HPS GSRD User Guide

Overview

The HPS Baseline System Example Design (formerly known as "GSRD" or "Golden System Reference Design") demonstrates basic HPS functionality on the Agilex™ 7 FPGA F-Series Development Kit (2x F-Tile)

The design is comprised of the following components:

• Quartus Design
  • LEDs connected to GPIO soft IP modules
  • DIP switches and push buttons connected to GPIO soft IP modules
• HPS Software
  • Linux, booted by U-Boot
  • Board web server
  • Sample driver
  • Reacting to FPGA DIP switches and push buttons
  • Sample applications
  • Hello world
  • Controlling FPGA LEDs: blink, scroll, toggle
  • System check application

Prerequisites

The following are required in order to be able to fully exercise the System Example Design:

• Altera Agilex™ 7 FPGA I-Series Transceiver-SoC Development Kit (4x F-Tile) ordering code DK-SI-AGI027FC
  • SD/MMC HPS Daughtercard
  • Mini USB cable for serial output
  • USB Type B cable for on-board Altera® FPGA Download Cable II
  • Micro SD card (4GB or greater)
• Host PC with:
  • Linux - Ubuntu 22.04LTS was used to create this page, other versions and distributions may work too
  • Serial terminal (for example Minicom on Linux and TeraTerm or PuTTY on Windows)
  • Micro SD card slot or Micro SD card writer/reader
  • Altera Quartus Prime Pro Edition
  • Altera® Quartus^® Prime Pro Edition Version 26.3
• Local Ethernet network, with DHCP server (will be used to provide IP address to the board)

This page applies to the latest version of the Development Kit, with ordering code DK-SI-AGI027FC. You can identify your board by reviewing the the table in Agilex™ 7 FPGA I-Series Transceiver-SoC Development Kit User Guide:

Development Kit Version	Ordering Code	Device Part Number	Serial Number Identifier	Suppported by System Example Design
Agilex™ 7 FPGA I-Series Transceiver-SoC Development Kit (Production 2 4× F-Tile)	DK-SI-AGI027FD (Power Solution 2)	AGIB027R31B1E1VC	AGI87TS4000001	Yes: separate document
Altera Agilex™ 7 FPGA I-Series Transceiver-SoC Development Kit (Production 2)	DK-SI-AGI027FC (Power Solution 2)	AGIB027R31B1E1VB	3000001	Yes: this document
Altera Agilex™ 7 FPGA I-Series Transceiver-SoC Development Kit (Production 1 4x F-Tile)	DK-SI-AGI027FA (Power Solution 2)	AGIB027R31B1E1V	2000001	No
Altera Agilex™ 7 FPGA I-Series Transceiver-SoC Development Kit (ES1 4x F-Tile)	DK-SI-AGI027FB (Power Solution 1)	AGIB027R31B1E1VAA	0001001	No
Altera Agilex™ 7 FPGA I-Series Transceiver-SoC Development Kit (ES)	DK-SI-AGI027FES (Power Solution 1)	AGIB027R31B1E2VR0	0000001	No

The U-Boot and Linux compilation, Yocto compilation and creating the SD card image require a Linux host PC. The rest of the operations can be performed on either a Windows or Linux host PC.

Release Notes

The Altera® FPGA HPS Embedded Software release notes can be accessed from the following link: https://github.com/altera-fpga/gsrd-socfpga/releases/tag/QPDS26.3_REL_BASELINE_PR

Binaries

The prebuilt binaries are available at https://releases.rocketboards.org/2026.10/gsrd/agilex7_dk_si_agi027fc_gsrd/.

The source code is included on the SD card in the Linux rootfs path /home/root:

File	Description
linux-socfpga-v6.18.37-lts-src.tar.gz	Source code for Linux kernel
u-boot-socfpga-v2026.07-src.tar.gz	Source code for U-Boot
arm-trusted-firmware-v2.15.0-src.tar.gz	Source code for Arm Trusted Firmware

Component Versions

Altera® Quartus^® Prime Pro Edition Version 26.3 and the following software component versions integrate the 26.3 release.

