How to install a custom partition file?

[hannes09]

Hi,

I want to extend my image with a custom partition file.
First step was to extend the flash_mender.xml with an additional entry.

        <partition name="app1a" type="data">
            <allocation_policy> sequential </allocation_policy>
            <filesystem_type> basic </filesystem_type>
            <size>1006632960 </size>
            <file_system_attribute> 0 </file_system_attribute>
            <allocation_attribute> 0x8 </allocation_attribute>
            <align_boundary> 4096 </align_boundary>
            <percent_reserved> 0 </percent_reserved>
        </partition>

The image is booting and I can see a new block device.

Second step that is not working currently is to provide the partition file during build.
I added the filename entry to the xml.

        <partition name="app1a" type="data">
            <allocation_policy> sequential </allocation_policy>
            <filesystem_type> basic </filesystem_type>
            <size>1006632960 </size>
            <file_system_attribute> 0 </file_system_attribute>
            <allocation_attribute> 0x8 </allocation_attribute>
            <align_boundary> 4096 </align_boundary>
            <percent_reserved> 0 </percent_reserved>
            <filename> app.ext4.img </filename>
        </partition>

And I have an additional recipe for the partition file:

SUMMARY = "Custom  Image Files"
HOMEPAGE = ""
LICENSE = "CLOSED"
inherit image_types_tegra deploy

COMPATIBLE_MACHINE = "(tegra)"

S = "${WORKDIR}"

tegraflash_custom_pre () {
    dd if=/dev/zero of=app.ext4.img bs=1M count=960
    /sbin/mkfs.ext4 app.ext4.img
}

PACKAGE_ARCH = "${MACHINE_ARCH}"
#TEGRAFLASH_PKG_DEPENDS += "my-image:do_image_complete"

Now the task kernel-bup-payload failes:

| [   2.5006 ] Copying signed file in /yocto/build/tmp/work/syslogic_xavier-oe4t-linux/kernel-bup-payload/1.0-r0/bup-payload/signed
| [   2.5569 ] tegraparser_v2 --pt flash.xml.bin --generateflashindex /yocto/build/tmp/work/syslogic_xavier-oe4t-linux/kernel-bup-payload/1.0-r0/bup-payload/signed/flash.xml.tmp flash.idx
| [   2.5593 ] File app.ext4.img open failed

Where to install the app.ext4.img file so that the kernel-bup-payload task can see the new file?
I also believe that tegraflash_custom_pre is not executed at the moment, but I dont know why.
Any help is appreciated.

[madisongh]

Unfortunately, the tools that the BUP generation script uses to process the flash layout XML file expect to find any files that are mentioned in a <filename> section in the XML, even for partitions that aren't part of a BUP payload. We have a variable you can set that will delete those lines for you as part of the preparation for the BUP generator, so adding a kernel-bup-payload.bbappend to your layer with:

TEGRA_BUPGEN_STRIP_IMG_NAMES = "app.ext4.img"

should clear up that error.

[hannes09]

Thanks, that was the missing part.

Maybe someone will find this helpful:
My app-images.bb recipe for creating the additional partition image:

SUMMARY = "My Images"
HOMEPAGE = ""
LICENSE = "CLOSED"

S = "${WORKDIR}"

do_install(){
    mkdir -p ${STAGING_DIR}/app_images
    dd if=/dev/zero of=app.ext4.img bs=1M count=960
    /sbin/mkfs.ext4 app.ext4.img
    install -m 0644 app.ext4.img ${STAGING_DIR}/app_images/app.ext4.img
}

PACKAGES = "${PN}"

And in the overall final tegra image recipe:

TEGRAFLASH_PKG_DEPENDS += "app-images:do_populate_sysroot"

tegraflash_custom_pre () {
    cp ${STAGING_DIR}/app_images/app.ext4.img app.ext4.img
}