Build your own firmware¶

Every file on the SD card rebuilds from source. The modern firmware (Linux 6.12 and Debian) builds without Vivado; only a change to the FPGA design needs it.

The path¶

The build path as five boxes joined by arrows: doctor (can this machine build?), setup (fetch the sources, apply the patches), build (the SD-card files, into output/), verify (is the build sane? with --board: is it running?) and flash (over the network, md5-verified). Each is one ./devkit command, run from the repo root. The build path as five boxes joined by arrows: doctor (can this machine build?), setup (fetch the sources, apply the patches), build (the SD-card files, into output/), verify (is the build sane? with --board: is it running?) and flash (over the network, md5-verified). Each is one ./devkit command, run from the repo root.

Check your machine can build

./devkit doctor answers in about a second.
Build without Vivado

The kernel, drivers and Debian, from a pinned FPGA design.
Check the build

./devkit verify before flashing; --board after.
Put it on the board

./devkit flash over the network, backed up and md5-verified.

Change something¶

Change a kernel driver

The two-minute loop: build uImage alone, flash it alone.
Change the device tree

Build it, audit the built .dtb, flash it with --dtb-only.
Add your own logic to the FPGA

Simulate first, delete the Vivado project, rebuild the bitstream.
Build with Vivado in a container

The recommended route for FPGA builds, on any Linux.
Install Vivado 2022.2

Only for an FPGA change: through the container, or on an Ubuntu host.
Build the FM channelizer example

A worked example: one FM channel, filtered in the FPGA.
Rebuild the Debian root

After a change to the root's overlay, then a new card.
Compare with the factory firmware

How close the rebuild is, and how to check it yourself.

Reference¶

The long pages, with every detail and measurement: building your own firmware · building in a container · building without Vivado · the stock block design · an FM channelizer in the FPGA · changing the kernel · the modern kernel · why Debian · the Debian root reference · provenance.