[tbot] Question regarding BBB (beagle bone black) tbot deployment

Tue Jan 15 09:56:51 UTC 2019

Hi Stefano,

> Hallo Heiko, Lukasz,
> 
> On 15/01/19 08:56, Heiko Schocher wrote:
> > Hello Lukasz,
> > 
> > Am 14.01.2019 um 16:04 schrieb Lukasz Majewski:  
> >> Hi Harald,
> >>  
> >>> Hello Lukasz,
> >>>
> >>> On Mon, 2019-01-14 at 15:39 +0100, Lukasz Majewski wrote:  
> >>>> Hi Heiko,
> >>>>     
> >>>>> Hello Lukasz,
> >>>>>
> >>>>> Am 14.01.2019 um 14:02 schrieb Lukasz Majewski:  
> >>>>>> Dear All,
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>> I'd like to ask you if is there any meta-* layer for BBB (which
> >>>>>> works with out of the box poky/meta-yocto-bsp layer) to create
> >>>>>> core-image*.wic file for Beagle Bone Black ?
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>> The wic file is supposed to run from the SD card.
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>> Thanks in advance for help.  
> >>>>>
> >>>>> Hmm.. isn;t the BBB a yocto reference board which should work
> >>>>> out of the box?  
> >>>>
> >>>> Yes. BBB is a yocto/OE reference board and has meta-yocto-bsp
> >>>> support.
> >>>>
> >>>> The above is one reason - the second reason for using it is no
> >>>> running parts on it (silence :-) ).
> >>>>     
> >>>>> I have here a BBB board, but did for some times no real tests,
> >>>>> but saw in my old tbot config files (beside using meta-xenomai
> >>>>> from Marek) no other meta layer used than "meta-openembedded"  
> >>>>
> >>>> I read your manual for old tbot:
> >>>> https://www.tbot.tools/bbb_guide.html
> >>>>
> >>>> As fair as I can see it uses python 2.7.
> >>>>
> >>>> Unfortunately, new one https://rahix.de/tbot/install.html [*]
> >>>>
> >>>> relies on python3. At lease on my setup, I do need pathlib and
> >>>> ntpath modules.
> >>>>      
> >>>
> >>> New tbot requires python 3.6+.  I use a lot of features introduced
> >>> in 3.6 which means that I can't support older versions.  
> >>
> >> Ach.... I do see.
> >>
> >> I think that BIG FAT note in the installation page that python
> >> 3.6+ is required would be helpful here (maybe I'm a bit
> >> old-fashion, but I only distinct two python versions - 2.x and
> >> 3.x :-) ). 
> >>>  
> >>>>
> >>>> BTW: What is the "blessed" version of python3?
> >>>>
> >>>> The "thud" provides:
> >>>> Python 3.5.6 (default, Jan 12 2019, 22:41:06)
> >>>> [GCC 8.2.0] on linux
> >>>>
> >>>> When I do install paramiko via pip3 (as advised in [*]), I do see
> >>>> following error:
> >>>>
> >>>> root at beaglebone-yocto:~/tbot# python3 setup.py install --user
> >>>> random: python3: uninitialized urandom read (24 bytes read)
> >>>>    File "setup.py", line 8
> >>>>      about: typing.Dict[str, str] = {}
> >>>>           ^
> >>>> SyntaxError: invalid syntax
> >>>>      
> >>>
> >>> Yes, this fails because type-annotations (what you are seeing in
> >>> that error message) were introduced in python 3.6 while you try
> >>> to run the code on 3.5.  That won't be possible, I'm afraid ...  
> >>
> >> Ok.
> >>
> >> Just one note - debian9 (stable) only supports 3.5.x python, so we
> >> are a bit cutting edge with tbot now...
> >>  
> >>>  
> >>>> Any help?
> >>>>
> >>>> (I'm also now testing the "stock" debian 9 image from
> >>>> beaglebone.org webpage).  
> >>>
> >>> I am not quite sure what you are trying to do.  Do you intend to
> >>> run tbot *on* the BBB?  
> >>
> >> I do want to use BBB as a manager of the tbot "LAB" - in a sense as
> >> Heiko did in the past.  
> > 
> > I ran/run tbot (also the new one) on raspberry pi not on BBB!
> > 
> > I used the BBB for testing yocto and xenomai builds on the BBB !
> >   
> >> The setup would be as follows:
> >>
> >> - IP power cord
> >> - IMX6Q DUT
> >> - 24V power supply
> >>
> >> - BBB (it would control the power strip - via eth and it I would
> >>    have the serial <-> usb converter connected to DUT). It would be
> >>    responsible for "local" management. I would have a separate
> >> build machine (with Jenkins or buildbot) to provide
> >> u-boot/kernel.  
> > 
> > Sounds standard tasks, I see no problems.
> >   
> >>    Why BBB? Small, cheap, silent.  
> > 
> > As I use the raspberry pi ;-)  
> 
> I feel Lukasz' intention was quite different, that is, is it possible
> to build a "tbot-to-go" on OE basis, and then to be HW independent
> (BBB instead of Raspi) ?

