CL-SOM-iMX7: Linux: Kernel

Overview

The Linux kernel for CL-SOM-iMX7 provides support for on-board peripherals and abstracts the functionality provided by the hardware.

Building kernel for CL-SOM-iMX7

Getting kernel sources

Linux git tree can be cloned or downloaded as a tarball from Freescale public git repository. The instructions below assume that the /home/development/cl-som-imx7/kernel directory has been created for CL-SOM-iMX7 kernel development.

Snapshot download

• Download deb84cde0da96c5ccccb7e4c1204ad89ee801eca snapshot with your web browser.

• Extract the downloaded archive linux-2.6-imx-deb84cde0da96c5ccccb7e4c1204ad89ee801eca.tar.gz

cd /home/development/cl-som-imx7/kernel
tar xpf /path/to/downloaded/linux-2.6-imx-deb84cde0da96c5ccccb7e4c1204ad89ee801eca.tar.gz
mv linux-2.6-imx-deb84cde0da96c5ccccb7e4c1204ad89ee801eca linux-cl-som-imx7

Git clone

• Install git version control system.
• Create a clone of the FreeScale Linux kernel tree

cd /home/development/cl-som-imx7/kernel
git clone git://git.freescale.com/imx/linux-2.6-imx.git linux-cl-som-imx7

• Create a branch for CL-SOM-iMX7 development. The CL-SOM-iMX7 patches are generated vs. deb84cde0da96c5ccccb7e4c1204ad89ee801eca commit in the Linux tree. It is recommended to use exactly the same baseline to avoid merge conflicts.

cd /home/development/cl-som-imx7/kernel/linux-cl-som-imx7
git checkout -b development deb84cde0da96c5ccccb7e4c1204ad89ee801eca

Apply the CL-SOM-iMX7 patch

cd /home/development/cl-som-imx7/kernel/linux-cl-som-imx7
git am /path/to/cl-som-imx7-linux/kernel/patches/*.patch

Building the kernel

cd /home/development/cl-som-imx7/kernel/linux-cl-som-imx7
export ARCH=arm
export CROSS_COMPILE=arm-none-linux-eabi-
export DTB="imx7d-sbc-imx7.dtb imx7d-cl-som-imx7.dtb"
make cl_som_imx7_defconfig
make menuconfig
make zImage modules ${DTB} && INSTALL_MOD_PATH=/home/development/cl-som-imx7/rootfs make modules_install

In the example above:

• Linux kernel image (zImage) will be created in /home/development/cl-som-imx7/kernel/linux-cl-som-imx7/arch/arm/boot
• device tree blobs will be created in /home/development/cl-som-imx7/kernel/linux-cl-som-imx7/arch/arm/boot/dts
• loadable kernel modules will be installed into the /home/development/cl-som-imx7/rootfs/lib/modules directory.

When the CL-SOM-iMX7 is booted with the kernel image created as described above and with networked root filesystem at /home/development/cl-som-imx7/rootfs/, the system will be able to load the kernel modules properly, thus avoiding module version problems.

zImage, DTB files and modules locations

• In the example above, the Linux kernel image (zImage) will be created in the /home/development/cl-som-imx7/kernel/linux-cl-som-imx7/arch/arm/boot directory.

# ls -al /home/development/cl-som-imx7/kernel/linux-cl-som-imx7/arch/arm/boot/zImage

• DTB files

# cd /home/development/cl-som-imx7/kernel/linux-cl-som-imx7/arch/arm/boot/dtb/
# ls -al ${DTB}
# cd -

• The loadable kernel modules will be installed into the /home/development/cl-som-imx7/rootfs/lib/modules directory.

# ls -al /home/development/cl-som-imx7/rootfs/lib/modules

Kernel Version

• In the example above, the Linux kernel release version number will be saved in /home/development/cl-som-imx7/kernel/linux-cl-som-imx7/include/config/kernel.release

# cat /home/development/cl-som-imx7/kernel/linux-cl-som-imx7/include/config/kernel.release

Prepare kernel and modules tarball

• In the example below, the Linux kernel and modules are packed into the tar archive for deploying onto the CL-SOM-iMX7.

