Yocto on Embedded Linux Blog

[Yocto-Lichee] 2. Getting started: flashing an image to the SD card for the Lichee Pi Nano

Sat, 05 Sep 2026 21:25:15 +0700

In this post I show you how to get familiar with the board and test it when you first receive a LicheePi Nano and want to check whether it is alive :vv.

It is a bit backwards that the getting-started post is only the third post in the Yocto-Lichee series :vv. Recently I realised Yocto is quite complicated for beginners, so after the basic posts I will probably move to Buildroot to build the image first :vv.

[Yocto-BBB] 20. Building Yocto 6.0 Wrynose for the Beaglebone Black

Sat, 20 Jun 2026 06:09:00 +0700

It has been a full year since I posted my first article about building Yocto for the Beaglebone Black. At first I used Kirkstone, then updated to Scarthgap and thought that would last quite a while :vv, but Wrynose brings fairly big structural changes. So I am writing this extra post on how to build with the new version; I think from 6.0 onwards the structure will stay the same.

[Yocto-Lichee] 1. Building Yocto Scarthgap for the Lichee Pi Nano

Sun, 24 May 2026 18:26:27 +0700

In fact I have already finished porting and updated the meta-layer, so the work here is quite easy; I leave a note at the end of the post on what I had to change to port from Yocto 3.0 Zeus to Yocto 5.0 Scarthgap

[Yocto-Lichee] 0. Building Yocto Zeus for the Lichee Pi Nano

Sat, 16 May 2026 06:02:00 +0700

I have decided to use the Lichee Pi Nano as the cheap board for the upcoming Device Driver series. I found a guide from fanning (ninhnn2) showing how to build for this board with Yocto Zeus (3.0), from 6 years ago. Many thanks to him for creating the BSP meta layer for it; the hardest part is already done !!

[Linux] The cheapest embedded board that can run Linux

Sat, 09 May 2026 06:15:00 +0700

With prices climbing, a Beaglebone Black now costs around 2 million VND. I decided to look for the cheapest board that can run Linux. After about 2 weeks I settled on the board I will make a series about soon. Because I think a cheap board lets the most people get their hands on it and tinker :vv. Read to the end to find out which board I chose

[Kernel-BBB] 1. KGDB over UART

Sat, 18 Apr 2026 06:56:00 +0700

Keeping the configuration from Yocto-BBB 1 , I add a new meta-layer just for this kernel work

1. Create a new meta layer

1.1 Create the meta layer and add it to bblayers

bash

$ source oe-init-build-env build-bbb/
zk47@ltu:~/Youtube/Yocto/yocto-bbb/poky/build-bbb$ bitbake-layers create-layer ../meta-kernel
NOTE: Starting bitbake server...
Add your new layer with 'bitbake-layers add-layer ../meta-kernel'

$ bitbake-layers add-layer ../meta-kernel
NOTE: Starting bitbake server...

1.2 Create the kernel append recipe

We use the following command to find the kernel recipe (in fact we could use virtual/kernel, but that is a generic name, not the specific one)

[Yocto-BBB] 19. Sharing sstate to speed up builds

Sat, 11 Apr 2026 06:54:00 +0700

1. Setting up the HTTP server

Here I use nginx, but you can use simpler methods. All we are doing is sharing the sstate-cache folder from one machine that has already built yocto to another machine on the same network

[Yocto-BBB] 18. GDB debugging through recipe-sysroot

Tue, 31 Mar 2026 20:11:59 +0700

In this post I show you how to debug a binary built by a recipe using the recipe-sysroot in that recipe's output folder.

1. What is a sysroot?

Sysroot means system root: a folder acting as a virtual root filesystem for cross-compiling. It contains the header files, libraries and artifacts the compiler/linker needs to build code for the target without running on the target.

[Yocto-MX93] 2. Connecting to wifi, trying Chromium

Sat, 07 Feb 2026 07:34:09 +0700

One nice thing about using the vendor's full-featured image is that adding things is quite simple, and there is plenty of documentation from the vendor too

1. Adding Chromium to the build

First, as I said in the previous post, to avoid editing local.conf and bblayers and then having those 2 files reset when you run source, we first run the following command to initialise the build environment

[Yocto-MX93] 1. Building imx-image-full for the FRDM-i.MX93

Sat, 31 Jan 2026 22:07:48 +0700

In the Yocto series for the Beaglebone Black and STM32MP157 I did a lot of basic features, how to use yocto, working up from core-image-minimal. This time I build the features for the FRDM i.MX93 board starting straight from the vendor's full image.

[Yocto-BBB] 17. Installing Links-X11, browsing the web on core-image-sato

Sat, 17 Jan 2026 06:34:00 +0700

The other day I installed Android 6 on the Beaglebone Black and saw a Browser app, but it could not browse the web. Newer boards such as the FRDM i.MX93 support Chromium well, but that certainly requires much better hardware.

[Yocto-STM32MP1] 2. Creating a kernel device tree patch, enabling i2c

Sat, 13 Dec 2025 07:18:00 +0700

In this post I show you how to create a kernel device tree patch to enable i2c5 on the board

1. Documents and hardware

Read the vendor's User Manual ; page 8 has the Hardware block diagram, showing the connections currently routed out from the chip

[Yocto-BBB] 16. Enabling ADB, SSH port forwarding

Sat, 22 Nov 2025 06:46:00 +0700

ADB: Android Debug Bridge

In this post I show you how to configure the image build with ADB to make transferring files over USB more convenient, as well as Port Forwarding so we can use ssh over USB.

