summaryrefslogtreecommitdiff
path: root/documentation/poky-ref-manual/development.xml
diff options
context:
space:
mode:
authorRichard Purdie <rpurdie@linux.intel.com>2010-10-15 11:55:59 +0100
committerRichard Purdie <rpurdie@linux.intel.com>2010-10-15 11:55:59 +0100
commit22083287912ebd552e33b79f7c567bc966376d43 (patch)
treea16fa012a97a249e25a405d4092b0a89321bfaf6 /documentation/poky-ref-manual/development.xml
parent13a702e9e572a2dc9f6b52a1531a2237d4d98ff1 (diff)
downloadopenembedded-core-22083287912ebd552e33b79f7c567bc966376d43.tar.gz
openembedded-core-22083287912ebd552e33b79f7c567bc966376d43.tar.bz2
openembedded-core-22083287912ebd552e33b79f7c567bc966376d43.zip
handbook: Move into documentation directory
Signed-off-by: Richard Purdie <rpurdie@linux.intel.com>
Diffstat (limited to 'documentation/poky-ref-manual/development.xml')
-rw-r--r--documentation/poky-ref-manual/development.xml825
1 files changed, 825 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/documentation/poky-ref-manual/development.xml b/documentation/poky-ref-manual/development.xml
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..a383a2f4a8
--- /dev/null
+++ b/documentation/poky-ref-manual/development.xml
@@ -0,0 +1,825 @@
+<!DOCTYPE chapter PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DocBook XML V4.2//EN"
+"http://www.oasis-open.org/docbook/xml/4.2/docbookx.dtd">
+
+<chapter id="platdev">
+<title>Platform Development with Poky</title>
+
+<section id="platdev-appdev">
+ <title>Software development</title>
+ <para>
+ Poky supports several methods of software development. These different
+ forms of development are explained below and can be switched
+ between as needed.
+ </para>
+
+ <section id="platdev-appdev-external-sdk">
+ <title>Developing externally using the Poky SDK</title>
+
+ <para>
+ The meta-toolchain and meta-toolchain-sdk targets (<link linkend='ref-images'>see
+ the images section</link>) build tarballs which contain toolchains and
+ libraries suitable for application development outside Poky. These unpack into the
+ <filename class="directory">/opt/poky</filename> directory and contain
+ a setup script, e.g.
+ <filename>/opt/poky/environment-setup-i586-poky-linux</filename> which
+ can be sourced to initialise a suitable environment. After sourcing this, the
+ compiler, QEMU scripts, QEMU binary, a special version of pkgconfig and other
+ useful utilities are added to the PATH. Variables to assist pkgconfig and
+ autotools are also set so that, for example, configure can find pre-generated test
+ results for tests which need target hardware to run.
+ </para>
+
+ <para>
+ Using the toolchain with autotool enabled packages is straightforward, just pass the
+ appropriate host option to configure e.g. "./configure --host=arm-poky-linux-gnueabi".
+ For other projects it is usually a case of ensuring the cross tools are used e.g.
+ CC=arm-poky-linux-gnueabi-gcc and LD=arm-poky-linux-gnueabi-ld.
+ </para>
+ </section>
+
+ <section id="platdev-appdev-external-anjuta">
+ <title>Developing externally using the Anjuta plugin</title>
+
+ <para>
+ An Anjuta IDE plugin exists to make developing software within the Poky framework
+ easier for the application developer. It presents a graphical IDE from which the
+ developer can cross compile an application then deploy and execute the output in a QEMU
+ emulation session. It also supports cross debugging and profiling.
+ </para>
+<!-- DISBALED, TOO BIG!
+ <screenshot>
+ <mediaobject>
+ <imageobject>
+ <imagedata fileref="screenshots/ss-anjuta-poky-1.png" format="PNG"/>
+ </imageobject>
+ <caption>
+ <para>The Anjuta Poky SDK plugin showing an active QEMU session running Sato</para>
+ </caption>
+ </mediaobject>
+ </screenshot>
+-->
+ <para>
+ To use the plugin, a toolchain and SDK built by Poky is required along with Anjuta it's development
+ headers and the Anjuta plugin. The Poky Anjuta plugin is available to download as a tarball at the
+ <ulink url='http://labs.o-hand.com/anjuta-poky-sdk-plugin/'>OpenedHand labs</ulink> page or
+ directly from the Poky Git repository located at git://git.pokylinux.org/anjuta-poky; a web interface
+ to the repository can be accessed at <ulink url='http://git.pokylinux.org/?p=anjuta-poky.git;a=summary'/>.