Component	Location	Branch	Commit ID/Tag
HPS Baseline System Example Design	https://github.com/altera-fpga/agilex7-ed-hps-baseline	main	QPDS26.3_REL_BASELINE_PR
Linux	https://github.com/altera-fpga/linux-socfpga	socfpga-6.18.37-lts	QPDS26.3_REL_BASELINE_PR
Arm Trusted Firmware	https://github.com/altera-fpga/arm-trusted-firmware	socfpga_v2.15.0	QPDS26.3_REL_BASELINE_PR
U-Boot	https://github.com/altera-fpga/u-boot-socfpga	socfpga_v2026.07	QPDS26.3_REL_BASELINE_PR
Yocto Project	https://git.yoctoproject.org/poky	wrynose	latest
Yocto meta-altera-fpga Layer	https://github.com/altera-fpga/meta-altera-fpga	wrynose	QPDS26.3_REL_BASELINE_PR
KAS	https://github.com/siemens/kas/	master	5.4

Note: The combination of the component versions indicated in the table above has been validated through the use cases described in this page and it is strongly recommended to use these versions together. If you decided to use any component with different version than the indicated, there is not warranty that this will work.

Note: Starting from 26.3 Quartus release, the build of the Quartus projects in the System Example Designs are based only on Visual Designer Studio (VDS).
Please review the following KDB if you face Quartus design build problems when the RTL was generated with VDS:
Why do Quartus® Prime Pro 26.3 and earlier fail to build a Agilex® 5/Agilex® 3/Agilex® 7 FPGA M-Series VDS based design whose RTL has been generated with VDS?.

Exercise Prebuilt Binaries

Boot Linux

Configure Board

Set up the board default settings, as listed by the the Altera Agilex™ 7 I-Series Transceiver-SoC Development Kit User Guide, "Default Settings" section:

Switch	Default Position
S19 [1:4]	OFF/OFF/ON/ON
S20 [1:4]	ON/ON/ON/ON
S9 [1:4]	ON/OFF/OFF/X
S10 [1:4]	ON/ON/ON/ON
S15 [1:4]	ON/ON/ON/OFF
S1 [1:4]	OFF/OFF/OFF/OFF
S6 [1:4]	OFF/OFF/OFF/OFF
S22 [1:4]	ON/ON/ON/ON
S23 [1:4]	ON/ ON / ON / ON
S4 [1:4]	ON/ ON / ON / ON

Write SD Card

This section explains how to create the SD card necessary to boot Linux, using the SD card image available with the pre-built Linux binaries package. Once the SD card has been created, insert the card into the SD slot of the Micro SD daughter card.

Write SD Card on Linux

1. Download the SD card image and extract it:

wget https://releases.rocketboards.org/2026.10/gsrd/agilex7_dk_si_agi027fc_gsrd/sdimage.tar.gz 
tar xf sdimage.tar.gz 

The extracted file is named gsrd-console-image-agilex7.rootfs.wic.

2. Determine the device associated with the SD card on the host by running the following command before and after inserting the card.

$ cat /proc/partitions 

Let's assume it is /dev/sdx.

3. Use dd utility to write the SD image to the SD card.

$ sudo dd if=gsrd-console-image-agilex7.rootfs.wic of=/dev/sdx bs=1M 

Note we are using sudo to be able to write to the card.

4. Use sync utility to flush the changes to the SD card.

$ sudo sync 

Write SD Card on Windows

1. Download the SD card from https://releases.rocketboards.org/2026.10/gsrd/agilex7_dk_si_agi027fc_gsrd/sdimage.tar.gz and extract it. The extracted file is named gsrd-console-image-agilex7.rootfs.wic.

2. Rename the wic file as sdcard.img

3. Use Win32DiskImager to write the image to the SD card. The tool can be downloaded from https://sourceforge.net/projects/win32diskimager/files/latest/download

Configure Serial Connection

The OOBE Daughter Card has a built-in FTDI USB to Serial converter chip that allows the host computer to see the board as a virtual serial port. Ubuntu and other modern Linux distributions have built-in drivers for the FTDI USB to Serial converter chip, so no driver installation is necessary on those platforms. On Windows, you need to install thhe FTDI drivers from https://ftdichip.com/drivers/

The serial communication parameters are:

• Baud-rate: 115,200
• Parity: none
• Flow control: none
• Stop bits: 1

On Windows, utilities such as TeraTerm and PuTTY can be used to connect to the board. They are easily configured from the tool menus.

