[yocto] Installing a package on the board at runtime

[Alan Martinovic]

Hey

> A more
controlled way of installing packages would be to have
package-management added to your IMAGE_FEATURES [1] to leverage a
fully fledged package manager on the target (like any mainstream
distro).

Yeah, I admit I have been ignorantly avoiding this, always thinking that
it isn't worth the overhead of setting the server and the additional
aps on the board.
Will check it out.

> This shouldn't be the case. When using 'devtool modify'
workspace/sources/<your-recipe> gets populated with a git repository
which includes a 'devtool' branch which includes any patch the recipe
declare in its SRC_URI.

Cool share about the devtool branch, tnx.

> Those patches are already applied to the
fetched sources in the form of git commits on the 'devtool' branch
[3].

I guess it isn't a patch that is directly applied to the source but a
config file that gets modified.

    ....
    SRC_URI += "file://bluetooth.conf"

    python do_render_templates() {
      render_template('bluetooth.conf')
    }

    addtask render_templates after do_compile before do_install

    do_install_append() {
        install -m 644 ${WORKDIR}/bluetooth.conf
${D}${sysconfdir}/dbus-1/system.d/bluetooth.conf
        install -d ${D}${systemd_unitdir}/system
        install -m 0644 ${WORKDIR}/bluetooth.service
${D}${systemd_unitdir}/system
    }
    do_render_templates[nostamp] = "1"


The render_template changes some entries in bluetooth.conf.
I guess when it's run from devshell it gets confused as where to look
for it.
Works ok with bitbake.

Be Well :)
Alan


On Fri, Apr 27, 2018 at 4:47 PM, Andrea Galbusera <gizero at gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi Alan,
>
> On Fri, Apr 27, 2018 at 1:38 PM, Alan Martinovic
> <alan.martinovic at senic.com> wrote:
>> Hey,
>> I know there is a method in devtool called devtool deploy-target.
>> It's a great thing to install a package on the board at runtime.
>>
>> Is there something like that available without devtool?
>
> The devtool deploy-target way of deploying recipes' artefacts is
> mostly oriented to easing development loops with the eSDK. A more
> controlled way of installing packages would be to have
> package-management added to your IMAGE_FEATURES [1] to leverage a
> fully fledged package manager on the target (like any mainstream
> distro). You can choose among different format by setting the
> PACKAGE_CLASSES configuration variable. Using a package manager on the
> target won't differ from how you install/upgrade your desktop
> distribution. The only extra step you'll need to accomplish is setting
> up a proper package feed to let your targets grab the packages from
> your build/deploy/<package_format> dir. See the manual at [2] for more
> details.
>
> Also, devtool works at a recipe scope, not at package level. You can
> imagine it as a sort of 'make install' that leverages ssh to work
> update the target filesystem. Recipes can provide more than one
> package, then only a proper package manager will let you select any of
> the packages a recipe provides for installation/upgrade.
>
>> A digression:
>> Am asking for a non devtool option because it
>> seems like devtool is ignoring the patch and config files
>> the recipe depends on (can't find any in workspace/sources).
>
> This shouldn't be the case. When using 'devtool modify'
> workspace/sources/<your-recipe> gets populated with a git repository
> which includes a 'devtool' branch which includes any patch the recipe
> declare in its SRC_URI. Those patches are already applied to the
> fetched sources in the form of git commits on the 'devtool' branch
> [3].
>
>> My particular recipe has a custom build step that
>> depends on rendering config file templates (which fails due to missing
>> not finding the config file).
>
> This might be due to errors in setting up the extra task: difficult to
> say without looking at how the custom step is defined. Maybe you can
> share your recipe together with the error logs bitbake is reporting.
>
> [1] https://www.yoctoproject.org/docs/latest/mega-manual/mega-manual.html#ref-features-image
> [2] https://www.yoctoproject.org/docs/latest/mega-manual/mega-manual.html#runtime-package-management-server
> [3] https://www.yoctoproject.org/docs/latest/mega-manual/mega-manual.html#devtool-modifying-a-recipe