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ See the README file contained in the project for more information on dependencies and building
+ the plugin. If you want to disable remote gdb debugging, please pass --diable-gdb-integration
+ switch when doing configure.
+ </para>
+
+ <section id="platdev-appdev-external-anjuta-setup">
+ <title>Setting up the Anjuta plugin</title>
+
+ <para>Extract the tarball for the toolchain into / as root. The
+ toolchain will be installed into
+ <filename class="directory">/opt/poky</filename>.</para>
+
+ <para>To use the plugin, first open or create an existing
+ project. If creating a new project the "C GTK+" project type
+ will allow itself to be cross-compiled. However you should be
+ aware that this uses glade for the UI.</para>
+
+ <para>To activate the plugin go to
+ <menuchoice><guimenu>Edit</guimenu><guimenuitem>Preferences</guimenuitem></menuchoice>,
+ then choose <guilabel>General</guilabel> from the left hand side. Choose the
+ Installed plugins tab, scroll down to <guilabel>Poky
+ SDK</guilabel> and check the
+ box. The plugin is now activated but first it must be
+ configured.</para>
+ </section>
+
+ <section id="platdev-appdev-external-anjuta-configuration">
+ <title>Configuring the Anjuta plugin</title>
+
+ <para>The configuration options for the SDK can be found by choosing
+ the <guilabel>Poky SDK</guilabel> icon from the left hand side. The following options
+ need to be set:</para>
+
+ <itemizedlist>
+
+ <listitem><para><guilabel>SDK root</guilabel>: If we use external toolchain, we need to set SDK root.
+ this is the root directory of the SDK's sysroot. For an i586 SDK this will be <filename
+ class="directory">/opt/poky/</filename>.
+ This directory will contain directories named like "bin",
+ "include", "var", etc. under your selected target architecture subdirectory<filename class="directory">
+ /opt/poky/sysroot/i586-poky-linux/</filename>. Needed cross compile tools are under
+ <filename class ="directory">/opt/poky/sysroot/i586-pokysdk-linux/</filename>
+ </para></listitem>
+
+ <listitem><para><guilabel>Poky root</guilabel>: If we have local poky build tree, we need to set the Poky root.
+ this is the root directory of the poky build tree, if you build your i586 target architecture
+ under the subdirectory of build_x86 within your poky tree, the Poky root directory should be
+ <filename class="directory">${Poky_tree}/build_x86/</filename>.
+ </para></listitem>
+
+ <listitem><para><guilabel>Target Architecture</guilabel>: this is the cross compile
+ triplet, e.g. "i586-poky-linux". This target triplet is the prefix extracted from
+ the set up script file name. For examle, "i586-poky-linux" is extracted from set up script file
+ <filename>/opt/poky/environment-setup-i586-poky-linux</filename>
+ </para></listitem>
+
+ <listitem><para><guilabel>Kernel</guilabel>: use the file chooser to select the kernel
+ to use with QEMU</para></listitem>
+
+ <listitem><para><guilabel>Root filesystem</guilabel>: use the file chooser to select
+ the root filesystem directory, this is the directory where you use "poky-extract-sdk" command to
+ extract the poky-image-sdk tarball.</para></listitem>
+ </itemizedlist>
+<!-- DISBALED, TOO BIG!
