Search icon CANCEL
Arrow left icon
Explore Products
Best Sellers
New Releases
Books
Videos
Audiobooks
Learning Hub
Conferences
Free Learning
Arrow right icon
Embedded Linux Development using Yocto Projects
Embedded Linux Development using Yocto Projects

Embedded Linux Development using Yocto Projects: Learn to leverage the power of Yocto Project to build efficient Linux-based products , Second Edition

Arrow left icon
Profile Icon Otavio Salvador Profile Icon Angolini
Arrow right icon
$54.99
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Half star icon Empty star icon 3.4 (5 Ratings)
Paperback Nov 2017 162 pages 2nd Edition
eBook
$29.99 $43.99
Paperback
$54.99
Subscription
Free Trial
Renews at $19.99p/m
Arrow left icon
Profile Icon Otavio Salvador Profile Icon Angolini
Arrow right icon
$54.99
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Half star icon Empty star icon 3.4 (5 Ratings)
Paperback Nov 2017 162 pages 2nd Edition
eBook
$29.99 $43.99
Paperback
$54.99
Subscription
Free Trial
Renews at $19.99p/m
eBook
$29.99 $43.99
Paperback
$54.99
Subscription
Free Trial
Renews at $19.99p/m

What do you get with Print?

Product feature icon Instant access to your digital eBook copy whilst your Print order is Shipped
Product feature icon Paperback book shipped to your preferred address
Product feature icon Download this book in EPUB and PDF formats
Product feature icon Access this title in our online reader with advanced features
Product feature icon DRM FREE - Read whenever, wherever and however you want
Table of content icon View table of contents Preview book icon Preview Book

Embedded Linux Development using Yocto Projects

Meeting the Yocto Project

In this chapter we will be introduced to the Yocto Project. The main concepts of the project, which are constantly used throughout the book, are discussed here. We will discuss the Yocto Project history, OpenEmbedded, Poky, BitBake, and metadata in brief, so fasten your seat belt and welcome aboard!

What is the Yocto Project?

The Yocto Project is a Linux Foundation workgroup defined as:

"The Yocto Project provides open source, high-quality infrastructure and tools to help developers create their own custom Linux distributions for any hardware architecture, across multiple market segments. The Yocto Project is intended to provide a helpful starting point for developers."

The Yocto Project is an open source collaboration project that provides templates, tools, and methods to help us create custom Linux-based systems for embedded products regardless of the hardware architecture. Being managed by a Linux Foundation fellow, the project remains independent of its member organizations that participate in various ways and provide resources to the project.

It was founded in 2010 as a collaboration of many hardware manufacturers, open source operating systems, vendors, and electronics companies in an effort to reduce their work duplication, provide resources and information catering to both new and experienced users.

Among these resources is OpenEmbedded-Core, the core system component, provided by the OpenEmbedded project.

The Yocto Project is, therefore, a community open source project that aggregates several companies, communities, projects, and tools, gathering people with the same purpose to build Linux-based embedded products; all these components are in the same boat, being driven by its community needs to work together.

Delineating the Yocto Project

To ease our understanding of the duties and outcomes provided by the Yocto Project, we can use the analogy of a computing machine. The input is a set of data that describes what we want, that is, our specification. As an output, we have the desired Linux-based embedded product.

If the output is a product running a Linux-based operating system, the result generated is the pieces that compose the operating system, such as the Linux kernel, bootloader, and the root filesystem (rootfs) bundle which are properly organized.

To produce the resultant rootfs bundle and other deliverables, the Yocto Project's tools are present in all intermediary steps. The reuse of previously built utilities and other software components are maximized while building other applications, libraries, and any other software components in the right order and with the desired configuration, including the fetching of the required source code from their respective repositories, such as The Linux Kernel Archives (www.kernel.org), GitHub, and www.SourceForge.net.

The Yocto Project's tools prepare its own build environment, utilities, and toolchain, reducing the amount of host software dependency. A subtle but important implication is that the determinism is considerably increased as the utilities and their versions as well as their configuration options are the same, thus minimizing the number of host utilities to rely on and producing the same result independent of the host Linux distribution being used.

We can list some projects, such as Poky, BitBake, and OpenEmbedded-Core, under the Yocto Project umbrella, all of them being complementary and playing specific roles in the system. We will understand exactly how they work together in this chapter and throughout the book.

