# FAQ

How does Poky differ from OpenEmbedded?

Poky is a derivative of OpenEmbedded, a stable, smaller subset focused on the GNOME Mobile environment. Development in Poky is closely tied to OpenEmbedded with features being merged regularly between the two for mutual benefit.

I only have Python 2.4 or 2.5 but BitBake requires Python 2.6. Can I still use Poky?

You can use a stand-alone tarball to provide Python 2.6. You can find pre-built 32 and 64-bit versions of Python 2.6 at the following locations:

These tarballs are self-contained with all required libraries and should work on most Linux systems. To use the tarballs extract them into the root directory and run the appropriate command:

         $ export PATH=/opt/poky/sysroots/i586-pokysdk-linux/usr/bin/:$PATH
         $ export PATH=/opt/poky/sysroots/x86_64-pokysdk-linux/usr/bin/:$PATH

Once you run the command, BitBake uses Python 2.6.

How can you claim Poky is stable?

There are three areas that help with stability;

- We keep Poky small and focused - around 650 packages compared to over 5000 for full OE

- We only support hardware that we have access to for testing

- We have an autobuilder which provides continuous build and integration tests

How do I get support for my board added to Poky?

There are two main ways to get a board supported in Poky;

- Send us the board if we don't have it yet

- Send us BitBake recipes if you have them (see the Poky handbook to find out how to create recipes)

Usually if it's not a completely exotic board then adding support in Poky should be fairly straightforward.

Are there any products running poky ?

The Vernier Labquest is using Poky (for more about the Labquest see the case study at OpenedHand). There are a number of pre-production devices using Poky and we will announce those as soon as they are released.

What is the Poky output ?

The output of a Poky build will depend on how it was started, as the same set of recipes can be used to output various formats. Usually the output is a flashable image ready for the target device.

How do I add my package to Poky?

To add a package you need to create a BitBake recipe - see the Poky handbook to find out how to create a recipe.

Do I have to reflash my entire board with a new poky image when recompiling a package?

Poky can build packages in various formats, ipk (for ipkg/opkg), Debian package (.deb), or RPM. The packages can then be upgraded using the package tools on the device, much like on a desktop distribution like Ubuntu or Fedora.

What is GNOME Mobile? What's the difference between GNOME Mobile and GNOME?

GNOME Mobile is a subset of the GNOME platform targeted at mobile and embedded devices. The the main difference between GNOME Mobile and standard GNOME is that desktop-orientated libraries have been removed, along with deprecated libraries, creating a much smaller footprint.

I see the error 'chmod: XXXXX new permissions are r-xrwxrwx, not r-xr-xr-x'. What's wrong?

You're probably running the build on an NTFS filesystem. Use a sane one like ext2/3/4 instead!

How do I make Poky work in RHEL/CentOS?

To get Poky working under RHEL/CentOS 5.1 you need to first install some required packages. The standard CentOS packages needed are:

- "Development tools" (selected during installation)

- texi2html

- compat-gcc-34

On top of those the following external packages are needed:

- python-sqlite2 from DAG repository

- help2man from Karan repository

Once these packages are installed Poky will be able to build standard images however there may be a problem with QEMU segfaulting. You can either disable the generation of binary locales by setting ENABLE_BINARY_LOCALE_GENERATION to "0" or remove the linux-2.6-execshield.patch from the kernel and rebuild it since its that patch which causes the problems with QEMU.

I see lots of 404 responses for files on http://autobuilder.yoctoproject.org/sources/*. Is something wrong?

Nothing is wrong, Poky will check any configured source mirrors before downloading from the upstream sources. It does this searching for both source archives and pre-checked out versions of SCM managed software. This is so in large installations, it can reduce load on the SCM servers themselves. The address above is one of the default mirrors configured into standard Poky so if an upstream source disappears, we can place sources there so builds continue to work.

I have a machine specific data in a package for one machine only but the package is being marked as machine specific in all cases, how do I stop it?

Set SRC_URI_OVERRIDES_PACKAGE_ARCH = "0" in the .bb file but make sure the package is manually marked as machine specific in the case that needs it. The code which handles SRC_URI_OVERRIDES_PACKAGE_ARCH is in base.bbclass.

I'm behind a firewall and need to use a proxy server. How do I do that?

Most source fetching by Poky is done by wget and you therefore need to specify the proxy settings in a .wgetrc file in your home directory. Example settings in that file would be 'http_proxy = http://proxy.yoyodyne.com:18023/' and 'ftp_proxy = http://proxy.yoyodyne.com:18023/'. Poky also includes a site.conf.sample file which shows how to configure cvs and git proxy servers if needed.

I'm using Ubuntu Intrepid and am seeing build failures. Whats wrong?

In Intrepid, Ubuntu turned on by default normally optional compile-time security features and warnings. There are more details at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/CompilerFlags. You can work around this problem by disabling those options by adding " -Wno-format-security -U_FORTIFY_SOURCE" to the BUILD_CPPFLAGS variable in conf/bitbake.conf.