1. Android Debug Bridge (ADB)

[Yocto-BBB] 15. Changing the Boot Logo

Sat, 18 Oct 2025 09:25:00 +0700

Okay, in this post I show how to change the Boot Logo on the Beaglebone Black. At first I thought it would require deep research, but in reality changing it is quite simple. That is one of the nice things about Linux: there is support for so many Packages. My job is to find what I need and put it together.

[Yocto-BBB] 14. X11 and RDP (Remote Desktop Protocol)

Sat, 11 Oct 2025 09:13:00 +0700

Since building Weston was far too complicated, and I also tried Weston + RDP without success, I switched to X11 + RDP to keep things simpler

1. Why use RDP

The goal of using RDP (Remote Desktop Protocol) is that you can access the board remotely with a graphical interface, like VNC.

[Yocto-BBB] 13. Building Weston, fixing input and dnd errors

Sat, 04 Oct 2025 12:15:29 +0700

When I started, I did not expect to write this post; I thought I would go straight to the RDP + Weston post. Because on the STM32MP157 it built right away, but on this Beaglebone Black it took me 2 days to get Weston working more or less properly.

[Yocto-BBB] 11. Transferring files over UART

Sat, 20 Sep 2025 09:25:00 +0700

In this post I show you how to transfer files over UART. It will be very useful soon when we study the Boot process on the BBB and u-boot.

1. Why

So far I know of the following ways to transfer files from the HOST to the board. Here are their pros and cons

[Yocto-BBB] 10. Booting from eMMC

Sat, 30 Aug 2025 08:40:00 +0700

In this post I show you how to configure the Beaglebone Black to boot from eMMC.

1. Why

1.1 What is eMMC?

eMMC (embedded MultiMediaCard) is a type of integrated storage that combines NAND flash and a controller on the same chip.

[Yocto-BBB] 9. Using devtool, creating patches and installing IPK files

Sat, 23 Aug 2025 08:52:00 +0700

In post 5 on adding a driver for the USB wifi adapter I showed you how to create recipes by hand to fetch code from git and build it. In post 8 I also put the main.c i2c code on git, but after copying it to the board we have to fix I2C_DEV and I2C_ADDR.

[Yocto-BBB] 8. Connecting an SSD1306 0.96 inch OLED over I2C

Sat, 16 Aug 2025 08:05:00 +0700

In this post I show you how to connect the Beaglebone Black to an SSD1306 screen and create recipes to build a program for it. Below is how to wire it

(If you run into difficulties following the blog, you can refer to my hands-on video at the end of the post)

[Yocto-BBB] 7. Adding a driver for a USB wifi adapter

Sat, 09 Aug 2025 08:15:00 +0700

For boards without a built-in wifi module like the Beaglebone Black, a usb wifi adapter is far more convenient than an Ethernet cable. In this post I use the TP-Link WN722N V2 USB wifi adapter, which is quite common in Vietnamese shops

[Yocto-BBB] 6. SSH into the board over Ethernet

Sat, 02 Aug 2025 08:25:00 +0700

Continuing from post 5, in this post I show you how to add packages to the image so it can connect to the Internet when Ethernet is plugged in, and then SSH into the board, which makes programming easier later.

[Yocto-BBB] 5. Changing the banner after login

Sat, 26 Jul 2025 09:37:00 +0700

Our goal for this post is that after logging in, the following screen appears

(If you run into difficulties following the blog, you can refer to my hands-on video at the end of the post)

To print this on the screen we need to run some script. To trigger that script we could use a service and install it in systemd, but the setup would be more complicated.

[Yocto-BBB] 4. Changing the Distro Description

Sat, 19 Jul 2025 09:21:00 +0700

As mentioned in the previous post, the goal of this post is to change the distro description from "Poky (Yocto Project Reference Distro)" to a custom line of my own

Changing the Distro Description

First, let's find which file in the poky repo contains this text once the image is built

[Yocto-BBB] 3. Adding a password for the user

Sat, 12 Jul 2025 09:38:00 +0700

In the previous 2 posts we did not set a password for the root user. In this post I add a password (since there is no sudo, I add it for root :v)

(If you run into difficulties following the blog, you can refer to my hands-on video at the end of the post)

[Yocto-BBB] 2. UART Debug Board and Bitbake Append

Sat, 05 Jul 2025 08:04:00 +0700

In the previous post we successfully built core-minimal-image; in this post I continue with connecting the uart debug and review bitbake append

(If you run into difficulties following the blog, you can refer to my hands-on video at the end of the post)

[Yocto-BBB] 1. Build a Beaglebone Black image with the Yocto Project

Sat, 28 Jun 2025 17:54:46 +0700

Let's start the series on building with Yocto; the first post is about building for the Beaglebone Black.

(If you run into difficulties following the blog, you can refer to my hands-on video at the end of the post)

[Yocto-BBB] 0. Theory, documents, and common commands in the Yocto series

Fri, 27 Jun 2025 09:26:00 +0700

When following the posts in the series, there are commands I use often, some theory that is easy to forget, and some extra documents. In this post I gather them together so it is easier for you to follow along.