Shared Embedded Linux Distribution

This page describes the CELP "Shared Embedded Linux Distribution" project
 * This is a project to use Debian packages with the Yocto Project "Poky"
 * Goal is to share the work of maintaining long-term support for an embedded distribution, by leveraging the work of the Debian project
 * See [[Media:Poky_meets_Debian_Understanding_How_to_Make_an_Embedded_Linux_by_Using_an_Existing_Distribution%27s_Source_Code.pdf|"Poky meets Debian: Understanding How to Make an Embedded Linux by Using an Existing Distribution's Source Code"]] talk at ELC 2015 by Yoshitake Kobayashi
 * See [[Media:Meta-debian handout r2.pdf|"Meta-debian handout"]] which was available at LinuxCon Japan 2015 CE Workgroup booth

Rationale
The Deby (meta-debian layer) is a set of recipes (metadata) for the poky build system, which allows cross-building Linux images using Debian source packages. By enabling meta-debian layer, poky fetches required sources from Debian source repository and LTSI/CIP kernel repository. Deby is independent of OpenEmbedded-core recipes, so OE-Core recipes are still available after meta-debian layer is enabled. Deby is mainly intended to be used for embedded products which needs long-term support.

The purpose is to provide the following things The meta-debian recipes follow Debian build rules by default, but sometimes customize them for embedded systems if necessary (e.g. remove dependencies). Also they re-use essential patches from OE-Core to support cross-building
 * Fully customizable embedded Linux based on existed distro
 * Wide embedded CPU support
 * Stability and long-term support

Quick start
Install essential packages poky requires into your host system according to http://www.yoctoproject.org/docs/2.0/ref-manual/ref-manual.html#intro-requirements

$ sudo apt-get install git tar python $ sudo apt-get install gawk wget git-core diffstat unzip texinfo gcc-multilib build-essential chrpath socat

NOTE: The following three packages have version limitation

git: 1.7.8 or greater tar: 1.24 or greater python: 2.7.3 or greater not including Python 3.x

Setup repositories.

$ git clone -b morty git://git.yoctoproject.org/poky.git $ cd poky $ git clone -b morty https://github.com/meta-debian/meta-debian.git $ cd ..

Setup build directory.

$ export TEMPLATECONF=meta-debian/conf $ source ./poky/oe-init-build-env

You can change the target machine by setting MACHINE variable in conf/local.conf to one of the following machines.

qemux86 (default) qemux86-64 qemuarm qemuarm64 qemuppc qemumips

For example, the target machine is set to QEMU ARM by adding the following difinition to conf/local.conf.

MACHINE = "qemuarm"

Now, the build system is ready. Build Linux kernel and the minimal rootfs by the following command. It takes a while to complete (more than 30 minutes).

$ bitbake core-image-minimal

Run the built Linux on QEMU. Please replace ${MACHINE} by the target machine you selected in the above step.

$ runqemu ${MACHINE} nographic

Only if MACHINE is qemuarm, the console should be set to the correct serial device.

$ runqemu qemuarm nographic bootparams="console=ttyAMA0"

After boot, you can login as root without password.

If you'd like to reduce the time of bitbake, please refer to https://github.com/meta-debian/meta-debian-docker.

Download

 * https://github.com/meta-debian/

Mailing list

 * meta-debian@googlegroups.com
 * Subscription
 * meta-debian+subscribe@googlegroups.com
 * https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/meta-debian/join

Presentations

 * [[Media:Poky_meets_Debian_Understanding_How_to_Make_an_Embedded_Linux_by_Using_an_Existing_Distribution%27s_Source_Code.pdf|"Poky meets Debian: Understanding How to Make an Embedded Linux by Using an Existing Distribution's Source Code"]] talk at ELC 2015 by Yoshitake Kobayashi
 * [[Media:LinuxCon2015 meta-debian r7.pdf|"meta-debian: Extending Yocto Project's Poky for building Debian-based embedded system"]] talk at LinuxCon Japan 2015 by Kazuhiro Hayashi
 * [[Media:ELCE2016_Hayashi_Deby.pdf|"Deby - Reproducible and Maintainable Embedded Linux Environment with Poky"]] talk at ELC Europe 2016 by Kazuhiro Hayashi
 * [[Media:MiniDebianConfJapan-Yoshi.pdf|"Generating Embedded Linux Images by Using the Debian Source Code"]] talk at Mini Debian Conference Japan 2016 by Yoshitake Kobayashi
 * |"Building Debian-Based Products: Experiences in Collaboration" talk at Open Source Summit Japan 2017 by Baurzhan Ismagulov and Kazuhiro Hayashi (This was a collaborative work with ISAR.)

Similar activities for reference

 * ISAR - Integration System for Automated Root filesystem generation
 * ELBE - embedded linux build environment