Kernel Development using DevRocket IDE with mvl_pro_5.0 versus MontaVista Zone Linux 5.2 download

It is my understanding this is due to the 'eclipse' directory missing from the demo version of the tools; DevRocket would expect to find it at

/opt/mv_pro_5.0/montavista/pro/share

No sure if simply coying it from the pro version found in MVZone would do the trick.  The demo version of the tools provided via TI wensites does not include support for DevRocket.

The Montavista Edition Management function in eclipse has no problem finding the version I downloaded from MVista Zone which is in the /opt/montavista directory. But this version is way behind the version of the TI's kernel patch and LSP release. I've had problems when I started to mix the MV Pro 5.02 version from Monta Vista and the 2.00 and 2.10 LSPs from TI. Also, the MontaVista Edition Management window states that the path must end with /../montavista. This to me means that the path to the demo version must be /opt/mv_pro_5.0/montavista, but this doesn't register as a valid installed edition.

I think the only way I can do it is to create a generic C/C++ Makefile project. If I do this wouldn't I loose the ability to use the MontaVista Kernel Debugging, Memory Leak Detection System Profiling tools?

MRI,

Unfortunately, we cannot control what MV provides.  Our agreement with them is to allow us to distribute a demo version of their distro without DevRocket support, which is what we provide with our DVSDK releases for free.  

Currently, updates to TI drivers are being submitted as patches to public GIT tree; MV can grab this patches and produce a new distro to make available to their paying customers such as yourself (available via MVZone).  Similarly, TI grabs these patches from time to time (~ every 6 months) and produces a new DVSDK release, which includes demo MV distro (no DevRocker support) for free.  We do not control when MV incorporates patches to their commercial distro, but as a paying customer you should ask and be able to get answers from them; with their commercial distro, you do get DevRocker support.

Hi Juan,

  Do you know if the demo montavista tools included with the DVSDK, support platform image builder

and if so could you please point out a reference in how to use it?

Platform image builder is a feature in DevRocket 5.x if I am not mistaken; in short, our demo mv tools does not have any support for DevRocket.  As far as I know, there is nothing preventing the demo source code from being used by DevRocket except for the existence of a 'devrocket' directory which is omitted from the demo montavista tree.  If you get the pro version which includes DevRocket, you can copy this directory to demo tree and everything should work.  However, DevRocket is made by MV so any DevRocket usage support questions will likely have to go thru them.

Juan,

  Do you have any suggestion as in how to manage the inclusion of userland applications with the

demo tools provided in the OMAP L-137 EVM?

not exactly sure what you mean by manage; are you referring to version control, debugging, developing environment or something else.  DevRocket is great as a development tool, debugger and file-optimizig tool; however, it is built on top of open source gdb, rpm (or MVs flavor of rpm), which are open source tools that can let you accomplish the same tasks for free if you want to work via command line as opposed to having a nice GUI interface to these tools.  Anyway, if you can give me more detail on the task you are trying to solve I can perhaps give you better advice.

Hi Juan,

  Thanks for the quick reply, what I mean is that one of the advantages of working with embedded Linux is the great amount of applications already available to implement, for example apache web server, mysql database and other packages are already available to be incorporated into a linux distribution but to do so one has to first croos/compile and test them. 

I know that montavista distribution already has some of those packages developed for the  arm OMAP L/137 processor , my question is which tool should I use to incorporate those packages into my project. thru menuconfig all I can edit are kernel features and drivers set-up there is no option to configure addtional applications.

Got it!   I would break down the software into three main components, your bootloader (u-boot), the linux kernel (uImage) and the file-system (libraries and applications).  You are correct that tools such as menuconfig and xconfig are kernel specific.  It seems you are more concerned with application code (web servers, sql..); at the application layer, projects are hosted in a variety of sites and when you download them, they usually include instructions on how to build them for different plarforms; normally, you will need to modify makefile of application to point to your ARM cross-compiler tools (included in OMAP-L1 software) and ensure that all required libraries for that application are included in the file-system (else you will need to download and cross compile those as well).  In Linux, instructions for building Applications for ARM normally do not require any special tools like DevRocket, simply edit make file and building via command line should suffice and are how most instructions are written.  I hope this helps.

Thank You

Juan,

Thank you for the detailed post. I will be using DevRocket for team development on the DM355. Can you point me to information that describes how to use the TI development environment with the MV Pro 5 tools? I have a similar situation where it is neither cost or time- effective to develop/build/test tools that are provided by MV5 (not to mention features like building filesystems and debugging).  Thanks.

rreper said:

Juan,

I will be using DevRocket for team development on the DM355. Can you point me to information that describes how to use the TI development environment with the MV Pro 5 tools?

This is a though one for me to answer given my limited exposure to DevRocket (keep in mind that DevRocket is supported by MV).  Assuming you bought the MV subscription and got access to MVZone, you should be able to download DevRocket along with corresponding documents which should guide you on how to import projects into DevRocket, debug, ... Therefore, your number one source would be MVZone documentation and support.   In my limited exposure, I have seen the encodedecode demo (DM6446, old dvsdk, devrocket 2.0) imported into and built via DevRocket.  I have also seen DevRocket used to optimize for a small DM6446 file-system and Linux kernel (again DR 2.0).  It has been a couple of years since I have seen DevRocket in action, and there have been four newer releases since I played with this.  But I assume you can still do much of the same with probrably better features.

Changes worth noting: I believe the newer DevRocket version(s) are based on ECLIPSE, have the ability of support rpm or mvl (MV's version of rpm); however, they now stop working as soon as your annual subscription runs out.  This is what I have heard and have yet to see with my own eyes :).

Hope this helps.