iMX6 - ltib, yocto, linaro ?

[pj0585]

Hi,

I have recently started working on the iMX6. As I understand that there are the following BSP options available:

-> LTIB

-----------

my impressions about LTIB is:

- Uses old source code releases ( I build libXtst + LibXi old releases, new were not supported)

- builds for armv7 (soft float). Looks like one can build for had float

- xserver-xorg-video-imx-viv source included but I could not locate the package option in ltib configuration

- When I try to build using LTIB, some packages fail to build.

- Not updated frequently

-> YOCTO / Open-embedded

-------------------------------------------

my impressions about yocto is:

- builds for armv7 (soft float). Can I build it for hard-float by changing compiler flags?

- updated / maintained frequently

- Does it use latest source code of the root file system packages?

- I have not tried to build it, not sure whether it builds successfully.

-> LINARO

----------------

my impressions about linaro is:

- were releasing ubuntu root file system for imx6 till 12.04 release. They stopped releasing for iMX6 after that. (Anyone knows why?)

- ubuntu uses debian armel releases so built for armv5 (only soft float available)

- no hard float option available for Linaro - Am I right?

So what I understood is that, Yocto may be the best option among the above, considering the fact that it is updated/maintained regularly.

I would be glad if someone has other points to add or negate any of my above mentioned points.

-Pj

[OtavioSalvador]

As explained by LeonardoSandovalGonzalez Yocto is quite active lately.

We at O.S. Systems are commited to give a good support on Yocto for iMX family and we've been working with Freescale people to make it happen however it is not officially supported by Freescale yet.

Yocto may be the right option or not, this depends a lot on the product you are planning.

You may need to study a little bit about LTIB and Yocto to be able to make a concious decision. Obviously I am for Yocto but without understanding the whole project, resources of the product and like it is difficult to make a good advice.

Regards,

[pj0585]

Hi Otavio,

Good work by O.S.Systems (you guys) for providing iMX6 users an alternative. Is it true that yocto uses old libraries? If yes, why ??

Thanks for inputs! Yes, you are right I need to understand both and take a conscious decision.

I have started working on iMX6 recently, so I'm still trying to figure out the options and getting an overview of each. I had started this thread with the intention of knowing more about the options / clarifying in case I misunderstood. I will be trying yocto too.

Questions about yocto:

- Does it have all the libraries that ltib has?

- By any chance are you planning to include a open source JVM in the build? (open-jdk, JamVM, etc)

-Pj

[OtavioSalvador]

It is important to understand it is not O.S. Systems only project. A lot of people and companies has contributed to this. Freescale has given a lot of support and has contributed many fix and improvements. So it is a collaborative project and it has been moving fast.

As I explained in the another post the Yocto is not yet the official BSP and we need to wait for official release to start packaging the BSP packages onto Yocto so we happen to be late on it. We're working on 1.1.0 integration while 12.09.01 is ready for use in danny branch.

So basically we pick the BSP support packages from LTIB distribution and use it in the newer Yocto based BSP. Regarding package support, Yocto is much nicer in this point as it provides newer and rich package set.

It does provide Qt 4.8, Xorg 1.11 and full 12.09.01 support (talking about danny branch which is the stable one). Java is available for inclusion by external layer (meta-java) and should work. We have some customized BSPs for customers which we integrated Java for their boards ... it should work fine.

[pj0585]

Thanks Otavio & Leonardo for your inputs!

That gives me a better picture indeed!

@Otavio: Thanks for correcting me. Indeed thanks to entire community for efforts in yocto! I will try yocto and mail issues if any on the mailing lists!

So, Yocto has: newer library / packages + Java build can be added + new Qt + old BSP (as it is not officially supported by Freescale)

@Leonardo: I will post my ltib issues in a different thread, but that will be only later as I think I'm done for the time being. When I build again, I will definitely post!

Thanks a lot guys!

-Pj

[LeonardoSandova · Accepted solution]

Hi Prasant,

Really nice summary. LTIB is currently the only one supported BSP by Freescale. However, Freescale is moving fast to Yocto and as you can see in  the meta-freescale mailing list, it is pretty active. Base on this, for the moment you can try ltib and share the error logs you find in the way (which host OS are you using?). Also, yocto is pretty easy to install, so at the same time you can leave a compilation running. Both ways are good, yocto pkgs are a bit older that ltib but yocto is almost now at the same pace as ltib.

For Yocto, Please follow this document:

i.MX6 Yocto FAQ

[pj0585]

Hi Leonardo,

Thanks a lot for inputs!

I'm a little surprised that yocto uses old libraries than ltib, because my impression of ltib is that it uses old libraries. Can we say: Ltib uses old libraries while yocto uses libraries that are older than ltib too??

I'm using ubuntu 11.10. I know Freescale prescribes 9.04 (but its ancient) and someone (VJ) on the community has provided patches for Ubuntu 11.10. I intended to build all packages present in ltib but many packages failed over a period of time, ones I recollect gtkhtml, evolution, but I mainly needed X libs and even if ltib did not complete successfully I was able to live with the X libraries that built.

For testing Java UI, I had to cross-compile libXtst & libXi and I was forced to use older versions of these, as the newer ones were complaining for missing libraries (basically newer versions of X). So I inferred that ltib uses old source codes.

Thanks for pointing out the link. I will read about yocto and I'm planning to try it once.

-Pj

[OtavioSalvador]

Hello pj0585,

When LeonardoSandovalGonzalez said Yocto has older packages he was refering to the BSP part. As Freescale does not yet officially support Yocto we need to wait for them to release the LTIB BSP to be able to include those in Yocto. So currently it has the 12.09.01 BSP packages ready for use while the 1.1.0 is in the work.

I hope it clarify it.

[LeonardoSandova]

Thanks OtavioSalvador for clarifying my first post.

Prasant,

LTIB works nicely in 10.04, and as you pointed out, some patches are needed for > 10.04. You are running into several issues, can you please post at least the first you find. Once LTIB is patched, it should work without problems, producing a root filesystem, a u-boot and an kernel image (uImage).

Yes, please try Yocto. It is pretty easy to have an image ready, so give it a try today.

Leo