Understanding Poky

Poky is the Yocto Project reference system and is composed of a collection of tools and metadata. It is platform-independent and performs cross-compiling, using the BitBake tool, OpenEmbedded Core, and a default set of metadata, as shown in the following figure. It provides the mechanism to build and combine thousands of distributed open source projects to form a fully customizable, complete, and coherent Linux software stack.

Poky's main objective is to provide all the features an embedded developer needs.

Using BitBake

BitBake is a task scheduler that parses Python and shell script mixed code. The code parsed generates and runs tasks, which are basically a set of steps ordered per the code's dependencies.

It evaluates all available configuration files and recipe data (known as metadata), managing dynamic variable expansion, dependencies, and code generation. It keeps track of all tasks being processed in order to ensure completion, maximizing the use of processing resources to reduce build time and being predictable. The development of BitBake is centralized in the bitbake-devel@lists.openembedded.org mailing list, and its code can be found in the bitbake subdirectory of Poky.

OpenEmbedded-Core

The OpenEmbedded-Core metadata collection provides the engine of the Poky build tool. It is designed to provide the core features and to be as lean as possible. It provides support for seven different processor architectures (ARM, ARM64, x86, x86-64, PowerPC, MIPS, and MIPS64), supporting only boards to be emulated by QEMU.

The development is centralized in the openembedded-core@lists.openembedded.org mailing list and houses its metadata inside the meta subdirectory of Poky.

Metadata

The metadata which is composed of a mix of Python and Shell Script text files, provides a tremendously flexible system. Poky uses this to extend OpenEmbedded-Core and includes two different layers, which are another metadata subsets shown as follows:

  • meta-poky: This layer provides the default and supported distributions, visual branding, and metadata tracking information (maintainers, upstream status, and so on)
  • meta-yocto-bsp: Provides the Board Support Package (BSP) used as the reference for the Yocto Project development and Quality Assurance (QA) process

Chapter 8, Developing with Yocto Projects, explores the metadata in more detail and serves as a reference when we write our own recipes.

The alliance of the OpenEmbedded Project and the Yocto Project

The OpenEmbedded project was created around January 2003 when some core developers from the OpenZaurus project started to work with the new build system. The OpenEmbedded build system has been, since its beginning, a task scheduler inspired and based on the Gentoo Portage package system named BitBake. The project has grown its software collection and supported machine set at a fast pace.

As consequence of uncoordinated development, it was difficult to use OpenEmbedded in products that demand a more stable and polished code base, which is why Poky was born. Poky started as a subset of OpenEmbedded and had a more polished and stable code base across a limited set of architectures. Its reduced size allowed Poky to start to develop highlighting technologies, such as IDE plugins and QEMU integration, which are still being used today.

Around November 2010, the Yocto Project was announced by the Linux Foundation to continue this work under a Linux Foundation-sponsored project. The Yocto Project and OpenEmbedded Project consolidated their efforts on a core build system called OpenEmbedded-Core, using the best of both Poky and OpenEmbedded, thus emphasizing an increased use of additional components, metadata, and subsets.

Summary

This first chapter provided an overview of how the OpenEmbedded Project is related to the Yocto Project, the components which form Poky, and how it was created. In the next chapter, we will be introduced to the Poky workflow with steps to download, configure, and prepare the Poky build environment, and how to have the very first image built and running using QEMU.

Left arrow icon Right arrow icon

Key benefits

  • Optimize your Yocto Project tools to develop efficient Linux-based projects
  • Practical approach to learning Linux development using Yocto Project
  • Demonstrates concepts in a practical and easy-to-understand way

Description

Yocto Project is turning out to be the best integration framework for creating reliable embedded Linux projects. It has the edge over other frameworks because of its features such as less development time and improved reliability and robustness. Embedded Linux Development using Yocto Project starts with an in-depth explanation of all Yocto Project tools, to help you perform different Linux-based tasks. The book then moves on to in-depth explanations of Poky and BitBake. It also includes some practical use cases for building a Linux subsystem project using Yocto Project tools available for embedded Linux. The book also covers topics such as SDK, recipetool, and others. By the end of the book, you will have learned how to generate and run an image for real hardware boards and will have gained hands-on experience at building efficient Linux systems using Yocto Project.

Who is this book for?

If you are an embedded Linux developer with a basic knowledge of Yocto Project and want to broaden your knowledge with examples of embedded development, then this book is for you. This book is also for professionals who want to find new insights into working methodologies for Linux development.