On Linux, the minicom utility can be used. Here is how to configure it:

1. The virtual serial port is usually named /dev/ttyUSB0. In order to determine the device name associated with the virtual serial port on your host PC, please perform the following:

• Use the following command to determine which USB serial devices are already installed: ls /dev/ttyUSB*
• Connect mini USB cable from J7 to the PC. This will enable the PC to communicate with the board, even if the board is not powered yet.
• Use the ls /dev/ttyUSB* command command again to determine which new USB serial device appeared.
• Install minicom application on host PC, if not installed.

• On Ubuntu, use sudo apt-get install minicom
• Configure minicom.

$ sudo minicom -s 

Under Serial Port Setup choose the following:

• Serial Device: /dev/ttyUSB0 (edit to match the system as necessary)
• Bps/Par/Bits: 115200 8N1
• Hardware Flow Control: No
• Software Flow Control: No
• Hit [ESC] to return to the main configuration menu

Select Save Setup as dfl to save the default setup. Then select Exit.

Write JIC Image to QSPI

The QSPI JIC image contains the FPGA configuration bitstream, and the U-Boot SPL.

1. Download and extract the image file:

For DK-SI-AGI027FC board:

wget https://releases.rocketboards.org/2026.10/gsrd/agilex7_dk_si_agi027fc_gsrd/ghrd.hps.jic

2. Configure MSEL to JTAG:

Switch	Setting
S9 [1:4]	ON/ON/ON/X

3. Power cycle the board

4. Connect the Type B USB cable from the development kit to the host for JTAG access. Write the image using the following commands:

For DK-SI-AGI027FC board:

quartus_pgm -c 1 -m jtag -o "pvi;ghrd.hps.jic" 

5. Configure MSEL back to QSPI:

Switch	Setting
S9 [1:4]	ON/OFF/OFF/X

Boot Linux

1. Make sure to have the SD card inserted in the board slot.

2. Start serial terminal (when using Minicom it will connect using the selected settings, for others connect manually).

3. Power up the board

4. The device will be configured from QSPI, HPS will be loaded with the U-Boot SPL, which will then load ATF and U-Boot proper, then Linux will be booted. Login using 'root' and no password.

5. Run 'ifconfig' command to determine the IP of the board:

root@agilexfm87:~# ifconfig 
eth0: flags=4163 mtu 1500 
 inet 192.168.1.172 netmask 255.255.255.0 broadcast 192.168.1.255 
 inet6 fe80::54c0:6cff:fe8e:fbac prefixlen 64 scopeid 0x20 
 ether 56:c0:6c:8e:fb:ac txqueuelen 1000 (Ethernet) 
 RX packets 100 bytes 7640 (7.4 KiB) 
 RX errors 0 dropped 0 overruns 0 frame 0 
 TX packets 52 bytes 7830 (7.6 KiB) 
 TX errors 0 dropped 0 overruns 0 carrier 0 collisions 0 
 device interrupt 21 base 0x2000 

lo: flags=73 mtu 65536 
 inet 127.0.0.1 netmask 255.0.0.0 
 inet6 ::1 prefixlen 128 scopeid 0x10 
 loop txqueuelen 1000 (Local Loopback) 
 RX packets 100 bytes 8468 (8.2 KiB) 
 RX errors 0 dropped 0 overruns 0 frame 0 
 TX packets 100 bytes 8468 (8.2 KiB) 
 TX errors 0 dropped 0 overruns 0 carrier 0 collisions 0 

Running Sample Applications

The System Example Design includes a number of sample Linux applications that help demonstrate some of the features of the platform:

• Display Hello World message
• Control LEDs
• Detect interrupts from push buttons and DIP switches

The sample applications can be used as a starting point for users to write their own applications that interact with software IP through Linux drivers.

Prerequisites

1. Boot Linux on the target board as described in Boot Linux. You will not need to use the serial terminal if you plan on using ssh connection.

