HummingBoard

HummingBoard is an ARM development board with Freescale i.MX6 (ARMv7 architecture) manufactured by SolidRun. Its technical specifications are similar to SolidRun series of small computers Cubox-i. The following models of the board are available: HummingBoard-i1, HummingBoard-i2, and HummingBoard-i2eX.

=Getting Started=

The following OS image are provided from SolidRun:
 * OPENELEC – A Kodi Media Center
 * Android
 * GeexBox XBMC – A Kodi Media Center
 * Debian Linux by Igor Pečovnik

For more information please visit SolidRun download page.

=Yocto= The following tutorial for building a Linux based distribution for HummingBoard (or Cubox-i) with Yocto is based on this article. The tutorial has been tested on Ubuntu 14.04 LTS (Trusty Tahr) and Ubuntu 14.10 (Utopic Unicorn).

Prepare
sudo apt-get install git gawk wget git-core diffstat unzip texinfo \ gcc-multilib g++-multilib build-essential chrpath libsdl1.2-dev xterm gyp
 * Please ensure that Git and the following packages are installed on the host if you plan to build image with Wayland, Weston and Crosswalk: gawk, wget, git-core, diffstat, unzip, texinfo, gcc-multilib, g++-multilib, build-essential, chrpath, libsdl1.2-dev, xterm, gyp. For example, on Ubuntu you can installed them using the following command:

git clone -b dizzy git://git.yoctoproject.org/poky.git cd poky git clone -b dizzy git://git.yoctoproject.org/meta-fsl-arm git clone -b dizzy git://github.com/Freescale/meta-fsl-arm-extra.git cd poky git clone -b av-poky https://github.com/konsulko/meta-fsl-arm.git git clone -b dizzy git://github.com/konsulko/meta-fsl-arm-extra.git git clone https://github.com/crosswalk-project/meta-crosswalk.git git clone https://github.com/konsulko/meta-crosswalk-embedded.git source oe-init-build-env
 * Download Poky
 * Download ARM and Freescale layers
 * For Wayland & Weston version 1.5
 * For Wayland & Weston version 1.6
 * Optionally you may add Crosswalk if you want to run standalone HTML5 applications
 * Initialize build directory

local.conf
Perform the following modifications of conf/local.conf: MACHINE ??= "cubox-i" PACKAGE_CLASSES ?= "package_rpm" ACCEPT_FSL_EULA = "1" LICENSE_FLAGS_WHITELIST = "commercial" PARALLEL_MAKE ?= "-j 4" BB_NUMBER_THREADS ?= "4" DISTRO_FEATURES_remove = "x11"
 * Change machine type to cubox-i:
 * Append the following additional configurations:
 * Optionally change the following settings to optimize the build depending on the hardware specifications of your build system:
 * Optionally append the following configuration if you are building Wayland and Weston


 * Optionally append the following configuration if you want to use systemd.

DISTRO_FEATURES_append = " systemd" VIRTUAL-RUNTIME_init_manager = "systemd" DISTRO_FEATURES_BACKFILL_CONSIDERED = "sysvinit" VIRTUAL-RUNTIME_initscripts = "" MACHINE_FEATURES_remove = "irda" INHERIT += "rm_work" IMAGE_INSTALL_append = " crosswalk"
 * Optionally append the following configuration if you want to save disk space by deleting temporary files after the build
 * Optionally if you want to build Crosswalk append the following line to the end of the file:


 * If systemd is enabled add network-eth0-config to the image to make sure eth0 will initialized automatically at boot, for example:

IMAGE_INSTALL_append = " network-eth0-config"


 * If systemd is enabled you can also add multimedia-demo to play video file at startup:

IMAGE_INSTALL_append = " multimedia-demo"

