Introduction

This BSP provides a basis for development, deployment and execution of Linux based applications on the iMX7 System on Module (SOM). For detailed information on the various software components included in the release and how to use them, please refer to the Quickstart.

Versioning

Software

Yocto Machine Configuration Table

This BSP release supports various configurations of the phyBOARD-Zeta i.MX7. You will need to know which Yocto machine configuration corresponds to your kit in order to build the appropriate BSP. By default, only the standard kit configurations are shown in the table. If you have a different kit, use the filters below to search by Kit Part Number or SOM. The U-Boot defconfig and kernel device tree file names are important when creating custom U-Boot and kernel images outside of Yocto development.

Linux Device Tree Summary

The following is an example describing the structure of the device tree for the standard phyBOARD-Zeta Kit (machine configuration imx7d-phyboard-zeta-004).

Please look at the dts file corresponding to your machine configuration for the included dtsi files.

Alternate dts imx7d-phyboard-zeta-004-m4.dtb: configure u-boot to use this DTS if running Linux on the Cortex-A7 while running FreeRTOS on the Cortex-M4

Compatible Hardware

Supported Hardware Versions

Device tree changes are required to support earlier SOM and Carrier Board revisions. Visit the PHYTEC Support Portal to open a support ticket for help on how to make the device tree changes.

Compatible Expansion Boards and Accessories

Supported Raspberry Pi HATs (PEB-D-RPI Expansion Board)

PHYTEC supports a variety of Raspberry Pi HATs for use with the PEB-D-RPI Expansion Board. Other HATs may be hardware-compatible but have not yet been integrated and tested by PHYTEC. Demos and tests for supported HATs have been installed to the BSP file system, and are located in the /usr/share/phytec-rpihat-examples directory.

The following table lists supported Raspberry Pi HATs and the name of the subdirectory (relative to the phytec-rpihat-examples directory) that contains the demos for each HAT:

BSP Download

Prebuilt images of BSP-Yocto-FSL-iMX7-PD18.2.0 can be downloaded and extracted from the link below:

BSP-Yocto-FSL-iMX7-PD18.2.0

Quickstart

Quickstarts for BSP-Yocto-FSL-iMX7-PD18.2.0:

BSP Yocto FSL i.MX7 PD18.2.x Quickstart

BSP Features

The following table lists the interfaces available from the phyCORE-iMX7 SOM. 

• Implemented - driver support exists in the kernel. 
• Tested  - the interface has been configured in the device tree and was tested by PHYTEC 

• Status in Device Tree - the corresponding device tree nodes are enabled in the device tree. See Linux Device Tree Summary for more information.

  

  The "Status in Device Tree" column is specifically for the standard phyBOARD-Zeta kit (machine configuration imx7d-phyboard-zeta-004).

  Please look at the dts file corresponding to your machine configuration for differences.

[1] Interface requires additional configuration, such as pinmuxing. It may be possible to change the software configuration to utilize this interface even if it is not being set in the board's default configuration. Please see NXP's i.MX7D Technical Reference Manual for more information on the various modes each pin can be muxed to.

New in this Release

PD18.2.0

• General
  • Support for connecting the following Raspberry Pi HATs to the PEB-D-RPI:
    • Raspberry Pi Foundation Sense HAT
    • Pimoroni Unicorn HD HAT
    • Pimoroni Skywriter HAT
    • Anavi RabbitMax Flex HAT
    • Adafruit Capacitive Touch HAT
    • Adafruit DC & Stepper Motor HAT
    • Adafruit 16-Channel PWM/Servo HAT
  • Created PHYTEC RPi.GPIO Python library to be a drop-in replacement for RPi.GPIO for supported Raspberry Pi HATs.

• Linux
  • Device Tree Compiler
    • Version: Upgraded to upstream v1.4.4
      • Version bump adds support for compiling device tree overlays used to support the Raspberry Pi HATs listed in General.
  • Device Tree
    • Created PEB-D-RPI expansion board dts file "imx7-peb-d-rpi.dtsi".
    • Moved the general contents of "imx7d-phyboard-zeta-001-m4.dts" and "imx7s-phyboard-zeta-002-m4.dtsi" to "imx7-phyboard-zeta-m4.dtsi" for inclusion with i.MX7 kit Cortex-M4 dts files. The dts files "imx7d-phyboard-zeta-001-m4.dts" and "imx7s-phyboard-zeta-002-m4.dts" updated to reflect this change.
    • Created device tree files for i.MX7 Dual-based kit imx7d-phyboard-zeta-004. These files are named "imx7d-phyboard-zeta-004.dts" and "imx7d-phyboard-zeta-004-m4.dts".
    • Added support for module PEB-AV-06 adapter for MIPI CSI and DSI interfaces
  • Drivers
    • Created phytec-hat driver to support the Raspberry Pi HATs listed in General.

• Yocto
  • meta-phytec layer
    • Created new machine for i.MX7 Dual Kit with PEB-D-RPI expansion board. The new machine name is imx7d-phyboard-zeta-004.
    • Created and added recipes to support the Raspberry Pi HATs listed in General.

Fixed in this Release

PD18.2.0

• N/A - see New in this Release for changes

Not Tested

• PEB-WLBT-03
  • Driver support for Laird Sterling LWB has not been tested with Linux v4.9.11
• Booting via network
• Qt5 - NXP includes "fsl-image-qt5" Yocto Image in the BSP but it is meant for i.MX SoCs with hardware graphics, and is not supported by NXP or PHYTEC for the i.MX7D.

Known Issues

PHYTEC Known Issues

• Ethernet:
  • iperf3 is included with the Morty Yocto BSP. With UDP, this command reports much lower bandwidth than expected when compared with iperf command.

• eMMC:

  • Flashing with U-Boot: 
    • fsl-image-validation-imx-imx7d-phyboard-zeta-001.sdcard image is too large to be loaded into memory (1GB) from u-boot.
    • Workaround: Partition and flash eMMC from Linux instead. See Quickstart for instructions.
  • HS400 warnings/errors: configure eMMC to run at maximum 100MHz as a work around. See commit b8f6c1b7780 for more information.
• Linux IMX Busfreq driver:
  • Driver disabled by default due to impaired UART console functionality when the system is idle (Low frequency setpoint).

  • For dynamic bus frequency scaling and improved power consumption, the busfreq driver can be enabled in the device tree by removing the "fsl,freq_scaling_disabled" property in imx7-phycore-som.dtsi. It can also be controlled in Linux sysfs: 

    echo 1 > /sys/bus/platform/drivers/imx_busfreq/soc\:busfreq/enable 

• NAND:
  • 256MB NAND is too small to flash fsl-image-validation-imx filesystem. Booting from NAND was tested with core-image-minimal Yocto image, which is included with release binaries.

NXP Known Issues

See i.MX Linux Release Notes from NXP in  L4.9.11_1.0.0 BSP Documentation

Technical Support

For further information or to report any problems, visit the PHYTEC Support Portal