2. Connect to the board using one of the following options:

• Connect using serial console, as described in Boot Linux
• Connect using SSH

3. In serial console, or ssh client console, change current folder to be /home/root/alteraFPGA. This is where the application binaries are stored.

root@agilexfm87:~# cd /home/root/alteraFPGA/ 

Display Hello World Message

Run the following command to display the Hello World message on the console:

root@agilexfm87:~/alteraFPGA# ./hello 
Hello SoC FPGA!%ENDCOLOR 

Exercise Soft PIO Driver for LED Control

The following green LEDs are exercised:

• USER LED0
• USER LED1
• USER LED2
• USER LED4

Note: USER LED3 is always on, red colored, and cannot be controlled from software.

1. In order to blink an LED in a loop, with a specific delay in ms, run the following command:

./blink <led_number> <delay_ms> 

• The led_number specifies the desired LED, and is a value between 0 and 3.
• The delay_ms is a number that specifies the desired delay in ms between turning the LED on and off.

2. In order to turn an individual LED on or off, run the following command:

./toggle <led_number> <state> 

• The led_number specifies the desired LED, and is a value between 0 and 3.
• The state needs to be 0 to turn the LED off, and 1 to turn the LED on.

3. In order to scroll the FPGA LEDs with a specific delay, please run the following command:

./scroll_client <delay> 

The delay specifies the desired scrolling behavior:

• delay > 0 - specify new scrolling delay in ms, and start scrolling
• delay < 0 - stop scrolling
• delay = 0 - display current scroll delay

Register Interrupts and Call Interrupt Service Routine

The following are exercised:

• User FPGA DIP switches
• USER_SW0
• USER_SW1
• USER_SW2
• USER_SW3
• User FPGA push buttons
• USER_PB0
• USER_PB1

In order to register an interrupt handler to a specific GPIO, you will first need to determine the GPIO number used.

1. Open the Linux Device Tree socfpga_agilex7_ghrd.dtsi file and look up the labels for the DIP switches and Push button GPIOs:

 button_pio: gpio@f9001060 { 
 compatible = "altr,pio-1.0"; 
 reg = <0xf9001060 0x10>; 
 interrupt-parent = <&intc>; 
 interrupts = <0 18 4>; 
 altr,gpio-bank-width = <4>; 
 altr,interrupt-type = <2>; 
 #gpio-cells = <2>; 
 gpio-controller; 
 }; 

 dipsw_pio: gpio@f9001070 { 
 compatible = "altr,pio-1.0"; 
 reg = <0xf9001070 0x10>; 
 interrupt-parent = <&intc>; 
 interrupts = <0 17 4>; 
 altr,gpio-bank-width = <4>; 
 altr,interrupt-type = <3>; 
 #gpio-cells = <2>; 
 gpio-controller; 
 }; 

2. Run the following to determine the GPIO numbers for the DIP switches

root@agilexfm87:~/alteraFPGA# grep -r "gpio@f9001070" /sys/class/gpio/gpiochip*/label 
/sys/class/gpio/gpiochip1928/label:/soc/gpio@f9001070 

This means that the GPIOs 1928 .. 1931 are allocated to the DIP switches (there are 4 of them).

3. Run the followinig to determine the GPIO numbers for the pushbuttons

root@agilexfm87:~/alteraFPGA# grep -r "gpio@f9001060" /sys/class/gpio/gpiochip*/label 
/sys/class/gpio/gpiochip1960/label:/soc/gpio@f9001060 

This means that the GPIOs 1960, 1961 are allocated to the push buttons (there are 2 of them).

4. Register interrupt for one of the dipswiches, using the appropriate GPIO number, as determined in a previous step:

root@agilexfm87:~/alteraFPGA# modprobe gpio_interrupt gpio_number=1928 intr_type=3 
[ 893.594901] gpio_interrupt: loading out-of-tree module taints kernel. 
[ 893.602212] Interrupt for GPIO:1928 
[ 893.602212] registered 

5. Toggle the USER_SW0/SW1.1 dipswitch a few times, you will see messages from the interrupt handler

[ 933.872016] Interrupt happened at gpio:1928 
[ 936.630233] Interrupt happened at gpio:1928 
[ 938.737038] Interrupt happened at gpio:1928 
[ 939.951513] Interrupt happened at gpio:1928 

