On this page:
- Building Freescale/Embedian’s Android O8.1.0_1.3.0 BSP Distribution
- Introduction
- Generating SSH Keys
- Overview of this document
- Hardware Requirement
- Obtain Source Code
- Build Android Images
- Images created by the Android build for SMARC-iMX8M system
- Setup SD card
- Setup eMMC
- Android Recovery Mode
- Manual Operations
Building Freescale/Embedian’s Android O8.1.0_1.3.0 BSP Distribution
Eric Lee
version 1.0a, 4/23/2019
Introduction
This document describes how to build and deploy Android Oreo on the SMARC-iMX8M. It is based on NXP's IMX8M_O8.1.0_1.3.0 8MQ GA ANDROID release.
Generating SSH Keys
In order to download u-boot and kernel from Embedian. We recommend you use SSH keys to establish a secure connection between your computer and Embedian Gitlab server. The steps below will walk you through generating an SSH key and then adding the public key to our Gitlab account.
Step 1. Check for SSH keys
First, we need to check for existing ssh keys on your computer. Open up Git Bash and run:
Check the directory listing to see if you have a file named either id_rsa.pub or id_dsa.pub. If you don't have either of those files go to step 2. Otherwise, you already have an existing keypair, and you can skip to step 3.
Step 2. Generate a new SSH key
To generate a new SSH key, enter the code below. We want the default settings so when asked to enter a file in which to save the key, just press enter.
Now you need to enter a passphrase.
Which should give you something like this:
Step 3. Add your SSH key to Embedian Gitlab Server
Copy the key to your clipboard.
Go to Embedian Git Server. At Profile Setting --> SSH Keys --> Add SSH Key
Paste your public key and press "Add Key" and your are done.
Overview of this document
The objective of this document is to guide SMARC-iMX8M Android developers to obtain Android O8.1.0_1.3.0_8mq_ga Oreo sources, setting up host environment, compilation and deployment.
This document contains instructions for:
- Hardware and software requirements.
- Setup the hardware.
- Setup the toolchain.
- Download & build the sources.
- Install the binaries on the SMARC-iMX8M SOM.
Hardware Requirement
EVK-STD-CARRIER-S20 and SMARC-iMX8M.
Host (PC) setup requirements
The host development environment for Android is based on Ubuntu and Debian, please install Ubuntu version 16.04 64bit LTS http://www.ubuntu.com/download/desktop or Debian 9.6 64bit https://www.debian.org/releases
Install required packages on host PC
Install the OpenJDK
Update the default Java version by running:
Obtain Source Code
Get NXP's Android Release Package
Go to NXP's website, download IMX8MQ_O8.1.0_1.3.0_ANDROID_SOURCE_BSP (filename: imx-o8.1.0_1.3.0_8m.tar.gz and put into your ~/downloads directory.
Obtain Google Android Oreo O8.1.0_r14 source code and Apply NXP's patch
After done, it will create an android_build directory. Go to this directory.
Clone Embedian's U-Boot and Linux kernel sources
Apply Embedian's patches for i.MX8M platforms
Build Android Images
Change to Android top level directory.
Images created by the Android build for SMARC-iMX8M system
The images created are located at out/target/product/smarc_mx8m/ directory.
| Image | Description |
|---|---|
u-boot-smarcim8mq_2g.imx | U-Boot for eMMC/SD card boot for SMARC-iMX8M-D/Q-2G Other SMARC variants could be defined at device/embedian/smarc_mx8m/BoardConfig.mk |
boot-<name>.img | Boot image for SMARC-iMX8M |
partition-table.img | GPT table image for 16GB SD card and eMMC. |
partition-table-7GB.img | GPT table image for 8GB SD card and eMMC. |
partition-table-28GB.img | GPT table image for 28GB SD card and eMMC. |
system.img | System Boot image |
vbmeta-<name>.img | Android Verified Boot metadata Image for SMARC-iMX8M to support HDMI output |
vendor.img | Vendor image |
<name> |
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The default configuration for SMARC-iMX8M variant is SMARC-iMX8M-D-2G. If users used other variant, make changes at device/embedian/smarc_mx8m/BoardConfig.mk. Find "TARGET_BOOTLOADER_CONFIG" and change the u-boot defconfig file.