+ <screenshot>
+ <mediaobject>
+ <imageobject>
+ <imagedata fileref="screenshots/ss-anjuta-poky-2.png" format="PNG"/>
+ </imageobject>
+ <caption>
+ <para>Anjuta Preferences Dialog</para>
+ </caption>
+ </mediaobject>
+ </screenshot>
+-->
+
+ </section>
+
+ <section id="platdev-appdev-external-anjuta-usage">
+ <title>Using the Anjuta plugin</title>
+
+ <para>As an example, cross-compiling a project, deploying it into
+ QEMU and running a debugger against it and then doing a system
+ wide profile.</para>
+
+ <para>Choose <menuchoice><guimenu>Build</guimenu><guimenuitem>Run
+ Configure</guimenuitem></menuchoice> or
+ <menuchoice><guimenu>Build</guimenu><guimenuitem>Run
+ Autogenerate</guimenuitem></menuchoice> to run "configure"
+ (or to run "autogen") for the project. This passes command line
+ arguments to instruct it to cross-compile.</para>
+
+ <para>Next do
+ <menuchoice><guimenu>Build</guimenu><guimenuitem>Build
+ Project</guimenuitem></menuchoice> to build and compile the
+ project. If you have previously built the project in the same
+ tree without using the cross-compiler you may find that your
+ project fails to link. Simply do
+ <menuchoice><guimenu>Build</guimenu><guimenuitem>Clean
+ Project</guimenuitem></menuchoice> to remove the old
+ binaries. You may then try building again.</para>
+
+ <para>Next start QEMU by using
+ <menuchoice><guimenu>Tools</guimenu><guimenuitem>Start
+ QEMU</guimenuitem></menuchoice>, this will start QEMU and
+ will show any error messages in the message view. Once Poky has
+ fully booted within QEMU you may now deploy into it.</para>
+
+ <para>Once built and QEMU is running, choose
+ <menuchoice><guimenu>Tools</guimenu><guimenuitem>Deploy</guimenuitem></menuchoice>,
+ this will install the package into a temporary directory and
+ then copy using rsync over SSH into the target. Progress and
+ messages will be shown in the message view.</para>
+
+ <para>To debug a program installed into onto the target choose
+ <menuchoice><guimenu>Tools</guimenu><guimenuitem>Debug
+ remote</guimenuitem></menuchoice>. This prompts for the
+ local binary to debug and also the command line to run on the
+ target. The command line to run should include the full path to
+ the to binary installed in the target. This will start a
+ gdbserver over SSH on the target and also an instance of a
+ cross-gdb in a local terminal. This will be preloaded to connect
+ to the server and use the <guilabel>SDK root</guilabel> to find
+ symbols. This gdb will connect to the target and load in
+ various libraries and the target program. You should setup any
+ breakpoints or watchpoints now since you might not be able to
+ interrupt the execution later. You may stop
+ the debugger on the target using
+ <menuchoice><guimenu>Tools</guimenu><guimenuitem>Stop
+ debugger</guimenuitem></menuchoice>.</para>
+
+ <para>It is also possible to execute a command in the target over
+ SSH, the appropriate environment will be be set for the
+ execution. Choose
+ <menuchoice><guimenu>Tools</guimenu><guimenuitem>Run
+ remote</guimenuitem></menuchoice> to do this. This will open
+ a terminal with the SSH command inside.</para>
+
+ <para>To do a system wide profile against the system running in
+ QEMU choose
+ <menuchoice><guimenu>Tools</guimenu><guimenuitem>Profile
+ remote</guimenuitem></menuchoice>. This will start up
+ OProfileUI with the appropriate parameters to connect to the
+ server running inside QEMU and will also supply the path to the
+ debug information necessary to get a useful profile.</para>
+
+ </section>
+ </section>
+
+
+ <section id="platdev-appdev-qemu">
+ <title>Developing externally in QEMU</title>
+ <para>
+ Running Poky QEMU images is covered in the <link
+ linkend='intro-quickstart-qemu'>Running an Image</link> section.
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ Poky's QEMU images contain a complete native toolchain. This means
+ that applications can be developed within QEMU in the same was as a
+ normal system. Using qemux86 on an x86 machine is fast since the
+ guest and host architectures match, qemuarm is slower but gives
+ faithful emulation of ARM specific issues. To speed things up these
+ images support using distcc to call a cross-compiler outside the
+ emulated system too. If <command>runqemu</command> was used to start
+ QEMU, and distccd is present on the host system, any bitbake cross
+ compiling toolchain available from the build system will automatically
+ be used from within qemu simply by calling distcc
+ (<command>export CC="distcc"</command> can be set in the enviroment).
+ Alterntatively, if a suitable SDK/toolchain is present in
+ <filename class="directory">/opt/poky</filename> it will also
+ automatically be used.
+ </para>
+
+ <para>
+ There are several options for connecting into the emulated system.
+ QEMU provides a framebuffer interface which has standard consoles
+ available. There is also a serial connection available which has a
+ console to the system running on it and IP networking as standard.
+ The images have a dropbear ssh server running with the root password
+ disabled allowing standard ssh and scp commands to work. The images
+ also contain an NFS server exporting the guest's root filesystem
+ allowing that to be made available to the host.
+ </para>
+ </section>
+
+ <section id="platdev-appdev-insitu">
+ <title>Developing in Poky directly</title>
+ <para>
+ Working directly in Poky is a fast and effective development technique.