6. Remove the driver

root@agilexfm87:~/alteraFPGA# rmmod gpio_interrupt 

7. Register the pushbutton interrupt, using the appropriate GPIO number as determine on a previous step

root@agilexfm87:~/alteraFPGA# modprobe gpio_interrupt gpio_number=1960 intr_type=2 
[ 1138.025297] Interrupt for GPIO:1960 
[ 1138.025297] registered 

8. Push the pusbutton USER_PB0/S2 a few times, you will see interrupt handler messages

[ 1141.672192] Interrupt happened at gpio:1960 
[ 1142.110673] Interrupt happened at gpio:1960 
[ 1142.499468] Interrupt happened at gpio:1960 
[ 1142.884199] Interrupt happened at gpio:1960 

9. Once done, remove the handler

root@agilexfm87:~/alteraFPGA# rmmod gpio_interrupt 

Note: If you are on the ssh console, you will need to run the program dmesg after pressing the button in order to see the messages:

root@stratix10:~/alteraFPGA# dmesg 

System Check Application

System check application provides a glance of system status of basic peripherals such as:

• USB: USB device driver
• Network IP (IPv4): Network IP address
• HPS LEDs: HPS LED state
• FPGA LEDs: FPGA LED state

Run the application by issuing the following command:

root@agilexfm87:~/alteraFPGA# ./syschk 

The window will look as shown below - press 'q' to exit:

 ALTERA SYSTEM CHECK 

lo : 127.0.0.1 usb1 : DWC OTG Controller 
eth0 : 192.168.1.172 
 serial@ffc02100 : disabled 
fpga_led2 : ON serial@ffc02000 : okay 
hps_led2 : OFF 
fpga_led0 : OFF 
hps_led0 : OFF 
fpga_led3 : OFF 
fpga_led1 : OFF 
hps_led1 : OFF 

Connect to Board Web Server and SSH Client

Connect to Web Server

1. Boot Linux as described in Boot Linux.

2. Determine the IP address of the board using 'ifconfig' as shown above. Note there will be network interfaces of them, either can be used.

3. Open a web browser on the host PC and type http:// on the address box, then type the IP of your board and hit Enter.

4. In the section named Interacting with Agilex™ SoC Development Kit you can perform the following actions:

• See which LEDs are ON and which are off in the LED Status. Note that if the LEDs are setup to be scrolling, the displayed scrolling speed will not match the actual scrolling speed on the board.
• Stop LEDs from scrolling, by clicking START and STOP buttons. The delay between LEDs turning ON and OFF is set in the LED Lightshow box.
• Turn individual LEDs ON and OFF with the ON and OFF buttons. Note that this action is only available when the LED scrolling/lightshow is stopped.
• Blink individual LEDs by typing a delay value in ms then clicking the corresponding BLINK button. Note that this action is only available when the LED scrolling/lightshow is stopped.

Connect Using SSH

1. The lower bottom of the web page presents instructions on how to connect to the board using an SSH connection.

2. If the SSH client is not installed on your host computer, you can install it by running the following command on CentOS:

$ sudo yum install openssh-clients 

or the following command on Ubuntu:

$ sudo apt-get install openssh-client 

3. Connect to the board, and run some commands, such as pwd, ls and uname to see Linux in action:

Rebuild the System Example Design

The embedded software for this System Example Design is built with Yocto, using KAS.

Kas is a Python-based lightweight build orchestration layer on top of BitBake/Yocto. Kas allows you to define your build environment in a YAML manifest, so you can perform checkout, environment setup, configuration, and build invocation with a single command. Kas provides a more maintainable build description, it offers improved reproducibility, reduced setup friction, and a clearer abstraction for managing multiple layers, revisions, and configuration fragments.

The software source code for this System Example Design is released inside the software/yocto_linux directory. Accessing the link will display a README page with details regarding the software.

For more details about Kas, refer to the official documentation at https://kas.readthedocs.io/en/latest/.

Kas Build Prerequisites

Firtst, the same prerequisites as for regular Yocto build are required.

