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kumquat-buildroot/docs/manual/configure.adoc
Francois Perrad 32cec3be97 docs/manual: rename *.txt as *.adoc 
by using this standard extension `adoc`,
these files are rendered on gitlab & github

Signed-off-by: Francois Perrad <francois.perrad@gadz.org>
Signed-off-by: Thomas Petazzoni <thomas.petazzoni@bootlin.com>
2023-09-30 10:25:22 +02:00

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// -*- mode:doc; -*-
// vim: set syntax=asciidoc:
[[configure]]
== Buildroot configuration
All the configuration options in +make *config+ have a help text
providing details about the option.
The +make *config+ commands also offer a search tool. Read the help
message in the different frontend menus to know how to use it:
* in _menuconfig_, the search tool is called by pressing +/+;
* in _xconfig_, the search tool is called by pressing +Ctrl+ + +f+.
The result of the search shows the help message of the matching items.
In _menuconfig_, numbers in the left column provide a shortcut to the
corresponding entry. Just type this number to directly jump to the
entry, or to the containing menu in case the entry is not selectable due
to a missing dependency.
Although the menu structure and the help text of the entries should be
sufficiently self-explanatory, a number of topics require additional
explanation that cannot easily be covered in the help text and are
therefore covered in the following sections.
=== Cross-compilation toolchain
A compilation toolchain is the set of tools that allows you to compile
code for your system. It consists of a compiler (in our case, +gcc+),
binary utils like assembler and linker (in our case, +binutils+) and a
C standard library (for example
http://www.gnu.org/software/libc/libc.html[GNU Libc],
http://www.uclibc-ng.org/[uClibc-ng]).
The system installed on your development station certainly already has
a compilation toolchain that you can use to compile an application
that runs on your system. If you're using a PC, your compilation
toolchain runs on an x86 processor and generates code for an x86
processor. Under most Linux systems, the compilation toolchain uses
the GNU libc (glibc) as the C standard library. This compilation
toolchain is called the "host compilation toolchain". The machine on
which it is running, and on which you're working, is called the "host
system" footnote:[This terminology differs from what is used by GNU
configure, where the host is the machine on which the application will
run (which is usually the same as target)].
The compilation toolchain is provided by your distribution, and
Buildroot has nothing to do with it (other than using it to build a
cross-compilation toolchain and other tools that are run on the
development host).
As said above, the compilation toolchain that comes with your system
runs on and generates code for the processor in your host system. As
your embedded system has a different processor, you need a
cross-compilation toolchain - a compilation toolchain that runs on
your _host system_ but generates code for your _target system_ (and
target processor). For example, if your host system uses x86 and your
target system uses ARM, the regular compilation toolchain on your host
runs on x86 and generates code for x86, while the cross-compilation
toolchain runs on x86 and generates code for ARM.
Buildroot provides two solutions for the cross-compilation toolchain:
* The *internal toolchain backend*, called +Buildroot toolchain+ in
the configuration interface.
* The *external toolchain backend*, called +External toolchain+ in
the configuration interface.
The choice between these two solutions is done using the +Toolchain
Type+ option in the +Toolchain+ menu. Once one solution has been
chosen, a number of configuration options appear, they are detailed in
the following sections.
[[internal-toolchain-backend]]
==== Internal toolchain backend
The _internal toolchain backend_ is the backend where Buildroot builds
by itself a cross-compilation toolchain, before building the userspace
applications and libraries for your target embedded system.
This backend supports several C libraries:
http://www.uclibc-ng.org[uClibc-ng],
http://www.gnu.org/software/libc/libc.html[glibc] and
http://www.musl-libc.org[musl].
Once you have selected this backend, a number of options appear. The
most important ones allow to:
* Change the version of the Linux kernel headers used to build the
toolchain. This item deserves a few explanations. In the process of
building a cross-compilation toolchain, the C library is being
built. This library provides the interface between userspace
applications and the Linux kernel. In order to know how to "talk"
to the Linux kernel, the C library needs to have access to the
_Linux kernel headers_ (i.e. the +.h+ files from the kernel), which
define the interface between userspace and the kernel (system
calls, data structures, etc.). Since this interface is backward
compatible, the version of the Linux kernel headers used to build
your toolchain do not need to match _exactly_ the version of the
Linux kernel you intend to run on your embedded system. They only
need to have a version equal or older to the version of the Linux
kernel you intend to run. If you use kernel headers that are more
recent than the Linux kernel you run on your embedded system, then
the C library might be using interfaces that are not provided by
your Linux kernel.