+ The idea is that you can directly edit files in
+ <glossterm><link linkend='var-WORKDIR'>WORKDIR</link></glossterm>
+ or the source directory <glossterm><link linkend='var-S'>S</link></glossterm>
+ and then force specific tasks to rerun in order to test the changes.
+ An example session working on the matchbox-desktop package might
+ look like this:
+ </para>
+
+ <para>
+ <literallayout class='monospaced'>
+$ bitbake matchbox-desktop
+$ sh
+$ cd tmp/work/armv5te-poky-linux-gnueabi/matchbox-desktop-2.0+svnr1708-r0/
+$ cd matchbox-desktop-2
+$ vi src/main.c
+$ exit
+$ bitbake matchbox-desktop -c compile -f
+$ bitbake matchbox-desktop
+</literallayout>
+ </para>
+
+ <para>
+ Here, we build the package, change into the work directory for the package,
+ change a file, then recompile the package. Instead of using sh like this,
+ you can also use two different terminals. The risk with working like this
+ is that a command like unpack could wipe out the changes you've made to the
+ work directory so you need to work carefully.
+ </para>
+
+ <para>
+ It is useful when making changes directly to the work directory files to do
+ so using quilt as detailed in the <link linkend='usingpoky-modifying-packages-quilt'>
+ modifying packages with quilt</link> section. The resulting patches can be copied
+ into the recipe directory and used directly in the <glossterm><link
+ linkend='var-SRC_URI'>SRC_URI</link></glossterm>.
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ For a review of the skills used in this section see Sections <link
+ linkend="usingpoky-components-bitbake">2.1.1</link> and <link
+ linkend="usingpoky-debugging-taskrunning">2.4.2</link>.
+ </para>
+
+ </section>
+
+ <section id="platdev-appdev-devshell">
+ <title>Developing with 'devshell'</title>
+
+ <para>
+ When debugging certain commands or even to just edit packages, the
+ 'devshell' can be a useful tool. To start it you run a command like:
+ </para>
+
+ <para>
+ <literallayout class='monospaced'>
+$ bitbake matchbox-desktop -c devshell
+</literallayout>
+ </para>
+
+ <para>
+ which will open a terminal with a shell prompt within the Poky
+ environment. This means PATH is setup to include the cross toolchain,
+ the pkgconfig variables are setup to find the right .pc files,
+ configure will be able to find the Poky site files etc. Within this
+ environment, you can run configure or compile command as if they
+ were being run by Poky itself. You are also changed into the
+ source (<glossterm><link linkend='var-S'>S</link></glossterm>)
+ directory automatically. When finished with the shell just exit it
+ or close the terminal window.
+ </para>
+
+ <para>
+ The default shell used by devshell is the gnome-terminal. Other
+ forms of terminal can also be used by setting the <glossterm>
+ <link linkend='var-TERMCMD'>TERMCMD</link></glossterm> and <glossterm>
+ <link linkend='var-TERMCMDRUN'>TERMCMDRUN</link></glossterm> variables
+ in local.conf. For examples of the other options available, see
+ <filename>meta/conf/bitbake.conf</filename>. An external shell is
+ launched rather than opening directly into the original terminal
+ window to make interaction with bitbakes multiple threads easier
+ and also allow a client/server split of bitbake in the future
+ (devshell will still work over X11 forwarding or similar).
+ </para>
+
+ <para>
+ It is worth remembering that inside devshell you need to use the full
+ compiler name such as <command>arm-poky-linux-gnueabi-gcc</command>
+ instead of just <command>gcc</command> and the same applies to other
+ applications from gcc, bintuils, libtool etc. Poky will have setup
+ environmental variables such as CC to assist applications, such as make,
+ find the correct tools.
+ </para>
+
+ </section>
+
+ <section id="platdev-appdev-srcrev">
+ <title>Developing within Poky with an external SCM based package</title>
+
+ <para>
+ If you're working on a recipe which pulls from an external SCM it
+ is possible to have Poky notice new changes added to the
+ SCM and then build the latest version. This only works for SCMs
+ where its possible to get a sensible revision number for changes.
+ Currently it works for svn, git and bzr repositories.
+ </para>
+
+ <para>
+ To enable this behaviour it is simply a case of adding <glossterm>
+ <link linkend='var-SRCREV'>SRCREV</link></glossterm>_pn-<glossterm>
+ <link linkend='var-PN'>PN</link></glossterm> = "${AUTOREV}" to
+ local.conf where <glossterm><link linkend='var-PN'>PN</link></glossterm>
+ is the name of the package for which you want to enable automatic source
+ revision updating.
