VEE Port for NXP i.MX93EVK

This project is used to build a VEE Port for the i.MX93EVK development board.

It relies on the generic Abstraction Layer for Linux available here README LINUX

Ensure you have cloned the repository and all its submodules. To update git submodules, run the following command git submodule update --init --recursive at the root of this project.

Related Files

This directory also contains:

• CHANGELOG to track the changes in the VEE Port for i.MX93EVK
• RELEASE NOTES to list:
  • the supported hardware,
  • the known issues and the limitations,
  • the development environment,
  • the list of the dependencies and their versions.
• README LINUX recommended for users familiar with the NXP SDK/BSP and advanced usage on how to customize the build process.

Board Technical Specifications

Name	i.MX93EVK
Revision	A
MPU part number	i.MX93
MPU architecture	Dual Cortex-A55
MPU max clock frequency	1.7GHz
Flash size	16 GB eMMC5.1
RAM size	2 GB LPDDR4X / LPDDR4

Here is a list of i.MX93EVK useful documentation links:

• Board documentation available here
• NXP board Getting Started available here
• MPU Technical Reference Manual available here
• MPU Errata available here
• i.MX Linux Yocto Project available here

VEE Port Specifications

The Architecture version is 8.1.1.

This VEE Port provides the following Foundation Libraries:

Foundation Library	Version
BON	1.4
DEVICE	1.2
DRAWING	1.0
ECOM-NETWORK	2.1
FS	2.1
KF	1.7
MICROUI	3.5
NET	1.1
RESOURCEMANAGER	1.0
SECURITY	1.7
SNI	1.4
SSL	2.2
TRACE	1.1
WATCHDOG	1.0

The VEE Port is derived into:

• a Mono-Sandbox VEE Port
• a Multi-Sandbox VEE Port (default)

MicroEJ SDK 6

MicroEJ SDK 6 is the latest available MicroEJ SDK. The SDK 6 uses Gradle plugin to compile and package MicroEJ modules. It allows the user to use his favourite IDE such as Android Studio or IntelliJ IDEA (see the list of supported IDE).

SDK 6 is currently limited to the build, test and simulation of Applications and Add-on Libraries (see Scope and Limitations for more information). If you need other features, such as developping a VEE Port, you have to use the SDK 5.

If you are an application developer only and do not need to make changes to the VEE Port, you can use the SDK 6. Please click on the button below to access to the SDK 6 Getting Started on the i.MX93 EVK.

MicroEJ SDK 5

If you want to modify the VEE Port, make changes to low level source code, please use SDK 5 and continue following this README.

Requirements

• OS - Windows 10 and WSL (tested with Ubuntu 22.04) - Linux (tested with Ubuntu 22.04)
• Internet connection to MicroEJ Central Repository
• MICROEJ SDK Dist. 24.01 or higher, available here
• i.MX93EVK board

i.MX Yocto Setup

Please refer to the i.MX Yocto Project User's Guide for instructions on how to build a Yocto image for i.MX targets.

The following is a simplified procedure to build a firmware and a Yocto SDK for i.MX93EVK board.

Build Yocto Image

This VEE Port has been tested with the following release of i.MX Yocto.

First, fetch the source code:

repo init -u https://github.com/nxp-imx/imx-manifest -b imx-linux-mickledore -m imx-6.1.55-2.2.0.xml
repo sync

Then, setup the build for i.MX93EVK:

MACHINE=imx93evk DISTRO=fsl-imx-fb source imx-setup-release.sh -b build

Then, add the necessary 32bit librairies:

echo -e "\n#Enable multilib support"                                           >> ./conf/local.conf
echo -e "require conf/multilib.conf"                                           >> ./conf/local.conf
echo -e "MULTILIBS = \"multilib:lib32\""                                       >> ./conf/local.conf
echo -e "DEFAULTTUNE:virtclass-multilib-lib32 = \"armv7athf-neon\""            >> ./conf/local.conf
echo -e "IMAGE_INSTALL:append = \" lib32-glibc lib32-libgcc lib32-libstdc++\"" >> ./conf/local.conf

echo -e "#Multilib does not support debian packaging"                          >> ./conf/local.conf
sed 's/PACKAGE_CLASSES/#PACKAGE_CLASSES/g' -i ./conf/local.conf
sed 's/EXTRA_IMAGE_FEATURES/#EXTRA_IMAGE_FEATURES/g' -i ./conf/local.conf

echo -e "# Librairies dependencies"                                            >> ./conf/local.conf
echo -e "IMAGE_INSTALL:append = \" lib32-libssl lib32-libdrm lib32-tslib\""    >> ./conf/local.conf

echo -e "# Tools"                                                              >> ./conf/local.conf
echo -e "IMAGE_INSTALL:append = \" tslib-calibrate\""                          >> ./conf/local.conf

Then build the target imx-image-core:

bitbake imx-image-core

The resulting image is build/tmp/deploy/images/imx93evk/imx-image-core-imx93evk.wic.zst

Flash Yocto Image

The Linux image is flashed on an SD card.