IMAGE_INSTALL_append = " crosswalk \                       gstreamer1.0 gstreamer1.0-plugins-imx-meta \                        gstreamer1.0-plugins-base-meta gstreamer1.0-plugins-good-meta \                        gstreamer1.0-plugins-bad-meta gstreamer1.0-plugins-good \                        gstreamer1.0-plugins-bad gstreamer1.0-plugins-ugly \                        gstreamer1.0-libav gstreamer1.0-plugins-base-playback \                        gstreamer1.0-meta-base \                        gstreamer1.0-meta-video \                        gstreamer1.0-meta-audio \                        gstreamer1.0-meta-debug \                        gstreamer1.0-plugins-imx gstreamer1.0-plugins-ugly-meta \                        pulseaudio pulseaudio-server \                        alsa-utils alsa-utils-speakertest \                        gst-fsl-plugin \                        network-eth0-config \ multimedia-demo \ " COMMERCIAL_AUDIO_PLUGINS ?= " \ gst-plugins-ugly-mad \ gst-plugins-ugly-mpegaudioparse \ gst-fsl-plugin \ " COMMERCIAL_VIDEO_PLUGINS ?= " \ gst-plugins-ugly-mpeg2dec \ gst-plugins-ugly-mpegstream \ gst-plugins-bad-mpegvideoparse \ " CORE_IMAGE_EXTRA_INSTALL += " \ gst-plugins-base-videotestsrc \ gst-plugins-bad-fbdevsink \ gst-ffmpeg alsa-utils \ gst-plugins-good-isomp4 \ "
 * Optionally if you want to include gstreamer with video and audio support, append it to IMAGE_INSTALL_append. Check gstreamer user's guide to learn how to verify that it is working on the image for HummingBoard. For example to build Crosswalk and gstreamer use:

bblayers.conf
/home/test/poky/meta-fsl-arm \ /home/test/poky/meta-fsl-arm-extra \ /home/test/poky/meta-crosswalk \ /home/test/poky/meta-crosswalk-embedded \
 * Append the following two lines to BBLAYERS at conf/bblayers.conf:
 * Append the following lines if you want to enable Crosswalk layers

Build & Run
bitbake core-image-minimal
 * Run the following command to build a minimal image:

bitbake core-image-weston
 * Alternatively, run the following command to build an Wayland/Weston image with Crosswalk (Crosswalk will be included depending on the configuration at conf/local.conf):

bitbake core-image-sato
 * Alternatively, run the following command to build an image with Crosswalk and X11:

cd tmp/deploy/images/cubox-i/ umount /dev/sdX* dd if=core-image-weston-cubox-i.sdcard of=/dev/sdX bs=4M conv=fsync
 * The build may take up to several hours depending on the technical specifications of the build system. Grab a cup of coffee and when the image is ready go to tmp/deploy/images/cubox-i/. Replace X with the corresponding letter to a microSD card and copy the image to it using the following commands:

libsdl-native
Install libsdl-native on the host or just remove it from conf/local.conf if you experience an error similar to the one below. For more information please check Yocto Project Bug 6509. ERROR: OE-core's config sanity checker detected a potential misconfiguration. Either fix the cause of this error or at your own risk disable the checker (see sanity.conf). Following is the list of potential problems / advisories:

libsdl-native is set to be ASSUME_PROVIDED but sdl-config can't be found in PATH. Please either install it, or configure qemu not to require sdl.

Playing Video
To play a video with sound execute the following command: gst-play-1.0 --interactive --audiosink="pulsesink" --videosink=autodetect foo.mp4 To play a video without sound run the command below: gst-play-1.0 --interactive --audiosink fakesink --videosink=autodetect foo.mp4


