Re: [meta-freescale] Advice on Yocto Build for Mainline Linux or for NXP Linux for Polyhex Debix Model A or Model A SoM for Open Source Wildlife Camera System

Hi Mauro,

Thank you very much for your help - it's an enormous help to me to 
understand why I was getting so confused trying to find Yocto recipies 
for this board.

I've put some links to our conservation work and the repository for 
WildCamera below.

We could use a different i.MX 8M Plus board - a board that has good 
Yocto support and good mainline Linux support would be ideal for us so 
if anyone can suggest one that would be very valuable. (We plan to try 
to keep independent of any one hardware supplier and keep an element of 
competition between suppliers.)

> Moreover Debix does not provide a meta layer for its boards.

Yes - that's what we found as well - the Debix instructions describe 
manually modifying the source files which to me seemed strange - 
modifications like these would normally be done in a new Yocto layer?

My background is as a climbing arborist and user space (Python, .Net, 
SQL) software engineer so my understanding of embedded systems is 
inadequate - if folk can suggest anything that I should study to improve 
my understanding please let me know.

There's more about our conservation work here

https://new-homes-for-old-friends.cairnwater.com/

And here in English, German and French

https://new-homes-for-old-friends.cairnwater.com/quick-summary-new-homes-for-old-friends-switzerland/

And analysis for the new open source wildlife camera here:

https://github.com/William-Robert-Robertson/WildCamera

Will

On 2025-05-09 09:12, Mauro S. wrote:
> On 08/05/25 17:07, Will Robertson wrote:
>> Hi,
>> 
>> I was wondering if anyone had any advice on the simplest way for me to 
>> use Yocto to build an image using mainline Linux or NXP Linux for the 
>> Polyhex Debix Model A i.MX M8 Plus board or for the Debix SoM A i.MX 
>> 8M Plus board with SoM A I/O board?
>> 
>> For my work in conservation of endangered European dormouse species 
>> I'm working on a new open source wildlife camera system so I'll have 
>> to learn how to include kernel drivers for image sensors in the device 
>> tree. I'm not a professional kernel driver engineer so if anyone can 
>> recommend anything that I could study to help with this it would also 
>> be very valuable.
>> 
>> We're looking at the i.MX 8M Plus because of it's very strong ISP 
>> (Image Signal Processor), two MIPI CSI-2 ports and NXP's strong 
>> commitment to open source. The Polyhex Debix boards seem to provide a 
>> good way for us to test prototypes in the field before designing our 
>> own carrier board for an i.MX 8M Plus SoM.
>> 
>> As far as I can work out, the Polyhex Debix boards stay fairly close 
>> to the design of the two official NXP evaluation boards 8MPLUSLPD4-EVK 
>> and 8MPLUSLPD4-PEVK:
>> 
>> https://www.nxp.com/design/design-center/development-boards-and- 
>> designs/8MPLUSLPD4-EVK
>> 
>> https://www.nxp.com/design/design-center/development-boards-and- 
>> designs/8MPLUSLPD4-PEVK
>> 
>> I was able to find these Yocto DTS and DTSI files for the boards:
>> 
>> for Debix Model A SBC
>> https://git.yoctoproject.org/linux-yocto-dev/plain/arch/arm64/boot/dts/ 
>> freescale/imx8mp-debix-model-a.dts
>> for Debix Model A SoM I/O Board
>> https://git.yoctoproject.org/linux-yocto-dev/plain/arch/arm64/boot/dts/ 
>> freescale/imx8mp-debix-som-a-bmb-08.dts
>> and DTSI for Debix Model A SoM
>> https://git.yoctoproject.org/linux-yocto-dev/plain/arch/arm64/boot/dts/ 
>> freescale/imx8mp-debix-som-a.dtsi
>> 
>> Searching for the i.MX 8M Plus under OpenEmbedded I could only find 
>> DDR4 and LPDDR4 boards (of which I think only the LPDDR4 board is in 
>> use):
>> 
>> https://git.yoctoproject.org/meta-freescale/tree/conf/machine/imx8mp- 
>> ddr4-evk.conf?h=master
>> 
>> https://git.yoctoproject.org/meta-freescale/tree/conf/machine/imx8mp- 
>> lpddr4-evk.conf?h=master
>> 
>> these both build on imx8mp-evk.inc
>> 
>> require include/imx8mp-evk.inc
>> 
>> which I think is the official i.MX 8M Plus evaluation board.
>> 
>> Debix give some guidance on using Yocto to build images for their 
>> boards here https://github.com/debix-tech/uboot but I thought that it 
>> would be better for me to take a cleaner approach.
>> 
>> Thank you very much for your help,
>> 
>> Will
>> 
> 
> Hi Will,
> 
> at the moment Debix boards seem not supported "out of the box" in 
> mainline meta layers: this means that there are some pieces needed for 
> their support but some works still be done to add missing parts and 
> gather them together. Moreover Debix does not provide a meta layer for 
> its boards.
> 
> To kickstart your project I would suggest you follow the instructions 
> from Debix, at least to do first tests and to take control over the 
> board and the develop process: this helps you focus on the imaging part 
> without losing time to bringup the board.
> 
> Later you can return on the BSP part (i.e. u-boot and kernel) and maybe 
> try to implement missing parts and gather them all in a meta layer that 
> allows to build the Debis BSP inside Yocto.
> 
> Regards