* Change the version of the GCC compiler, binutils and the C library.
* Select a number of toolchain options (uClibc only): whether the
toolchain should have RPC support (used mainly for NFS),
wide-char support, locale support (for internationalization),
C++ support or thread support. Depending on which options you choose,
the number of userspace applications and libraries visible in
Buildroot menus will change: many applications and libraries require
certain toolchain options to be enabled. Most packages show a comment
when a certain toolchain option is required to be able to enable
those packages. If needed, you can further refine the uClibc
configuration by running +make uclibc-menuconfig+. Note however that
all packages in Buildroot are tested against the default uClibc
configuration bundled in Buildroot: if you deviate from this
configuration by removing features from uClibc, some packages may no
longer build.
It is worth noting that whenever one of those options is modified,
then the entire toolchain and system must be rebuilt. See
xref:full-rebuild[].
Advantages of this backend:
* Well integrated with Buildroot
* Fast, only builds what's necessary
Drawbacks of this backend:
* Rebuilding the toolchain is needed when doing +make clean+, which
takes time. If you're trying to reduce your build time, consider
using the _External toolchain backend_.
[[external-toolchain-backend]]
==== External toolchain backend
The _external toolchain backend_ allows to use existing pre-built
cross-compilation toolchains. Buildroot knows about a number of
well-known cross-compilation toolchains (from
http://www.linaro.org[Linaro] for ARM,
http://www.mentor.com/embedded-software/sourcery-tools/sourcery-codebench/editions/lite-edition/[Sourcery
CodeBench] for ARM, x86-64, PowerPC, and MIPS, and is capable of
downloading them automatically, or it can be pointed to a custom
toolchain, either available for download or installed locally.
Then, you have three solutions to use an external toolchain:
* Use a predefined external toolchain profile, and let Buildroot
download, extract and install the toolchain. Buildroot already knows
about a few CodeSourcery and Linaro toolchains. Just select the
toolchain profile in +Toolchain+ from the available ones. This is
definitely the easiest solution.
* Use a predefined external toolchain profile, but instead of having
Buildroot download and extract the toolchain, you can tell Buildroot
where your toolchain is already installed on your system. Just
select the toolchain profile in +Toolchain+ through the available
ones, unselect +Download toolchain automatically+, and fill the
+Toolchain path+ text entry with the path to your cross-compiling
toolchain.
* Use a completely custom external toolchain. This is particularly
useful for toolchains generated using crosstool-NG or with Buildroot
itself. To do this, select the +Custom toolchain+ solution in the
+Toolchain+ list. You need to fill the +Toolchain path+, +Toolchain
prefix+ and +External toolchain C library+ options. Then, you have
to tell Buildroot what your external toolchain supports. If your
external toolchain uses the 'glibc' library, you only have to tell
whether your toolchain supports C\++ or not and whether it has
built-in RPC support. If your external toolchain uses the 'uClibc'
library, then you have to tell Buildroot if it supports RPC,
wide-char, locale, program invocation, threads and C++.
At the beginning of the execution, Buildroot will tell you if
the selected options do not match the toolchain configuration.
Our external toolchain support has been tested with toolchains from
CodeSourcery and Linaro, toolchains generated by
http://crosstool-ng.org[crosstool-NG], and toolchains generated by
Buildroot itself. In general, all toolchains that support the
'sysroot' feature should work. If not, do not hesitate to contact the
developers.
We do not support toolchains or SDK generated by OpenEmbedded or
Yocto, because these toolchains are not pure toolchains (i.e. just the
compiler, binutils, the C and C++ libraries). Instead these toolchains
come with a very large set of pre-compiled libraries and
programs. Therefore, Buildroot cannot import the 'sysroot' of the
toolchain, as it would contain hundreds of megabytes of pre-compiled
libraries that are normally built by Buildroot.
We also do not support using the distribution toolchain (i.e. the
gcc/binutils/C library installed by your distribution) as the
toolchain to build software for the target. This is because your
distribution toolchain is not a "pure" toolchain (i.e. only with the
C/C++ library), so we cannot import it properly into the Buildroot
build environment. So even if you are building a system for a x86 or
x86_64 target, you have to generate a cross-compilation toolchain with
Buildroot or crosstool-NG.
If you want to generate a custom toolchain for your project, that can
be used as an external toolchain in Buildroot, our recommendation is
to build it either with Buildroot itself (see
xref:build-toolchain-with-buildroot[]) or with
http://crosstool-ng.org[crosstool-NG].
Advantages of this backend:
* Allows to use well-known and well-tested cross-compilation
toolchains.
