AGL supports building for several automotive Renesas board kits. Renesas is the number one supplier of vehicle control microcontrollers and System on a Chip (SoC) products for the automotive industry.

This section provides the build and deploy steps you need to create an image for the following Renesas platforms:

NOTE: You can find similar information for the Pro and Premier board kits on the R-Car/Boards/Yocto-Gen3 page on elinux.org. The information on this page describes setup and build procedures for both of these Renesas development kits.

Additionally, the AGL Reference Hardware platform is based on the same Renesas H3 processor used on the Renesas R-Car Starter Kit Premier and Salvator-X boards, so support for it leverages the Starter Kit Premier (also known as "h3ulcb") build. For more information on the AGL reference hardware platform, please refer to its manual, or the Reference Hardware System Architecture Expert Group wiki page.

1. Prepare your build

1.1 Downloading Proprietary Drivers

Before setting up the build environment, you need to download proprietary drivers from the R-Car H3/M3 Software library and Technical document site.

Follow these steps to download the drivers you need:

  1. Determine the Files You Need:

    Run the setup_mm_packages.sh script as follows to display the list of ZIP files containing the drivers you need. Following is an example:

    grep -rn ZIP_.= $AGL_TOP/meta-agl/meta-agl-bsp/meta-rcar-gen3/scripts/setup_mm_packages.sh

    The script's output identifies the files you need to download from the page.

  2. Get Your Board Support Package (BSP) Version:

    Be sure to have the correct BSP version of the R-Car Starter Kit based on the version of the AGL software you are using. Find the appropriate download links on the R-Car H3/M3 Software library and Technical document site. The file pairs are grouped according to the Yocto Project version you are using with the AGL software.

    Use the following table to map the Renesas version to your AGL software:

    AGL Version Renesas version
    AGL master 5.9.0

  3. Download the Files:

    Start the download process by clicking the download link. If you do not have an account with Renesas, you will be asked to register a free account. You must register and follow the "Click Through" licensing process in order to download these proprietary files.

    If needed, follow the instructions to create the free account by providing the required account information. Once the account is registered and you are logged in, you can download the files.

    NOTE: You might have to re-access the original page that contains the download links you need after creating the account and logging in.

  4. Create an Environment Variable to Point to Your Download Area:

    Create and export an environment variable named XDG_DOWNLOAD_DIR that points to your download directory. Here is an example:

    export XDG_DOWNLOAD_DIR=$HOME/Downloads

  5. Be Sure the Files Have Rights:

    Be sure you have the necessary rights for the files you downloaded. You can use the following command:

    chmod a+rw $XDG_DOWNLOAD_DIR/*.zip

  6. Check to be Sure the Files are Downloaded and Have the Correct Rights:

    Do a quick listing of the files to ensure they are in the download directory and they have the correct access rights. Here is an example:

    $ ls -l $XDG_DOWNLOAD_DIR/*.zip
-rw-rw-r-- 1 scottrif scottrif 4662080 Nov 19 14:48 /home/scottrif/Downloads/R-Car_Gen3_Series_Evaluation_Software_Package_for_Linux-weston8-20200923.zip
-rw-rw-r-- 1 scottrif scottrif 3137626 Nov 19 14:49 /home/scottrif/Downloads/R-Car_Gen3_Series_Evaluation_Software_Package_of_Linux_Drivers-weston8-20200923.zip

1.2. Getting More Software

  1. Get the bmaptool:

    Download this tool from the bmap-tools repository. The site has pre-built packages (DEB or RPM) for the supported host operating systems.

1.3. Getting Your Hardware Together

Gather together this list of hardware items, which is not exhaustive. Having these items ahead of time saves you from having to try and collect hardware during development:

NOTE: The Salvator-X Board has NDA restrictions. Consequently, less documentation is available for this board both here and across the Internet.

1.4. Making Sure Your Build Environment is Correct

The "Initializing Your Build Environment" section presented generic information for setting up your build environment using the aglsetup.sh script. If you are building an image for a supported Renesas board, you need to take steps to make sure your build host is set up correctly.