# mkdir -p /home/development/cl-som-imx7/rootfs/boot
# cp -v /home/development/cl-som-imx7/kernel/linux-cl-som-imx7/arch/arm/boot/zImage /home/development/cl-som-imx7/rootfs/boot/zImage-cl-som-imx7
# cd /home/development/cl-som-imx7/kernel/linux-cl-som-imx7/arch/arm/boot/dtb/
# cp -v ${DTB} /home/development/cl-som-imx7/rootfs/boot/ 
# cd -
# tar -C /home/development/cl-som-imx7/rootfs -czvf /home/development/cl-som-imx7/linux-image-cl-som-imx7.tar.gz .

Basic platform support

The CL-SOM-iMX7 basic platform support is implemented in the imx7d-sbc-imx7.dtb imx7d-cl-som-imx7.dtb files of the Linux kernel source tree.

These files contain:

• default setup of multi-functional pins;
• registration of the devices integrated in the CL-SOM-iMX7 module;
• definitions of platform-specific configuration for these devices.

Deploying the CL-SOM-iMX7 kernel and modules

• Boot up the CL-SOM-iMX7 computer.
• Copy the previously created linux-image-cl-com-imx7.tar.gz to /root directory of the CL-SOM-iMX7.

Mount boot partition

• Use the below command to mount the boot partition for installing the CL-SOM-iMX7 Linux kernel binary:

# boot_partition=`cat /proc/cmdline | awk '{ for (i=1;i<=NF;i++) { if($i~/^root=/) { print substr($i,6,length($i)-6)"1" } } }'`
# mount $boot_partition /boot

Back up old kernel

• It is essential to backup the old (known to work) kernel binary.

# mkdir /boot/`uname -r`
# mv /boot/zImage-cl-som-imx7 /boot/*.dtb /boot/`uname -r`/

Installing kernel and modules

Assuming that the linux-image-cl-com-imx7.tar.gz tar ball has been copied to the CL-SOM-iMX7 /root directory.

• Extract and install the Linux kernel binary:

# tar -C / -xvf /root/linux-image-cl-com-imx7.tar.gz

U-Boot Environment

MMC Boot Parameters

To boot from MMC/SD card type:

setenv mmcdev 0
setenv mmcblk mmcblk0p2

Continue to the Common Boot Parameters.

eMMC Boot Parameters

To boot from internal eMMC storage type:

setenv mmcdev 2
setenv mmcblk mmcblk2p2

Continue to the Common Boot Parameters.

Common Boot Parameters

To boot Linux type:

setenv loadaddr 0x80800000
setenv fdt_addr 0x83000000
setenv image zImage-cl-som-imx7
setenv fdt_file imx7d-sbc-imx7.dtb
setenv bootargs console=ttymxc0,115200 root=/dev/${mmcblk} rw rootwait
mmc dev ${mmcdev}
load mmc ${mmcdev} ${loadaddr} ${image}
load mmc ${mmcdev} ${fdt_addr} ${fdt_file}
bootz ${loadaddr} - ${fdt_addr}

NFS Boot Parameters

To boot via network interface type:

setenv loadaddr 0x80800000
setenv fdt_addr 0x83000000
setenv image zImage-cl-som-imx7
setenv fdt_file imx7d-sbc-imx7.dtb
setenv nfsserver <nfs server ip address>
setenv tftpserver <tftp server ip address>
setenv bootargs console=ttymxc0,115200 root=/dev/nfs rw ip=dhcp nfsroot=${nfsserver}:${nfsroot}

dhcp
tftpboot ${loadaddr} ${tftpserver}:${image}
tftpboot ${fdt_addr} ${tftpserver}:${fdt_file}
bootz ${loadaddr} - ${fdt_addr}

See also

• CL-SOM-iMX7: Evaluation Kit: Getting Started
• CL-SOM-iMX7: Evaluation Kit: Hardware Guide
• CL-SOM-iMX7: Linux: Getting started
• CL-SOM-iMX7: Linux: Debian
• Linux: Development for ARM modules
• Linux: Debian: Minimal ARM filesystem
• Debian Reference.
• ALSA project official website