CM-T3530: Linux: Kernel

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Overview

Linux kernel for CM-T3530 modules provides support for on-board peripherals and abstracts the functionality provided by the hardware. Current support coverage is specified at O/S support coverage map page. CompuLab provides ready-to-run binary kernel images, and source code of the modifications and additions made to the Linux kernel to work properly with CM-T3530 modules. Most of the CM-T3530 functionality is merged into the mainline kernel starting from 2.6.33 release.

Kernel command line

The Linux kernel for CM-T3530 is shipped with built-in command line parameters:

root=/dev/mmcblk0p2 rootwait console=ttyO2,115200 omapfb.mode=dvi:1024x768-24@60 omapfb.vram=1:4M vram=8M

The default kernel command line defines primary console, default display settings, root device and root filesystem type.
Setting U-Boot bootargs environment variable overrides default kernel command line and can be used to set desired kernel parameters.


Admolition note.png If the MMC/SD Card is used as your root filesystem device, Linux kernel command line must have the following parameter appended: mmc_core.removable=0

Building kernel for CM-T3530

Cross-Compiler

There are several options for cross-compilation toolchain setup. You can either compile your cross-compiler or use an already built cross-compiler. The cross-compiler should support the ARM embedded-application binary interface ("EABI")

  • Pre-built toolchain (recommended):
  • Tools for creating cross-compilers:
    • Crosstool-ng: Builds a cross-compiler from source. Non-distribution specific.
    • Crossdev: Gentoo's cross-compiler builder. Needs Gentoo.

U-Boot mkimage tool

U-Boot mkimage utility is required in order to create kernel images that can be loaded by the CM-T3530 bootloader. You can download prebuilt mkimage binary or build it yourself:

mkdir ~/tmp
cd tmp
wget ftp://ftp.denx.de/pub/u-boot/u-boot-latest.tar.bz2
tar -xjvf u-boot-latest.tar.bz2
cd u-boot-<version>
touch include/config.{h,mk}
make tools
sudo install tools/mkimage /usr/local/bin

Getting kernel sources

There are two ways to get Linux kernel sources that can be used as a baseline for CM-T3530 kernel. You can create a copy of linux-stable git tree or download a snapshot and extract it. We assume that you have created /home/development/cm-t3530/kernel directory for CM-T3530 kernel development.

Snapshot download

  • Download v3.0.87 snapshot with your web browser.
  • Extract the downloaded archive linux-3.0.87.tar.bz2
cd /home/development/cm-t3530/kernel
tar xvf /path/to/downloaded/linux-3.0.87.tar.bz2
mv linux-3.0.87 linux-cm-t3530
This will create /home/development/cm-t3530/kernel/linux-cm-t3530 directory containing linux kernel tree.
  • Apply the CM-T3530 patch
cd /home/development/cm-t3530/kernel/linux-cm-t3530
patch -p1 < /path/to/cm-t3530-linux/kernel/linux-3.0.87-cm-t35-4.patch

Git clone

  • Install git version control system.
  • Create a clone of linux kernel tree
cd /home/development/cm-t3530/kernel
git clone git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/stable/linux-stable.git linux-cm-t3530
  • Create a branch for CM-T3530 development. The CM-T3530 patches are generated vs. v3.0.87 tag (61bfa77de71ef9d84614d3a7f0a3ca1c7af82058 commit) in the Linux tree. It is recommended to use exactly the same baseline to avoid merge conflicts.
git checkout -b cm-t3530-dev v3.0.87
  • Apply the CM-T3530 patch
cd /home/development/cm-t3530/kernel/linux-cm-t3530
git apply /path/to/cm-t3530-linux/kernel/linux-3.0.87-cm-t35-4.patch


Admolition note.png Future stable kernel versions of 3.0 can also be used by checking out any later tag of v3.0.y stable kernel tree and applying the linux-3.0.87-cm-t35-4.patch.

Building the kernel

export ARCH=arm
export CROSS_COMPILE=arm-none-linux-eabi-
make cm_t3x30_defconfig
make menuconfig
make && make uImage && \
     INSTALL_MOD_PATH=/home/development/cm-t3530/rootfs make modules_install

In the example above, the Linux kernel image (uImage) will be created in /home/development/cm-t3530/kernel/linux-cm-t3530/arch/arm/boot, and the loadable kernel modules will be installed into the /home/development/cm-t3530/rootfs/lib/modules directory.
When the CM-T3530 is booted with the kernel image created as described above and with networked root filesystem at /home/development/cm-t3530/rootfs/, the system will be able to load the kernel modules properly, thus avoiding module version problems.

See also