Fundamentally, the SDK fits into the development process as follows:
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The SDK is installed on any machine and can be used to develop applications, images, and kernels. An SDK can even be used by a QA Engineer or Release Engineer. The fundamental concept is that the machine that has the SDK installed does not have to be associated with the machine that has the Yocto Project installed. A developer can independently compile and test an object on their machine and then, when the object is ready for integration into an image, they can simply make it available to the machine that has the Yocto Project. Once the object is available, the image can be rebuilt using the Yocto Project to produce the modified image.
You just need to follow these general steps:
Install the SDK for your target hardware: For information on how to install the SDK, see the "Installing the SDK" section.
Download or Build the Target Image: The Yocto Project supports several target architectures and has many pre-built kernel images and root filesystem images.
If you are going to develop your application on
hardware, go to the
machines
download area and choose a target machine area
from which to download the kernel image and root filesystem.
This download area could have several files in it that
support development using actual hardware.
For example, the area might contain
.hddimg
files that combine the
kernel image with the filesystem, boot loaders, and
so forth.
Be sure to get the files you need for your particular
development process.
If you are going to develop your application and
then run and test it using the QEMU emulator, go to the
machines/qemu
download area.
From this area, go down into the directory for your
target architecture (e.g. qemux86_64
for an Intel®-based
64-bit architecture).
Download kernel, root filesystem, and any other files you
need for your process.
Develop and Test your Application: At this point, you have the tools to develop your application. If you need to separately install and use the QEMU emulator, you can go to QEMU Home Page to download and learn about the emulator. See the "Using the Quick EMUlator (QEMU)" chapter in the Yocto Project Development Manual for information on using QEMU within the Yocto Project.
The remainder of this manual describes how to use both the standard SDK and the extensible SDK. Information also exists in appendix form that describes how you can build, install, and modify an SDK.