1. Make sure you have Yocto system requirements met: https://docs.yoctoproject.org/scarthgap/ref-manual/system-requirements.html#supported-linux-distributions.

The command to install the required packages on Ubuntu 22.04 is:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade
sudo apt-get install openssh-server mc libgmp3-dev libmpc-dev gawk wget git diffstat unzip texinfo gcc \
build-essential chrpath socat cpio python3 python3-pip python3-pexpect xz-utils debianutils iputils-ping \
python3-git python3-jinja2 libegl1-mesa libsdl1.2-dev pylint xterm python3-subunit mesa-common-dev zstd \
liblz4-tool git fakeroot build-essential ncurses-dev xz-utils libssl-dev bc flex libelf-dev bison xinetd \
tftpd tftp nfs-kernel-server libncurses5 libc6-i386 libstdc++6:i386 libgcc++1:i386 lib32z1 \
device-tree-compiler curl mtd-utils u-boot-tools net-tools swig -y

On Ubuntu 22.04 you will also need to point the /bin/sh to /bin/bash, as the default is a link to /bin/dash:

 sudo ln -sf /bin/bash /bin/sh

Note: You can also use a Docker container to build the Yocto recipes, refer to https://rocketboards.org/foswiki/Documentation/DockerYoctoBuild for details. When using a Docker container, it does not matter what Linux distribution or packages you have installed on your host, as all dependencies are provided by the Docker container.

In addition to the above, you must also install python3-newt, and python3.10-venv with a command like this:

sudo apt-get install python3-newt python3.10-venv

Build Flow

The following diagram illustrates the build flow, based on source code from GitHub.

Set up Environment

Create a top folder for this example, as the rest of the commands assume this location:

sudo rm -rf baseline.dk_si_agi027fc 
mkdir baseline.dk_si_agi027fc 
cd baseline.dk_si_agi027fc 
export TOP_FOLDER=$(pwd) 

Enable Quartus tools to be called from command line:

source ~/altera_pro/26.3/qinit.sh

Build Quartus Design

Use the following commands to build the Quartus Design:

cd $TOP_FOLDER
rm -rf dk-si-agi027fc-oobe-baseline
mkdir dk-si-agi027fc-oobe-baseline
cd dk-si-agi027fc-oobe-baseline
wget https://github.com/altera-fpga/agilex7-ed-hps-baseline/releases/download/QPDS26.3_REL_BASELINE_PR/dk-si-agi027fc-oobe-baseline.zip
unzip dk-si-agi027fc-oobe-baseline.zip
rm -f dk-si-agi027fc-oobe-baseline.zip
make baseline-install

The following files are created:

• $TOP_FOLDER/dk-si-agi027fc-oobe-baseline/install/binaries/baseline.sof - FPGA configuration file, without HPS FSBL
• $TOP_FOLDER/dk-si-agi027fc-oobe-baseline/install/binaries/ghrd.core.rbf - FPGA fabric configuration file

Build Yocto Using Kas

1. Create and enter a new Python virtual environment:

cd $TOP_FOLDER/dk-si-agi027fc-oobe-baseline/software/yocto_linux
python3 -m venv venv --system-site-packages
source venv/bin/activate
pip install --upgrade pip
pip install kas
pip install --upgrade kas
pip install kconfiglib

2. Copy the core.rbf file to where Kas expects it to be:

cp $TOP_FOLDER/dk-si-agi027fc-oobe-baseline/install/binaries/ghrd.core.rbf meta-custom/recipes-fpga/fpga-bitstream/files/baseline_hps_debug.core.rbf

3. Build Yocto with Kas:

kas build kas.yml gsrd-console-image

The following relevant files are created in $TOP_FOLDER/dk-si-agi027fc-oobe-baseline/software/yocto_linux/build/tmp/deploy/images/agilex7/:

• gsrd-console-image-agilex7.rootfs.wic
• u-boot-spl-dtb.hex

Note: If you experience build failures related to file-locks, you can work around these by reducing the parallelism of your build by running the following commands before running kas:

export PARALLEL_MAKE="-j 8"
export BB_NUMBER_THREADS="8"
export BB_ENV_PASSTHROUGH_ADDITIONS="$BB_ENV_PASSTHROUGH_ADDITIONS PARALLEL_MAKE BB_NUMBER_THREADS"

