The Yocto Project - An Overview - hands-on Training Course

Course Outline

Introduction

• History of Unix/Linux, licenses, standards, working with free software, finding resources, spelunking, and the Unix philosophy.

Embedded Specifics

• Differences between Linux on desktop versus embedded systems, cross- vs. native toolchains, pre-built toolchains, build systems, C libraries, etc.

Eval Board

• Boot process and observing the boot sequence.

Yocto Introduction

• What is Yocto? Why use the YP? What is the YP? Key components: Poky, BitBake, OE-Core, and Metadata.

The YP Autobuilder

• What is the YP Autobuilder? Docker container usage (pulling and launching).

The YP Workflow

• Introduction
• Workflow and OE architecture
• Configuration (User, Metadata, Machine, Distribution Policy)
• Sources
• Build process (Source fetching, patching, configure/compile/install, Pseudo, recipe examples, output analysis/packaging, image generation, SDK generation)
• Customizing Images (Introduction, local.conf, IMAGE_FEATURES, custom .bb files, custom package groups)

BitBake

• History
• Syntax
• Debugging techniques (debug levels, finding recipes/images/package groups, BitBake environment/tasks/logging, force building specific tasks, cleansstate, invalidating stamps, devshell, dependency explorer, killing all BitBake instances, BitBake graphical wrapper)

Layers

• Introduction, bitbake-layers tool, yocto-layer tool.

BSP

• Introduction, System Development Workflow, BSP Developer’s Guide (bsp-tool).

Kernel

• Introduction, System Development Workflow, Kernel Development Manual (defconfig, defconfig plus configuration fragments, in-tree kmod, out-of-tree kmod, fdt, etc.).

Application Development Toolkit

• Introduction, Cross-Development Toolchain, Sysroot, ADT - Eclipse Yocto Plug-in, QEMU Emulator, User Space Tools.
• Installing ADT & Toolchains
  • Using a Cross-Toolchain tarball (Introduction, Building/Installing the Cross-Toolchain tarball, Cross-Toolchain with Makefile/Autotools/Autotools library + App, recipes).
  • Using the ADT Installer (Introduction, Web Server, Building image + ADT installer, Configuring and running ADT installer, adding ADT installer to web server, ADT installer on host).

Eclipse

• Introduction, Application Development Workflow.
• Working with Eclipse (rootfs features, kernel + fdt, rootfs, installing JDK, installing Eclipse, configuring Eclipse, installing Yocto Plug-in, configuring the Yocto Plug-in, creating an autotooled project, configuring cross-toolchains, building the project).

Debugging

• Introduction, gdb, gdb remote debugging, debugging with Eclipse (remote), running from Eclipse (remote).

Profiling/Tracing

• Introduction, perf, gprof, gcov, strace, ftrace, systemtap, oprofile, LTTng + Eclipse (data visualization).

Package Management

• Working with packages, IPK, creating a package feed, installing a package with opkg on the target.

Licensing

• Introduction, adding custom licenses, Open Source License Compliance.

Devtool

• Introduction, devtool, real-world showcase (meta-cfengine).

Except where otherwise noted, the content and this course outline are licensed under Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0).