STM32MP1 getting started: setup environments

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I’m planing to do some research on ST newest MPU series: STM32MP1. It’s a Cortex A7(solo or dual core) + M4 solution, not very powerful but the price might be very competitive. In this post we will setup the development environments.

Choose the suitable base software package

There are 3 basic software packages provided by ST:

  • Starter Package(For evaluation)
  • Developer Package(For limited modification and application development)
  • Distribution Package(For creating custom distribution)

Similar with Qualcomm solutions, there are two packages are available for development purpose. In my scenario I will use Distribution Package for sure, so the following parts of this post is about how to setup environments for Developer Package based development.

BTW the experiences I got during Qualcomm apq8009 based SoC really sucks… Their packages just like a huge shit mountain.

Initialize repo

If you are new to Yocto, you need to install some packages before start(i.e. repo)

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mkdir openstlinux-4.19-thud-mp1-19-10-09 && cd openstlinux-4.19-thud-mp1-19-10-09
repo init -u https://github.com/STMicroelectronics/oe-manifest.git -b refs/tags/openstlinux-4.19-thud-mp1-19-10-09
repo sync

Package structure

From ST WIKI:

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openstlinux-4.19-thud-mp1-19-10-09  OpenSTLinux distribution
├── layers 
│    ├── meta-openembedded                Collection of layers for the OpenEmbedded-Core universe (OpenEmbedded standard)
│    ├── meta-qt5                         QT5 layer for OpenEmbedded (standard)
│    ├── meta-st
│    │   ├── meta-st-openstlinux          STMicroelectronics layer that contains the frameworks and images settings for the OpenSTLinux distribution
│    │   ├── meta-st-stm32mp              STMicroelectronics layer that contains the description of the BSP for the STM32 MPU devices
│    │   │   ├── recipes-bsp
│    │   │   │   ├── alsa                 Recipes for ALSA control configuration
│    │   │   │   ├── drivers              Recipes for Vivante GCNANO GPU kernel drivers
│    │   │   │   ├── trusted-firmware-a   Recipes for TF-A
│    │   │   │   └── u-boot               Recipes for U-Boot
│    │   │   ├── recipes-extended
│    │   │   │   ├── linux-examples       Recipes for Linux examples for STM32 MPU devices
│    │   │   │   ├── m4coredump           Recipes for script to manage coredump of cortexM4
│    │   │   │   └── m4projects           Recipes for firmware examples for Cortex M4
│    │   │   ├── recipes-graphics
│    │   │   │   ├── gcnano-userland      Recipes for Vivante libraries OpenGL ES, OpenVG and EGL (multi backend)
│    │   │   │   └── [...]
│    │   │   ├── recipes-kernel
│    │   │   │   ├── linux                Recipes for Linux kernel
│    │   │   │   └── linux-firmware       Recipes for Linux firmwares (example, Bluetooth firmware)
│    │   │   ├── recipes-security
│    │   │   │   └── optee                Recipes for OPTEE
│    │   │   ├── recipes-st
│    │   │   │   └── images               Recipes for the bootfs and userfs partitions binaries
│    │   │   └── [...]
│    │   ├── meta-st-stm32mp-addons       STMicroelectronics layer that helps managing the STM32CubeMX integration
│    │   └── scripts
│    │       ├── envsetup.sh              Environment setup script for Distribution Package
│    │       └── [...]
│    ├── meta-timesys                     Timesys layer for OpenEmbedded (standard)
│    └── openembedded-core                Core metadata for current versions of OpenEmbedded (standard)

Test building image

Environment setup

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DISTRO=openstlinux-weston MACHINE=stm32mp1 source layers/meta-st/scripts/envsetup.sh

If you want to test without wayland or x11 support, using DISTRO=openstlinux-eglfs MACHINE=st-image-core instead.

If build folder has been created, using blow command to re-use it:

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source layers/meta-st/scripts/envsetup.sh build-openstlinuxweston-stm32mp1/

Trigger building

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bitbake st-image-weston

st-image-core is also available if you want to create a console only image.

USB Flash

USB flash need to use STM32CubeProgrammer. Device need to switched as usb flash mode as well.

After installation, using STM32_Programmer_CLI to check if device can be detected:

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$ sudo STM32_Programmer_CLI -l usb
      -------------------------------------------------------------------
                        STM32CubeProgrammer v2.2.1                  
      -------------------------------------------------------------------

=====  DFU Interface   =====

Total number of available STM32 device in DFU mode: 1

  Device Index           : USB1
  USB Bus Number         : 001
  USB Address Number     : 004
  Product ID             : DFU in HS Mode @Device ID /0x500, @Revision ID /0x0000
  Serial number          : 004800293338511139303435
  Firmware version       : 0x0110
  Device ID              : 0x0500

Notice: You may need to create a soft link from $HOME/STMicroelectronics/STM32Cube/STM32CubeProgrammer/bin/STM32_Programmer_CLI

You also can add an udev rule to allow connection without su:

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sudo cp $HOME/STMicroelectronics/STM32Cube/STM32CubeProgrammer/Drivers/rules/50-usb-conf.rules /etc/udev/rules.d/
sudo service udev restart

If device can be found in DFU mode, using blow cmd to trigger usb flash:

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STM32_Programmer_CLI -c port=usb1 -w flashlayout_st-image-weston/FlashLayout_xxxxxx.tsv

STM32CubeProgrammer using a .tsv file to specify flash layout and the binaries are going to use.