  1. Define Your Board:

    Depending on your Renesas board, define and export a MACHINE variable as follows:

    Board MACHINE Setting
    Starter Kit Pro/M3 MACHINE=m3ulcb
    Starter Kit Pro/M3 + kingfisher support MACHINE=m3ulcb-kf
    Starter Kit Pro/M3 without graphic driver (using pixman) MACHINE=m3ulcb-nogfx
    Starter Kit Premier/H3 MACHINE=h3ulcb
    Starter Kit Premier/H3 + kingfisher support MACHINE=h3ulcb-kf
    Starter Kit Premier/H3 without graphic driver (using pixman) MACHINE=h3ulcb-nogfx
    Salvator-X MACHINE=h3-salvator-x
    AGL Reference Hardware MACHINE=h3ulcb
    AGL Reference Hardware without graphic driver (using pixman) MACHINE=h3ulcb-nogfx

    For example, the following command defines and exports the MACHINE variable for the Starter Kit Premier/H3 Board:

    export MACHINE=h3ulcb

1.5. Run the aglsetup.sh Script:

Use the following commands to run the AGL Setup script:

cd $AGL_TOP
source meta-agl/scripts/aglsetup.sh -m $MACHINE -b build agl-devel agl-demo

NOTE: To avoid useless download and rebuild, it's important to set the variable DL_DIR and SSTATE_DIR in your configuration.

echo '# reuse download directories' >> $AGL_TOP/site.conf
echo 'DL_DIR = "$HOME/downloads/"' >> $AGL_TOP/site.conf
echo 'SSTATE_DIR = "$AGL_TOP/sstate-cache/"' >> $AGL_TOP/site.conf
ln -sf $AGL_TOP/site.conf conf/

Reference Hardware :

If building for the AGL Reference Hardware (with MACHINE set to "h3ulcb" or "h3ulcb-nogfx"), add agl-refhw-h3, for example:

cd $AGL_TOP
source meta-agl/scripts/aglsetup.sh -m $MACHINE -b build agl-devel agl-demo agl-refhw-h3

HTML5 based IVI demo :

For HTML5 based IVI demo the feature "agl-profile-graphical-html5" is needed.

$ source meta-agl/scripts/aglsetup.sh -f -m $MACHINE -b $MACHINE agl-demo agl-devel agl-profile-graphical-html5

Instrument Cluster with Container isolation demo :

$ source meta-agl/scripts/aglsetup.sh -f -m $MACHINE -b $MACHINE agl-lxc

NOTE: You can check if your logs match what is expected in the troubleshooting section.

Running the aglsetup.sh script automatically places you in the working directory (i.e. $AGL_TOP/build). You can change this default behavior by adding the "-f" option to the script's command line.

In the previous command, the "-m" option sets your machine to the previously defined MACHINE variable. The "-b" option defines your Build Directory, which is the default $AGL_TOP/build. Finally, the AGL features are provided to support building the AGL Demo image for the Renesas board.

You can learn more about the AGL Features in the "Initializing Your Build Environment" section.

2. Using BitBake

This section shows the bitbake command used to build the AGL image. Before running BitBake to start your build, it is good to be reminded that AGL does provide pre-built images for developers that work with supported hardware. You can find these pre-built images on the AGL Download web site.

Start the build using the bitbake command.

NOTE: An initial build can take many hours depending on your CPU and and Internet connection speeds. The build also takes approximately 100G-bytes of free disk space.

Qt based IVI demo : For this example, the target is "agl-demo-platform":

bitbake agl-demo-platform

HTML5 based IVI demo : The target is agl-demo-platform-html5.

$ time bitbake agl-demo-platform-html5

Instrument Cluster with Container isolation demo : The target is lxc-host-image-demo.

$ time bitbake lxc-host-image-demo

The build process puts the resulting image in the Build Directory:

<build_directory>/tmp/deploy/images/$MACHINE

3. Deploying the AGL Demo Image

To boot your image on the Renesas board, you need to do three things:

  1. Update all firmware on the board.
  2. Prepare the MicroSD card to you can boot from it.
  3. Boot the board.

NOTE: For subsequent builds, you only have to re-write the MicroSD card with a new image.

