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Building Stock RD-1AE Images

The RD-1AE automotive solution from Arm has an extensive set of software and documentation provided by Arm. This document will cover the steps needed to build and run these software images on Arm Virtual Hardware powered by Corellium.

Note that the RD-1AE model contains all of the stock firmware already and you can choose which software package to run by using the pulldown menu for Firmware version when you create the device.

For more information on the Arm software packages for the RD-1AE, refer to the Arm Automotive Solutions webpage. Note that the terms RD-1AE and Kronos are used interchangeably by Arm, as Kronos was originally the codename for the device as it was being developed.

Build your image​

To build your own version of the stock firmware, follow these steps:

  1. Follow the Ubuntu instructions on this Yocto documentation page.

  2. Install additional dependencies.

    sudo apt install -y python3-newt tmux
    sudo -H pip3 install --upgrade kas==4.2

  3. Clone the repository with tmux.

    tmux new-session -s rd-1ae
    tmux attach -t rd-1ae
    mkdir -p $HOME/rd-1ae
    cd $HOME/rd-1ae
    git clone https://git.gitlab.arm.com/automotive-and-industrial/kronos-ref-stack/kronos.git --branch v1.0

  4. Apply the following changes to the repository to increase the mem size and disable SVE support.

    $ git diff
    diff --git a/yocto/kas/base.yml b/yocto/kas/base.yml
    index cc2481d..ae8e01a 100644
    --- a/yocto/kas/base.yml
    +++ b/yocto/kas/base.yml
    @@ -50,7 +50,7 @@ repos:
    env:
    TESTIMAGE_AUTO:
    -  SVE_DISABLE_FLAG:
    +  SVE_DISABLE_FLAG: "1"

    local_conf_header:
       meta-kronos-error-qa: |
    @@ -72,5 +72,5 @@ local_conf_header:
           HALT,${DL_DIR},100M,1K \
           HALT,${SSTATE_DIR},100M,1K \
           HALT,/tmp,10M,1K"
    +  mem: |
    +    BAREMETAL_IMAGE_MEM_SIZE = "4064M"

  5. Apply the following patch to disable PCI passthrough of an unmodeled AHCI PCI device. This is relevant only for the virtualization firmware targets.

    diff --git a/yocto/meta-kronos/recipes-core/domu-package/domu-envs.inc b/yocto/meta-kronos/recipes-core/domu-package/domu-envs.inc
    index 6ba5380..0367462 100644
    --- a/yocto/meta-kronos/recipes-core/domu-package/domu-envs.inc
    +++ b/yocto/meta-kronos/recipes-core/domu-package/domu-envs.inc
    @@ -35,7 +35,7 @@ DOMU1_NUMBER_OF_CPUS ?= "2"
    DOMU1_VCPU_PIN ?= "cpus = [\"1-2\"]"
    DOMU1_MPAM ?= "mpam = [\"slc=0xc0\"]"
    DOMU1_SVE ?= "sve = \"${DOMU_SVE_SETTING}\""
    -DOMU1_PCI_PASSTHROUGH ?= "pci = [\"${DOMU1_PCI_ID}\"]"
    +DOMU1_PCI_PASSTHROUGH ?= ""
    DOMU1_EXTRA ?= "${DOMU1_BRIDGES}\\n${DOMU1_VCPU_PIN}\\n${DOMU1_MPAM}\\n${DOMU1_SVE}\\n${DOMU1_PCI_PASSTHROUGH}\\n"

    DOMU2_BRIDGES ?= "vif = ['script=vif-openvswitch,bridge=ovsbr0,vifname=domu2.ext0', 'script=vif-openvswitch,bridge=brsi0.100,vifname=domu2.ethsi0', 'script=vif-openvswitch,bridge=brsi1.200,vifname=domu2.ethsi1', 'script=vif-openvswitch,bridge=brsi2.300,vifname=domu2.ethsi2']"

  6. The default disk size in the reference software build is only 2GB. Apply the following change to meta-arm-bsp to increase the disk size to 32GB.

