mirror of https://github.com/OpenIPC/wiki.git
208 lines
8.2 KiB
Markdown
208 lines
8.2 KiB
Markdown
Building from sources
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=====================
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Before you start building your own firmware, make a few changes to your system.
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General
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---
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### Clone OpenIPC Firmware Git repository.
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```
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cd
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mkdir -p local/src
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cd local/src
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git clone https://github.com/OpenIPC/firmware.git openipc-firmware
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cd openipc-firmware
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```
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### Install required packages.
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```bash
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sudo make install-deps
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```
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### Create a permanent storage for downloaded bundles.
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By default, Buildroot stores all downloaded files in `dl/` directory inside
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buildroot file tree.
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OpenIPC building script creates a fresh buildroot file tree before every
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compilation, meaning either deletes all downloaded packages or copies them back
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and forth prior and after creating a fresh setup.
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You can set your own storage directory outside of the buildroot tree. Add the
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following piece of code to `.profile` file in your home directory:
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```bash
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BR2_DL_DIR="${HOME}/buildroot_dl"
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[ ! -d "$BR2_DL_DIR" ] && mkdir -p $BR2_DL_DIR
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export BR2_DL_DIR
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```
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Then, source the changes.
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```bash
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source ~/.profile
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```
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### Build the firmware.
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Building of a binary firmware for your IP camera is fairly easy. Just clone
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source code from the repository and run a provided script.
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```bash
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./building.sh
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```
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You will be greeted with a list of available targets.
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Each target's name consists of a name of vendor, SoC model (System-on-Chip,
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the heart of an IP camera, central processor with extra features) and flavor
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denoting releases for different purposes - **Lite**, a compact release for
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cameras with only 8MB of ROM; **Ultimate**, an extended release for cameras
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with 16MB+ ROM, **FPV**, a release crafted specifically for use in drones,
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or **Mini**, a fully liberated version of the firmware with an alternative
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open-source streamer.
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Select desired target and hit enter. Building ensues.
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Process of building firmware binary takes from 15-20 minutes to several hours
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depending on your computer performance and selected target. If you want to
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speed up the process, make sure you use a computer with SSD rather than HDD as
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the process of compiling involves a lot of reading and writing. Faster CPU is
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also beneficial, and one cannot have too much RAM, either. You could even rent
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an online virtual server for a handful of cents to compile your firmware with
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the power of cloud computing.
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The very first run is the longest as the script will download every source
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bundle required for successful compilation. Consequent runs will take a little
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less time.
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After the compilation is done, you'll find the final binary kernel and `rootfs`
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image in `output/images/` directory.
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```
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paul@r610:~/src/openipc-firmware$ ls -l output/images/
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total 35628
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-rw-r--r-- 1 paul paul 4816896 Nov 22 06:06 rootfs.squashfs.t10
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-rw-r--r-- 1 paul paul 14520320 Nov 22 06:06 rootfs.t10.cpio
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-rw-r--r-- 1 paul paul 15544320 Nov 22 06:06 rootfs.t10.tar
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-rw-r--r-- 1 paul paul 1597586 Nov 22 06:02 uImage.t10
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```
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Anatomy of the project
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----------------------
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OpenIPC firmware v2 utilizes [Buildroot][1] to build its firmware binaries. So
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you should make yourself familiar with the [Buildroot documentation][2] if you
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want not only to compile provided source code but make your own modifications
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to the firmware.
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You can add drivers or software not included in the our official releases, you
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can remove unneeded drivers or software that you're not going to use, to free
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up some space in the firmware. You can change default settings to better suit
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your needs. The beauty of open source is that anyone can improve it, anytime.
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Just don't forget to contribute your changes back to the upstream repo so that
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everyone can benefit from it.
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Please note that OpenIPC uses a slightly outdated version of Buildroot. As of
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today, it is Buildroot [2021.02.12][3], so you might need to check out the
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documentation for that particular version, as later versions may have
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incompatible changes.
