Embedded development teams, for various reasons, aim to build embedded systems that cater to their development needs. Yocto is such a tool, allowing any vendor to customize their own systems based on Yocto.
What Is Yocto
Yocto is an umbrella project focused on creating embedded Linux distributions through an open embedded kernel, without being constrained by hardware architecture. Yocto itself is not a distribution, but rather a framework that helps you build Linux distributions. Yocto has become an indispensable tool. Developers and embedded system manufacturers can tailor the Linux version that best suits their hardware and software constraints as well as their actual applications.
More importantly, Yocto comes with various existing tools and has extensive open-source support, known for its flexibility. The rich set of tools, maintenance, templates, and community products can assist you in accomplishing various unparalleled specialized build tasks.
You can learn more about Yocto by visiting: https://www.yoctoproject.org/
Three Key Components of Yocto
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BitBake — essentially the build system engine of Yocto. It is responsible for creating recipes, which are task lists needed to build specific systems, as well as parsing metadata and executing recipes.
Developers interested in how to break down and accelerate the BitBake build process can register for Incredibuild’s latest event (scan the QR code at the bottom of the article to get the registration link).
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OpenEmbedded-Core — metadata. It contains the essential recipes, related files, and classes needed to create systems. It is set to be universal at build time, making it applicable to various OpenEmbedded-based systems.
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Poky — includes a Linux-based cross-platform build tool and various other technologies to help teams quickly develop new systems in a reliable manner. Poky generates filesystem images based on various architectures. A typical example is QEMU full-system emulation, an excellent embedded software testing platform.
Yocto Build Workflow
Yocto also supports other key components (such as QT, Chromium, LLVM etc.) integrated into embedded distributions, which is one of the reasons for its popularity.
Why Choose Yocto?
Although Yocto can be somewhat complex to operate, it has significant advantages:
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A broad user base, an active development community, supported by the Linux Foundation.
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Can achieve multi-level customization for various tasks, with the ability to add special features and customize browsers.
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Among similar projects, it is compatible with the most devices and can add a large number of SDKs, tools, and features.
These elements allow Yocto to achieve high customization while having strong support, making it very friendly for developers looking to customize embedded system builds.
Disadvantages of Yocto
Yocto also has some drawbacks. On one hand, the learning curve can be somewhat steep for beginners. For small, time-constrained projects or small teams, using this tool may not be very meaningful. On the other hand, Yocto’s build times can be long. This reduces iteration frequency, which may not be ideal for time-sensitive projects, but tools like Incredibuild can significantly accelerate the development process.
In the Yocto ecosystem, BitBake is a crucial concept, and given the complexity of the Yocto project, correctly utilizing sstate cache is particularly important. The Incredibuild technology community, IncrediClub, will hold an online seminar on embedded development with Yocto on July 14. Developers currently using or planning to use Yocto can register to participate (technical sharing is free), with details available in the poster below.
Registrants can contact Penny to receive:
“Yocto Panorama” (English version)
“BitBake Manual” (Chinese version)
“BitBake Complex Build Breakdown and Acceleration” (Bilingual)
“Using Ccache to Enhance sstate Cache” (Bilingual)