Linux/AM3358: Tiny filesystem support

Srinivas Sannathimuthu

Part Number: AM3358

Tool/software: Linux

Hello,

I had requested for support files for tftp booting of AM335x processor in the TI e2e forums some time back in this form post:
e2e.ti.com/.../679231

I was contacted by TI on private message and a tiny filesystem and flasher script was shared with me.
The file name of the tiny filesystem shared with me was "am335x_tiny_filesystem.tar.gz"

These files had worked for us. But as a part of process, we are required to have the source files used to generate this filesystem and also be able to regenerate the filesystem.

I understand that the filesystem was generated using yocto project and that the bitbake recipe used to create the filesystem can be used by us to generate the image on our side.
Please correct me if this understanding of mine is incorrect.

(The SDK we are using is "ti-processor-sdk-linux-am335x-evm-04.02.00.09-Linux".)

So, could you please help me by sharing the files necessary to generate this image?

Thank you in advance

Regards
Srinivas

over 6 years ago

0 RonB over 6 years ago

TI__Mastermind 30736 points

Hello,

That FS was build by removing things from the base FS. All the sources are provided with the SDK.

If you need reproducibility for a flashing FS, we've added the tiny to the more recent SDKs (5.x and up) and they are full producible from Yocto. I would recommend switching to one of the newer FS. The functionality should be very similar is the newer versions were modeled off of the work done on the previous one. You can find the new tiny in /filesystem in an SDK installation.

I hope this will meet your needs. Thank you.

0 Brad Griffis over 6 years ago in reply to RonB

TI__Guru*** 125430 points

FYI, I did a quick build test on top of SDK 4.02 Yocto build. I was able to build 'arago-tiny-image' by adding these two files:

http://arago-project.org/git/?p=meta-arago.git;a=blob_plain;f=meta-arago-distro/recipes-core/images/arago-tiny-image.bb;hb=thud

http://arago-project.org/git/?p=meta-arago.git;a=blob_plain;f=meta-arago-distro/recipes-core/packagegroups/packagegroup-arago-sysvinit-boot.bb;hb=thud

I think that will work fine, but just to set expectations appropriately, this is not an officially supported configuration. If there are issues we would only look into it if it was reproducible on the current version. In any case, as RonB mentions you should start thinking about migrating to a newer version.

0 Srinivas Sannathimuthu over 6 years ago in reply to Brad Griffis

Prodigy 45 points

Thank you for the quick response RonB and Brad.

We will try using this recipe to build the image and see if we face any issues.

0 Srinivas Sannathimuthu over 6 years ago in reply to Srinivas Sannathimuthu

Prodigy 45 points

Hello,

We were able to build the arago-tiny-image.bb recipe using yocto. But the FS generated is a little different from the FS "am335x_tiny_filesystem.tar.gz" which had been shared earlier.

We are able to remove some of the additional utilities present. But some of the library files also seem to be different(For example, the libc.so.6 library file is significantly bigger in the new FS).

RonB, by any chance, would you be able to share with me the recipe/configuration of the FS which was shared earlier and built by removing things from the base FS?

It would be very much helpful if you could share it.

Thank you in advance

Regards,

Srinivas

0 RonB over 6 years ago in reply to Srinivas Sannathimuthu

TI__Mastermind 30736 points

Srinivas,

I'm sorry, I did not document all of the changes made in a reproducible format. It was derived directly off of the base filesystem provided with the SDK. So, a detailed diff of that would be the proper starting point for such an exercise.

However, I would recommend you stay with the newer "tiny" if reproducibility is a key care about.

If you need it to be smaller, you can try stripping the libraries to see if that reduces that size to something more acceptable. I believe that was one of the steps I had used earlier.

I'm sorry I can't provide more. I hope this is helpful to you.

0 Brad Griffis over 6 years ago in reply to RonB

TI__Guru*** 125430 points

Srinivas,

Just curious -- what was the size of the file system you built? When I built it locally on top of SDK 4.02 I ended up with a tarball image that was 3.9MB and even fully extracted it was still only 15MB. What size are you seeing, and what size you are expecting/requiring? I expected a 15MB file system should be easily usable, even as a ramdisk image, etc.

Best regards,
Brad

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Linux/AM3358: Tiny filesystem support