What you will learn

  • Understand the basic concepts involved in Poky workflows along with configuring and preparing the Poky build environment
  • Configure a build server and customize images using Toaster
  • Generate images and fit packages into created images using BitBake
  • Support the development process by setting up and using Package feeds
  • Debug Yocto Project by configuring Poky
  • Build an image for the BeagleBone Black, RaspberryPi 3, and Wandboard, and boot it from an SD card
Estimated delivery fee Deliver to Ukraine

Economy delivery 10 - 13 business days

$6.95

Premium delivery 6 - 9 business days

$21.95
(Includes tracking information)

Product Details

Country selected
Publication date, Length, Edition, Language, ISBN-13
Publication date : Nov 16, 2017
Length: 162 pages
Edition : 2nd
Language : English
ISBN-13 : 9781788470469
Vendor :
Linux Foundation
Category :
Tools :

What do you get with Print?

Product feature icon Instant access to your digital eBook copy whilst your Print order is Shipped
Product feature icon Paperback book shipped to your preferred address
Product feature icon Download this book in EPUB and PDF formats
Product feature icon Access this title in our online reader with advanced features
Product feature icon DRM FREE - Read whenever, wherever and however you want
Estimated delivery fee Deliver to Ukraine

Economy delivery 10 - 13 business days

$6.95

Premium delivery 6 - 9 business days

$21.95
(Includes tracking information)

Product Details

Publication date : Nov 16, 2017
Length: 162 pages
Edition : 2nd
Language : English
ISBN-13 : 9781788470469
Vendor :
Linux Foundation
Category :
Tools :

Packt Subscriptions

See our plans and pricing
Modal Close icon
$19.99 billed monthly
Feature tick icon Unlimited access to Packt's library of 7,000+ practical books and videos
Feature tick icon Constantly refreshed with 50+ new titles a month
Feature tick icon Exclusive Early access to books as they're written
Feature tick icon Solve problems while you work with advanced search and reference features
Feature tick icon Offline reading on the mobile app
Feature tick icon Simple pricing, no contract
$199.99 billed annually
Feature tick icon Unlimited access to Packt's library of 7,000+ practical books and videos
Feature tick icon Constantly refreshed with 50+ new titles a month
Feature tick icon Exclusive Early access to books as they're written
Feature tick icon Solve problems while you work with advanced search and reference features
Feature tick icon Offline reading on the mobile app
Feature tick icon Choose a DRM-free eBook or Video every month to keep
Feature tick icon PLUS own as many other DRM-free eBooks or Videos as you like for just $5 each
Feature tick icon Exclusive print discounts
$279.99 billed in 18 months
Feature tick icon Unlimited access to Packt's library of 7,000+ practical books and videos
Feature tick icon Constantly refreshed with 50+ new titles a month
Feature tick icon Exclusive Early access to books as they're written
Feature tick icon Solve problems while you work with advanced search and reference features
Feature tick icon Offline reading on the mobile app
Feature tick icon Choose a DRM-free eBook or Video every month to keep
Feature tick icon PLUS own as many other DRM-free eBooks or Videos as you like for just $5 each
Feature tick icon Exclusive print discounts

Frequently bought together


Stars icon
Total $ 158.97
Embedded Linux Development using Yocto Projects
$54.99
Embedded Linux Development Using Yocto Project Cookbook
$48.99
Mastering Embedded Linux Programming
$54.99
Total $ 158.97 Stars icon

Table of Contents

14 Chapters
Meeting the Yocto Project Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Baking Our Poky-Based System Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Using Toaster to Bake an Image Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Grasping the BitBake Tool Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Detailing the Temporary Build Directory Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Assimilating Packaging Support Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Diving into BitBake Metadata Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Developing with the Yocto Project Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Debugging with the Yocto Project Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Exploring External Layers Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Creating Custom Layers Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Customizing Existing Recipes Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Achieving GPL Compliance Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Booting Our Custom Embedded Linux Chevron down icon Chevron up icon

Customer reviews

Rating distribution
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Half star icon Empty star icon 3.4
(5 Ratings)
5 star 40%
4 star 0%
3 star 40%
2 star 0%
1 star 20%
TheLam Nguyen May 20, 2020
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon 5
good book
Amazon Verified review Amazon
Rogerio Pimentel da Silva Dec 07, 2017
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon 5
This book makes clean the concept of Yocto that sometimes is difficult to understand reading the available documents on the internet. It has a comprehensive language with a theorical and practical content. I already used the first edition in my daily consults for my projects, now this second edition has updated information.
Amazon Verified review Amazon
Emil Dec 01, 2017
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Empty star icon Empty star icon 3
Very basic. Only recommend for novice that hasn't read the yoctoproject.org online docs.
Amazon Verified review Amazon
A. Reader Jun 08, 2018
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Empty star icon Empty star icon 3
This book starts out with a nice overview, but quickly becomes frustratingly superficial. Repeated are sections with maybe a single command given with minimal context and a link for more information, only later to be confusingly described as "going in to detail". There is still value to be gained by going cover-to-cover, plenty of "ah-ha" moments - breadth of the project will be gained, however I'm left with not much more.
Amazon Verified review Amazon
Placeholder May 16, 2018
Full star icon Empty star icon Empty star icon Empty star icon Empty star icon 1
book has MRP of 599, i dont know how the are giving 85%discount
Amazon Verified review Amazon
Get free access to Packt library with over 7500+ books and video courses for 7 days!
Start Free Trial