Setup SD card
Prepare for an SD card and insert into your Linux host PC
<name> |
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|---|
Insert the SD card into your device, set the BOOT_SEL to "ON OFF OFF" and shut cross the TEST# pin to Ground. You will be able to see Android booting up. For eMMC boot, leave the TEST# floating and the BOOT_SEL should be set as "OFF ON ON". The next section will instruct you to flash eMMC.
Setup eMMC
Setup eMMC for Android is a bit complex, but trivial. There are a couple of ways to achieve it.
Use MFGTool
NXP/Freescale provides with a way to boot up, partition, format, and program images into eMMC. User can go to NXP's website to download MFGTool (android_O8.1.0_1.3.0_8M_tools.tar.gz) and follow their guide to achieve it. It is a quick and easy tool for downloading images. See AndroidTM Quick Start Guide (AQSUG) for a detailed description of MFGTool. We will leave it to users if you would like to use this method to set up your eMMC. Make sure that the FORCE_RECOV# pin has to be shunt to Ground when using this tool.
Use a Ubuntu 16.04 Bootable SD card
The second way that we also recommend is to make a bootable Ubuntu 16.04 SD card for SMARC-iMX8M. User go to our Linux Development Site to learn how to make a bootable Ubuntu 16.04 SD card. An pre-built images can be downloaded from our ftp site. Users can download those images and follow the "Setup SD card" section from our Linux development site. Once it done, you can copy the smarc-mksdcard.sh script and all Android images (u-boot-smarcimx8mq-2g.imx, partition-table.img, boot-<name>.img, vbmeta-<name>.img, system.img, vendor.img) into your home directory. Follow exactly what you did for SD card, but now, eMMC device will be emulated as /dev/mmcblk0.
<name> |
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|---|
Power off and set BOOT_SEL to "OFF ON ON", leave the TEST# pin floating and you will be able to boot up your Android from on-module eMMC.
Use USB Fastboot
The third way is to use Android USB fast boot. This way will work only when the on-module eMMC is partitioned and formatted. To partition and format the on-module eMMC. You can use the SD card mentioned above.
Once you have your on-module eMMC partitioned and formatted.
On your Linux host PC, you need to install Android tools.
Connect the device with host PC at fastboot mode:
- Connect a USB OTG cable from the target board OTG port to a your host machine USB HOST port.
- Power up the board and hit return/space to stop the boot at U-Boot.
- type fastboot in the U-Boot command line.
On the Host PC:
Android Recovery Mode
Enter board in Android Recovery mode
Shunt LID# pin to ground will enter Android Recovery mode.
Update Android Firmware
Generate OTA Packages
For generating "OTA" packages, use the following commands:
Install OTA Packages to device
- Enter to Android Recovery mode
- Select menu item "apply update from ADB"
- To the host system, perform the following command:
Reboot the device.
Manual Operations
Build boot.img
When you perform changes to the kernel, you may build boot.img solely instead of building the whole Android.
Toolchain setup for manual build kernel and U-Boot
Setup the toolchain path to point to arm-eabi- tools in prebuilts/gcc/linux-x86/arm/arm-eabi-4.8/bin
Manual build Bootloader
When you perform changes to the kernel, you may build boot.img solely instead of building the whole Android
It will generate u-boot.imx file.
Manual build Android Linux Kernel and modules
The kernel images are found in ${MY_ANDROID}/vendor/embedian/kernel_imx/arch/arm64/boot/Image
version 1.0a,4/23/2019
Last updated 2019-04-23