Build QSPI Image

The QSPI image will contain the FPGA configuration data and the HPS FSBL and it can be built using the following command:

cd $TOP_FOLDER 
rm -f *jic* *rbf* 
quartus_pfg -c $TOP_FOLDER/dk-si-agi027fc-oobe-baseline/install/binaries/baseline.sof \
 ghrd.jic \
 -o hps_path=$TOP_FOLDER/dk-si-agi027fc-oobe-baseline/software/yocto_linux/build/tmp/deploy/images/agilex7/u-boot-spl-dtb.hex \
 -o device=MT25QU02G \
 -o flash_loader=AGIB027R31B1E1VB \
 -o mode=ASX4 \
 -o hps=1

The following files will be created:

• $TOP_FOLDER/ghrd.hps.jic - Flash image for HPS First configuration bitstream, phase 1: HPS and DDR
• $TOP_FOLDER/ghrd.core.rbf - HPS First configuration bitstream, phase 2: FPGA fabric, discarded, as we already have it on the SD card

How to Manually Update the kernel.itb file

The kernel.itb file is a Flattattened Image Tree (FIT) file that includes the following components:

• Linux kernel.
• Board configurations* that indicate what components from the kernel.itb (Linux kernel, device tree and Phase 2 FPGA configuration bitstream) should be used for a specific board.
• Linux device tree*.
• Phase 2 FPGA configuration bitstream*.

* One or more of these components to support the different board configurations.

The kernel.itb is created from a .its (Image Tree Source file) that describes its structure. In the HPS Baseline System Example Design, the kernel.itb file is generated in the following directory. In this directory you can also find the .its files and all other the components needed to create the kernel.itb :

• $TOP_FOLDER/<gsrd-directory>/<project-directory>/software/yocto_linux/build/tmp*/work/<device>-poky-linux/linux-socfpga-lts/<linux-branch>+git/linux-<device>-standard-build/

As an example of this path, for the Agilex 5 device you will find this directory as $TOP_FOLDER/a5ed065es-premium-devkit-oobe/baseline-a55/software/yocto_linux/build/tmp*/work/agilex5e-poky-linux/linux-socfpga-lts/6.12.43-lts+git/linux-agilex5e-standard-build

If you want to modify the kernel.itb by replacing one of the component or modifying any board configuration, you can do the following:

1. Install mtools package in your Linux machine.

   $ sudo apt update
   $ sudo apt install mtools
   

2. Go to the folder in which the kernel.itb is being created under the HPS Baseline System Example Design.

   $ cd $TOP_FOLDER/<gsrd-directory>/<project-directory>/software/yocto_linux/build/tmp*/work/<device>-poky-linux/linux-socfpga-lts/<linux-branch>+git/linux-<device>-standard-build/
   $ ls *.its
   fit_<device>_kernel_.its
   

3. In the .its file, observe the components that integrates the kernel.itb identifying the nodes as indicated next:

   images node:
   - kernel node - Linux kernel defined with the data parameter in the node.
   - fdt-X node - Device tree X defined with the data parameter in the node.
   - fpga-X node - Phase 2 FPGA configuration bitstream .rbf defined with the data parameter in the node.

   configurations node:
   - board-X node - Board configuration with the name defined with the description parameter. The components for a specific board configuration are defined with the kernel, fdt and fpga parameters.

4. In this directory, you can replace any of the file components that integrate the kernel.itb, or you can also modify the .its to change the structure and components of the kernel.itb.

5. Finally, you need to re-generate the new kernel.itb running the following command in the same linux--standard-build/ directory.

   $ rm kernel.itb
   $ mkimage -f fit_<device>_kernel.its kernel.itb
   

Once that you have completed this procedure, you can use the new kernel.itb as needed. Some options could be:

• Use U-Boot to load this into the SDRAM board through TFTP to boot Linux or to write it to a flash device
• Directly update the flash image in your board (QSPI, SD Card, eMMC or NAND) from your working machine.