    ubuntu@ip-100-68-0-137:~/rd1ae/layers/meta-arm/meta-arm-bsp$ git diff
    diff --git a/meta-arm-bsp/wic/fvp-rd-kronos-efi-disk.wks.in b/meta-arm-bsp/wic/fvp-rd-kronos-efi-disk.wks.in
    index 928308e9..87b731dc 100644
    --- a/meta-arm-bsp/wic/fvp-rd-kronos-efi-disk.wks.in
    +++ b/meta-arm-bsp/wic/fvp-rd-kronos-efi-disk.wks.in
    @@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
     part /boot --label boot --active --align 1024 --use-uuid --part-type EF00 --source bootimg-efi --sourceparams="loader=${EFI_PROVIDER}" --size=128M
    -part / --label root --align 1024 --use-uuid --source rootfs --fstype=ext4
    +part / --label root --align 1024 --use-uuid --source rootfs --fstype=ext4 --size=16384
     bootloader --ptable gpt --timeout=1 --append="${GRUB_LINUX_APPEND}"

  7. Check to ensure the changes have been made using kas.

    kas shell -c "bitbake-getvar BAREMETAL_IMAGE_MEM_SIZE"

  8. Transfer and unpack the tarball, then run the following.

    chmod a+x build_run.sh
    ./build_run.sh

  9. Start the build through the kas menu. In this example, we select "Safety Island Actuation Demo" and "Baremetal".

    kas menu kronos/Kconfig

    kas menu

  10. When selecting "Safety Island Actuation Demo", the compiled binaries can be found in build/tmp_$type/deploy/images/fvp-rd-kronos/. Note that $type is either baremetal, virtualization, or systemready-glibc.

Upload your image​

The simplest way to upload your own firmware image is to download an existing image and replace the relevant components.

Filename Yocto buildDescriptionFilename Corellium build
rss-flash-image-fvp-rd-kronos.wicRSS boot flash, three SI images and SCPboot_flash
ap-flash-image-fvp-rd-kronos.wicAP boot flashap_flash
mmc-image-fvp-rd-kronos.wicSD cardsdcard
rss-nvm-image.binLifecycle Manager OTPlcm_op
$type-image-fvp-rd-kronos.wic / arm-systemready-ir-acs-fvp-rd-kronos.wicSystem storagevirtio_0
encrypted_dm_provisioning_bundle.binDM provisioning bundlefirmware/encrypted_dm_provisioning_bundle.bin
encrypted_cm_provisioning_bundle_0.binCM provisioning bundlefirmware/encrypted_cm_provisioning_bundle_0.bin
rss-rom-image-fvp-rd-kronos.wic.noptRSS ROMfirmware/rss-rom-image-fvp-rd-kronos.wic.nopt

Boot a custom ISO​

The build config for the reference software stack supports different opterating systems including Debian and openSUSE.

Users who want to run a custom Linux operating system have several options.

Upload a custom ISO to the SD card​

  1. Start with an existing RD-1AE device.

  2. Increase the size of your ISO to 4GiB. (The SD card partition cannot exceed 4 GiB, so there's no support fror larger ISOs.)

    truncate -s4GiB /path/to/iso

  3. Navigate to Settings -> Partitions for your device on the AVH web interface.

  4. Upload your custom ISO to the SD card partition then click Save & Reboot.

    Upload the custom ISO to the SD card partition

  5. U-Boot will prioritize your custom ISO over the internal virtio disk.

Package a custom ISO into the firmware image​

  1. Download the source image ("coreimg") for your desired RD-1AE firmware image from the device creation menu.

    Download the RD-1AE source image

  2. Increase the size of your ISO to 4GiB. (The SD card partition cannot exceed 4 GiB, so there's no support fror larger ISOs.)

    truncate -s4GiB /path/to/iso

  3. Move the ISO to the same working directory as the coreimg.

    mv /path/to/iso sdcard

  4. Update the sdcard archive member of the coreimg file.

    zip <coreimg_source_image> sdcard

  5. Create an RD-1AE using your custom firmware image.

    Upload a custom RD-1AE firmware image

Build the image with a custom ISO​

The above methods will work if you want to boot a custom ISO on the main application cores in the primary compute.

Safety Island firmware images require a different approach, since the Safety Island is an entirely separate subsystem of the RD-1AE model. The Safety Island doesn't get its firmware from the disk but rather from the flash devices.

To boot a custom ISO on the Safety Island cluster, you will need to integrate the ISO into the build environment so it's built into the final signed images that are validated during the boot process.