3.1. Booting the Image Using a MicroSD Card

  1. Preparing the MicroSD Card

    Plug the MicroSD card into your Build Host. After plugging in the device, use the dmesg command as follows to discover the device name:

    $ dmesg | tail -4
[ 1971.462160] sd 6:0:0:0: [sdc] Mode Sense: 03 00 00 00
[ 1971.462277] sd 6:0:0:0: [sdc] No Caching mode page found
[ 1971.462278] sd 6:0:0:0: [sdc] Assuming drive cache: write through
[ 1971.463870]  sdc: sdc1 sdc2

    In the previous example, the MicroSD card is attached to the device /dev/sdc. You can also use the lsblk command to show all your devices. Here is an example that shows the MicroSD card as /dev/sdc:

    $ lsblk
NAME   MAJ:MIN RM   SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINT
sda      8:0    0 167,7G  0 disk
├─sda1   8:1    0   512M  0 part /boot/efi
├─sda2   8:2    0 159,3G  0 part /
└─sda3   8:3    0   7,9G  0 part [SWAP]
sdb      8:16   0 931,5G  0 disk
└─sdb1   8:17   0 931,5G  0 part /media/storage
sdc      8:32   1  14,9G  0 disk
├─sdc1   8:33   1    40M  0 part
└─sdc2   8:34   1   788M  0 part

    IMPORTANT NOTE: Before re-writing any device on your Build Host, you need to be sure you are actually writing to the removable MicroSD card and not some other device. Each computer is different and removable devices can change from time to time. Consequently, you should repeat the previous operation with the MicroSD card to confirm the device name every time you write to the card.

    To summarize this example so far, we have the following:

    • The first SATA drive is /dev/sda.

    • /dev/sdc corresponds to the MicroSD card, and is also marked as a removable device. You can see this in the output of the lsblk command where "1" appears in the "RM" column for that device.

    Now that you have identified the device you are going to be writing the image on, you can use the bmaptool to copy the image to the MicroSD card.

    Your desktop system might offer a choice to mount the MicroSD automatically in some directory. For this example, assume that the MicroSD card mount directory is stored in the $SDCARD variable.

    Following are example commands that write the image to the MicroSD card:

    cd $AGL_TOP/build/tmp/deploy/images/$MACHINE
bmaptool copy ./agl-demo-platform-$MACHINE.wic.xz <boot_device_name>

    Alternatively, you can leave the image in an uncompressed state and write it to the MicroSD card:

    sudo umount <boot_device_name>
xzcat ./agl-demo-platform-$MACHINE.wic.xz | sudo dd of=<boot_device_name> bs=4M
sync

  2. Booting the Board

    Follow these steps to boot the board:

    1. Use the board's power switch to turn off the board.

    2. Insert the MicroSD card into the board.

    3. Verify that you have plugged in the following:

      • An external monitor into the board's HDMI port

      • An input device (e.g. keyboard, mouse, touchscreen, and so forth) into the board's USB ports.

    4. Use the board's power switch to turn on the board.

    After a few seconds, you will see the AGL splash screen on the display and you will be able to log in at the console's terminal or using the graphic screen.

3.2. Setting Up the Serial Console

Setting up the Serial Console involves the following:

3.3. Setting-up U-boot

Configuring U-Boot Parameters

Follow these steps to configure the board to use the MicroSD card as the boot device and also to set the screen resolution:

  1. As the board is powering up, press any key to stop the autoboot process. You need to press a key quickly as you have just a few seconds in which to press a key.

  2. Once the autoboot process is interrupted, use the board's serial console to enter printenv to check if you have correct parameters for booting your board:

    Here is an example using the h3ulcb board:

    => printenv
baudrate=115200
bootargs=console=ttySC0,115200 root=/dev/mmcblk1p1 rootwait ro rootfstype=ext4
bootcmd=run load_ker; run load_dtb; booti 0x48080000 - 0x48000000
bootdelay=3
fdt_high=0xffffffffffffffff
initrd_high=0xffffffffffffffff
load_dtb=ext4load mmc 0:1 0x48000000 /boot/r8a7795-h3ulcb.dtb
load_ker=ext4load mmc 0:1 0x48080000 /boot/Image
stderr=serial
stdin=serial
stdout=serial
ver=U-Boot 2015.04 (Jun 09 2016 - 19:21:52)

Environment size: 648/131068 bytes

  3. To boot your board using the MicroSD card, be sure your environment is set up as follows:

    setenv bootargs console=ttySC0,115200 ignore_loglevel vmalloc=384M video=HDMI-A-1:1920x1080-32@60 root=/dev/mmcblk1p1 rw rootfstype=ext4 rootwait rootdelay=2
setenv bootcmd run load_ker\; run load_dtb\; booti 0x48080000 - 0x48000000
setenv load_ker ext4load mmc 0:1 0x48080000 /boot/Image

  4. Loading dtb :

    NOTE : Refer here for more information.