FAQs

What is the delivery time and cost of print book? Chevron down icon Chevron up icon

Shipping Details

USA:

'

Economy: Delivery to most addresses in the US within 10-15 business days

Premium: Trackable Delivery to most addresses in the US within 3-8 business days

UK:

Economy: Delivery to most addresses in the U.K. within 7-9 business days.
Shipments are not trackable

Premium: Trackable delivery to most addresses in the U.K. within 3-4 business days!
Add one extra business day for deliveries to Northern Ireland and Scottish Highlands and islands

EU:

Premium: Trackable delivery to most EU destinations within 4-9 business days.

Australia:

Economy: Can deliver to P. O. Boxes and private residences.
Trackable service with delivery to addresses in Australia only.
Delivery time ranges from 7-9 business days for VIC and 8-10 business days for Interstate metro
Delivery time is up to 15 business days for remote areas of WA, NT & QLD.

Premium: Delivery to addresses in Australia only
Trackable delivery to most P. O. Boxes and private residences in Australia within 4-5 days based on the distance to a destination following dispatch.

India:

Premium: Delivery to most Indian addresses within 5-6 business days

Rest of the World:

Premium: Countries in the American continent: Trackable delivery to most countries within 4-7 business days

Asia:

Premium: Delivery to most Asian addresses within 5-9 business days

Disclaimer:
All orders received before 5 PM U.K time would start printing from the next business day. So the estimated delivery times start from the next day as well. Orders received after 5 PM U.K time (in our internal systems) on a business day or anytime on the weekend will begin printing the second to next business day. For example, an order placed at 11 AM today will begin printing tomorrow, whereas an order placed at 9 PM tonight will begin printing the day after tomorrow.


Unfortunately, due to several restrictions, we are unable to ship to the following countries:

  1. Afghanistan
  2. American Samoa
  3. Belarus
  4. Brunei Darussalam
  5. Central African Republic
  6. The Democratic Republic of Congo
  7. Eritrea
  8. Guinea-bissau
  9. Iran
  10. Lebanon
  11. Libiya Arab Jamahriya
  12. Somalia
  13. Sudan
  14. Russian Federation
  15. Syrian Arab Republic
  16. Ukraine
  17. Venezuela
What is custom duty/charge? Chevron down icon Chevron up icon

Customs duty are charges levied on goods when they cross international borders. It is a tax that is imposed on imported goods. These duties are charged by special authorities and bodies created by local governments and are meant to protect local industries, economies, and businesses.

Do I have to pay customs charges for the print book order? Chevron down icon Chevron up icon

The orders shipped to the countries that are listed under EU27 will not bear custom charges. They are paid by Packt as part of the order.

List of EU27 countries: www.gov.uk/eu-eea:

A custom duty or localized taxes may be applicable on the shipment and would be charged by the recipient country outside of the EU27 which should be paid by the customer and these duties are not included in the shipping charges been charged on the order.

How do I know my custom duty charges? Chevron down icon Chevron up icon

The amount of duty payable varies greatly depending on the imported goods, the country of origin and several other factors like the total invoice amount or dimensions like weight, and other such criteria applicable in your country.

For example:

  • If you live in Mexico, and the declared value of your ordered items is over $ 50, for you to receive a package, you will have to pay additional import tax of 19% which will be $ 9.50 to the courier service.
  • Whereas if you live in Turkey, and the declared value of your ordered items is over € 22, for you to receive a package, you will have to pay additional import tax of 18% which will be € 3.96 to the courier service.
How can I cancel my order? Chevron down icon Chevron up icon

Cancellation Policy for Published Printed Books:

You can cancel any order within 1 hour of placing the order. Simply contact customercare@packt.com with your order details or payment transaction id. If your order has already started the shipment process, we will do our best to stop it. However, if it is already on the way to you then when you receive it, you can contact us at customercare@packt.com using the returns and refund process.

