This is a layer to build frobo, a differential drive ROS-based robot, in an OpenEmbedded Linux system.

Please see the corresponding sections below for details.

DEPENDENCIES

This layer depends on:

URI: git://git.openembedded.org/bitbake
branch: master

URI: git://git.openembedded.org/openembedded-core
layers: meta
branch: master

URI: git://git.openembedded.org/meta-openembedded
layers: meta-oe meta-networking
branch: master

URI: git://github.com/bmwcarit/meta-ros
branch: master

URI: git://github.com/linux-sunxi/meta-sunxi
branch: master

BUILD

To build a cubieboard2 image that can be directly used on frobo:

• Download dependencies

  mkdir ~/OE
  cd ~/OE
  git clone git://git.openembedded.org/bitbake/
  git clone git://git.openembedded.org/openembedded-core
  git clone git://git.openembedded.org/meta-openembedded
  git clone https://github.com/bmwcarit/meta-ros.git
  git clone git://github.com/linux-sunxi/meta-sunxi
  git clone https://github.com/KristofRobot/meta-frobo
  ln -s ~/OE/bitbake ~/OE/openembedded-core/bitbake
  source openembedded-core/oe-init-build-env

• Add the required dependencies by modifying ./conf/bblayers.conf (adjust /home/me/devel as necessary):

  BBLAYERS ?= " \
    /home/me/OE/openembedded-core/meta \
    /home/me/OE/meta-openembedded/meta-oe \
    /home/me/OE/meta-openembedded/meta-networking \
    /home/me/OE/meta-openembedded/meta-python \
    /home/me/OE/meta-openembedded/meta-multimedia \
    /home/me/OE/meta-ros \
    /home/me/OE/meta-sunxi \
    /home/me/OE/meta-frobo \

• Set build configuration in ./conf/local.conf:

  MACHINE ??= "cubieboard2
  DL_DIR ?= "${TOPDIR}/downloads"
  #Use frobo distro
  DISTRO ?= "frobo"
  
  #Optimize space usage during build
  INHERIT += "rm_work"
  RM_WORK_EXCLUDE += ""
  
  #Set 100Mb extra free space
  IMAGE_ROOTFS_EXTRA_SPACE = "102400"
  
  #Enable PR service
  PRSERV_HOST = "localhost:0"
  
  #To allow pcl to build on a machine with little memory
  BB_NUMBER_THREADS ?= "1"
  PARALLEL_MAKE ?= "-j 1"

• Prepare WiFi

  cd meta-frobo/recipes-connectivity/wpa-supplicant/wpa-supplicant
  cp wpa_supplicant.conf-sane.template wpa_supplicant.conf-sane
  [edit wpa_supplicant.conf-sane with your WiFi AP info]

• Update meta-frobo/conf/distro/frobo.conf to set your feed-server, e.g.:

  DISTRO_FEED_URI = "http://robo.local:4000"

• Build Image

  cd ~/OE
  source openembedded-core/oe-init-build-env
  bitbake core-image-frobo

• Write image to SD (replace /dev/sdb as required)

  cd ~/OE/build/tmp-glibc/deploy/images/cubieboard2
  sudo dd if=core-image-frobo-cubieboard2.sunxi-sdimg of=/dev/sdb bs=4096
  using gparted, resize base partition to max size

• Connect via WiFi

  ssh [email protected]

• Debug via serial

  gtkterm -p [serial port] -s 115200

FEED-SERVER

To update packages on the system after building the image, run the feed-server:

On your build machine:

• Prepare and start feed-server

  sudo apt-get install nodejs npm
  npm install express serve-index serve-static
  cp -r meta-frobo/support-files/feed-server OE
  cd OE/feed-server
  ./startFeedServer.sh

• Build package

  bitbake [package]
  bitbake package-index

On frobo:

  opkg update
  opkg install [package]

or

  opkg update
  opkg upgrade

PATCHES

Please submit any patches against the frobo layer to the the maintainer:

Maintainer: Kristof Robot [email protected]