+ </para>
+ </section>
+
+ </section>
+
+<section id="platdev-gdb-remotedebug">
+ <title>Debugging with GDB Remotely</title>
+
+ <para>
+ <ulink url="http://sourceware.org/gdb/">GDB</ulink> (The GNU Project Debugger)
+ allows you to examine running programs to understand and fix problems and
+ also to perform postmortem style analsys of program crashes. It is available
+ as a package within poky and installed by default in sdk images. It works best
+ when -dbg packages for the application being debugged are installed as the
+ extra symbols give more meaningful output from GDB.
+ </para>
+
+ <para>
+ Sometimes, due to memory or disk space constraints, it is not possible
+ to use GDB directly on the remote target to debug applications. This is
+ due to the fact that
+ GDB needs to load the debugging information and the binaries of the
+ process being debugged. GDB then needs to perform many
+ computations to locate information such as function names, variable
+ names and values, stack traces, etc. even before starting the debugging
+ process. This places load on the target system and can alter the
+ characteristics of the program being debugged.
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ This is where GDBSERVER comes into play as it runs on the remote target
+ and does not load any debugging information from the debugged process.
+ Instead, the debugging information processing is done by a GDB instance
+ running on a distant computer - the host GDB. The host GDB then sends
+ control commands to GDBSERVER to make it stop or start the debugged
+ program, as well as read or write some memory regions of that debugged
+ program. All the debugging information loading and processing as well
+ as the heavy debugging duty is done by the host GDB, giving the
+ GDBSERVER running on the target a chance to remain small and fast.
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ As the host GDB is responsible for loading the debugging information and
+ doing the necessary processing to make actual debugging happen, the
+ user has to make sure it can access the unstripped binaries complete
+ with their debugging information and compiled with no optimisations. The
+ host GDB must also have local access to all the libraries used by the
+ debugged program. On the remote target the binaries can remain stripped
+ as GDBSERVER does not need any debugging information there. However they
+ must also be compiled without optimisation matching the host's binaries.
+ </para>
+
+ <para>
+ The binary being debugged on the remote target machine is hence referred
+ to as the 'inferior' in keeping with GDB documentation and terminology.
+ Further documentation on GDB, is available on
+ <ulink url="http://sourceware.org/gdb/documentation/">on their site</ulink>.
+ </para>
+
+ <section id="platdev-gdb-remotedebug-launch-gdbserver">
+ <title>Launching GDBSERVER on the target</title>
+ <para>
+ First, make sure gdbserver is installed on the target. If not,
+ install the gdbserver package (which needs the libthread-db1
+ package).
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ To launch GDBSERVER on the target and make it ready to "debug" a
+ program located at <emphasis>/path/to/inferior</emphasis>, connect
+ to the target and launch:
+ <programlisting>$ gdbserver localhost:2345 /path/to/inferior</programlisting>
+ After that, gdbserver should be listening on port 2345 for debugging
+ commands coming from a remote GDB process running on the host computer.
+ Communication between the GDBSERVER and the host GDB will be done using
+ TCP. To use other communication protocols please refer to the
+ GDBSERVER documentation.
+ </para>
+ </section>
+
+ <section id="platdev-gdb-remotedebug-launch-gdb">
+ <title>Launching GDB on the host computer</title>
+
+ <para>
+ Running GDB on the host computer takes a number of stages, described in the
+ following sections.
+ </para>
+
+ <section id="platdev-gdb-remotedebug-launch-gdb-buildcross">
+ <title>Build the cross GDB package</title>
+ <para>
+ A suitable gdb cross binary is required which runs on your host computer but
+ knows about the the ABI of the remote target. This can be obtained from
+ the the Poky toolchain, e.g.
+ <filename>/opt/poky/sysroots/x86_64-pokysdk-linux/usr/bin/armv5te-poky-linux-gnueabi/arm-poky-linux-gnueabi-gdb</filename>
+ which "x86_64" is the host architecture, "arm" is the target architecture and "linux-gnueabi" the target ABI.