* Avoids the build time of the cross-compilation toolchain, which is
often very significant in the overall build time of an embedded
Linux system.
Drawbacks of this backend:
* If your pre-built external toolchain has a bug, may be hard to get a
fix from the toolchain vendor, unless you build your external
toolchain by yourself using Buildroot or Crosstool-NG.
[[build-toolchain-with-buildroot]]
==== Build an external toolchain with Buildroot
The Buildroot internal toolchain option can be used to create an
external toolchain. Here are a series of steps to build an internal
toolchain and package it up for reuse by Buildroot itself (or other
projects).
Create a new Buildroot configuration, with the following details:
* Select the appropriate *Target options* for your target CPU
architecture
* In the *Toolchain* menu, keep the default of *Buildroot toolchain*
for *Toolchain type*, and configure your toolchain as desired
* In the *System configuration* menu, select *None* as the *Init
system* and *none* as */bin/sh*
* In the *Target packages* menu, disable *BusyBox*
* In the *Filesystem images* menu, disable *tar the root filesystem*
Then, we can trigger the build, and also ask Buildroot to generate a
SDK. This will conveniently generate for us a tarball which contains
our toolchain:
-----
make sdk
-----
This produces the SDK tarball in +$(O)/images+, with a name similar to
+arm-buildroot-linux-uclibcgnueabi_sdk-buildroot.tar.gz+. Save this
tarball, as it is now the toolchain that you can re-use as an external
toolchain in other Buildroot projects.
In those other Buildroot projects, in the *Toolchain* menu:
* Set *Toolchain type* to *External toolchain*
* Set *Toolchain* to *Custom toolchain*
* Set *Toolchain origin* to *Toolchain to be downloaded and installed*
* Set *Toolchain URL* to +file:///path/to/your/sdk/tarball.tar.gz+
===== External toolchain wrapper
When using an external toolchain, Buildroot generates a wrapper program,
that transparently passes the appropriate options (according to the
configuration) to the external toolchain programs. In case you need to
debug this wrapper to check exactly what arguments are passed, you can
set the environment variable +BR2_DEBUG_WRAPPER+ to either one of:
* +0+, empty or not set: no debug
* +1+: trace all arguments on a single line
* +2+: trace one argument per line
=== /dev management
On a Linux system, the +/dev+ directory contains special files, called
_device files_, that allow userspace applications to access the
hardware devices managed by the Linux kernel. Without these _device
files_, your userspace applications would not be able to use the
hardware devices, even if they are properly recognized by the Linux
kernel.
Under +System configuration+, +/dev management+, Buildroot offers four
different solutions to handle the +/dev+ directory :
* The first solution is *Static using device table*. This is the old
classical way of handling device files in Linux. With this method,
the device files are persistently stored in the root filesystem
(i.e. they persist across reboots), and there is nothing that will
automatically create and remove those device files when hardware
devices are added or removed from the system. Buildroot therefore
creates a standard set of device files using a _device table_, the
default one being stored in +system/device_table_dev.txt+ in the
Buildroot source code. This file is processed when Buildroot
generates the final root filesystem image, and the _device files_
are therefore not visible in the +output/target+ directory. The
+BR2_ROOTFS_STATIC_DEVICE_TABLE+ option allows to change the
default device table used by Buildroot, or to add an additional
device table, so that additional _device files_ are created by
Buildroot during the build. So, if you use this method, and a
_device file_ is missing in your system, you can for example create
a +board/<yourcompany>/<yourproject>/device_table_dev.txt+ file
that contains the description of your additional _device files_,
and then you can set +BR2_ROOTFS_STATIC_DEVICE_TABLE+ to
+system/device_table_dev.txt
board/<yourcompany>/<yourproject>/device_table_dev.txt+. For more
details about the format of the device table file, see
xref:makedev-syntax[].
* The second solution is *Dynamic using devtmpfs only*. _devtmpfs_ is
a virtual filesystem inside the Linux kernel that has been
introduced in kernel 2.6.32 (if you use an older kernel, it is not
possible to use this option). When mounted in +/dev+, this virtual
filesystem will automatically make _device files_ appear and
disappear as hardware devices are added and removed from the
system. This filesystem is not persistent across reboots: it is
filled dynamically by the kernel. Using _devtmpfs_ requires the
following kernel configuration options to be enabled:
+CONFIG_DEVTMPFS+ and +CONFIG_DEVTMPFS_MOUNT+. When Buildroot is in
charge of building the Linux kernel for your embedded device, it
makes sure that those two options are enabled. However, if you
build your Linux kernel outside of Buildroot, then it is your
responsibility to enable those two options (if you fail to do so,
your Buildroot system will not boot).
