[SOLVED] invalid choice: 'kernel_add

invalid choice: 'kernel_add_dts' in yocto build

Whats wrong with the argument, is there is no kernel_add_dts subcommand.

I get this below error whenever i try to run $ recipetool kernel_add_dts meta-local /path/to/my.dts

recipetool: error: argument <subcommand>: invalid choice: 'kernel_add_dts' (choose from 'edit', 'create', 'newappend', 'appendfile', 'appendsrcfiles', 'appendsrcfile', 'setvar')
usage: recipetool [-d] [-q] [--color COLOR] [-h] <subcommand> ...

Solution

Use recipetool to add a new device tree to your custom layer following this syntax:

recipetool appendsrcfile -wm (MACHINE) (PATH/TO/LAYER) virtual/kernel (PATH/TO/DTS) 'arch/${ARCH}/boot/dts/(YOUR_DTS_NAME).dts'

Details:

(MACHINE): Your build machine name
(PATH/TO/LAYER): The path to the layer that you want the linux-xx_%.bbappend file with the new DTS will be created
(PATH/TO/DTS): The path to the new DTS file
(YOUR_DTS_NAME): The DTS file name

Important note:

If the default device tree name is the same as the one you are adding it is not a problem, if not, please make sure that you add it to KERNEL_DEVICETREE variable so that it will be shipped with all the DTS files in the boot partition.

KERNEL_DEVICETREE += "(NEW_DTS_NAME).dtb"

After that you can stop Uboot (if you are using Uboot) and specify the new DTS file with:

setenv fdt_file (NEW_DTS_NAME).dtb
saveenv (If you want to save it for every boot)

Please run "printenv" to make sure of the "fdt_file" variable's name.

Real run test:

recipetool appendsrcfile -wm imx8mmddr3lval /home/talel/Desktop/final_git/meta-node virtual/kernel /home/talel/Desktop/example.dts 'arch/${ARCH}/boot/dts/example.dts'
...
NOTE: Writing append file /home/talel/Desktop/final_git/meta-node/recipes-kernel/linux/linux-imx_%.bbappend
NOTE: Copying /home/talel/Desktop/example.dts to /home/talel/Desktop/final_git/meta-node/recipes-kernel/linux/linux-imx/imx8mmddr3lval/example.dts

The new bbappend file is:

$ cat /home/talel/Desktop/final_git/meta-node/recipes-kernel/linux/linux-imx_%.bbappend

SRC_URI += "file://example.dts;subdir=git/arch/${ARCH}/boot/dts"

FILESEXTRAPATHS_prepend := "${THISDIR}/${PN}:"

PACKAGE_ARCH = "${MACHINE_ARCH}"

With "virtual/kernel" it will detect what provides it (linux-imx, linux-yocto, ...) and it will create linux-imx_%.append file.

The -w flag will create "_%" as for any version number.

Solution to avoid any patch for the DTS file:

If there is patches for your Linux kernel they will fail if you are updating the DTS with new modifications that override some lines that the patch expects, so you can do it cleanly in 2 ways:

bitbake virtual/kernel -c cleansstate
bitbake virtual/kernel -c patch

Now all patches are applied, go to tmp/work/../linux-(PROVIDER)/../git and:

git add .
git commit -m "commiting old patches"

Now edit the DTS file and:

git add arch/../boot/dts/../myplatform.dts
git commit -m "changes"
git format-patch -1 -o /path/to/meta-custom/recipes-kernel/linux/files

Now add it to /path/to/meta-custom/recipes-kernel/linux/linux-(PROVIDER)_%.bbappend:

SRC_URI_append = " file://patch_file.patch"

Or, the other way is to add your final DTS after the patch is done:

SRC_URI_append = " file://myplatform.dts"
do_configure_append(){
  cp ${WORKDIR}/myplatform.dts ${S}/arch/(ARCH)/boot/dts/....
}

and copy your myplatform.dts to /path/to/meta-custom/recipes-kernel/linux/files.

Now, that's your final DTS file.

Remove what recipetool added:

Actually, no undo subcommand in recipetool, you just need to delete the files that recipetool deployed, recipetool copy the file you specified and create a bbappend file, so remove those two files.

Example: you used recipetool to add example.dts file, recipetool copied example.dts to:

meta-custom/recipes-kernel/linux/(MACHINE)/example.dts

and created bbappend file in which it added example.dts to SRC_URI variable.

If you need to keep the bbappend file because you are using it in other way, just modify it and remove the line added by recipetool which contains:

SRC_URI ... "file://example.dts ..."