Getting Started with i.MX 6 SoloX SABRE

1. Build the platform library

These steps show how to open a demo workspace in IAR Embedded Workbench, how to build the platform library required by the demo, and how to build the demo application. The example used below is for the hello_world demo, but similar steps can be applied to any demo in the KSDK.

1. Open demo workspace (*.eww file) in:

   /examples/frdmkl46z/demo_apps//iar

   After the workspace is open, two projects are shown: one for the KSDK platform library and one for the demo. Also, the platform library project is bold, indicating that it is the active project. The active project can be changed at any time by right-clicking on the desired project and selecting "Set as Active" or via the build target drop-down at the top of the workspace browser.

   

2. There are two project configurations (build targets) supported for each KSDK project:

   • Debug - Compiler optimization is set to low, and debug information is generated for the executable. This target should be selected for development and debug
   • Release - Compiler optimization is set to high, and debug information is not generated. This target should be selected for final application deployment. The tool allows you to select either the Debug or Release configuration on a per-project basis, but since the demo has a dependency on the platform library, which configuration is selected for the demo must also be selected for the platform library. Selecting a configuration in the drop-down also makes which project and configuration that is selected the active project. For this example, select the "ksdk_platform_lib — Debug" target
   

3. Click the "Make" button, highlighted in red below.

   

4. When the build is complete, the library (libksdk_platform.a) is generated in one of the following directories, according to the chosen build target:

   /lib/ksdk_platform_lib/iar/KL46Z4/debug

   /lib/ksdk_platform_lib/iar/KL46Z4/release

2. Build a Demo Application

The KSDK demo applications are built upon the software building blocks provided in the Kinetis SDK platform library, built in the previous section. If the platform library is not present, the linker displays an error indicating that it cannot find the library. An easy way to check whether the library is present is to expand the Output folder in the ksdk_platform_lib project. If the platform library binary is not built and present, follow the steps on page 1 to build it. Otherwise, continue with the following steps to build the desired demo application.

1. If not already done, open the desired demo application workspace (*.eww file). This example's workspace file is located in:

   /examples/frdmkl46z/demo_apps/hello_world/iar

2. Select the desired build target from the drop-down. For this example, select the "hello_world — Debug" target

   

3. To build the demo application, click the "Make" button, highlighted in red below

   

4. The build will complete without errors

3. Run a Demo Application

The FRDM-KL46Z board comes loaded with the mbed/CMSIS-DAP debug interface from the factory. If you have changed the debug OpenSDA application on your board, visit opensda for information on updating or restoring your board to the factory state.

1. Connect the development platform to your PC via USB cable between the "SDAUSB" USB port on the board and the PC USB connector

2. Open the terminal application on the PC (such as PuTTY or TeraTerm) and connect to the debug COM port you determined earlier. Configure the terminal with these settings:

   • 115200 baud rate
   • No parity
   • 8 data bits
   • 1 stop bit

3. Click the "Download and Debug" button to download the application to the target.

   

4. The application is then downloaded to the target and automatically runs to the main() function

   

5. Run the code by clicking the "Go" button to start the application

   

6. The hello_world application is now running and a banner is displayed on the terminal. If this is not the case, check your terminal settings and connections

   

This section describes the steps required to build demo applications provided in the FreeRTOS BSP. The hello_world demo for i.MX 6SoloX SABRE board is used as an example, though these steps can be applied to any board, demo or example application in the FreeRTOS BSP.

1. Open Arm DS-5 IDE installed on your PC:

   

2. Select “File->Import” from the DS-5 IDE menu. In the window that appears, expand the “General” folder and select “Existing Projects into Workspace”. Then, click the “Next” button

   

3. Click the “Browse” button next to the “Select root directory:” option

   

4. Point to the hello_world demo for the appropriate device, which can be found using this path:

   /examples//demo_apps/hello_world/ds5

   For this example, the specific location is:

   / examples/imx6sx_sdb_m4/demo_apps/hello_world/ds5

5. After pointing to the correct directory, your “Import Projects” window should look like the figure below. Click the “Finish” button

   

6. There are two project configurations (build targets) supported for each this project:

   • Int Ram Debug – Compiler optimization is set to low, and debug information is generated for the executable. This target should be selected for development and debug
   • Int Ram Release – Compiler optimization is set to high, and debug information is not generated. This target should be selected for final application deployment

7. Choose the appropriate build target, “Int Ram Debug” or “Int Ram Release”, by clicking the downward facing arrow next to the hammer icon, as shown below. For this example, select the “Int Ram Debug” target

   

8. The demo starts building after the build target is selected. To rebuild the demo in the future, click the hammer icon (assuming the same build target is chosen)

9. The build result can be found at

   /examples//demo_apps//ds5/ .

