TQMa8MPxS - YOCTO Linux BSP documentation

This guide describes how to prepare, build and run a Cortex-M7 MCUXpresso hello world demo on STKa8MPxS with Windows and Linux.

Unless otherwise specified, the commands apply to both operating systems.

BSP built according to Quickstart BSP Instructions
Windows 10/11 or Ubuntu 22.04 and above

On Windows Host

This section describes the installation of the following tools:

Python3 (including pip) (version 3.8 or above)
ARM GNU Toolchain (e.g. version 15.2rel1, use AArch32 bare-metal target (arm-gnu-toolchain-15.2.rel1-mingw-w64-i686-arm-none-eabi.msi))
CMake (version 3.30 or above)
West (version 1.5.0 or above)
Ninja (version 1.13.0)

Download the installers and complete the installation wizards for Python and the ARM GNU Toolchain. If these tools are already installed, make sure their versions meet the version requirements mentioned above. CMake and West will be installed after the workspace is set up.

Remember the installation directory for the ARM GNU Toolchain as this is important later on.

Set up a workspace directory in a local directory

mkdir workspace
cd workspace

The ARMGCC_DIR system variable must be set to the installation directory of the ARM GNU toolchain. (e.g. C:\Program Files (x86)\Arm\GNU Toolchain mingw-w64-i686-arm-none-eabi) This can be achieved in the Windows Settings → System → Advanced System Settings → Advanced → Environment Variables

On Linux Host

This section describes the installation of the following tools:

Python3 (including pip) (version 3.8 or above)
ARM GNU Toolchain (e.g. version 15.2rel1, use AArch32 bare-metal target (arm-gnu-toolchain-15.2.rel1-x86_64-arm-none-eabi.tar.xz))
CMake (version 3.30 or above)
West (version 1.5.0 or above)
Ninja (version 1.13.0)

Install Python

sudo apt update  
sudo apt install git python3-full python-is-python3 python3-pip

Install the ARM GNU Linux Toolchain

wget https://developer.arm.com/-/media/Files/downloads/gnu/15.2.rel1/binrel/arm-gnu-toolchain-15.2.rel1-x86_64-arm-none-eabi.tar.xz
sudo tar --xz -xf arm-gnu-toolchain-15.2.rel1-x86_64-arm-none-eabi.tar.xz --directory /opt
rm arm-gnu-toolchain-15.2.rel1-x86_64-arm-none-eabi.tar.xz

Check the ~/.profile

cat ~/.profile

It should contain the following lines:

# set PATH so it includes user's private bin if it exists
PATH="$HOME/bin:$PATH"
# set PATH so it includes user's private bin for python if it exists
PATH="$HOME/.local/bin:$PATH"

Create an ARMGCC_DIR environment variable

export ARMGCC_DIR=/opt/arm-gnu-toolchain-15.2.rel1-x86_64-arm-none-eabi/

Note: The exported variable will be gone if the terminal is closed.

Set up the workspace directory

mkdir ~/workspace
cd ~/workspace

Go to the root workspace directory and then clone the Git Repository:

git clone https://github.com/tq-systems/mcuxsdk-examples-tq.git

Install necessary dependencies for the SDK:

pip install ninja jsonschema cmake west
pip install -r mcuxsdk-examples-tq/scripts/requirements.txt

Initialize the workspace

west init --local mcuxsdk-examples-tq 
west update

Note: If the installed commands (e.g. west) are not recognized, their location needs to be added to PATH first.

For Windows, add the following to the system environment:
C:/Users/<Username>/AppData/Roaming/Python/Python3x/Scripts

For Linux, execute:
export PATH=$PATH:$HOME/.local/bin

Remove old builds if necessary

On Windows Host

rmdir build /s

On Linux Host

rm -rf ./build

Build the demo

west build mcuxsdk-examples-tq/_boards/tqma8mpxs-mb-smarc-2/examples/demo_apps/hello_world --board tqma8mpxs-mb-smarc-2 -Dcore_id=cm7 -DBINARY_DIR=mcuxsdk-examples-tq/build -DCUSTOM_BOARD_ROOT="mcuxsdk-examples-tq/_boards" --config=debug --pristine

Build configuration and parameters:

Parameters:

-DBINARY_DIR: Location of the finished build artefacts
-DCUSTOM_BOARD_ROOT: Necessary for board definitions outside of the mcuxsdk directory.
-Dcore_id: Target core for the build (e.g. cm7, cm33).
--config: Optional, used to set the build configuration. Uses configuration debug by default.
--pristine: With this parameter, the build directory is cleaned before the build process.

Build Configurations:

Build Configuration	Description
debug	Build for SRAM with full debug symbols and no optimization
release	Speed- and size-optimized build for internal memory

The final build is located in ~/build/hello_world_cm7.xxx.

To run the hello world demo from U-Boot of the TQMa8MPxS, copy it into the SD-Card or use a USB flash drive.

Before starting the demo, connect a Micro-USB cable to X20 and a USB-to-RS232 cable to X40 of MB-SMARC-2 and open these two ports in a serial terminal. The first port will show the output of the Cortex-A53 and the second will show the demo output from the Cortex-M7.

In U-Boot, execute the commands below:

# when loading from usb
usb start
load usb 0:1 0x48000000 hello_world_cm7.bin
# or when loading from SD
fatload mmc 1:1 0x48000000 hello_world_cm7.bin

cp.b 0x48000000 0x7e0000 20000
bootaux 0x7e0000

Now, the Cortex-M7 terminal should print hello world.. Furthermore, any given character on the terminal is processed by the Cortex-M7 and gets echoed back to the terminal.

For debugging, hardware modifications on the SoM are needed. Debugging is currently not supported by default.

TQMa8MPxS - YOCTO Linux BSP documentation

Prerequisites

Prepare Host System

Set up Workspace

Compile the Demo

Run the Demo

Using U-Boot on the target