Two technical talks about the Yocto Project at TuxCon 2024

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TuxCon is an annual open-source conference held in Plovdiv, Bulgaria, aimed to promote the adoption of open-source hardware and software, and organized by passionate volunteers. Since the conference’s inception in 2014, Konsulko Group engineers have participated and supported this important local event.

The 2024 edition of TuxCon took place on May 11th and 12th at the Technical University of Sofia, Plovdiv branch, featuring presentations on various interesting topics. This edition featured a couple of talks (in Bulgarian) about the Yocto Project and OpenEmbedded.

Konsulko Group junior engineer Atanas Bunchev spoke at the event, sharing his experience with Balena on Raspberry Pi and PHYTEC phyBOARD-AM62x. Balena.io, commonly known as Balena, is a platform that simplifies the deployment and management of embedded Linux devices using images based on the Yocto Project and OpenEmbedded. It leverages Docker containers for streamlined application deployment across various Internet of Things (IoT), offers centralized device management for monitoring and updates, and supports scalability from prototypes to large-scale projects. Atanas further elaborated on the utilization of Balena AutoKit for conducting automated QA testing on embedded Linux devices.

The second talk about the Yocto Project at TuxCon 2024 was delivered by Sadika Hasan, a senior-year student from “Paisii Hilendarski” University of Plovdiv. She demonstrated how to create a custom Linux distribution and Software Development Kit (SDK) by extending Poky, the Yocto Project’s reference distribution. Additionally, she covered the integration of the custom SDK with Visual Studio Code and the remote debugging of a C++ application on a Raspberry Pi Zero W 2.

Sadika’s presentation is part of her bachelor thesis, supervised by Professor Dimitar Tokmakov from ECIT (Electronics and Information and Communication Technology) department of “Paisii Hilendarski” University of Plovdiv and Konsulko engineer Leon Anavi.

Professor Tokmakov, with the assistance of engineer Nikolay Nedelev from Romit LTD, is actively involved in the ECOVEM project (European Center of Vocational Excellence in Microelectronics). As part of their efforts, two students from PU developed diploma theses for their Bachelor of Science degrees utilizing the Yocto Project. These theses were based on real-life problem solving and the practical experience of the Konsulko Group with industrial embedded Linux devices.

From the early days of OpenEmbedded and the Yocto Project, Konsulko engineers have actively contributed upstream and engaged with the community, offering their expertise in developing high-quality commercial products. If you are developing a new product, get in touch to see how Konsulko’s engineering expertise can enhance your project. Additionally, if you are a Linux software developer passionate about open source, we invite you to explore potential opportunities to join the Konsulko team.

Porting Mender to Raspberry Pi 5 and Yocto Project Scarthgap

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Overview

Mender is an open-source over-the-air (OTA) software update technology for embedded Linux devices and Internet of Things (IoT) ecosystem. It allows developers to remotely manage and update software on embedded Linux devices, ensuring that they remain secure, up-to-date, and functional throughout their lifecycle. Mender simplifies the process of launching a new project by offering official and community-supported board integrations for a wide range of devices and operating systems. These integrations include support for Debian family and the Yocto Project, making it easier for developers to get started with their projects seamlessly.

The Yocto Project is an open-source collaboration project by the Linux Foundation to create custom Linux-based systems for embedded devices. It uses the OpenEmbedded build automation framework with the build tool bitbake and provides Poky as a reference Linux distribution. The Yocto Project follows a regular release cycle, typically with a new version every six months, alongside long-term supported releases available every two years. Currently, the most recent LTS release is version 5.0, codenamed Scarthgap, which became available on April 30, 2024.

Recently, Senior Engineer Leon Anavi from Konsulko Group ported Mender to Raspberry Pi 5. This effort builds upon his previous contributions, where he added Raspberry Pi 5 support to the Yocto Project BSP (Board Support Package) layer meta-raspberrypi. This progress was made possible through sponsorship from the computer emergency response team of the Government of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg (GOVCERT.LU). If you’re considering using Mender on Raspberry Pi or any other hardware platform for your embedded product needs, feel free to reach out to us to discuss further.