    Make sure your load_dtb is set as follows :

    Renesas Boards DTB Name
    H3SK v2.0(DDR 4GB) r8a7795-h3ulcb.dtb
    H3SK v2.0(DDR 8GB)/v3.0(DDR 8GB) r8a7795-h3ulcb-4x2g.dtb
    M3SK v1.0 r8a7796-m3ulcb.dtb
    M3SK v3.0 r8a7796-m3ulcb-2x4g.dtb
    H3SK with a Kingfisher board r8a7795-h3ulcb-kf.dtb
    M3SK with a Kingfisher board r8a7796-m3ulcb-kf.dtb
    AGL Reference Hardware board r8a7795-agl-refhw.dtb 
    setenv load_dtb ext4load mmc 0:1 0x48000000 /boot/r8a7795-h3ulcb-kf.dtb

  5. Save the boot environment:

    saveenv

  6. Boot the board:

    run bootcmd

4. Troubleshooting

4.1. Checking Your Configuration

Aside from environment variables and parameters you establish through running the aglsetup.sh script, you can ensure your build's configuration is just how you want it by examining the local.conf configuration file.

You can find this configuration file in the Build Directory (e.g. $TOP_DIR/build/conf/local.conf).

In general, the defaults along with the configuration fragments the aglsetup.sh script applies in the local.conf file are good enough. However, you can customize aspects by editing the local.conf file. See the "Customizing Your Build" section for common configurations you might want to consider.

NOTE: For detailed explanations of the configurations you can make in the local.conf file, consult the Yocto Project Documentation.

A quick way to see if you have the $MACHINE variable set correctly is to use the following command:

grep -w -e "^MACHINE =" $AGL_TOP/build/conf/local.conf

Depending on the Renesas board you are using, you should see output as follows:

MACHINE = "h3ulcb"

or

MACHINE = "m3ulcb"

or

MACHINE = "h3-salvator-x"

If you ran the aglsetup.sh script as described in the "Making Sure Your Build Environment is Correct" section earlier, the "agl-devel", "agl-demo", "agl-netboot", "agl-appfw-smack", and "agl-localdev" AGL features will be in effect. These features provide the following:

4.2. Check the Script's Log:

Running the aglsetup.sh script creates the setup.log file, which is in the build/conf folder. You can examine this log to see the results of the script. For example, suppose the graphics drivers were missing or could not be extracted when you ran the script. In case of missing graphics drivers, you could notice an error message similar to the following:

[snip]
--- fragment /home/working/workspace_agl_master/meta-agl/templates/machine/h3ulcb/50_setup.sh
/home/working/workspace_agl_master /home/working/workspace_agl_master/build_gen3
The graphics and multimedia acceleration packages for
the R-Car Gen3 board can be downloaded from:
https://www.renesas.com/en-us/solutions/automotive/rcar-demoboard-2.html

These 2 files from there should be store in your'/home/devel/Downloads' directory.
    R-Car_Gen3_Series_Evaluation_Software_Package_for_Linux-weston8-20200923.zip
    R-Car_Gen3_Series_Evaluation_Software_Package_of_Linux_Drivers-weston8-20200923.zip
/home/working/workspace_agl_master/build_gen3
--- fragment /home/working/workspace_agl_master/meta-agl/templates/base/99_setup_EULAconf.sh
--- end of setup script
OK
Generating setup file: /home/working/workspace_agl_master/build_gen3/agl-init-build-env ... OK
------------ aglsetup.sh: Done
[snip]

If you encounter this issue, or any other unwanted behavior, you can fix the error mentioned, remove the $AGL_TOP/build directory, and then re-launch the aglsetup.sh again.

