The current runme.sh script is a big bodge in order to generate a bootable linux disto on the CEX7 - which I totally understand the reasons behind in order to get something working. But using the CEX7 within a product raises many challenges most notably
repeatable builds
offline builds (air gapped networks)
ease of maintenance for package updates / additions / CVE analysis
ease of custom package / application development
As such we currently use yocto as our default build system for other products. It would be really helpful if SolidRun was able to support lx2160acex7 as a machine in a meta layer in the NXP yocto manifest.
is there a plan for adding CEX7 support under yocto
if yes to [1] what is the timescale, 1 month, 6 months, 1 year …
if no to [1] then is there a plan for a different build system. e.g. nix, buildroot, … or is it SolidRuns intention to leave the problem to it’s customers
Let me evaluate what NXP has for their Yocto meta-layer for the layerscape platform and get back to you. The image produced by the lx2160a_build repo is not meant as a production platform, but a quick way to evaluate the NXP BSP based on a distro that most customers request. Ultimately the best path forward will be SystemReady ES and SystemReady IR firmwares that can then work with any mainline kernel based distro. I would say we are currently 98% there.
What is the status of Yocto and/or SystemReady ES for the Clearfog/Honeycomb LX2?
The HoneyComb LX2 product page says that it is “SystemReady ES Ready” and that “HoneyComb running our tianocore edk2 based firmware will boot and run on most Aarch64 operating systems out of the box”, but it’s not clear where this firmware can be downloaded and/or how to build it from source or customize it.
The SolidRun GitHub site lists the “meta-solidrun-bsp” with the comment “Yocto layer to support all of SolidRun’s Hardware”, but the page itself says “iMX6 based platforms” and the only machine configuration appears to be “solidrun-imx6.conf”.
The only results on the GitHub site searching for “lx2160” are:
“lx2160a_build” with the “runme.sh” script that seems to be based on the LayerScape SDK; which is considered “legacy” and no longer updated by NXP (since Aug-2021).
“lx2160a_uefi” which hasn’t been updated in 2 years.
NXP has just recently changed their SDK policy and the latest LSDK that we are based on is the considered “stable” We are looking at rebasing onto their unified BSPs, which have just been released in the last month.
SystemReady ES is where it stands. It passed certification but mainline Arm Linux maintainers did not want to support patches that were required for all the SystemReady ES certified hardware to work out of the box. Their opinion was that ACPI should only be for Server Ready systems. As of two years ago we have made the firmware as compatible with mainline linux as possible, but without the ability to have additional ACPI support merged into the mainline kernel we can not push development further. In general we recommend SystemReady IR firmware moving forward.
Hello, we are also in need for building a newer Kernel than 5.10.35 for our ClearFog based system.
A Yocto BSP from your side would make it possible to continue with this platform.
So we are also curious about the current status. Thank you in regard!