Please understand that Packt Publishing cannot provide refunds or cancel any order except for the cases described in our Return Policy (i.e. Packt Publishing agrees to replace your printed book because it arrives damaged or material defect in book), Packt Publishing will not accept returns.

What is your returns and refunds policy? Chevron down icon Chevron up icon

Return Policy:

We want you to be happy with your purchase from Packtpub.com. We will not hassle you with returning print books to us. If the print book you receive from us is incorrect, damaged, doesn't work or is unacceptably late, please contact Customer Relations Team on customercare@packt.com with the order number and issue details as explained below:

  1. If you ordered (eBook, Video or Print Book) incorrectly or accidentally, please contact Customer Relations Team on customercare@packt.com within one hour of placing the order and we will replace/refund you the item cost.
  2. Sadly, if your eBook or Video file is faulty or a fault occurs during the eBook or Video being made available to you, i.e. during download then you should contact Customer Relations Team within 14 days of purchase on customercare@packt.com who will be able to resolve this issue for you.
  3. You will have a choice of replacement or refund of the problem items.(damaged, defective or incorrect)
  4. Once Customer Care Team confirms that you will be refunded, you should receive the refund within 10 to 12 working days.
  5. If you are only requesting a refund of one book from a multiple order, then we will refund you the appropriate single item.
  6. Where the items were shipped under a free shipping offer, there will be no shipping costs to refund.

On the off chance your printed book arrives damaged, with book material defect, contact our Customer Relation Team on customercare@packt.com within 14 days of receipt of the book with appropriate evidence of damage and we will work with you to secure a replacement copy, if necessary. Please note that each printed book you order from us is individually made by Packt's professional book-printing partner which is on a print-on-demand basis.

What tax is charged? Chevron down icon Chevron up icon

Currently, no tax is charged on the purchase of any print book (subject to change based on the laws and regulations). A localized VAT fee is charged only to our European and UK customers on eBooks, Video and subscriptions that they buy. GST is charged to Indian customers for eBooks and video purchases.

What payment methods can I use? Chevron down icon Chevron up icon

You can pay with the following card types:

  1. Visa Debit
  2. Visa Credit
  3. MasterCard
  4. PayPal
What is the delivery time and cost of print books? Chevron down icon Chevron up icon

Shipping Details

USA:

'

Economy: Delivery to most addresses in the US within 10-15 business days

Premium: Trackable Delivery to most addresses in the US within 3-8 business days

UK:

Economy: Delivery to most addresses in the U.K. within 7-9 business days.
Shipments are not trackable

Premium: Trackable delivery to most addresses in the U.K. within 3-4 business days!
Add one extra business day for deliveries to Northern Ireland and Scottish Highlands and islands

EU:

Premium: Trackable delivery to most EU destinations within 4-9 business days.

Australia:

Economy: Can deliver to P. O. Boxes and private residences.
Trackable service with delivery to addresses in Australia only.
Delivery time ranges from 7-9 business days for VIC and 8-10 business days for Interstate metro
Delivery time is up to 15 business days for remote areas of WA, NT & QLD.

Premium: Delivery to addresses in Australia only
Trackable delivery to most P. O. Boxes and private residences in Australia within 4-5 days based on the distance to a destination following dispatch.

India:

Premium: Delivery to most Indian addresses within 5-6 business days

Rest of the World:

Premium: Countries in the American continent: Trackable delivery to most countries within 4-7 business days

Asia:

Premium: Delivery to most Asian addresses within 5-9 business days

Disclaimer:
All orders received before 5 PM U.K time would start printing from the next business day. So the estimated delivery times start from the next day as well. Orders received after 5 PM U.K time (in our internal systems) on a business day or anytime on the weekend will begin printing the second to next business day. For example, an order placed at 11 AM today will begin printing tomorrow, whereas an order placed at 9 PM tonight will begin printing the day after tomorrow.


Unfortunately, due to several restrictions, we are unable to ship to the following countries:

  1. Afghanistan
  2. American Samoa
  3. Belarus
  4. Brunei Darussalam
  5. Central African Republic
  6. The Democratic Republic of Congo
  7. Eritrea
  8. Guinea-bissau
  9. Iran
  10. Lebanon
  11. Libiya Arab Jamahriya
  12. Somalia
  13. Sudan
  14. Russian Federation
  15. Syrian Arab Republic
  16. Ukraine
  17. Venezuela