F&S i.MX6UL Buildroot Release 2023.12 (fsimx6ul-B2023.12)
Please see the file
doc/FSiMX6UL_FirstSteps_eng.pdf
for a description of how everything is installed and used. This doc sub-directory also contains other documentation, for example about the hardware of the boards and the starter kits.
This is a major release for all F&S boards and modules based on the i.MX6-UltraLite and i.MX6ULL CPUs from NXP (or i.MX6UL and i.MX6ULL for short).
Currently these are the modules efusA7UL, PicoCOM1.2, PicoCoreMX6UL, PicoCoreMX6UL100 and PicoCOMA7.
More boards may be added to this family in the future.
All these boards can work with software that is created from this release package.
Please note that Buildroot releases use a 'Y' for the version number. The version counting is independent form other releases.
The release consists of the following files and directories:
- Readme.txt Release notes (this text)
- setup-buildroot Script to download and install the Buildroot release
- binaries/ Precompiled images (full names)
- sdcard/ Precompiled images (names as expected by
- install script)
- doc/ Hardware and software manuals, schematics
Here are some highlights of this release.
1. This Release does not support the Silex WLAN chip on the modules efusA7UL
There is currently no driver avaialble for the Linux Kernel 5.15
For Silex WLAN chip support, please use the release fsimx6ul-B2019.11.1
1. New Linux Kernel 5.15.131
The Linux kernel is now based on 5.15.131
- New optimizations for EXT4.
- OverlayFS has better performance and copying up more attributes.
- Many graphics improvements among the DRM/KMS drivers.
- Linux 5.15 I/O can achieve up to ~3.5M IOPS per-core.
- The PREEMPT_RT locking code was merged as a big step forward towards getting the real-time (RT) patches upstreamed in the Linux kernel.
- Various scheduler improvements.
- Various power management improvements.
- Opt-in L1 data cache flushing on context switching as a security feature for the paranoid and other specialized conditions.
- Improvements around compile-time and run-time detection of buffer overflows.
- Additional protection around side channel attacks via clearing used registers prior to returning, making use of the compiler-side support.
(https://www.phoronix.com/review/linux-515-features)
Of course, there are also many changes for other CPU types (like x86)
and other graphics cores (like AMD, Nvidia, Intel) but these are not
of interest here.
2. New bootloader U-Boot 2021.04
The U-Boot is now based on 2021.04.
Additional to the security and feature updates of the mainline U-Boot, there have been many updates on the fsimage command and the general layout of the bootloaders in the flash memory.
3. New Buildroot version 2023.02.6
Updating Buildroot to Version 2023.02.6. This provides many new package versions like Weston 10.0.3, imx-gpu-viv 6.4.3.p4.8 or Busybox 1.36.1.
There is also a package for QT6.3 available, but it currently doesn't support the examples and crosscompiled qmake, so it is reather experimental in this release.
4. Improved Image versioning
The exact versions of Nboot, U-Boot and Linux Kernel will now be printed
during the boot process.
If the image is build with an tagged commit the tag name will be printed.
If the commit is not tagged, the git commits hash will be printed.
If the image is based on an uncommitted git, the flag "-dirty" will be added
to the last commits name.
We use an own Linux version string that will be printed additionally to the mainline Linux version. This way modules that are built for the same Linux
version with just some slight changes, can still be loaded without rebuilding the whole rootfile system.
Linux device trees are also versioned with the current version of the linux git.
You can check the versions of the different components at runtime at /sys/bdinfo/
5. New Release concept over github
We now provide our Linux gits over github at https://github.com/FSEmbedded.
All release and pre-release states will be pushed here.
For now, we will not push each single commit to github.
Also the release sources are not added to the release tar anymore, but will be downloaded from github during the setup process.
The versions of the different gits of a release can be looked up in the fs-release-manifest.xml file in the release tar directory.
=========================================================================
The following list shows the most noticeable changes in this release in
more detail since our last release for this platform. Please note that the
source code is also used for other platforms. This is why you will
also find references to other CPU types and F&S boards here in the
change log.
nbootimx6_50.bin (VN50)
------------------------------------
Supported boards: efusA7UL PicoCOM1.2 PicoCoreMX6UL PicoCoreMX6UL100 PicoCOMA7
[VN49]
- 0005378: [NBoot] Ad9 support for new boards efusA9Xr2, armStoneA9R3, armStoneA9r4, PicoCoreMX6SXr2
[VN50]
- 0005541: [NBoot] NAND dump does not work
- 0005540: [NBoot] Memory errors on armStoneA9
- 0005542: [NBoot] Board revision is wrong on armStoneA9
u-boot-2021.04-fsimx6ul-2023.12
-----------------------------------------------
Supported boards: efusA7UL PicoCOM1.2 PicoCoreMX6UL PicoCoreMX6UL100 PicoCOMA7
- Update to NXP u-boot-201.04
- Improve Uboot versioning
- Fix bootaux command
- Fix fat_size for files bigger than 2GB
- Drop board revision from BOARD-CFG names
- addfsheader.sh: Check for crc32 and xxd before using them
- Remove sha256 support
linux-5.15.71-fsimx6ul-2023.12
-----------------------------------------------
Supported boards: efusA7UL PicoCOM1.2 PicoCoreMX6UL PicoCoreMX6UL100 PicoCOMA7
- Update to NXP Linux Version lf-5.15.71-2.2.1
- Switch to FSL_ASOC_CARD sound driver for sgtl5000
- Add F&S Versioning for kernel and device tree
- Improve uart dma support
- Add leds-pca963x-fus driver and revert the original to
the mainline driver
- Enable power key support for PicoCore boards
- Improve SDIO stability for Azurewave wlan chips
- Add support to disable pin controls nodes in the device tree
- Apply patches from mainline linux-5.15.131
- Fix Realtek Ethernet Phy Bug in Low Power Mode
- Fix fsimx6ul 512MHz dc supply warning
buildroot-fsimx6ul-2023.12
-----------------------------------------------
Supported boards: efusA7UL PicoCOM1.2 PicoCoreMX6UL PicoCoreMX6UL100 PicoCOMA7
- Update to Buildroot 2023.02.6
- Update IMX specific packages to NXP Yocto version lf-5.15.71-2.2.1
- Add F&S Kernel and U-Boot versioning
- Add F&S psplash bootscreen
- Add support for weston fbdev-backend.
Examples
--------
(no changes)
Toolchain
---------
fs-toolchain-11.2-armv7ahf.tar.bz2 for Linux
Documentation
-------------
- Update to version 2.5 of FSiMX6UL_FirstSteps_eng.pdf
- Update to version 0.23 of LinuxOnFSBoards_eng.pdf
Please download the hardware documentation directly from our website.
Then you always have the newest version.