How to Manually Update the SD Card Content file

As part of the Yocto HPS Baseline System Example Designbuild flow, the SD Card image is built for the SD Card boot flow. This image includes a couple of partitions. One of these partition (a FAT32) includes the U-Boot proper, the Distroboot boot script, U-Boot environment and the Linux .itb - which includes the Linux kernel image, the Linux device tree, the phase 2 FPGA configuration bitstream and board configuration (there may be several versions of these last 3 components). The 2^nd partition (an EXT3 or EXT4 ) includes the Linux file system.

If you want to replace any the components or add a new item in any of these partitions, without having to run again the Yocto build flow.

This can be done through the wic script available on the Poky repository that is included as part of the HPS Baseline System Example Design build directory:

• $TOP_FOLDER/<gsrd-directory>/<project-directory>/software/yocto_linux/poky/scripts/wic

The wic command requires to be run in the Yocto build environment that can be setup as shown next in a Linux terminal:

cd $TOP_FOLDER/<gsrd-directory>/<project-directory>/software/yocto_linux/
source poky/oe-init-build-env build

You can verify that the Yocto environment has been setup using the which bitbake command, which will respond with the path of the bitbake command located at poky/bitbake/bin/bitbake.

The wic command allows you to inspect the content of a SD Card image, delete, add or replace any component inside of the image. This command is also provided with help support:

$ $TOP_FOLDER/<gsrd-directory>/<project-directory>/software/yocto_linux/poky/scripts/wic help

Creates a customized OpenEmbedded image.

Usage:  wic [--version]
        wic help [COMMAND or TOPIC]
        wic COMMAND [ARGS]

    usage 1: Returns the current version of Wic
    usage 2: Returns detailed help for a COMMAND or TOPIC
    usage 3: Executes COMMAND

COMMAND:

 list   -   List available canned images and source plugins
 ls     -   List contents of partitioned image or partition
 rm     -   Remove files or directories from the vfat or ext* partitions
 help   -   Show help for a wic COMMAND or TOPIC
 write  -   Write an image to a device
 cp     -   Copy files and directories to the vfat or ext* partitions
 create -   Create a new OpenEmbedded image
 :
 :

The following steps show you how to replace the kernel.itb file inside of the fat32 partition in a .wic image.

1. The wic ls command allows you to inspect or navigate over the directory structure inside of the SD Card image. For example you can observe the partitions in the SD Card image in this way.

   # Here you can inspect the content a wic image see the 2 partitions inside of the SD Card image
   $ $TOP_FOLDER/<gsrd-directory>/<project-directory>/software/yocto_linux/poky/scripts/wic ls my_image.wic
    Num     Start        End          Size      Fstype
    1       1048576    525336575    524288000  fat32
    2     525336576   2098200575   1572864000  ext4
   
   
   # Here you can naviagate inside of the partition 1
    $ $TOP_FOLDER/<gsrd-directory>/<project-directory>/software/yocto_linux/poky/scripts/wic ls my_image.wic:1
   Volume in drive : is boot       
   Volume Serial Number is 8F65-ACE9
   Directory for ::/
   
   BOOTSC~1 UIM      2739 2011-04-05  23:00  boot.scr.uimg
   kernel   itb  12885831 2011-04-05  23:00 
   uboot    env      8192 2011-04-05  23:00 
   u-boot   itb    938816 2011-04-05  23:00 
         4 files          13 835 578 bytes
                         509 370 368 bytes free
   

2. The wic rm command allows you to delete any of the components in the selected partition. For example, you can delete the kernel.itb image from the partition 1(fat32 partition).

   $ $TOP_FOLDER/<gsrd-directory>/<project-directory>/software/yocto_linux/poky/scripts/wic rm my_image.wic:1/kernel.itb
   

3. The wic cp command allows you to copy any new item or file from your Linux machine to a specific partition and location inside of the SD Card image. For example, you can copy a new kernel.itb to the partition 1.

   $ $TOP_FOLDER/<gsrd-directory>/<project-directory>/software/yocto_linux/poky/scripts/wic cp <path_new_kernel.itb> my_image.wic:1/kernel.itb
   

NOTE: The wic application also allows you to modify any image with compatible vfat and ext* type partitions which also covers images used for eMMC boot flow.

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