Here is another example that indicates the driver files could not be extracted from the downloads directory:

~/workspace_agl/build/conf $ cat setup.log
--- beginning of setup script
--- fragment /home/working/workspace_agl/meta-agl/templates/base/01_setup_EULAfunc.sh
--- fragment /home/working/workspace_agl/meta-agl/templates/machine/h3ulcb/50_setup.sh
~/workspace_agl ~/workspace_agl/build
ERROR: FILES "+/home/working/Downloads/R-Car_Gen3_Series_Evaluation_Software_Package_for_Linux-weston8-20200923.zip+" NOT EXTRACTING CORRECTLY
ERROR: FILES "+/home/working/Downloads/R-car_Gen3_Series_Evaluation_Software_Package_of_Linux_Drivers-weston8-20200923.zip+" NOT EXTRACTING CORRECTLY
The graphics and multimedia acceleration packages for
the R-Car Gen3 board BSP can be downloaded from:
<https://www.renesas.com/us/en/application/automotive/r-car-h3-m3-documents-software>

These 2 files from there should be stored in your
'/home/working/Downloads' directory.
    R-Car_Gen3_Series_Evaluation_Software_Package_for_Linux-weston8-20200923.zip
    R-Car_Gen3_Series_Evaluation_Software_Package_of_Linux_Drivers-weston8-20200923.zip
ERROR: Script /home/working/workspace_agl/build/conf/setup.sh failed
[snip]

4.3. Updating the Board's Firmware

Follow these steps to update the firmware:

  1. Update the Sample Loader and MiniMonitor:

    You only need to make these updates one time per device.

    Follow the procedure found on the eLinux.org wiki to update to at least version 3.02, which is mandatory to run the AGL image (R-car loader update).

  2. Update the Firmware Stack:

    You only need to update the firmware stack if you are using the Eel or later (5.0) version of AGL software.

    M3 and H3 Renesas board are AArch64 platforms. As such, they have a firmware stack that is divided across: ARM Trusted Firmware, OP-Tee and U-Boot.

    If you are using the Eel (5.0) version or later of the AGL software, you must update the firmware using the [h3ulcb] R-car h3ulcb firmware update or [m3ulcb] R-car m3ulcb firmware update links from the Embedded Linux Wiki (i.e. elinux.org).

    The table in the wiki lists the files you need to flash the firmware. You can find these files in the following directory:

    $AGL_TOP/build/tmp/deploy/images/$MACHINE

    NOTE: The Salvator-X firmware update process is not documented on eLinux. NOTE: The AGL Reference Hardware board generally should not require a firmware update to be usable, and has a slightly different update procedure. If you do need to update the firmware, the procedure is documented here.

4.4. Logging Into the Console

Once the board boots, you should see the Wayland display on the external monitor. A login prompt should appear as follows depending on your board:

h3ulcb or AGL Reference Hardware:

Automotive Grade Linux ${AGL_VERSION} h3ulcb ttySC0

h3ulcb login: root

At the prompt, login by using root as the login. The password is "empty" so you should not be prompted for the password.

4.5. Determining the Board's IP Address

If your board is connected to a local network using Ethernet and if a DHCP server is able to distribute IP addresses, you can determine the board's IP address and log in using ssh.

Here is an example for the h3ulcb board:

h3ulcb login: root
Last login: Tue Dec  6 09:55:15 UTC 2016 on tty2
root@h3ulcb:~# ip -4 a
1: lo: <LOOPBACK,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 65536 qdisc noqueue state UNKNOWN group default
    inet 127.0.0.1/8 scope host lo
    valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
3: eth0: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 1500 qdisc pfifo_fast state UP group default qlen 1000
    inet 10.0.0.27/24 brd 10.0.0.255 scope global eth0
    valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
root@h3ulcb:~#

In the previous example, IP address is 10.0.0.27. Once you know the address, you can use ssh to login. Following is an example that shows logging into SSH and then displaying the contents of the /etc/os-release file:

$ ssh root@10.0.0.27
Last login: Tue Dec  6 10:01:11 2016 from 10.0.0.13
root@h3ulcb:~# cat /etc/os-release
ID="poky-agl"
NAME="Automotive Grade Linux"
VERSION="11.0.0+snapshot-20210128 (koi)"
VERSION_ID="11.0.0-snapshot-20210128"
PRETTY_NAME="Automotive Grade Linux 11.0.0+snapshot-20210128 (koi)"

5. Supplementary Information

5.1. R-Car Generation 3 Information

Refer to the R-Car page on the elinux.org website for more information.

5.2. Proprietary libraries for meta-rcar-gen3

The meta-rcar-gen3 layer of meta-renesas supports Graphic GLES(GSX) libraries, proprietary multimedia libraries, and ICCOM software.

5.3. Build with Renesas multimedia libraries

Multimedia portions depend on GLES portions.

5.4. Enable Linux ICCOM driver and Linux ICCOM library

For Linux ICCOM driver and Linux ICCOM library