* The third solution is *Dynamic using devtmpfs + mdev*. This method
also relies on the _devtmpfs_ virtual filesystem detailed above (so
the requirement to have +CONFIG_DEVTMPFS+ and
+CONFIG_DEVTMPFS_MOUNT+ enabled in the kernel configuration still
apply), but adds the +mdev+ userspace utility on top of it. +mdev+
is a program part of BusyBox that the kernel will call every time a
device is added or removed. Thanks to the +/etc/mdev.conf+
configuration file, +mdev+ can be configured to for example, set
specific permissions or ownership on a device file, call a script
or application whenever a device appears or disappear,
etc. Basically, it allows _userspace_ to react on device addition
and removal events. +mdev+ can for example be used to automatically
load kernel modules when devices appear on the system. +mdev+ is
also important if you have devices that require a firmware, as it
will be responsible for pushing the firmware contents to the
kernel. +mdev+ is a lightweight implementation (with fewer
features) of +udev+. For more details about +mdev+ and the syntax
of its configuration file, see
http://git.busybox.net/busybox/tree/docs/mdev.txt.
* The fourth solution is *Dynamic using devtmpfs + eudev*. This
method also relies on the _devtmpfs_ virtual filesystem detailed
above, but adds the +eudev+ userspace daemon on top of it. +eudev+
is a daemon that runs in the background, and gets called by the
kernel when a device gets added or removed from the system. It is a
more heavyweight solution than +mdev+, but provides higher
flexibility. +eudev+ is a standalone version of +udev+, the
original userspace daemon used in most desktop Linux distributions,
which is now part of Systemd. For more details, see
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Udev.
The Buildroot developers recommendation is to start with the *Dynamic
using devtmpfs only* solution, until you have the need for userspace
to be notified when devices are added/removed, or if firmwares are
needed, in which case *Dynamic using devtmpfs + mdev* is usually a
good solution.
Note that if +systemd+ is chosen as init system, /dev management will
be performed by the +udev+ program provided by +systemd+.
[[init-system]]
=== init system
The _init_ program is the first userspace program started by the
kernel (it carries the PID number 1), and is responsible for starting
the userspace services and programs (for example: web server,
graphical applications, other network servers, etc.).
Buildroot allows to use three different types of init systems, which
can be chosen from +System configuration+, +Init system+:
* The first solution is *BusyBox*. Amongst many programs, BusyBox has
an implementation of a basic +init+ program, which is sufficient
for most embedded systems. Enabling the +BR2_INIT_BUSYBOX+ will
ensure BusyBox will build and install its +init+ program. This is
the default solution in Buildroot. The BusyBox +init+ program will
read the +/etc/inittab+ file at boot to know what to do. The syntax
of this file can be found in
http://git.busybox.net/busybox/tree/examples/inittab (note that
BusyBox +inittab+ syntax is special: do not use a random +inittab+
documentation from the Internet to learn about BusyBox
+inittab+). The default +inittab+ in Buildroot is stored in
+system/skeleton/etc/inittab+. Apart from mounting a few important
filesystems, the main job the default inittab does is to start the
+/etc/init.d/rcS+ shell script, and start a +getty+ program (which
provides a login prompt).
* The second solution is *systemV*. This solution uses the old
traditional _sysvinit_ program, packed in Buildroot in
+package/sysvinit+. This was the solution used in most desktop
Linux distributions, until they switched to more recent
alternatives such as Upstart or Systemd. +sysvinit+ also works with
an +inittab+ file (which has a slightly different syntax than the
one from BusyBox). The default +inittab+ installed with this init
solution is located in +package/sysvinit/inittab+.
* The third solution is *systemd*. +systemd+ is the new generation
init system for Linux. It does far more than traditional _init_
programs: aggressive parallelization capabilities, uses socket and
D-Bus activation for starting services, offers on-demand starting
of daemons, keeps track of processes using Linux control groups,
supports snapshotting and restoring of the system state,
etc. +systemd+ will be useful on relatively complex embedded
systems, for example the ones requiring D-Bus and services
communicating between each other. It is worth noting that +systemd+
brings a fairly big number of large dependencies: +dbus+, +udev+
and more. For more details about +systemd+, see
http://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Software/systemd.
The solution recommended by Buildroot developers is to use the
*BusyBox init* as it is sufficient for most embedded
systems. *systemd* can be used for more complex situations.
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