+ </para>
+
+ <para>
+ Alternatively this can be built directly by Poky. To do this you would build
+ the gdb-cross package so for example you would run:
+ <programlisting>bitbake gdb-cross</programlisting>
+ Once built, the cross gdb binary can be found at
+ <programlisting>tmp/sysroots/&lt;host-arch&gt;/usr/bin/\
+&lt;target-arch&gt;-poky-&lt;target-abi&gt;/&lt;target-arch&gt;-poky-&lt;target-abi&gt;-gdb </programlisting>
+ </para>
+
+ </section>
+ <section id="platdev-gdb-remotedebug-launch-gdb-inferiorbins">
+
+ <title>Making the inferior binaries available</title>
+
+ <para>
+ The inferior binary needs to be available to GDB complete with all debugging
+ symbols in order to get the best possible results along with any libraries
+ the inferior depends on and their debugging symbols. There are a number of
+ ways this can be done.
+ </para>
+
+ <para>
+ Perhaps the easiest is to have an 'sdk' image corresponding to the plain
+ image installed on the device. In the case of 'pky-image-sato',
+ 'poky-image-sdk' would contain suitable symbols. The sdk images already
+ have the debugging symbols installed so its just a question expanding the
+ archive to some location and telling GDB where this is.
+ </para>
+
+ <para>
+ Alternatively, poky can build a custom directory of files for a specific
+ debugging purpose by reusing its tmp/rootfs directory, on the host computer
+ in a slightly different way to normal. This directory contains the contents
+ of the last built image. This process assumes the image running on the
+ target was the last image to be built by Poky, the package <emphasis>foo</emphasis>
+ contains the inferior binary to be debugged has been built without without
+ optimisation and has debugging information available.
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ Firstly you want to install the <emphasis>foo</emphasis> package to tmp/rootfs
+ by doing:
+ </para>
+ <programlisting>tmp/sysroots/i686-linux/usr/bin/opkg-cl -f \
+tmp/work/&lt;target-abi&gt;/poky-image-sato-1.0-r0/opkg.conf -o \
+tmp/rootfs/ update</programlisting>
+ <para>
+ then,
+ </para>
+ <programlisting>tmp/sysroots/i686-linux/usr/bin/opkg-cl -f \
+tmp/work/&lt;target-abi&gt;/poky-image-sato-1.0-r0/opkg.conf \
+-o tmp/rootfs install foo
+
+tmp/sysroots/i686-linux/usr/bin/opkg-cl -f \
+tmp/work/&lt;target-abi&gt;/poky-image-sato-1.0-r0/opkg.conf \
+-o tmp/rootfs install foo-dbg</programlisting>
+ <para>
+ which installs the debugging information too.
+ </para>
+
+ </section>
+ <section id="platdev-gdb-remotedebug-launch-gdb-launchhost">
+
+ <title>Launch the host GDB</title>
+ <para>
+ To launch the host GDB, run the cross gdb binary identified above with
+ the inferior binary specified on the commandline:
+ <programlisting>&lt;target-arch&gt;-poky-&lt;target-abi&gt;-gdb rootfs/usr/bin/foo</programlisting>
+ This loads the binary of program <emphasis>foo</emphasis>
+ as well as its debugging information. Once the gdb prompt
+ appears, you must instruct GDB to load all the libraries
+ of the inferior from tmp/rootfs:
+ <programlisting>set solib-absolute-prefix /path/to/tmp/rootfs</programlisting>
+ where <filename>/path/to/tmp/rootfs</filename> must be
+ the absolute path to <filename>tmp/rootfs</filename> or wherever the
+ binaries with debugging information are located.
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ Now, tell GDB to connect to the GDBSERVER running on the remote target:
+ <programlisting>target remote remote-target-ip-address:2345</programlisting>
+ Where remote-target-ip-address is the IP address of the
+ remote target where the GDBSERVER is running. 2345 is the
+ port on which the GDBSERVER is running.
+ </para>
+
+ </section>
+ <section id="platdev-gdb-remotedebug-launch-gdb-using">
+
+ <title>Using the Debugger</title>
+ <para>
+ Debugging can now proceed as normal, as if the debugging were being done on the
+ local machine, for example to tell GDB to break in the <emphasis>main</emphasis>
+ function, for instance:
+ <programlisting>break main</programlisting>
+ and then to tell GDB to "continue" the inferior execution,
+ <programlisting>continue</programlisting>
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ For more information about using GDB please see the
+ project's online documentation at <ulink
+ url="http://sourceware.org/gdb/download/onlinedocs/"/>.
