In this tutorial, you will learn how to build an image for the Portenta X8 with the source code provided at our GitHub repository for lmp-manifest. Building your image locally can help debug several aspects of the system, such as the bootloader or kernel support.
Images built locally cannot register with FoundriesFactory and will not be OTA compatible, but this is a good alternative for those who do not have a FoundriesFactory subscription.
This tutorial targets customers that are not FoundriesFactory subscribers, but still want to extend the functionality of the Arduino pre-built sources by building their images. For FoundriesFactory subscribers, we strongly suggest making use of your Factory's continuous integration system for image creation.
You will create a Docker image that has the dependencies needed to build your device image. To do so, you will need to clone our lmp-manifest repository. The following steps will guide you through the process:
First, clone the lmp-manifest repository with the following command:
1git clone https://github.com/arduino/lmp-manifest.git
After cloning the lmp-manifest repository successfully, we will proceed to build the Docker Image using following command sequence:
1cd lmp-manifest2docker build -t yocto-build ./lmp-manifest
You will be able to see similar result if everything went successfully.
Once the Docker Image is ready, we will run the image with the
-v
argument to mount a volume. This allows you to use a host directory inside the Docker image, so you can store all the data and build artifacts safely.If you do not use a volume while running the image, you will lose the data when the image stops
Run the
yocto-build
builder image with following command:1docker run -v <source>:/dockerVolume -it yocto-build bash
We need to switch to the
builder
user with the following command after the previous process, and the password is builder:1su builder
You can download a bash script that wraps all the upcoming steps.
Now that you are running inside the Docker Image, you can use tools like git-repo, which is already installed.
First, configure git with your credentials. They don't need to be the real ones but are required by
git-repo
to pull. The following commands can be used for this example:1git config --global user.email "you@example.com"2git config --global user.name "Your Name"
Change to the home directory, and initialize the repository using repo:
1cd ~2repo init -u https://github.com/arduino/lmp-manifest.git -m arduino.xml -b release
Then pull the needed files with:
1repo sync
After completion, it should look like the following image:
NOTE: If you are a FoundriesFactory subscriber and want to build your Factory sources locally, please use the manifest link for your Factory as below. This is not recommended as images built locally cannot register to the Factory and receive OTAs.
It is recommendable to set
DISTRO
to either:lmp-base
: insecure image without ostree, developer-friendly, not OTA compatiblelmp
: secure image without xwaylandlmp-xwayland
: secure image with xwayland supportIt will help to classify the image if it follows any of the previous characteristics and with the following command:
1DISTRO=lmp-xwayland MACHINE=portenta-x8 . setup-environment
will be better supported soon.lmp-partner-arduino-image
It will then switch automatically to a new folder. Continuing, you can now proceed to accept the EULA using the following command:
1echo "ACCEPT_FSL_EULA = \"1\"" >> conf/local.conf
You will be able to see similar output as following after the previous steps:
To start building the image, following command is used:
1bitbake lmp-partner-arduino-image
This process may take ~7 hours depending on the build host
If you want to use your computer while it builds, it is recommendable to lower the threads used since it takes a lot of resources and time. Do so by opening
conf/local.conf
and lowering the values of the following variables:BB_NUMBER_PARSE_THREADS = "4"
BB_NUMBER_THREADS = "4"
And add:
PARALLEL_MAKE = "-j 4"
If possible, it is a good practice to understand the available threads of your computer used for this process, to optimize the resources accordingly for optimal balance between build performance and side tasks while waiting for the build. Once it finishes you will see something similar to:
To flash your board, you will need to compile lmp-mfgtool distro to get additional tools. First, go into your home folder and change
DISTRO
following the command sequence:1cd ..2DISTRO=lmp-mfgtool MACHINE=portenta-x8 . setup-environment3echo "ACCEPT_FSL_EULA = \"1\"" >> conf/local.conf4echo "MFGTOOL_FLASH_IMAGE = \"lmp-partner-arduino-image\"" >> conf/local.conf
You should be able to see similar results as following image when successful:
To compile and get the tools required, we will use following command:
1bitbake mfgtool-files
After completion:
This process may take ~2 hours depending on your build host
After a successful build, save the needed files to the host volume you mounted with
docker run
. Use the following commands to copy the files to your storage unit:1cd ..2mkdir ../../dockerVolume/flashing3DEPLOY_FOLDER=../../dockerVolume/flashing4
5cp -L build-lmp-mfgtool/deploy/images/portenta-x8/mfgtool-files-portenta-x8.tar.gz $DEPLOY_FOLDER6cp -L build-lmp-xwayland/deploy/images/portenta-x8/imx-boot-portenta-x8 $DEPLOY_FOLDER7cp -L build-lmp-xwayland/deploy/images/portenta-x8/u-boot-portenta-x8.itb $DEPLOY_FOLDER8cp -L build-lmp-xwayland/deploy/images/portenta-x8/sit-portenta-x8.bin $DEPLOY_FOLDER9cp -L build-lmp-xwayland/deploy/images/portenta-x8/lmp-partner-arduino-image-portenta-x8.wic $DEPLOY_FOLDER10
11cd $DEPLOY_FOLDER12tar xvf mfgtool-files-portenta-x8.tar.gz
You will be able to see the copied files in your OS file explorer.
In this tutorial, you have learned how to build a "builder" Docker image, get its required files, configure the build settings, build the image,a and to save the needed files for flashing. Now you have all the required files to flash the image you built onto the device.
Please follow the Flashing tutorial to flash your device with your custom image. You can use the files provided from this build to flash the Portenta X8 following the tutorial's steps.
do_fetch
issues, try to check your system's and virtual machine's DNS settings.