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OpenIPC firmware sources are organized in directories by IP camera SoC vendors
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as Buildroot external trees, namely `br-ext-chip-<vendor name>`. Each of such
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directories has a number of subdirectories: `board/`, `configs/`, `linux/` and
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`packages/`, and a few config files, all related to different boards bearing
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chips from that particular vendor.
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`board/` directory includes subdirectories named by groups of processors called
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families. Inside each of such a family directory reside kernel configuration
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files for individual processors in that family, common patches and other
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family-specific files.
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`configs/` directory includes default configuration files (defconfig) for
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various boards with processors from the given vendor. These config files also
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can differ by hardware settings, set of included packages, different default
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settings, branding, and so on. Each of these defconfig files is a separate
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package resulting in a separate firmware binary.
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`linux/` directory includes configuration files for patching kernel to make it
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work with vendor-provided binary blobs, if any.
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`package/` directory has symlinks to packages used for building the resulting
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firmware.
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`Config.in` is a configuration file consolidating configuration files from all
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provided packages.
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`external.mk` is a makefile referring to makefiles from all provided packages.
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`external.desc` is a file with the description of the external tree.
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Making changes and rebuilding a package
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---------------------------------------
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Once you start tinkering with the packages you'll realize you need a way to
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rebuild only one particular package, without rebuilding the whole project.
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Is it even possible? Fortunately, yes. All you have to do after making changes
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to the package configs is to run a couple of commands:
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```
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make br-<package>-dirclean
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make br-<package>-rebuild
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```
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where _\<package>_ is the name of the package you want to recompile. Although,
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as Buildroot manual states,
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> While `br-<package>-rebuild` implies `br-<package>-reinstall` and `br-<package>-reconfigure`
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implies `br-<package>-rebuild`, these targets as well as `<package>` only act on
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the said package, and do not trigger re-creating the root filesystem image.
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If re-creating the root filesystem in necessary, one should in addition run
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`make br-all`.
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Run `make br-linux-rebuild br-all` to rebuild Linux kernel image,
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`make br-busybox-rebuild br-all` to rebuild busybox and pack it into a rootfs image.
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Making changes to Buildroot packages
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------------------------------------
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If you need to make a change to a package already supplied with Buildroot,
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place your patches to `global/package/all-patches/<pkg-name>/` directory.
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These patches will be added after Buildroot package is extracted and patches
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from Buildroot package applied.
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Building a custom version of the firmware
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-----------------------------------------
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Sometimes your need to add a driver or a package to the firmware. How can you
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do that using provided OpenIPC Firmware sources? It is really easy. Clone the
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firmware repository locally and compile binary files for your particular
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hardware.
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Compilation process heavily depends on your computer performance. The more CPU
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threads and memory you get, the faster the process. Anyway, you can expect the
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initial compilation to last about half an hour, give or take. The resulting
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binary files will reside in `output/images` directory. If you did not make any
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changes to the sources then these files should be identical to those
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[available from GitHub][4].
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Compilation process has also built a toolchain suitable for compiling packages
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for your version of firmware. The toolchain is located in `output/host`
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directory.
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To customize your firmware, add or remove a package run `make br-menuconfig`.
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That will load buildroot configuration menu where you can make changes following
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[The Buildroot user manual][5]. Make your changes and save amended config on exit.
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Then run `make clean all`.
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__Be aware that building firmware directly with buildroot will not rename
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resulting image files adding a soc suffix to them. You either can to it
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yourself or adjust your firmware updating commands accordingly.__
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[1]: https://buildroot.org/
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[2]: https://buildroot.org/docs.html
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[3]: https://github.com/OpenIPC/firmware/blob/96b2a0ed2f5457fda5b903ab67146f30b5062147/Makefile#L25
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[4]: https://github.com/OpenIPC/firmware/releases/tag/latest
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[5]: https://buildroot.org/downloads/manual/manual.html
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