   • The *.axf file contains the debug information of the demo application. It can be used for software debugging;

   • *.bin file can be generated from *.axf file using fromelf.exe tool in \sw\ARMCompiler5.05u1\bin with the DS-5 Command Prompt.

     fromelf --bin --output=.bin .axf

1. Set Up Toolchain

This section contains the steps to install the necessary components required to build and run a KSDK demo application with the Arm GCC toolchain, as supported by the Kinetis SDK. There are many ways to use Arm GCC tools, but this example focuses on a Windows environment. Though not discussed here, GCC tools can also be used with both Linux OS and Mac OSX.

Install GCC Arm Embedded Toolchain

Download and run the installer from gcc-arm-embedded . This is the actual toolchain (i.e., compiler, linker, etc.). The GCC toolchain should correspond to the latest supported version, as described in the Kinetis SDK Release Notes.

Install MinGW

The Minimalist GNU for Windows (MinGW) development tools provide a set of tools that are not dependent on third-party C-Runtime DLLs (such as Cygwin). The build environment used by the KSDK does not use the MinGW build tools, but does leverage the base install of both MinGW and MSYS. MSYS provides a basic shell with a Unix-like interface and tools.

1. Download the latest MinGW mingw-get-setup installer from sourceforge .

2. Run the installer. The recommended installation path is C:\MinGW, however, you may install to any location

Note: The installation path cannot contain any spaces.

3. Ensure that the "mingw32-base" and "msys-base" are selected under Basic Setup

   

4. Click "Apply Changes" in the "Installation" menu and follow the remaining instructions to complete the installation

   

5. Add the appropriate item to the Windows operating system Path environment variable. It can be found under Control Panel -> System and Security -> System -> Advanced System Settings in the "Environment Variables..." section. The path is:

   \bin

   Assuming the default installation path, C:\MinGW, an example is shown below. If the path is not set correctly, the toolchain does not work.

   Note: If you have "C:\MinGW\msys\x.x\bin" in your PATH variable (as required by KSDK 1.0.0), remove it to ensure that the new GCC build system works correctly.

   

Add a New Environment Variable for ARMGCC_DIR

Create a new system environment variable and name it ARMGCC_DIR. The value of this variable should point to the Arm GCC Embedded tool chain installation path, which, for this example, is:

C:\Program Files (x86)\GNU Tools Arm Embedded\4.8 2014q3

Reference the installation folder of the GNU Arm GCC Embedded tools for the exact pathname of your installation.



Install CMake

1. Download CMake 3.0.x from cmake .

2. Install CMake, ensuring that the option "Add CMake to system PATH" is selected when installing. It's up to the user to select whether it's installed into the PATH for all users or just the current user. In this example, the assumption is that it's installed for all users

   

3. Follow the remaining instructions of the installer

4. You may need to reboot your system for the PATH changes to take effect

2. Build the Platform Library

1. Open a GCC Arm Embedded tool chain command window. To launch the window, from the Windows operating system Start menu, go to "Programs -> GNU Tools Arm Embedded " and select "GCC Command Prompt".

   

2. Change the directory of the command window to the platform library directory in the KSDK:

   /lib/ksdk_platform_lib/armgcc/KL46Z4

3. There are two project configurations (build targets) supported for each KSDK project:

   • Debug — Compiler optimization is set to low, and debug information is generated for the executable. This target should be selected for development and debug
   • Release — Compiler optimization is set to high, and debug information is not generated. This target should be selected for final application deployment

   There are batch files provided to build both configurations. For this example, the "Debug" target is built and "build_debug.bat" is typed on the command line. If the "Release" target is desired, type the "build_release.bat" instead. Alternatively, if using the command line is not desired, you can double click on the batch files from Windows Explorer.

