i.MX 8X Software Distribution

Overview

Software development is usually not performed at the target system. Most development tasks are handled at a dedicated development system, called host. Depending on the task, either a Windows or Linux based host will be required. In most cases, the first task is to set up both host systems.

Requirements

Requirements for the set up of the standalone cross-development environment:

x86 host system (64-bit)
recommended free disk space: 25 GB
recommended memory size: 8 GB
Ubuntu 16.04 (64-bit)
Yocto toolchain (http://downloads.yoctoproject.org/releases/yocto/yocto-2.5/toolchain/x86_64/poky-glibc-x86_64-core-image-minimal-aarch64-toolchain-ext-2.5.sh)

Setting Up the Standalone Cross-Development Environment

A suitable cross-development toolchain is required to develop software for an ARM target system at a x86 host (development) system. In order to develop Linux software on the basis of the provided Yocto based Linux BSP, use the pre-built toolchain installer provided by the Yocto Project.

1. Perform a standard Ubuntu 16.04 (64-bit) installation (Clean install)

2. Install additional packages:

ssh
git
gitk
lzop
libncursesw5-dev
####3. Install the toolchain:

$ chmod a+x poky-glibc-x86_64-core-image-minimal-aarch64-toolchain-ext-2.5.sh
$ ./poky-glibc-x86_64-core-image-minimal-aarch64-toolchain-ext-2.5.sh

4. Source the setup of the environment:

$ . $HOME/poky_sdk/environment-setup-aarch64-poky-linux
$ unset LDFLAGS

5. Serial Port Terminal (Serial Console)

The initial start up code (bootloader) limits the hardware initialization to a minimum. Video interfaces and other interfaces like the keyboard are not fully initialized. The operating system initializes the hardware later on.
Therefore, the bootloader program and the operating system kernel redirect their output to a specified serial port and a serial connection is required to read it. The serial connection is also required to determine or influence the bootloader's behavior via command prompt.

congatec GmbH provides developers with various BSPs as startup framework for building applications that run on the conga QMX8X, SMX8X. The BSPs offered are Linux and android.

conga-QMX8-X / conga-SMX8-X

Congatec modules based on NXP i.MX 8X ARM Cortex-A35 and Cortex-M4F processors.

Software Distribution conga-QMX8-X and conga-SMX8-X

The software provided with the conga-QMX8-X and conga-SMX8-X sample distribution set is based on the Yocto Project (http://www.yoctoproject.org ) and i.MX 8X specific add-on layers provided by NXP and congatec.
In order to rebuild the root filesystem image, kernel and bootloader for conga-QMX8-X and conga-SMX8-X, the complete kernel source, bootloader source and individual patches can be obtained from the congatec source code repository:

https://git.congatec.com/imx8x_early_access *see note

Further software documentation can be found here:

https://git.congatec.com/imx8x_early_access/meta-fsl-bsp-release *see note

note: Contact congatec technical support to get access to the congatec git server.