 * The following keyboard commands are supported in interactive mode :
 * SPACE - Pause/Resume playback
 * ARROW UP/DOWN - Volume up/down
 * ARROW LEFT/RIGHT - Seek back/forward
 * > - Skip to next item in playlist
 * < - Go back to previous item in playlist
 * Q, ESC - Quit

i.MX Gstreamer Plugins
After building an image that includes gstreamer, boot it on HummingBoard and execute the following command to verify that i.MX gstreamer plugins have been successfully included: gst-inspect-1.0 | grep imx If the gstreamer1.0-plugins-imx is available you will see something like: imxvpu: imxvpudec: Freescale VPU video decoder imxvpu: imxvpuenc_h263: Freescale VPU h.263 video encoder imxvpu: imxvpuenc_h264: Freescale VPU h.264 video encoder imxvpu: imxvpuenc_mpeg4: Freescale VPU MPEG-4 video encoder imxvpu: imxvpuenc_mjpeg: Freescale VPU motion JPEG video encoder imxeglvivsink: imxeglvivsink: Freescale EGL video sink imxv4l2src: imxv4l2src: V4L2 CSI Video Source imxaudio: imxuniaudiodec: Freescale i.MX uniaudio decoder imxpxp: imxpxpvideosink: Freescale PxP video sink imxpxp: imxpxpvideotransform: Freescale PxP video transform imxipu: imxipuvideotransform: Freescale IPU video transform imxipu: imxipuvideosink: Freescale IPU video sink imxg2d: imxg2dvideosink: Freescale G2D video sink imxg2d: imxg2dvideotransform: Freescale G2D video transform

i.MX VPU
To verify that i.MX VPU is used in the pipeline while playing video using gst-play-1.0 enable debug information and check the output. For example: gst-play-1.0 --gst-debug=DEBUG --audiosink fakesink --videosink=autodetect foo.mp4 2>&1 >/dev/null | grep "Plugin 'i mxvpu'"

If i.MX VPU is used the output will be similar to: 0:00:00.631060000 1318  0x1179800 DEBUG           GST_REGISTRY /media/storage/poky-crosswalk/build/tmp/work/cortexa9hf-vfp-neon-poky-linux-gnueabi/gstreamer1.0/1.4.1-r0/gstreamer-1.4.1/gst/gstregistrychunks.c:565:gst_registry_chunks_load_feature: Plugin 'imxvpu' feature 'imxvpudec' typename : 'GstElementFactory' 0:00:00.631917000 1318  0x1179800 DEBUG           GST_REGISTRY /media/storage/poky-crosswalk/build/tmp/work/cortexa9hf-vfp-neon-poky-linux-gnueabi/gstreamer1.0/1.4.1-r0/gstreamer-1.4.1/gst/gstregistrychunks.c:565:gst_registry_chunks_load_feature: Plugin 'imxvpu' feature 'imxvpuenc_h263' typename : 'GstElementFactory' 0:00:00.634468667 1318  0x1179800 DEBUG           GST_REGISTRY /media/storage/poky-crosswalk/build/tmp/work/cortexa9hf-vfp-neon-poky-linux-gnueabi/gstreamer1.0/1.4.1-r0/gstreamer-1.4.1/gst/gstregistrychunks.c:565:gst_registry_chunks_load_feature: Plugin 'imxvpu' feature 'imxvpuenc_h264' typename : 'GstElementFactory' 0:00:00.635288334 1318  0x1179800 DEBUG           GST_REGISTRY /media/storage/poky-crosswalk/build/tmp/work/cortexa9hf-vfp-neon-poky-linux-gnueabi/gstreamer1.0/1.4.1-r0/gstreamer-1.4.1/gst/gstregistrychunks.c:565:gst_registry_chunks_load_feature: Plugin 'imxvpu' feature 'imxvpuenc_mpeg4' typename : 'GstElementFactory' 0:00:00.636089334 1318  0x1179800 DEBUG           GST_REGISTRY /media/storage/poky-crosswalk/build/tmp/work/cortexa9hf-vfp-neon-poky-linux-gnueabi/gstreamer1.0/1.4.1-r0/gstreamer-1.4.1/gst/gstregistrychunks.c:565:gst_registry_chunks_load_feature: Plugin 'imxvpu' feature 'imxvpuenc_mjpeg' typename : 'GstElementFactory'