To flash the image follow the steps corresponding to your OS:

Linux

To flash the image on Linux, please refer to the i.MX Linux User Guide

As an example, if you are flashing the image on the SDcard:

zstd -dfk /mnt/c/tmp/imx-image-core-imx93evk.wic.zst
dd if=imx-image-core-imx93evk.wic of=<insert SDcard device here>

Windows

To flash the image on Windows, do the following:

• Install Rufus: https://rufus.ie/en/.

• Extract the .wic file from the archive imx-image-core-imx93evk.wic.zst.

• Select your SD card device in the list at the top (see example of configuration below).

• Select your .wic file by clicking on SELECT

• Finally click on START at the bottom and wait for the process to finish.

  

Build and Install Yocto SDK

In the same workspace, generate the Yocto SDK, which will be used by MicroEJ SDK to build and link the application.

bitbake imx-image-core -c populate_sdk

To install the Yocto SDK, use the following commands in WSL or Linux:

$ sh fsl-imx-fb-glibc-x86_64-imx-image-core-armv8a-imx93evk-toolchain-6.1-mickledore.sh
NXP i.MX Release Distro SDK installer version 6.1-mickledore
============================================================
Enter target directory for SDK (default: /opt/fsl-imx-fb/6.1-mickledore):
You are about to install the SDK to "/opt/fsl-imx-fb/6.1-mickledore". Proceed [Y/n]? y
[sudo] password for ___:
Extracting SDK...done
Setting it up...done
SDK has been successfully set up and is ready to be used.
Each time you wish to use the SDK in a new shell session, you need to source the environment setup script e.g.
$ . /opt/fsl-imx-fb/6.1-mickledore/environment-setup-armv7at2hf-neon-pokymllib32-linux-gnueabi
$ . /opt/fsl-imx-fb/6.1-mickledore/environment-setup-armv8a-poky-linux

Configure Yocto SDK in MicroEJ Abstraction Layer

For detailed information on how to setup MicroEJ Abstraction layer, please refer to README LINUX

In our case, we must edit [set_project_env.sh](Linux-imx93-configuration/linux/scripts/set_project_env.sh) for the 32bit toolchain:

YOCTO_SDK_INSTALL=/opt/fsl-imx-fb/6.1-mickledore
YOCTO_SDK_ENV_SCRIPT=environment-setup-armv7at2hf-neon-pokymllib32-linux-gnueabi

VEE Port Setup

VEE Port Import

Import the projects in MICROEJ SDK Workspace:

• File > Import > Existing Projects into Workspace > Next
• Point Select root directory to where the project was cloned.
• Click Finish

Inside MICROEJ SDK, the selected example is imported as several projects prefixed by the given name:

• Linux-imx93-configuration: Contains the VEE Port configuration description. Some modules are described in a specific sub-folder / with some optional configuration files (.properties and / or .xml).
• Linux-abstractionlayer: Contains a complete and generic set of C abstraction layers for linux targets, including a cmake GCC ARM project and an implementation of MicroEJ core engine (and extensions) port on Linux.
• Linux-imx93-fp: Contains the board description and images for the Simulator. This project is updated once the VEE Port is built.
• Linux-imx93-platform: Contains the MICROEJ SDK VEE Port project which is empty by default until the VEE Port is built.

By default, the VEE Port is configured as a Mono-Sandbox Evaluation VEE Port (Please refer to the RELEASE NOTES limitations section for more details).

VEE Port Build

To build the VEE Port, please follow the steps below:

• Right-click on Linux-imx93-configuration project in your MICROEJ SDK workspace.
• Click on Build Module

The build starts. This step may take several minutes. The first time, the VEE Port build requires to download modules that are available on the MicroEJ Central Repository. You can see the progress of the build steps in the MICROEJ SDK console.