   

4. When the build finishes, the output looks like the image below(with KL46Z4 in place of K64F12)

   

5. The library (libksdk_platform.a) is generated in one of these directories, according to the build target:

   /lib/ksdk_platform_lib/armgcc/KL46Z4/debug

   /lib/ksdk_platform_lib/armgcc/KL46Z4/release

3. Build a Demo Application

KSDK demo applications require that the platform library for the same build target (Debug or Release) is present. Please ensure that you follow the steps in section 7.2 prior to attempting to build a demo application.

To build a demo application, follow these steps.

1. If not already running, open a GCC Arm Embedded tool chain command window. To launch the window, from the Windows operating system Start menu, go to "Programs -> GNU Tools Arm Embedded " and select "GCC Command Prompt".

   

2. Change the directory to the demo application project directory, which has a path like this:

   /examples/frdmkl46z/demo_apps/ /armgcc

   For this example, the exact path is:

   /examples/frdmkl46z/demo_apps/hello_world/armgcc

3. Type "build_debug.bat" on the command line or double click on the "build_debug.bat" file in Windows operating system Explorer to perform the build. The output is shown in this figure:

   

4. Run a Demo Application

The GCC tools require a J-Link debug interface. To update the OpenSDA firmware on your board to the latest J-Link app, visit opensda. After installing the J-Link OpenSDA application, download the J-Link driver and software package from segger .

1. Connect the development platform to your PC via USB cable between the "SDAUSB" USB port on the board and the PC USB connector

2. Open the terminal application on the PC (such as PuTTY or TeraTerm) and connect to the debug COM port you determined earlier. Configure the terminal with these settings:

   • 115200 baud rate
   • No parity
   • 8 data bits
   • 1 stop bit

3. Open the J-Link GDB Server application. Assuming the J-Link software is installed, the application can be launched by going to the Windows operating system Start menu and selecting "Programs -> SEGGER -> J-Link J-Link GDB Server".

4. Modify the settings as shown below. The target device selection chosen for this example is the "MKL46Z128xxx4"

   

5. After it is connected, the screen should resemble this figure:

   

6. If not already running, open a GCC Arm Embedded tool chain command window. To launch the window, from the Windows operating system Start menu, go to "Programs -> GNU Tools Arm Embedded " and select "GCC Command Prompt".

   

7. Change to the directory that contains the demo application output. The output can be found in using one of these paths, depending on the build target selected:

   /examples//demo_apps/ /armgcc/debug

   /examples//demo_apps/ /armgcc/release

   For this example, the path is:

   /examples/frdmkl46z/demo_apps/hello_world/armgcc/debug

8. Run the command "arm-none-eabi-gdb.exe .elf". For this example, it is "arm-none-eabi-gdb.exe hello_world.elf". The example image below displays the building of the frdmkl46z hello_world application as an example.

   

9. Run these commands:

   • "target remote localhost: 2331"
   • "monitor reset"
   • "monitor halt"
   • "load"
   • "monitor reset"

10. The application is now downloaded and halted at the reset vector. Execute the "monitor go" command to start the demo application

    The hello_world application is now running and a banner is displayed in the terminal window

    

There are three main power management techniques on i.MX boards:

• Suspend and resume commands
• CPU frequency scaling
• Bus frequency scaling

After Linux^® setup, for more details about developing applications in user space. Please see i.MX6 Linux^® Reference Manual.

After Linux^® setup, for more details about developing applications in user space. Please see i.MX6 Linux^® Reference Manual.

• For more details, go to Chapter 8 of i.MX Linux^® User’s Guide
• For more details of graphic APIs and driver support, see i.MX6 Graphics User’s Guide
  • The purpose of this document is to provide information on graphic APIs and driver support. Each chapter describes a specific set of APIs or driver integration as well as specific hardware acceleration customization. The target audiences for this document are developers writing graphics applications or video drivers
  • i.MX G2D API
  • i.MX 6 EGL and OGL Extension Support
• For more details of Video Processing Unit, see i.MX VPU programming interface Linux^® Reference Manual

• For more details, go to Chapter 9 of i.MX Linux^® User’s Guide
• For details of secure system upgrade, read i.MX Linux^® High Assurance Boot User’s Guide

• Bluetooth support works best with a USB dongle with either BlueZ4 or BlueZ5.
• Broadcom Wi-Fi and Bluetooth wireless technology support require the Broadcom firmware package download from imx6tools. The Broadcom device drivers are integrated into the kernel but to function require the firmware package download and integration.
• For more details, go to Chapter 10 of i.MX Linux^® User’s Guide