I wanted to confine all the packages into meta-tbot(-bbb) to have it
easily deployable with our BSP.

> 
> tbot on RPI is using Raspbian and it is not so flexible if we want to
> extend functionalities. That would require to build ourself debian
> packages, and their dependencies increase at the end the effort. For
> exampole, I put OpenOCD on it (but OE based).
> 
> I have checked with old tbot if it is possible to build on OE. Some
> hints:
> 
> - Python in OE (master) is still 3.5.6

This is the biggest show stopper - the 3.6.x is not yet available in OE.

> - there is not a paramiko recipe

It is available in meta-iot-intel  (2.4.1 - not 2.4.2).

> - probably busybox is not enough
> - there is not support for python-serial and friends

Installing python packages is a different story. They are simply
scattered around.

> - several python modules were missing, but things are pretty better
> now.
> 
> A OE based system can be easier safe updated (guess how...), and IMHO
> a BBB / RPI3 (or something else) is becoming a ready to use product
> (as debugger / CI HW tool).

I need a small board which is not making a lot of noise. As I do have
an IP power Strip I just need ETH and connect usb hub to BBB's port.

The workaround I've found is to install from beagleboard.org the debian
9.5 and "upgrade" it to "buster" version. It takes considerable time,
but provides python 3.7.x and tbot seems to work.

Also, as it is on the SD card I can dump it (compress) and easily share
it with customer if needed.

> 
> Anyway, there is some work to do - IMHO support for document
> generation is also an important step and should be available in tbot
> as it was in the old one.
> 
> Best regards,
> Stefano
> 
> >   
> >>> Is your plan to use the BBB as a kind of CI
> >>> runner?
> >>>  
> >>
> >> Yes, it will execute the tests (maybe with buildbot visualization
> >> - if possible)
> >>
> >> Or is there any better way to visualise results from local run of
> >> tests? (And on the beginning I would like to test if u-boot is
> >> build and runs on the board as well as kernel boots till prompt).
> >>  
> >>>  
> >>>>> Also I had a fix sometime ago for the BBB console, see:
> >>>>>
> >>>>> http://git.yoctoproject.org/cgit.cgi/poky/commit/?id=81e48b24dd9c97a3bdda3b4140f8e2bda29d24da
> >>>>>
> >>>>>
> >>>>> bye,
> >>>>> Heiko  
> >>>>
> >>>> Best regards,
> >>>>
> >>>> Lukasz Majewski
> >>>>      
> >>>
> >>> Cheers,  
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> Best regards,
> >>
> >> Lukasz Majewski
> >>
> >> -- 
> >>
> >> DENX Software Engineering GmbH,      Managing Director: Wolfgang
> >> Denk HRB 165235 Munich, Office: Kirchenstr.5, D-82194 Groebenzell,
> >> Germany Phone: (+49)-8142-66989-59 Fax: (+49)-8142-66989-80 Email:
> >> lukma at denx.de 
> >   
> 
> 

Best regards,

Lukasz Majewski

--

DENX Software Engineering GmbH,      Managing Director: Wolfgang Denk
HRB 165235 Munich, Office: Kirchenstr.5, D-82194 Groebenzell, Germany
Phone: (+49)-8142-66989-59 Fax: (+49)-8142-66989-80 Email: lukma at denx.de
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