Sound
To enable sound for gstreamer perform the following steps: IMAGE_INSTALL_append = " crosswalk gstreamer1.0 gstreamer1.0-plugins-imx-meta \                       gstreamer1.0-plugins-base-meta gstreamer1.0-plugins-good-meta \                        gstreamer1.0-plugins-bad-meta gstreamer1.0-plugins-good \                        gstreamer1.0-plugins-bad gstreamer1.0-plugins-ugly \                        gstreamer1.0-libav gstreamer1.0-plugins-base-playback \                        gstreamer1.0-meta-base \                        gstreamer1.0-meta-video \                        gstreamer1.0-meta-audio \                        gstreamer1.0-meta-debug \                        gstreamer1.0-plugins-imx gstreamer1.0-plugins-ugly-meta \                        pulseaudio pulseaudio-server \                        alsa-utils alsa-utils-speakertest\                        "
 * Add the following configurations to conf/local.conf:

COMMERCIAL_AUDIO_PLUGINS ?= " \ gst-plugins-ugly-mad \ gst-plugins-ugly-mpegaudioparse \ " COMMERCIAL_VIDEO_PLUGINS ?= " \ gst-plugins-ugly-mpeg2dec \ gst-plugins-ugly-mpegstream \ gst-plugins-bad-mpegvideoparse \ " CORE_IMAGE_EXTRA_INSTALL += " \ gst-plugins-base-videotestsrc \ gst-plugins-bad-fbdevsink \ gst-ffmpeg alsa-utils \ gst-plugins-good-isomp4 \ "

bitbake -c menuconfig virtual/kernel
 * Configure kernel to have sound over HDMI

[*] Include in-kernel firmware blobs in kernel binary (imx/sdma/sdma-imx6q.bin) External firmware blobs to build into the kernel binary bitbake core-image-weston gpasswd -a root audio pulseaudio --system gst-launch-1.0 audiotestsrc ! audioconvert ! audioresample ! pulsesink gst-launch-1.0 playbin uri=file:///home/root/vivaldi.mp3 audio-sink="pulsesink"
 * From the menu select Device Drivers > Generic Driver Options > Userspace firmware loading support and set it to:
 * Save the config and exit
 * Compile the image. For example:
 * Boot the image and if pulseaudio has not been already started: add root user to group audio, and launch pulseaudio:
 * Quick sound test with gstreamer:
 * Play mp3:

=Tizen=

There are ongoing efforts for porting Tizen:Common and Tizen IVI with Wayland, Weston and Crosswalk on HummingBoard:
 * Building Tizen with Yocto for HummingBoard
 * Building Wayland and Weston on Tizen Device with Freescale i.MX6 SoC

= Debugging =

It is possible to debug Tizen images on HummingBoard using 3.3V USB to serial cable, such as Olimex USB-Serial-Cable-F, connected to the UART of the board. Follow the instructions below to connect a cable to the board (do it on your own risk, no warranty is provided):


 * The RX line of the cable (GREEN wire if you are using Olimex USB-Serial-Cable-F) should go to pin 8 (TX line) of HummingBoard,
 * The TX line of the cable (RED wire if you are using Olimex USB-Serial-Cable-F) should go to pin 10 (RX line) of HummingBoard,
 * The BLUE wire if you are using Olimex USB-Serial-Cable-F should go to pin 6 (GND line which is also available on pins 9,14,20, and 25) of HummingBoard.



Plug the USB connector of the cable to your computer and use your favorite tool for serial communication, for example on Ubuntu and other Linux distributions you may use screen: sudo screen /dev/ttyUSB0 115200

For more information and details check the article about serial console at SolidRun wiki.

=Useful Resources=
 * Building the kernel and u-boot for the CuBox-i and the HummingBoard
 * Using the CuBox-i with OpenEmbedded/Yocto
 * Building Wayland 1.1.0 and Weston 1.1.1 for i.MX6
 * Porting Tizen to imx6q