Installing the Virtual Machine

The development environment is provided as a virtual disk (to be used by a VirtualBox virtual machine) which you can download from this page:

Important

Compute the MD5SUM value of the zip file you downloaded and compare it to the golden one you find in the download page.

Uncompress the file, and you will get a .vdi file that is our virtual disk image. The environment contains the SDK for all the boards provided by Architech, Pengwyn included.

Download VirtualBox

_images/vdi_virtualbox_logo.png

For being able to use it, you first need to install VirtualBox (version 4.2.10 or higher). You can get VirtualBox installer from here:

https://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Downloads

Download the version that suits your host operating system. You need to download and install the Extension Pack as well.

Important

Make sure that the extension pack has the same version of VirtualBox.

Install the software with all the default options.

Create a new Virtual Machine

  1. Run VirtualBox
_images/vdi_open_virtualbox.png
  1. Click on New button
_images/vdi_new_virtual_machine.png
  1. Select the name of the virtual machine and the operating system type
_images/vdi_virtual_machine_name.png
  1. Select the amount of memory you want to give to your new virtual machine
_images/vdi_virtual_machine_memory.png
  1. Make the virtual machine use Architech’s virtual disk by pointing to the downloaded file. Than click on Create.
_images/vdi_hard_drive.png

Setup the network

We need to setup a port forwarding rule to let you (later) use the virtual machine as a local repository of packages.

Note

The virtual machine must be off

  1. Select Architech’s virtual machine from the list of virtual machines
_images/vdi_machine_listed.png
  1. Click on Settings
_images/vdi_click_settings.png
  1. Select Network
_images/vdi_network.png
  1. Expand Advanced of Adapter 1
_images/vdi_network_nat_advanced.png
  1. Click on Port Forwarding
_images/vdi_network_nat_port_forwarding.png
  1. Add a new rule
_images/vdi_network_nat_port_forwarding_rule_add.png
  1. Configure the rule
_images/vdi_network_nat_port_forwarding_rule_added.png
  1. Click on Ok

Customize the number of processors

Building an entire system from the ground up is a business that can take up to several hours. To improve the performances of the overall build process, you can, if your computer has enough resources, assign more than one processor to the virtual machine.

Note

The virtual machine must be off

  1. Select Architech’s virtual machine from the list of virtual machines
_images/vdi_machine_listed.png
  1. Click on Settings
_images/vdi_click_settings.png
  1. Select System
  2. Select Processor
  3. Assign the number of processors you wish to assign to the virtual machine
_images/vdi_change_number_of_processors.png

If you changed the number of processors, you might want to consider reading the guides on how to speedup the build process for Poky and HOB.

Create a shared folder

A shared folder is way for host and guest operating systems to exchange files by means of the file system. You need to choose a directory on your host operating system to share with the guest operating system.

Note

The virtual machine must be off

  1. Select Architech’s virtual machine from the list of virtual machines
_images/vdi_machine_listed.png
  1. Click on Settings
_images/vdi_click_settings.png
  1. Select Shared Folders
  2. Add a new shared folder
_images/vdi_add_shared_folder.png
  1. Choose a directory to share on your host machine. Make sure Auto-mount is selected.
_images/vdi_new_shared_folder.png

Once the virtual machine has been booted, the shared folder will be mounted under /media/ directory inside the virtual machine.