All you need to know to use Open Embedded and the Yocto Project to build your custom embedded Linux images.
Overview
Everything you need to know to build your custom Linux system images for your own hardware. Learn how to create your own layers to reuse and override hardware vendor and community provided layers, just providing what is specific to your project.
In case you wish to support images for different targets, the Yocto Project will enable you to cleanly separate your hardware customizations, your distribution policies and the sets of applications you want to use.
The Yocto project also offers binary reproducibility, vulnerability analysis and Software Bill of Materials, and will also help you to develop your own recipes and debug the system.
Using progressive but challenging practical labs and varied techniques to make the learning always stimulating and fun, and above all to make it stick. At least 75% of the time is dedicated to practical activities.
Description
| Type | Online |
| Mix | 25% theory – 75% practical activities |
| Language | English |
| Max participants | 8 |
| Duration | 24 hours (6 sessions of 4 hours) |
| Hardware | BeaglePlay board with TI Sitara AM625 SoC (ARM64) |
| Yocto Project version | 5.0 (Scarthgap LTS) used in practical labs |
| Prerequisites | Familiarity with the Linux command line – understanding low-level details about Embedded Linux will help but isn’t a strict requirement. |
Upcoming sessions (in-person and online)
| Trainer | Dates | Cost |
| Michael Opdenacker | Feb. 25-28, 2025, Avignon, France 32 hours – 9:00 to 18:00 UTC +1 Seats left – Register | 2,490 EUR or 2,590 USD + 20% V.A.T. |
| Michael Opdenacker | Mar. 18-20, 25-27, Online 15:00 to 19:00 UTC+1 Seats left – Register | 1,990 EUR or 2,090 USD + 20% V.A.T. |
Also available on-line or through private sessions worldwide. Ask us for a quote.
Part 1: Introduction, Concepts, Standard Usage
- Demo: Build a embedded Linux image for a different board and boot it.
- General introduction to embedded Linux and build systems.
- History of OpenEmbedded and the Yocto Project.
Roles of the various components: OpenEmbedded, Poky, Yocto. - Project goals, release cycles, governance, features, example projects.
- Terminology: recipes, layers, images, machines, distributions, packages, metadata.
- Setting up the environment. Supported host distributions, required tools.
- BitBake build orchestrator: usage and features.
- Build and boot your first image based on the Poky reference distribution.
- Exploring logs and build outputs.
- Variables, syntax, scope and overrides.
Part 2: Working with Recipes and Layers
- Structure of recipes. Tasks, dependencies. Source fetching and other important tasks. Extending and overriding existing recipes.
- Classes: “recipe” and “global” classes.
- Various types of Yocto layers. Using multiple layers and creating new ones.
- BSP layers and machine definitions. Building the bootloader and kernel. Bootloader, kernel and device tree customization.
- Distro layers. Toolchain definition.
- Defining images. Package features.
- Defining packages in recipes. Runtime and build time dependencies.
Part 3: Advanced Yocto Usage and Deployment
- Optimizing builds: shared state cache, hash equivalence, limiting disk and CPU usage.
- Generating and executing a Yocto Software Development Kit (SDK).
- Using devtool to create, modify and test recipes.
- Package sanity and image testing.
- Generating and publishing package feeds. Adding and updating software at run time.
- License compliance and Software Bill or Materials.
- Checking for vulnerabilities.
- Binary reproducibility
- Layer management software (Kas, Repo).
- Best practices for maintaining a project using Yocto.
- Further Yocto Project resources.
Part 4: Challenges
- Fix a broken system with multiple types of bugs.
- Build and boot a system with support for A/B updates.
- Optimize the boot time of a Yocto built embedded system.
What’s special in our online courses
Real labs, not just demos: unlike in some other offerings, each participant has time to do the practical labs during the course hours, with support from the trainer. The number of participants is limited to 8 to make sure that the instructor has enough time to support everyone.
Daily slots are just 4 hours long, allowing to continue working on regular projects, and to finish the labs with support from the trainer. We provide a Matrix channel to get support outside official hours, and even after the course is over. The timing also allows for participants from North America.
Video recordings of the lectures from the trainer are provided. This can come in handy to review the details of a particular topic after the course. Note that these videos are for your own use only, and that participants won’t be recorded for privacy reasons.
Course never postponed: once you are registered to one of our public sessions (after we receive your payment), you are sure to participate at the expected dates. We don’t postpone sessions, even with a very small number of participants.
Majority of practical activities, representing at least 75% of learning time.
Short lectures only: sequences of theory never exceed 30 minutes, and are interleaved with quick or longer practice. Too long series of lectures are hard to digest, especially in an online setting.
Technical and teaching experience: courses taught by an industry veteran with more than 20 years of experience in embedded Linux and 30 years using and advocating for Free and Open Source Software.
See also: Why choose Root Commit courses?
Practical details
Registration
To register to one of our sessions (in-person or on-line), please send us an e-mail mentioning:
- Which session(s) you are interested in
- The name(s) of people to register
- Your company name (unless paying by yourself)
- An invoicing address
- An EU VAT number (if working for a company in the European Union)
If you have more than 4 people to register, you may consider ordering an on-site, in-person training session. Just ask us.
Required hardware
PC running Linux
For this session, you will need a laptop computer running a native installation of Linux, with one of the distributions currently supported by the Yocto Project. This way, you can practice with your preferred distribution, as you would do in your real job. We suggest Ubuntu 24.04 if you don’t have any preference yet.
If you haven’t installed Linux on your laptop yet, most Linux distributions will allow you to install Linux alongside Windows, after making enough free space. Note that we don’t support the use of Virtual Machines (to run Linux from inside another operating system), as from our experience, connecting the Linux VM to the board and other devices is an endless source of distractions. Using VMs also causes a substantial loss of compiling performance.
This laptop should have at least 8 GB of RAM, a CPU with at least 4 physical cores and at least 50 GB of free disk space (100 GB for the Yocto course).
ELECTRONIC Board and accessories
You will need to get your hands on the BeaglePlay ARM64 board and a few accessories.
Note that those are provided by Root Commit for in-person sessions.
What is provided?
The following is provided in our online public sessions:
- Video recordings of the lectures from the trainer.
- Electronic copies of the lecture and practical lab materials.
- Electronic training certificate, after successful completion of the course, which can be shared on your LinkedIn profile and on other social media.
FAQ
Q: Will I get solutions to the practical labs?
A: Yes, solutions for the files to create or modify are shared at the end of each lab.
Q: What happens if I can’t order all the required hardware in time?
A: This won’t prevent you from attending the course, as fallback instructions with QEMU emulated hardware will be provided. However, you should do your best to avoid such an issue, as some labs will be less exhaustive without real hardware. In addition, working with real hardware helps to grasp the difference between the build machine and the target hardware.
See also our FAQ for all types of courses and our sustainability efforts.