Linux Kernel

A common and unified Linux® Kernel source tree is provided and used by the Linux microPlatform (LmP). The latest continuous release is available on the Foundries.io™ GitHub.

The kernel recipe can be found within the meta-lmp layer, under meta-lmp-base/recipes-kernel/linux.

LmP Kernel Configuration Fragments

Together with the unified Linux Kernel tree, the LmP provides an additional repository for kernel configuration fragments. The latest continuous release of the kernel configuration fragments is available at lmp-kernel-cache.

You can find the list of supported BSP definitions and the configuration fragments used under lmp-kernel-cache/bsp.

The fragments repository works similarly to the upstream yocto-kernel-cache repository. As such, the same development workflow and documentation applies. See the Yocto Project Linux Kernel Development Manual on how to work with the kernel metadata and configuration fragments.

The Porting Guide includes How To Configure the Linux Kernel. This details how to add a custom Linux Kernel configuration, which can be used to add:

the complete machine configuration.
fragments: a set of CONFIG_ variables working to change a default machine configuration.

LmP With Real-Time Linux Kernel

The recipes that can be used for real-time Linux are either:

meta-lmp/meta-lmp-base/recipes-kernel/linux/linux-lmp-rt_git.bb
meta-lmp/meta-lmp-base/recipes-kernel/linux/linux-lmp-fslc-imx-rt_git.bb

Theses are based on the linux-lmp recipe, extended to include the PREEMPT_RT patch-set (updated along with stable kernel updates).

The instructions to change the default Linux kernel to real-time are described in the following sections. After making the changes, build the LmP image as usual.

Building LmP with linux-lmp-rt

In meta-subscriber-overrides/conf/machine/include/lmp-factory-custom.inc, set PREFERRED_PROVIDER_virtual/kernel to linux-lmp-rt

$ cat meta-subscriber-overrides/conf/machine/include/lmp-factory-custom.inc
PREFERRED_PROVIDER_virtual/kernel:intel-corei7-64 = "linux-lmp-rt"

Building LmP With linux-lmp-fslc-imx-rt

In meta-subscriber-overrides/conf/machine/include/lmp-factory-custom.inc, set PREFERRED_PROVIDER_virtual/kernel to linux-lmp-fslc-imx-rt

$ cat meta-subscriber-overrides/conf/machine/include/lmp-factory-custom.inc
PREFERRED_PROVIDER_virtual/kernel:mx6ull-nxp-bsp = "linux-lmp-fslc-imx-rt"

LmP With the Real-Time Xenomai4 Core

The recipe meta-lmp/meta-lmp-base/recipes-kernel/linux/linux-lmp-fslc-imx-xeno4_git.bb can be used to enable the Xenomai4 co-kernel on iMX boards.

Like its predecessors in the Xenomai core series, Xenomai4 with the EVL core brings real-time capabilities to Linux by embedding a companion core into the kernel, which specifically deals with tasks requiring ultra low and bounded response time to events.

In this model, the general purpose kernel and the real-time core operate almost asynchronously, both serving their own set of tasks, always giving the latter precedence over the former.

Building LmP With linux-lmp-fslc-imx-xeno4

In meta-subscriber-overrides/conf/machine/include/lmp-factory-custom.inc, Set PREFERRED_PROVIDER_virtual/kernel to linux-lmp-fslc-imx-xeno4, and MACHINE_FEATURES:append to xeno4

$ cat meta-subscriber-overrides/conf/machine/include/lmp-factory-custom.inc
PREFERRED_PROVIDER_virtual/kernel:mx8mm-nxp-bsp = "linux-lmp-fslc-imx-xeno4"
MACHINE_FEATURES:append = " xeno4"

LmP With Linux Upstream

The recipe meta-lmp/meta-lmp-base/recipes-kernel/linux/linux-lmp-dev.bb can be used to build the LmP with the upstream kernel tree instead of the LmP unified tree. linux-lmp-dev also uses the LmP Kernel Configuration Fragments repository for a compatible configuration.

Building LmP With linux-lmp-dev

In meta-subscriber-overrides/conf/machine/include/lmp-factory-custom.inc, set PREFERRED_PROVIDER_virtual/kernel to linux-lmp-dev

$ cat meta-subscriber-overrides/conf/machine/include/lmp-factory-custom.inc
PREFERRED_PROVIDER_virtual/kernel = "linux-lmp-dev"

Now build any of the supported LmP images.

Specifying Linux Git Tree, Branch, and Commit Revision

The following can be also set in meta-subscriber-overrides/conf/machine/include/lmp-factory-custom.inc, in order to build linux-lmp-dev using a specific Linux tree, branch, or commit revision:

KERNEL_REPO = "git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git" # Kernel git repository
KERNEL_BRANCH = "master" # Git kernel branch (default: master)
KERNEL_COMMIT = "94710cac0e" # Kernel commit revision (default: HEAD)
KERNEL_META_REPO = "git://github.com/foundriesio/lmp-kernel-cache.git" # Kernel configuration fragments repository
KERNEL_META_BRANCH = "master" # Git kernel meta branch (default: master)
KERNEL_META_COMMIT = "1c67180cfe" # Kernel meta commit revision (default: HEAD)
LINUX_VERSION = "4.19-rc" # Linux kernel base version (base package version)