+ </para>
+ </section>
+ </section>
+
+</section>
+
+<section id="platdev-oprofile">
+ <title>Profiling with OProfile</title>
+
+ <para>
+ <ulink url="http://oprofile.sourceforge.net/">OProfile</ulink> is a
+ statistical profiler well suited to finding performance
+ bottlenecks in both userspace software and the kernel. It provides
+ answers to questions like "Which functions does my application spend
+ the most time in when doing X?". Poky is well integrated with OProfile
+ to make profiling applications on target hardware straightforward.
+ </para>
+
+ <para>
+ To use OProfile you need an image with OProfile installed. The easiest
+ way to do this is with "tools-profile" in <glossterm><link
+ linkend='var-IMAGE_FEATURES'>IMAGE_FEATURES</link></glossterm>. You also
+ need debugging symbols to be available on the system where the analysis
+ will take place. This can be achieved with "dbg-pkgs" in <glossterm><link
+ linkend='var-IMAGE_FEATURES'>IMAGE_FEATURES</link></glossterm> or by
+ installing the appropriate -dbg packages. For
+ successful call graph analysis the binaries must preserve the frame
+ pointer register and hence should be compiled with the
+ "-fno-omit-framepointer" flag. In Poky this can be achieved with
+ <glossterm><link linkend='var-SELECTED_OPTIMIZATION'>SELECTED_OPTIMIZATION
+ </link></glossterm> = "-fexpensive-optimizations -fno-omit-framepointer
+ -frename-registers -O2" or by setting <glossterm><link
+ linkend='var-DEBUG_BUILD'>DEBUG_BUILD</link></glossterm> = "1" in
+ local.conf (the latter will also add extra debug information making the
+ debug packages large).
+ </para>
+
+ <section id="platdev-oprofile-target">
+ <title>Profiling on the target</title>
+
+ <para>
+ All the profiling work can be performed on the target device. A
+ simple OProfile session might look like:
+ </para>
+
+ <para>
+ <literallayout class='monospaced'>
+# opcontrol --reset
+# opcontrol --start --separate=lib --no-vmlinux -c 5
+[do whatever is being profiled]
+# opcontrol --stop
+$ opreport -cl
+</literallayout>
+ </para>
+
+ <para>
+ Here, the reset command clears any previously profiled data,
+ OProfile is then started. The options used to start OProfile mean
+ dynamic library data is kept separately per application, kernel
+ profiling is disabled and callgraphing is enabled up to 5 levels
+ deep. To profile the kernel, you would specify the
+ <parameter>--vmlinux=/path/to/vmlinux</parameter> option (the vmlinux file is usually in
+ <filename class="directory">/boot/</filename> in Poky and must match the running kernel). The profile is
+ then stopped and the results viewed with opreport with options
+ to see the separate library symbols and callgraph information.
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ Callgraphing means OProfile not only logs infomation about which
+ functions time is being spent in but also which functions
+ called those functions (their parents) and which functions that
+ function calls (its children). The higher the callgraphing depth,
+ the more accurate the results but this also increased the loging
+ overhead so it should be used with caution. On ARM, binaries need
+ to have the frame pointer enabled for callgraphing to work (compile
+ with the gcc option -fno-omit-framepointer).
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ For more information on using OProfile please see the OProfile
+ online documentation at <ulink
+ url="http://oprofile.sourceforge.net/docs/"/>.
+ </para>
+ </section>
+
+ <section id="platdev-oprofile-oprofileui">
+ <title>Using OProfileUI</title>
+
+ <para>
+ A graphical user interface for OProfile is also available. You can
+ either use prebuilt Debian packages from the <ulink
+ url='http://debian.o-hand.com/'>OpenedHand repository</ulink> or
+ download and build from svn at
+ http://svn.o-hand.com/repos/oprofileui/trunk/. If the
+ "tools-profile" image feature is selected, all necessary binaries
+ are installed onto the target device for OProfileUI interaction.
+ </para>
+
+<!-- DISBALED, Need a more 'contexual' shot?
+ <screenshot>
+ <mediaobject>
+ <imageobject>
+ <imagedata fileref="screenshots/ss-oprofile-viewer.png" format="PNG"/>
+ </imageobject>
+ <caption>
+ <para>OProfileUI Viewer showing an application being profiled on a remote device</para>
+ </caption>
+ </mediaobject>
+ </screenshot>
+-->
+ <para>
+ In order to convert the data in the sample format from the target
+ to the host the <filename>opimport</filename> program is needed.
+ This is not included in standard Debian OProfile packages but an
+ OProfile package with this addition is also available from the <ulink
+ url='http://debian.o-hand.com/'>OpenedHand repository</ulink>.
