount the microSD and boot on your Aria. It will take about 2 minutes the first time to calculate the openssh keys. The next boots it will take just 5 secs.

At login:

  • login: root
  • password: acmesystems

Changing Linux Kernel configuration

If you want to change something of the basic BuildRoot configuration (like adding packages) type:

~/buildroot-2015.08.1$ make menuconfig

If you want to change something in the Linux Kernel configuration (like adding some drivers) type:

~/buildroot-2015.08.1$ make linux-menuconfig

Related links

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