Build Alexa SDK (AVS) image for i.MX8M EVK board (with Yocto Morty, Kernel4.9)

[#1]

Recipes to include Amazon's Alexa Voice Services in your applications.

Step 1 : Get iMX Yocto AVS setup environment

Review the steps under Chapter 3 of the i.MX_Yocto_Project_User'sGuide.pdf on the L4.X LINUX_DOCS to prepare your host machine. Including at least the following essential Yocto packages

$ sudo apt-get install gawk wget git-core diffstat unzip texinfo \
gcc-multilib build-essential chrpath socat libsdl1.2-dev u-boot-tools

Install the i.MX NXP AVS repo

Create/Move to a directory where you want to install the AVS yocto build enviroment.

Let's call this as <yocto_dir>

$ cd <yocto_dir>
$ repo init -u https://source.codeaurora.org/external/imxsupport/meta-avs-demos -b master -m imx-alexa-sdk-4.9.51-8mq_ga.xml

Download the AVS BSP build environment:

$ repo sync

---

Step 2: Setup yocto for Alexa_SDK image with AVS-SETUP-DEMO script:

Run the avs-setup-demo script as follows to setup your environment for the imx8mqevk board:

$ MACHINE=imx8mqevk DISTRO=fsl-imx-xwayland source avs-setup-demo.sh -b <build_sdk_8M>

Where <build_sdk> is the name you will give to your build folder.

After acepting the EULA the script will prompt if you want to enable:

Sound Card selection

The following Sound Cards are supported on the build:

• 2-Mic Synaptics/Conexant
• 2-Mic TechNexion Voice Hat (with DSPConcepts SW)

The script will prompt to select the soundcard you will be using:

Which Sound Card are you going to use?

Synaptics/Conexant .................... 1
VoiceHat (for DSPConcepts SW) ......... 2

Type the number of your selection and press Enter...

Install Alexa SDK

Next option is to select if you want to pre-install the AVS SDK software on the image.

Do you want to build/include the AVS_SDK package on this image(Y/N)?

If you select YES, then your image will contain the AVS SDK ready to use (after authentication). Note this AVS_SDK will not have WakeWord detection support, but it can be added on runtime.

If your selection was NO, then you can always manually fetch and build the AVS_SDK on runtime. All the packages dependencies will be already there, so only fetching the AVS_SDK source code and building it is required.

Finish avs-image configuration

At the end you will see a text according with the configuration you select for your image build.

Next is an example for a Preinstalled AVS_SDK with Synaptics Sound Card support

============================================================
AVS configuration is now ready at conf/local.conf

- Sound Card = Synaptics
- Alexa SDK 1.7 pre-installed
- Wifi supported

You are ready to bitbake your AVS demo image now:
  bitbake avs-image

If you want to use QT5DisplayCards, use then:
  bitbake avs-image-qt5
============================================================

---

Step 3: Build the AVS image

Go to your <build_sdk> directory and start the build of the avs-image

There are 2 options

• Regular Build:

  $ cd  <yocto_dir>/<build_sdk>   
  $ bitbake avs-image

• With QT5 support included:

  $ cd  <yocto_dir>/<build_sdk>  
  $ bitbake avs-image-qt5

The image with QT5 is useful if you want to add some GUI for example to render DisplayCards.

Step 4 : Deploying the built images to SD/MMC card to boot on target board.

After a build has succesfully completed, the created image resides at

<build_sdk>/tmp/deploy/images/imx8mqevk/

In this directory, you will find imx8mqevk-avs--.sdcard image or imx8mqevk-avs-qt5--.sdcard, depending on the build you chose on Step3.

To Flash the .sdcard image into an SD Card follow the next steps:

• Extract and copy the .sdcard file to your SD Card

  $ cd <build_sdk>/tmp/deploy/images/imx8mqevk/ 
  $ cp -v imx8mqevk-avs-synaptics-1.7.sdcard.bz2 <workdir> 
  $ cd <workdir> 
  $ sudo bzip2 -d imx8mqevk-avs-synaptics-1.7.sdcard.bz2 
  $ sudo dd if=imx8mqevk-avs-synaptics-1.7.sdcard.bz2 of=/dev/sd<part> bs=1M && sync 
  $ sync

• Properly eject the SD Card:

  $ sudo eject /dev/sd<part>

• Insert the flashed SD Card on the 8M EVK and boot.

• Follow the instructions at startup to setup your AVS and run the SampleApp.

---

NXP Documentation

For a more comprehensive understanding of Yocto, its features and setup; more image build and deployment options and customization, please take a look at the i.MX_Yocto_Project_User's_Guide.pdf document from the Linux documents bundle mentioned at the beginning of this document.

For a more detailed description of the Linux BSP, u-boot use and configuration, please take a look at the i.MX_Linux_User's_Guide.pdf document from the Linux documents bundle mentioned at the beginning of this document.

[1316244577]

Hello:

  Why do I follow your steps and fail to find the   avs-setup-demo.sh   script  ?