Whats the difference between foo and foo-native?

The *-native targets are designed to run on the system the build is running on. These are usually tools that are needed to assist the build in some way such as quilt-native which is used to apply patches. The non-native version is the one that would run on the target device.

I'm seeing random build failures. Help?!

If the same build is failing in totally different and random ways the most likely explanation is that either the hardware you're running it on has some problem or if you are running it under virtualisation, the virtualisation probably has bugs. Poky processes a massive amount of data causing lots of network, disk and cpu activity and is sensitive to even single bit failure in any of these areas. Totally random failures have always been traced back to hardware or virtualisation issues.

What do we need to ship for license compliance?

This is a difficult question and you need to consult your lawyer for the answer for your specific case. Its worth bearing in mind that for GPL compliance there needs to be enough information shipped to allow someone else to rebuild the same end result as you are shipping. This means sharing the source code, any patches applied to it but also any configuration information about how that package was configured and built.

How do I disable the cursor on my touchscreen device?

You need to create a form factor file as described in "Miscellaneous Recipe Files" and set the `HAVE_TOUCHSCREEN` variable equal to one.

         HAVE_TOUCHSCREEN=1

How do I make sure connected network interfaces are brought up by default?

The default interfaces file provided by the netbase recipe does not automatically bring up network interfaces. Therefore you will need to add a BSP-specific netbase that includes an interfaces file. See "Miscellaneous Recipe Files" for information on creating these types of miscellaneous recipe files.

For example, add the following files to your layer:

         meta-MACHINE/recipes-bsp/netbase/netbase/MACHINE/interfaces
         meta-MACHINE/recipes-bsp/netbase/netbase_4.44.bbappend

How do I create images with more free space?

Images are created to be 1.2 times the size of the populated root filesystem. To modify this ratio so that there is more free space available you need to set the configuration value `IMAGE_OVERHEAD_FACTOR`. For example, setting `IMAGE_OVERHEAD_FACTOR` to 1.5 sets the image size ratio to one and a half times the size of the populated root filesystem.

         IMAGE_OVERHEAD_FACTOR = "1.5"

Why don't you support directories with spaces in the pathnames?

We have tried to do this before but too many of the tools we depend on such as autoconf break when they find spaces in pathnames. Until that situation changes we will not support spaces in pathnames.

How does Poky obtain source code and will it work behind my firewall or proxy server?

The way Poky obtains source code is highly configurable. You can setup Poky to get source code in most environmnents if HTTP transport is available.

When Poky searches for source code it first tries the local download directory. If that location fails, Poky tries PREMIRRORS, the upstream source, and then MIRRORS in that order.

By default, Poky uses the Yocto Project source PREMIRRORS for SCM-based sources, upstreams for normal tarballs and then falls back to a number of other mirrors including the Yocto Project source mirror if those fail.

As an example, you could add a specific server for Poky to attempt before any others by adding something like the following to the `local.conf` configuration file:

         PREMIRRORS_prepend = "\
         git://.*/.* http://autobuilder.yoctoproject.org/sources/ \n \
         ftp://.*/.* http://autobuilder.yoctoproject.org/sources/ \n \
         http://.*/.* http://autobuilder.yoctoproject.org/sources/ \n \
         https://.*/.* http://autobuilder.yoctoproject.org/sources/ \n"

These changes cause Poky to intercept GIT, FTP, HTTP, and HTTPS requests and direct them to the `http://` sources mirror. You can use `file://` urls to point to local directories or network shares as well.

Aside from the previous technique, these options also exist:

         BB_NO_NETWORK = "1"

This statement tells BitBake to throw an error instead of trying to access the Internet. This technique is useful if you want to ensure code builds only from local sources.

Here is another technique:

         BB_FETCH_PREMIRRORONLY = "1"

This statement limits Poky to pulling source from the PREMIRRORS only. Again, this technique is useful for reproducing builds.

Here is another technique:

         BB_GENERATE_MIRROR_TARBALLS = "1"

This statement tells Poky to generate mirror tarballs. This technique is useful if you want to create a mirror server. If not, however, the technique can simply waste time during the build.

Finally, consider an example where you are behind an HTTP-only firewall. You could make the following changes to the `local.conf` configuration file as long as the premirror server is up to date:

         PREMIRRORS_prepend = "\
         ftp://.*/.* http://autobuilder.yoctoproject.org/sources/ \n \
         http://.*/.* http://autobuilder.yoctoproject.org/sources/ \n \
         https://.*/.* http://autobuilder.yoctoproject.org/sources/ \n"
         BB_FETCH_PREMIRRORONLY = "1"

These changes would cause Poky to successfully fetch source over HTTP and any network accesses to anything other than the premirror would fail.

Poky also honors the standard environment variables `http_proxy`, `ftp_proxy`, `https_proxy`, and `all_proxy` to redirect requests through proxy servers.