Please wait for the final message:

BUILD SUCCESSFUL

At the end of the execution the VEE Port is fully built for the i.MX93EVK board and is ready to be used.

The VEE Port project should be refreshed with no error in the MICROEJ SDK Linux-imx93-platform.

Please refer to https://docs.microej.com/en/latest/ApplicationDeveloperGuide/standaloneApplication.html for more information on how to build a MicroEJ Standalone Application.

An evaluation license is needed for building an application. Please refer to https://docs.microej.com/en/latest/overview/licenses.html#evaluation-license for information on how to acquire and activate a license.

Board Setup

target SSH configuration

MicroEJ applications are deployed on the target via SSH.

Follow the README LINUX on how to configure the target IP address.

Power Supply

The board is powered via a USB-C connector.

Please refer to the NXP documentation available here for more details.

Logs Output

A serial port is available on the EVK (DBG USB port), it provides access to the shell.

To connect to this port use the following settings:

Baudrate	115200
Data bits bits	8
Parity bits	None
Stop bits	1
Flow control	XON/XOFF

Please refer to the NXP documentation available here for more details.

Test Suite Configuration

Test suites configuration projects are located here: Linux-imx93-validation.

To run the test suites please refer to https://docs.microej.com/en/latest/Tutorials/tutorialRunATestSuiteOnDevice.html

Troubleshooting

Running the Application Manually

With MICROEJ SDK when we are running the application in Embedded mode, everything is done by a script called run.sh. See README LINUX for more details.

Basically this script will scp the executable onto the target and run it with some environment variables.

For debugging purposes, you can restart the application manually:

root@imx93evk:~# killall application.out
root@imx93evk:~# LLDISPLAY_USE_VSYNC=1 /tmp/application.out

Other variables are useful for debugging purposes (see section about the touchscreen below)

USB HID Touch Screen is not Detected

Our VEE port UI abstraction layer relies on tslib to receive inputs from the touchscreen. The prerequisite is to have a USB HID event device mounted to /dev/input/touchscreen0 which supports ABS event types.

If you cannot see such device here are some tips:

• unplug/plug the USB port connected to your HID device and look for logs in dmesg, you should see a HID device detected
• be sure to use a USB host cable to connect to your screen (i.e USB host on the board side, USB client on the screen side)
• If you see these logs: tslib: Selected device is not a touchscreen (must support ABS event type), you can use evtest to see which devices are connected and if they support ABS event types:

root@imx93evk:~# evtest
No device specified, trying to scan all of /dev/input/event*
Available devices:
/dev/input/event0:      44440000.bbnsm:pwrkey
/dev/input/event1:      WM8962 Beep Generator
/dev/input/event2:      wch.cn USB2IIC_CTP_CONTROL
Select the device event number [0-2]: 2
Input driver version is 1.0.1
Input device ID: bus 0x3 vendor 0x222a product 0x1 version 0x100
Input device name: "wch.cn USB2IIC_CTP_CONTROL"
Supported events:
  Event type 0 (EV_SYN)
  Event type 1 (EV_KEY)
    Event code 330 (BTN_TOUCH)
  Event type 3 (EV_ABS)
    Event code 0 (ABS_X)
      Value   2787
      Min        0
      Max     4096
      Resolution      19
    Event code 1 (ABS_Y)
      Value   1541
      Min        0
      Max     4096
      Resolution      30

in this case the device /dev/input/event2 supports abs event types

• finally, check which input device is linked to /dev/input/touchscreen0, as this is the default device used by our application.

Note: you can change the input device by setting a global variable before running the app, ex:

root@imx93evk:~# TSLIB_TSDEVICE=/dev/input/event0 /tmp/application.out

Touchscreen is not Responding on the Whole Screen

This may be caused by a missing or outdated calibration. In the Yocto image, we have added the ts_calibrate utility from tslib which will save the calibration data to /etc/pointercal.

Try to run the calibration again, and restart the application.

root@imx93evk:~# ts_calibrate
xres = 1280, yres = 720
Took 3 samples...
Top left : X =  147 Y =  199
Took 5 samples...
Top right : X = 3933 Y =  135
Took 5 samples...
Bot right : X = 3953 Y = 3783
Took 4 samples...
Bot left : X =  139 Y = 3770
Took 5 samples...
Center : X = 2037 Y = 2034
7.019714 0.310518 -0.000522
16.952881 0.001149 0.171707
Calibration constants: 460044 20350 -34 1111024 75 11252 65536