[meta-freescale] Follow hw vendor's instructions or FSL Community BSP?

[Renato Caldas]

2016-10-17 9:30 GMT-04:00 Rogers, Simon <simon.rogers at ultra-sss.com>:
> Hello list

Hi Simon,

>
> I am starting to use Yocto to build images for my imx6 based Hummingboard.
>
> Should I follow the vendor’s instructions, using their layer based on fido
> branch , i.e.:
>
>
>
> git clone -b fido git://git.yoctoproject.org/poky.git
>
> cd poky
>
> git clone -b fido git://git.yoctoproject.org/meta-fsl-arm
>
> git clone -b fido git://github.com/SolidRun/meta-solidrun-arm-imx6.git
>
>
>
> or should I follow the FSL Community BSP instructions here given that the
> Hummingboard is listed as supported, i.e.:
>
>
>
> mkdir fsl-community-bsp
>
> cd fsl-community-bsp
>
> repo init -u https://github.com/Freescale/fsl-community-bsp-platform -b
> krogoth
>
>
>
> Is the difference purely in how new the branch is?

I've recently had to make the exact same decision, so I'll give you my
personal opinion based on what how that worked out for me. Your
use-case may be different.

The fido branch is old, and in my case I couldn't even get it to
compile properly. I ended up porting the vendor's changes to jethro
branch (newer), and then compile them in a virtual machine running
Ubuntu, because it didn't compile in my machine. It was a pain, and
there was a bad serial port bug on the imx6 kernel which forced me to
port it yet again to master. It's mostly working with master now, and
I can compile it locally.

My opinion then is as follows:

a) unless you have a good reason to don't bother with the fido branch
(or any old branch for that matter)
b) if the board is supported by the community you're in luck. Just
don't expect the vendor to provide any support if all they support is
fido.
c) if it's not, then you can either port it to a more recent branch,
or just abandon it and switch to a different (more supportive)
vendor..

Porting a board to a new version of the kernel is a big hassle, no
wonder why some vendors skimp on that. I'd say a vendor is not worth
my money if it doesn't stand behind its product. On the other hand,
you may not  have a choice :)

> What about the hardware
> vendor’s layer (meta-solidrun-arm-imx6) – is that incorporated into the
> Krogoth release somehow?

I'd say that it was incorporated in the fsl-community-bsp-platform
layer. You still need "poky" and "meta-fsl-arm".

Cheers,
  Renato

>
> Thanks
>
> Simon
>
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