+ We recommend using OProfile 0.9.3 or greater. Other patches to
+ OProfile may be needed for recent OProfileUI features, but Poky
+ usually includes all needed patches on the target device. Please
+ see the <ulink
+ url='http://svn.o-hand.com/repos/oprofileui/trunk/README'>
+ OProfileUI README</ulink> for up to date information, and the
+ <ulink url="http://labs.o-hand.com/oprofileui">OProfileUI website
+ </ulink> for more information on the OProfileUI project.
+ </para>
+
+ <section id="platdev-oprofile-oprofileui-online">
+ <title>Online mode</title>
+
+ <para>
+ This assumes a working network connection with the target
+ hardware. In this case you just need to run <command>
+ "oprofile-server"</command> on the device. By default it listens
+ on port 4224. This can be changed with the <parameter>--port</parameter> command line
+ option.
+
+ </para>
+
+ <para>
+ The client program is called <command>oprofile-viewer</command>. The
+ UI is relatively straightforward, the key functionality is accessed
+ through the buttons on the toolbar (which are duplicated in the
+ menus.) These buttons are:
+ </para>
+
+ <itemizedlist>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Connect - connect to the remote host, the IP address or hostname for the
+ target can be supplied here.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Disconnect - disconnect from the target.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Start - start the profiling on the device.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Stop - stop the profiling on the device and download the data to the local
+ host. This will generate the profile and show it in the viewer.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Download - download the data from the target, generate the profile and show it
+ in the viewer.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Reset - reset the sample data on the device. This will remove the sample
+ information that was collected on a previous sampling run. Ensure you do this
+ if you do not want to include old sample information.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Save - save the data downloaded from the target to another directory for later
+ examination.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Open - load data that was previously saved.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ </itemizedlist>
+
+ <para>
+ The behaviour of the client is to download the complete 'profile archive' from
+ the target to the host for processing. This archive is a directory containing
+ the sample data, the object files and the debug information for said object
+ files. This archive is then converted using a script included in this
+ distribution ('oparchconv') that uses 'opimport' to convert the archive from
+ the target to something that can be processed on the host.
+ </para>
+
+ <para>
+ Downloaded archives are kept in /tmp and cleared up when they are no longer in
+ use.
+ </para>
+
+ <para>
+ If you wish to profile into the kernel, this is possible, you just need to ensure
+ a vmlinux file matching the running kernel is available. In Poky this is usually
+ located in /boot/vmlinux-KERNELVERSION, where KERNEL-version is the version of
+ the kernel e.g. 2.6.23. Poky generates separate vmlinux packages for each kernel
+ it builds so it should be a question of just ensuring a matching package is
+ installed (<command> opkg install kernel-vmlinux</command>. These are automatically
+ installed into development and profiling images alongside OProfile. There is a
+ configuration option within the OProfileUI settings page where the location of
+ the vmlinux file can be entered.
+ </para>
+
+ <para>
+ Waiting for debug symbols to transfer from the device can be slow and it's not
+ always necessary to actually have them on device for OProfile use. All that is
+ needed is a copy of the filesystem with the debug symbols present on the viewer
+ system. The <link linkend='platdev-gdb-remotedebug-launch-gdb'>GDB remote debug
+ section</link> covers how to create such a directory with Poky and the location
+ of this directory can again be specified in the OProfileUI settings dialog. If
+ specified, it will be used where the file checksums match those on the system
+ being profiled.
+ </para>
+ </section>
+ <section id="platdev-oprofile-oprofileui-offline">
+ <title>Offline mode</title>
+
+ <para>
+ If no network access to the target is available an archive for processing in
+ 'oprofile-viewer' can be generated with the following set of command.
+ </para>
+
+ <para>
+ <literallayout class='monospaced'>
+# opcontrol --reset
+# opcontrol --start --separate=lib --no-vmlinux -c 5
+[do whatever is being profiled]
+# opcontrol --stop
+# oparchive -o my_archive
+</literallayout>
+ </para>
+
+ <para>
+ Where my_archive is the name of the archive directory where you would like the
+ profile archive to be kept. The directory will be created for you. This can
+ then be copied to another host and loaded using 'oprofile-viewer''s open
+ functionality. The archive will be converted if necessary.
+ </para>
+ </section>
+ </section>
+</section>
+
+</chapter>
+<!--
+vim: expandtab tw=80 ts=4
+-->