Bifferboard as Buildroot target

[Oliver Baltzer]

Hi all,

I have created a fork of Buildroot [1] that adds the Bifferboard as a
target device. Buildroot is a set of Makefiles and patches that makes it
easy to build Linux kernel and root filesystem images for embedded
devices such as the Bifferboard. It comes with a large number of
preconfigured packages that can be compiled for the target platform.

My fork adds the Bifferboard as a configurable target to Buildroot and
provides a few sensible default configurations to get started with.
Based off of those default configurations you can then use a menu driven
configuration tool to select additional packages you may want to
install. The basis kernel I used for the patches and the default
configurations is 2.6.34. I was able to port most of the patches but not
all. Nevertheless, it will build you a usable kernel.

You can find documentation and the repository on Github at:

http://github.com/nobits/buildroot-bifferboard

A tarball of the repository's snapshot can be downloaded at:

http://github.com/nobits/buildroot-bifferboard/tarball/master

Find below a basic set of instructions to get started.

Cheers,
Oliver

[1] http://buildroot.uclibc.org/

Getting Started
---------------

1. Clone the repository:

$ git clone git://github.com/nobits/buildroot-bifferboard.git

Or download the code:

$ wget http://github.com/nobits/buildroot-bifferboard/tarball/master
$ tar xfz nobits-buildroot-bifferboard-*.tar.gz

2. Initial configuration using defaults. The following default
configurations are currently available:

`bifferboard_minimal_defconfig`: A minimal configuration with a
default Busybox configuration and no additional packages.

`bifferboard_ssh_defconfig`: A minimal configuration + SSH server and
the default 'root' password set to 'bifferboard.

To use a default configuration, execute the following:

$ cd buildroot-bifferboard
$ make bifferboard_ssh_defconfig

3. Optionally customize the configuration. See
http://buildroot.uclibc.org/buildroot.html for details.

$ make menuconfig

4. Build the target kernel image and root filesystem image:

$ make

5. Upload the kernel image to the Bifferboard:

$ sudo python target/device/bifferboard/tools/bb_eth_upload8.py \
eth0 <BIFFERBOARD_MAC_ADDRESS> output/images/bzImage

Now power up your Bifferboard and ensure it is connected to the
network.

6. Copy the root filesystem image to a USB stick (`/dev/sdb1`):

$ sudo dd if=output/images/rootfs.ext2 of=/dev/sdb1

7. Plug the USB stick into the Bifferboard and reboot.

[Andrew Scheller]

> I have created a fork of Buildroot [1] that adds the Bifferboard as a
> target device. Buildroot is a set of Makefiles and patches that makes it
> easy to build Linux kernel and root filesystem images for embedded
> devices such as the Bifferboard. It comes with a large number of
> preconfigured packages that can be compiled for the target platform.

Cool, is this similar to what OpenWRT does? I remember that taking
*ages* to build the initial toolchain.

> Find below a basic set of instructions to get started.

Any chance you could add this info to the Wiki? Otherwise it'll
probably get lost in the mailing list archives, never to be seen again
;)

Lurch

[Oliver Baltzer]

On 10-06-05 07:43 AM, Andrew Scheller wrote:
>> I have created a fork of Buildroot [1] that adds the Bifferboard as a
>> target device. Buildroot is a set of Makefiles and patches that makes it
>> easy to build Linux kernel and root filesystem images for embedded
>> devices such as the Bifferboard. It comes with a large number of
>> preconfigured packages that can be compiled for the target platform.
>
> Cool, is this similar to what OpenWRT does? I remember that taking
> *ages* to build the initial toolchain.

Yes, OpenWRT is originally based off of Buildroot, but they have since
made so many changes that you barely see the resemblance.

The toolchain build does take quite a while, but you will get a fairly
flexible system which you can easily extend with your own application,
patches, etc. I have added two relatively simple, no-autotools packages
to the package selection within minutes.

>> Find below a basic set of instructions to get started.
>
> Any chance you could add this info to the Wiki? Otherwise it'll
> probably get lost in the mailing list archives, never to be seen again
> ;)

A permalink to the instructions is:

http://github.com/nobits/buildroot-bifferboard#readme

Maybe Biff can add this to the Wiki.

Cheers,
Oliver