Raspberry Pi 5 introduces significant hardware differences compared to its predecessors. To enable Mender updates on this platform, we require U-Boot version v2024.04 or later. Unfortunately, the Yocto Project release Scarphgap ships with U-Boot version v2024.01, which isn’t compatible. To address this compatibility issue and obtain the necessary U-Boot version, our setup utilizes the scarthgap/u-boot branch from the meta-lts-mixins layer. Tim Orling, Principal Software Engineer at Konsulko Group, contributed the patches in meta-lts-mixins for U-Boot v2024.04.

Raspberry Pi 5 is the first model of the famous single board computers that features a dedicated UART connector is a three-pin header compatible with the Raspberry Pi Debug Connector specification. It can be used with Raspberry Pi Debug Probe, a USB device that provides both a UART serial port and a standard Arm Serial Wire Debug (SWD) interface.

The article offers a practical guide, outlining the exact steps to build a Mender-enabled image for Raspberry Pi 5 and execute an A/B update. To streamline the build setup, we’ll utilize KAS. This Python-based open-source tool effectively handles various Yocto/OpenEmbedded layers. KAS executes builds within a Docker container to ensure consistency and reliable build outcomes, regardless of the primary GNU/Linux distribution on the build machine.

Image for Raspberry Pi 5

Follow the steps below to build core-image-minimal with Mender for Raspberry Pi 5:

  • Install the kas tool (optionally, you can install globally for all users. Run as root, respectively under sudo then):
pip install kas
  • Clone this repository:
git clone -b scarthgap https://github.com/mendersoftware/meta-mender-community
  • Create a build directory and change into it:
mkdir -p meta-mender-community/mender-rpi5 && cd meta-mender-community/mender-rpi5
  • Use kas to build for the Raspberry Pi 5:
kas build ../kas/raspberrypi5.yml
  • Flash tmp/deploy/images/raspberrypi5/core-image-minimal-raspberrypi5.sdimg to a microSD card and boot it on Raspberry Pi 5.

Mender Artifact for Raspberry Pi 5

Follow the steps below to build a Mender Artifact for Raspberry Pi 5 that provides the simple text editor nano:

  • Enter KAS shell:
kas shell ../kas/raspberrypi5.yml
  • Append to the end of conf/local.conf:
IMAGE_INSTALL:append = " nano"
  • Build both core-image-minimal and a Mender Artifact for it:
bitbake core-image-minimal
  • As a result Mender Artifact containg nano will be generated as file tmp/deploy/images/raspberrypi5/core-image-minimal-raspberrypi5.mender

Update Raspberry Pi 5

As an end to end update solution, Mender provides aserver as the central hub for storing and orchestrating software updates across fleets of devices through over-the-air deployment. Through Mender’s user-friendly web UI or REST APIs, you can easily oversee device management, upload software releases, and create seamless deployments to distribute updates to your devices. However, it is also possible to use Mender in standalone mode without a server.

Follow the steps below to manually perform a standalone deployment with Mender in the terminal. In this scenario, no Mender Server is utilized, and the deployments are triggered directly at the device.

  • Start a simple HTTP server in the directory with the Mender Artifact:
python3 -m http.server
  • Login as root on Raspberry Pi 5 and install the Mender Artifact to perform an upgrade of the device:
mender-update install http://<server>:8000/core-image-minimal-raspberrypi5.mender

NOTE: Replace <server> with the IP address of the machine on which the Python3 HTTP server is running.

  • Reboot Raspberry Pi 5:
reboot
  • Login as root on Raspberry Pi 5 and verify that nano text editor has been installed.
  • Make the deployment permanent:
mender-update commit

This straightforward example showcases the seamless integration of Mender with Raspberry Pi 5 using the Yocto Project release Scarthgap. You can follow up and manage updates of fleets of Raspberry Pi 5 devices through the Mender server. Additionally, Mender offers convenient add-ons for remote troubleshooting, ensuring smooth operations in the field.

Since the earliest days of the OpenEmbedded build framework and the Yocto Project, Konsulko engineers have been active contributors to the community, aiding customers in crafting commercial products using these technologies. Our expertise extends beyond Mender, encompassing various open-source solutions for software updates. Feel free to get in touch to explore how we can assist with your embedded product requirements.